• PRESENT:
• Byron Bonney, Zone Coordinator, North Idaho Zone
• Brian Shiplett, Idaho Department of Lands
• Mike Plattes, US Forest Service
• John Pritchard, US Forest Service
• Cory Winnie, Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Doug Williams, Montana Firewardens
• Tim Murphy, Montana DNRC
• Phil Street, Fish and Wildlife
• Dan O'Brien, National Park Service
• Rob Collins, Bureau of Land Management, chairman, NRCG
• Rick Hafenfeld, Department of Interior
• Sandy Evenson, US Forest Service
• Tom Harbour, US Forest Service
• Steve Zachry, Zone Coordinator, Central Montana Zone
• Jim Greene, Montana Disaster and Emergency Services
• Russ Davis, Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Bill Caldwell, Chairman, Business Committee
• Mike Kopitzke, Zone Coordinator, Southwest Montana Zone
• Steve Holden, Chairman, Training Committee
• Fred Van Horn, Zone Coordinator, Northwest Montana Zone
• Marci Meier - Idaho Department of Lands
• Mike Dannenberg, Chairman, Prevention Committee

Issue: We have a policy that requires a certain level of training for people to be line qualified and operating without direct supervision. This has not been happening with fallers. Determination of faller/sawyer/chainsaw operator is highly subjective and is left to the discretion of the hiring agency. Guidelines tell us that if we have a technical specialist that is not line qualified, they need to have a qualified individual with them.

Proposal: Establish two categories of fallers (remove reference to sawyers). Category I fallers will have a higher training requirement and be paid at the AD-5 professional faller premium rate ($25.00 suggested). These individuals would operate independently with minimal supervision and direction. Category II fallers would have minimal training and be hired at the AD-5 rate (19.00).

Discussion:

· Our problem is having fully qualified fallers instead of firewood cutters on the line. Training requirements does not fix this problem.

· Who will keep track of qualifications and training for these fallers?

· There are other technical specialists that have the same situation. We will not fix the problem by adding additional training requirements.

· What about a letter from NRCG asking for some sort of voluntary certification from our main sources of supply?

· A certification sheet like engines use for preseason certification could be developed. The faller and saw could be signed up as a pair. The certification would be attached for the agreement. There would still be the issue of dealing with those that were not signed up preseason.

ACTION ITEM: BILL CALDWELL, JOHN PRITCHARD, AND BRIAN SHIPLETT WILL DRAFT THE NRCG POLICY ON THIS ISSUE. IT WILL BE PRINTED ON NRCG LETTERHEAD AND DISSEMINATED TO ZONES AND OVERHEAD TEAMS.

DECISION: NRCG NEEDS TO CLOSE ON THE CHAINSAW ISSUE. WHEN THE FINAL POLICY IS DRAFTED AND APPROVED, NRCG WILL NOT CONTINUE TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE UNLESS THERE IS A MAJOR CHANGE IN THE WAY BUSINESS IS CURRENTLY BEING DONE.

· MOU with National Wildfire Suppression Association--Steve Holden has received an opinion from the Montana DNRC legal advisor. Action Completed.

· Fire Use Committee Charter -- Charter approved by NRCG. Action completed.

BUSINESS COMMITTEE - Bill Caldwell:

Handouts:

April 21-22 Business Committee Meeting Notes

Fire Service Organization Technical Specialist Position Description

Agenda for 1998 Incident Support Workshop (May 5-6, 1998)

Use of Local Government Personnel as Resources During Emergencies

Proposal -- Modify Procedures for Hiring Fallers for Wildland Incidents within the Northern Rockies Geographic Zone

· Interagency Incident Business Management Handbook supplements should be ready for distribution very soon.

· The position description for the Fire Service Organization Technical Specialist has been completed.

· Bob Gilman has been assigned to the Business Committee as a Logistics Technical Specialist.

· The Incident Support Workshop is scheduled for May 5-6, 1998.

· Two type I buying team are available in the Northern Rockies. Additionally, there are two Type II team available only for the Eastern Montana Zone.

· A task group has been established to thoroughly review equipment rates and equipment types for Chapter 20 of the Fire Business Management Handbook. The revisions will be published in the 2000 supplement.

· A task group has been established to gather information in tracking work times for certain types of heavy equipment. Task Force recommendations will be considered for incorporation in the 1999 Fire Business Management Supplement.

ACTION ITEM: THE FIRE SERVICE ORGANIZATION TECHNICAL SPECIALIST POSITION DESCRIPTION SHOULD BE FORMALLY INCLUDED AS A SUPPLEMENT TO THE FIRELINE HANDBOOK OR SOME OTHER ESTABLISHED DOCUMENT TO ENSURE IT DOES NOT BECOME LOST. ACTION ASSIGNED TO THE BUSINESS COMMITTEE.

OPERATIONS COMMITTEE

Phil Perkins was unable to attend the meeting. Minutes of the February 10, 1998, Operations Committee meeting were previously sent to NRCG Directors, Committee Chairs and Zone Coordinators.

TRAINING COMMITTEE - Steve Holden

Handouts:

Draft Interior West Fire Council Conference Agenda

Fire Assignment Availability Questionnaire

NRCG Training Committee Program of Work--FY 1999

NRCG Meeting - April 21, 1998 - Training Committee Report

Training Committee Meeting Notes march 23-24, 1998

· Firefighting Contractor Association MOU : Rick Bach, Agency Counsel for Montana DNRC has recommended NRCG not enter into the MOU. The reasons are:

1. The agreement seems to imply that NRCG can only hire individuals trained by these contractors, and

2. The agreement shifts some of the responsibility and liability for the training to NRCG--that should be the duty of the contractor.

NRCG DECISION: NRCG ACCEPTS THE LEGAL ADVICE PROVIDED ON THE FIREFIGHTING CONTRACTOR MOU AND WILL NOT ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT .

ACTION ITEM: STEVE HOLDEN WILL CONTACT THE FIREFIGHTING CONTRACTING ASSOCIATION AND INFORM THEM OF THE NRCG DECISION.

· Committee is exploring ways to present courses jointly with other Geographic Areas due to the small numbers of trainees in some courses (S-420/445) Also exploring possibility of sending trainees from our Geographic Area to other Areas (S-400/440).

· NTC working on course development for Fixed-Wing Base Manager/Seat Manager.

· NTC has been experiencing electronic communication problems. Realize agencies in various stages of transition to different systems.

ACTION ITEM: ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS WAS ASSIGNED TO THE VOICE AND DATA COMMUNICATION TASK GROUP. BRIAN SHIPLETT WILL CONVEY THE CONCERNS OF NRCG TO THE TASK GROUP AND ASK THEM FOR RECOMMENDATIONS AT THE FALL NRCG MEETING.

· There was discussion regarding critical communication -- such as red flag warnings from the Weather Service. Do we need a communication plan that discusses how critical information will be passed to Dispatch Offices? What is NRCG role? What is Zone dispatch role? How do we get information (significant weather information that will impact firefighter safety or weather information that would affect management ignited prescribed fire) from Dispatch Centers to local governments, firefighters, etc.

ACTION ITEM: DEVELOP A COMMUNICATION PLAN (INTERIM FOR THIS YEAR AND FINE TUNE LATER) THAT TELLS HOW CRITICAL INFORMATION WILL BE PASSED TO DISPATCH OFFICES. IDENTIFY HOW INFORMATION WILL BE DISSEMINATED. IDENTIFY WHAT INFORMATION IS ON A HOME PAGE AND WHAT WILL COMMUNICATED IN A DIFFERENT MANNER. ASSIGNED TO OPERATIONS COMMITTEE. JIM GREENE IS AVAILABLE TO HELP FACILITATE SOME SORT OF SOLUTION.

· Training Committee would like to revise the cost/share formula. Working toward sometime in the future that each agency submits x number of dollars and do away with all the other stuff.

ACTION ITEM: STEVE HOLDEN WILL GET ACTUAL COST/SHARE NUMBERS FOR THE DIRECTORS TO REVIEW. WHAT AFFECT WILL THERE BE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENTS? WHAT IS THE BILLING SCHEDULE?

· NTC would like NRCG to continue to promote the use of trainees when they meet with agency administrators.

· Incident medical specialist -- there is a change that all IMS personnel will be trained annually rather than every other year.

ACTION ITEM: DAN O'BRIEN WOULD LIKE THE INCIDENT MEDICAL SPECIALIST (IMS) ISSUE REVISITED. THE IMS PROGRAM HAS BEEN DISCUSSED BY NRCG AT THE OCTOBER 1995 AND APRIL 1996 MEETING. AT THE APRIL 1996, NRCG MADE THE DECISION THE INCIDENT MEDICAL PROGRAM NEEDS TO BE AN INTERAGENCY PROGRAM IN ORDER TO UTILIZE RESOURCES AVAILABLE IN ALL AGENCIES. DAN IS THE LIAISON TO THE OPERATIONS COMMITTEE AND WILL PASS ON NRCG CONCERNS. ASSIGNED TO: OPERATIONS COMMITTEE.

· Paul Fieldhouse, AFD, attended the Prescribed Fire Training Center. Paul reported the session to be a class act. There is a concern, however, that there may need to be more sessions if we are going to substantially increase burning. Phil Street is on the national committee and can take any feedback to the committee that we may have. Phil stated they are already aware they may have to expand with the increased burning assigned to the agencies.

· Training Needs Analysis (reference handouts)--The questionnaire was not well received by some of the field units. It was hard to get people to want to provide the information. There are still three zones from which to gather data. Steve expects to have better information at the Fall Meeting as to where we will be in 5 years.

· FY99 Program of Work (reference handout). There was a suggestion to look at training earlier in the year -- perhaps October/November. Increased burning could be making it difficult for people to get to spring training sessions.

· Training Committee Chair -- there will be a new committee chair in the fall of 1998.

· North Dakota is wanting to take a more active role in the training committee and has appointed John Christianson as their Zone representation.

Handouts: Prevention and Interface Committee Meeting Notes, March 16, 1998

Draft Committee Charter

· The Prevention and Interface Committee met on March 16. The primary focus of the meeting was to discuss the future and direction of the committee. One of the major questions is how does the committee fund things -- like a prevention workshop. The answer to this concern is that the Prevention Committee should bring their proposals to the NRCG Directors and they will figure out how to fund the proposals. If we tried to write a funding clause into the charter, it could require a different level of approvals.

· The Committee also had a concern regarding their membership. All Zones are represented on the Committee except for North Dakota, who will probably chose not to participate at this time. Technical Specialists have also been named for the Committee.

ACTION ITEM: MAKE NECESSARY CHANGES TO THE PREVENTION AND INTERFACE CHARTER. NRCG DIRECTORS SHOULD SEND ANY COMMENTS TO MIKE DANNENBERG. THE COMMITTEE SHOULD CONSIDER HAVE A TECHNICAL SPECIALIST FOR A STATE FIRE MARSHAL FROM ONE OF THE THREE STATES. TRY TO FINALIZE CHARTER TO APPROVAL ON JUNE CONFERENCE CALL.

NORTH DAKOTA - Phil Street

· Brian McManus is the new Zone Coordinator for North Dakota. John Christianson is the North Dakota Training Committee Zone representative.

· Spring burning season is well ahead of schedule due to early spring and easy winter.

· The North Dakota Dispatch Center fire dispatcher position has been submitted to the FWS Regional Office and will be recruited at the GS-05/06 level. Vacancy announcement should be out in the next month.

· Fire dispatch office construction project is behind schedule due to delays with Engineering.

· Interagency fire cache construction is nearly complete. Goal is to establish a 100-person cache, along with a 50-person mobile cache to be used inside the zone and anywhere else.

· Zone had numerous training assignments needed for the 1998 season to continue to develop fire resources within the Zone.

EAST ZONE - Russ Davis

· Lot of training is taking place

· Big rookie training camps for training crews

· Gained about 24 engines (BIA)

· Interagency helicopter session at North Cheyenne

· Bought 100 radios for crews

· BIA is providing help to Great falls dispatch

· BIA has had good success with pack test

· BLM had planned to burn about 1100-1200 acres -- got knocked back to about 6500 acres

· Broke ground on Zortman fire station ...to be completed this fall

· Billings airtanker base/fire ops building .... architectural design is complete and has gone to Denver to contract award.

· Will be starting recruitment on the vice Mike Plattes position. Will be advertised government wide.

SOUTHWEST MONTANA - Sandy Evenson

Bill Breedlove, Zone Representative, was unable to attend meeting. The key points he wanted passed on to the group are:

· The Chair of the Zone is on its's second agency (Federal/State/County) rotation. This year it is Federal. Diana Martin (State) is deputy and will become the Chair in 1999.

· A Zone Preparedness Review will be held in conjunction with Tom Harbour's visit to the Gallatin in July.

· The South Central Zone is committed to help sponsor the Intermountain Fire Council Meeting at Big Sky the last week of September 1998.

· The Zone still needs NRCG help to resolve electronic communications (an issue at the last NRCG preparedness visit).

· The South Central Zone conducted 18 courses locally with over 500 trainees.

CENTRAL MONTANA ZONE - Steve Zachry

· Still have 20,000 acres to burn in the Zone. Will be pushing snow up the hill if they can in the grass/sage stuff.

· 20 training sessions this year (four 205 courses)

· The Helena areas has met with their cooperators. Other two areas are not

· Snow pack is down -- water content is about normal at this time.

Concerns:

· Pack test -- there is a concern that the Forest Service is still accepting step test while other agencies are going to the pack test. This is an agency decision which we cannot do too much about -- we accept each other's standards.

· 310-1 -- Forest Service is making a lot of recommended training required. Inequity between agencies.

· Feel like the Zone is too large and not working right.

ACTION ITEM: STEVE ZACHRY WILL DISCUSS POSSIBLE ZONE BOUNDARY RECONFIGURATIONS WITH THE SOUTH CENTRAL ZONE. STEVE WILL REPORT BACK TO NRCG FOLLOWING NEGOTIATIONS.

NORTHWEST MONTANA - Fred Van Horn

· Excellent cooperation in the zone

· Training is going well

· Main priority is drafting zone prevention plan

· 17 new permanent positions this year

· Agencies are working individuals on fed fire policy

· DNRC had a 30 acre fire

· Planning 100 acre prescribed fire on the Libby unit

· 75-80 percent of normal on Flathead/Kootenai precipitation

· GNP got a new prescribed fire specialist

· Counties are doing debris burning

· All agencies are scheduling preparedness visits

SOUTHWEST MONTANA - Mike Kopitzke

Handout: Partnership for wildland fire training (discusses the training agreement entered into by the Southwest Montana Zone and the University of Montana)

· There was a Zone meeting in January. There are no committees in the Zone, but lead individuals have been identified to deal with specific issues.

· The Zone is having a difficult time finding a local government member for the Board.

· Created a non-profit organization for the Zone.

· Close to 20,000 acres planned for burning in the Zone.

· All preparedness visits scheduled

· As far as the action items on the Federal Fire Policy -- agencies are taking action on the initiatives but haven't discussed on a Zone level.

· Precipitation is 75-80 percent of normal.

NORTH IDAHO ZONE - Bryon Bonney

· Resource capability is up on Forest Service side. IDL holding their own (initial attack)

· Burning -- scheduled about 14,000 acres in north Idaho this year. Just getting started this week.

· 70 percent of normal precipitation

· St. Joe Hotshot crew has moved from Clarkia to Coeur d'Alene. The crew will be doing a lot of hazard reduction work until the season gets going.

· Coeur d 'Alene Dispatch Center is completed

· Three fire management plans in place -- Selway-Bitterroot; Frank Church/River of No Return; Gospel Hump

· Doing several landscape assessments in the zone

· Clearwater-elk initiative -- putting plans together to do prescribed burning for the declining elk population

· Lee Clark is working on a prevention model that ties into NFMAS.

The master agreement provides for billing of equipment and resources between DNRC and the Forest Service. Concern is that incident management teams might run into confusion on how to deal with this since it is not in the Fire Business Management Handbook. Bill' s question is on the 24-hour, initial attack portion and how the billing will work.

Local operating plans need to be built. Latitude is there to spell out how things will work.

The new agreement is in effect. Identify areas on a map and identify in local operation plans. 24 hour thing is not different. What is different is the FS/DNRC billing. Don Overly (FS) is working on clarification. The new agreement will be discussed with finance people in May.

ACTION ITEM: AS PREPAREDNESS VISITS OCCUR AND TEAM MEETINGS TAKE PLACE, HAVE THE MASTER AGREEMENT ON THE AGENDA TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND IT. ASSIGNED TO: NRCG DIRECTORS AND ZONE REPRESENTATIVES.

We are not doing a good job of getting people into 520 or having the people that go pass the course.

· Need plan to get people into 520

· Need more formal recruitment

· Need written application and interview process

· Need to know 4 years out

Rocky Mountain drafted a letter to line officers to make them aware of what the issues and problems have been and what the geographic area is doing to try to resolve the issue.

ACTION ITEM: PHIL STREET WILL SEND A COPY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LETTER TO SANDY. NRCG DIRECTORS WILL REVIEW TO SEE IF WE WANT TO CIRCULATE A SIMILAR LETTER WITHIN THE NORTHERN ROCKIES. ASSIGNED TO: PHIL STREET AND SANDY EVENSON

The Fire Use Working Team has sent the prescribed fire information out for agency level review. Comments are due the end of May.

Part 1 - task books -- have all been reviewed. The efforts of our training groups and the subcommittee we put together have been very useful. The Northern Rockies has an individual on each of the subgroups.

ACTION ITEM: NRCG NEEDS TO RECOGNIZE INDIVIDUALS WHO WORKED ON THE 310-1 EFFORT. ASSIGNED TO: SANDY EVENSON

Qualifications part of 310-1 -- just starting hitting on the edges of that. This is where there is a lot of disagreement between agencies. Will probably not see anything on this until 1999 fire season.

Handouts: NRCG Montana Fire Service Mobilization Plan (green)

NRCG Montana Fire Service Mobilization Plan (lavender)

The green copy of the Montana Fire Service Mobilization Plan is in the Northern Rockies Mobilization Plan. The only changes from last year to this year is the pack test. If fire departments are going to get on the payroll for Federal or DNRC fires, the pack test is the physical fitness expectation. Loosing quite a few people in the process. It man not be a physical fitness issue, really--they are just getting fed up with all the rules and regulations.

Tim will be meeting with county fire wardens and local fire chiefs. He is sure he will be hearing about the physical fitness standards and the jurisdictional boundary stuff. He will listen and monitor what is going on.

Lavender copy of the Montana Fire Service Mobilization Plan -- there are two additional chapters to this version of the plan. The chapters identify mutual aid and how we will mobilize Montana's fire forces under a mutual aid concept. The plan is get this finalized by next year. If you have comments, get them back to Tim or John Pilsworth by the end of June.

Handouts: Interior West Fire Council Flyer

Agenda - Interior West Fire Council Conference

Preliminary information on the upcoming Interior West Fire Council Meeting was distributed.

DECISION: THE FALL NRCG MEETING WILL BE HELD IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE INTERIOR WEST FIRE COUNCIL MEETING. NRCG WILL MEET SEPTEMBER 28 AT BIG SKY.

Interior agencies will not be cross billing. Interior agencies will have the ability to trade acres or balance a program some way with the Forest Service. There is still a problem for States. Montana has pretty wide latitude for a wildfire, but for prescribed fire have to have FTE and budget authorization. Tim has a limited amount of budget authorization to send DNRC or fire department people on prescribed burns. He is trying to put together a package for next legislature (2001) to increase the authorization.

Interior has the authority to use AD's for prescribed fire.

Mike reviewed the status of the action items in the February 1996 Northern Rockies Area Dispatch/Coordination Task Force Review. There are several items which have not been completed yet. Many of the completed action items were the easy one and the ones remaining are going to involve line officer consent/commitment.

A new resource order status system (ROSS) (a computerized dispatch tracking system) will be in place for beta testing possibly as early at 1999. One of the decisions that has to be made by Geographic Areas is what level do we want to go to with the system. Cost will be an issue if we continue with our three and four-tier system.

Discussion:

· We should not be making changes just because of dollars. The change should only be made to make things better.

· We need to key on new fire policy and what it is telling us. In north Idaho the new fire policy says we need to develop plans for as much of the land base as we have. Right now only 1/3 of the land is covered. Decisions for actions on a lot of the fires are going to lie with the local line officer.

· As far as north Idaho goes, Coeur d'Alene dispatch is just getting into consolidating all initial attack. Don't want to get into discussion of consolidating Coeur d'Alene and Clearwater/Nezperce until 2000 or 2001. Need to give Coeur d'Alene a chance to work.

· Four layers for initial attack is not necessary inefficient. The most problems occur in expanded dispatch at four layers.

· Looks like we need to make some decision within a year on what we are going to do with our 39 initial dispatch centers. Should we be looking at our initial attack dispatch system in the Northern Rockies and what impact implementing ROSS will have on it?

· We may need some sort of group to look at the progress we have made, what is still appropriate to make. The folks that looked at this 4 years ago were all within the region. A suggestion might be to bring some folks in from outside the Region that have the expertise to look at this. Maybe establish a target date to complete. We can't burry our head in the sand because some of the decisions are hard ones to make.

· So we finally establish whatever it is that will work the best. What are we going to do about it? If we can't affect it, why continue on with studies.

· It is our job to make the agency administrators aware of the issues.

· We need to establish what is the best way to run the fire dispatch and the cost. We just need to have follow through.

· Small group to look at overall situation. Outside participation. Agency administrator participation. Scope: overall workload analysis, how many IA do you need. Are zones too big? Should we consolidate. Should we expand.

· Need clear charter from NRCG

· Need local government involved also. (911 arena??)

ACTION ITEM: MIKE KOPITZKE WILL MEET WITH SOUTHWEST MONTANA BOARD OF DIRECTORS TO SEE IF THEY WOULD SUPPORT A REVIEW OF THE DISPATCH

FUNCTION WITHIN THEIR ZONE. THE REVIEW WOULD LOOK AT THE ACTION ITEMS OF THE FEBRUARY 1996 REPORT. THE REVIEW TEAM WOULD VALID THE ACTION ITEMS. THE REVIEW SHOULD ALSO BE STRUCTURED SO IT WILL HAVE APPLICATION TO THE REST OF THE GEOGRAPHIC AREA. MIKE KOPITZKE WILL REPORT BACK TO SANDY EVENSON ON THE DECISION OF THE SMICC BOARD.

ACTION ITEM: IF THE SMICC BOARD IS AGREEABLE TO THE DISPATCH REVIEW, MIKE PLATTES WILL ASSEMBLE A GROUP TO CONDUCT THE REVIEW. THE GROUP SHOULD INCLUDE LINE OFFICER INVOLVEMENT AND SOMEONE FROM OUTSIDE THE GEOGRAPHIC AREA. CONSIDER LOCAL GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT ALSO. REVIEW GROUP WILL NEED A CLEAR CHARTER FROM NRCG. COMPLETE REVIEW BY OCTOBER 1998.

ACTION ITEM: NRCG WILL PREPARE A LETTER TO THE LINE OFFICERS WITHIN THE SOUTHWEST MONTANA ZONE INFORMING THEM OF THE REVIEW. ASSIGNED TO: MIKE PLATTES.

ACTION ITEM: PREPARE AN UPDATE SUMMARY OF THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE IN THE FEBRUARY 1996 DISPATCH STUDY. ASSIGNED TO: MIKE PLATTES

Handout: Draft copy of Fire Use Committee Charter

The draft charter for the new Fire Use Committee was reviewed.

NRCG DECISION: THE PROPOSED CHARTER IS APPROVED (WITH THE DELETION OF THE SENTENCE--THE SELECTION OF ZONE REPRESENTATIVES AND TECHNICAL SPECIALISTS WILL BE SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS).

ACTION ITEM: ZONE COORDINATORS NEED TO SUBMIT THEIR COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE FIRE USE COMMITTEE TO SANDY EVENSON BY MAY 22, 1998. AS SOON AS COMMITTEE MEMBERS ARE SELECTED, JERRY WILLIAMS WILL CONVENE THE GROUP TO BEGIN THEIR WORK. ASSIGNED TO: ZONE COORDINATORS, SANDY EVENSON, JERRY WILLIAMS

The letter from the Southwest Montana Zone was reviewed and discussed. Some of the items in the March 10 letter have been completed, some are beyond the control of NRCG and some things are worth further consideration.

ACTION ITEM: FINALIZE DRAFT LETTER PREPARED BY ROB COLLINS, JERRY WILLIAMS, AND SANDY EVENSON AND FORWARD TO SOUTHWEST MONTANA ZONE WITH A COPY TO ALL ZONES. ASSIGNED TO SANDY EVENSON.

Tim and John Pritchard have been outlining timelines when certain things need to be done. Trying to develop little better direction to the Zones about what the words for the federal wildland fire policy means. The outline will contain sequential steps for when things will occur.

NRCG needs to know the status action items from the December 1996 Geographic Area Action Plan.

ACTION ITEM: PREPARE A LETTER TO ZONE COORDINATORS AND COMMITTEE CHAIRS ASKING FOR A PROGRESS REPORT OF ACTION ITEMS IN THE DECEMBER 1996 GEOGRAPHIC AREA PLAN. STATUS REPORT ALSO NEEDS TO INCLUDE ACTIONS COMPLETED ON THE WESTERN GOVERNORS' ASSOCIATION REPORT. ASSIGNED TO: SANDY EVENSON, ZONE COORDINATORS, COMMITTEE CHAIRS

ACTION ITEM: SANDY EVENSON WILL ENSURE STEVE HOLDEN IS AWARE OF THIS LETTER.

Disaster and Emergency Issues - Jim Greene

· There are a couple of terrorism conference scheduled--one is in Billings in December

· Through the National Guard, there will be 10 weapons of mass destruction teams

· Phone numbers have changed -- new number is 406-841-3911. Fax: 841-3965. Jim will send a directory to Sandy to distribute to NRCG Directors.

Hueys - A national issue has arisen with Huey Helicopter. Could affect us this summer. The Montana National Guard does have some Black Hawk helicopters.

Airtankers - The Geographic Area will have the same configuration of airtankers in 1998 as we had in 1997.

Plaques - NRCG is out of award plaques. DNRC bought the last batch. Any takers for a new supply?

ACTION ITEM: PHIL STREET WILL BUY THE NEXT BATCH OF PLAQUES. SANDY WILL GET NECESSARY INFORMATION TO PHIL SO HE CAN PURCHASE THEM.

Agency Administrator Meeting -- An Agency Administrator meeting still needs to be held. It will be a one day meeting and will focus on two or three of the most issues facing NRCG.

ACTION ITEM: PLAN TO HOLD THE MEETING FOR 1 DAY DURING THE WEEK OF APRIL 5-9, 1999. CONSIDER HOLDING THE MEETING IN COEUR D 'ALENE OR SPOKANE FOR EASIER ACCESS.

NOTE: Jerry Williams had a conflict with the week of April 5. A survey of NRCG Directors indicated the week of April 12-16, 1999 will work for everyone. NRCG DIRECTORS NEED TO GET THE NEW DATE ON THEIR AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR'S CALENDAR.