The NRCG award for 1998 was presented to Homer Courville, BIA (recently retired) for his years of contributions to the interagency cooperative effort. Mark Vore, Forest Service, was presented an award for his contributions within the Northern Idaho Zone.

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 taken: Position description will be included in Chapter 50 of the Fire Business Management handbook and in the Fireline Handbook.

Action Item: Get actual Northern Training Center cost/share numbers for NRCG directors to review. What affect will there be on local governments? What is the billing schedule. Action taken: Costs will be calculated on a past 3-year average. The numbers will be made available at the beginning of the fiscal year. Action completed.

Action Item: The Voice and Data Task Force needs to identify (by agency if possible) the issues and groups/agencies that will not be able to talk to each other and what the ramifications of that will be. There will be safety issues. We may not be able to affect the solution, but we can make agency administrators aware of the problems we will be facing. Action taken: Action not complete. Stephen Morris (Forest Service) has become a part of the Voice and Data Task Force and will chair the group presently in place. Action to be carried forward.

Action Item: Emmy Ibison and her counterparts from other agencies within he Geographic Area will finish a position paper on AD and retirees used for fire management activities. Identify policies or legal authorities which may preclude us from putting people in certain positions and identify differences between agencies if they exist. If we do continue to hire AD’s and retirees, find out ways to bring these people on and afford them all the protections they need. Action taken: Position paper is not complete. Action to be carried forward.

Action Item: Look at the AD/retiree issue from the standpoint of who certifies they are qualified and who signs and maintains their red card qualifications. How long do we keep hiring folks and sure ourselves they are still competent for the job? Should there be refresher training annually, and if so, how much and what topics should be included? Action taken: Recommendations of Training Committee accepted. This issue will tie into the NWCG effort to address the lack of personnel available for fire. Action completed.

Action Item: NRCG directors need to review the fire management report presented by Coy Jemmett. On a future conference call, NRCG will appoint a group to develop an action plan and figure out a way to distribute the report across the geographic area. Action taken: A task force was appointed with Rick Hafenfeld appointed as task force leader. Draft action plan will be shared at upcoming Firewarden and Type I team meetings. Final draft to be completed by June 1. Action completed.

Handouts: NRCG Board Meeting Report, April 15, 1999

Fire service organization advisor – position description has been approved. The position description will be included in chapter 50 of the Incident Business Management Handbook and in the Fireline Handbook.

The Business Committee has formed a task group to look at developing a Geographic Area engine/tender contract. It is envisioned to be a Forest Service contract which all agencies can use. The Master Agreement with Montana and Idaho allows for this process. When the North Dakota agreement is updated, the same process will also be included.

• What level of participation would NRCG Directors like in this process? Do you want the Business Committee to develop the process and come back in the fall with a more complete description?
• How does local government fit in?
• Will we be requiring dispatchers to try to decide which piece of equipment is better than another?
• Will contractors find out what the low bids are and try to re-negotiate their contract?

Next fall the Northern Training Center is going to develop and hold a training session to standardize the inspection process of equipment.

There have been several instances where different committees have been sort of stepping on each other’s toes because of lack of communication between them. Need to be talking to each other and making sure committee minutes are being sent out.

Fire Business Management Handbook supplements are completed.

Harlan Johnson – technical specialist who helps the business committee with contracting items is moving to Boise, Idaho. He has been replaced by Shane LaValley, Forest Service.

Incident management organizations, including teams and local units, sometimes employ technical specialists, (primarily fallers but may include other positions) and use them on the fireline without adequate supervision or training. The Business Committee developed a policy statement to try to deal with this issue.

Handout: Operations Committee Report

Team Selection – had good participation in filling team rosters this year – both Type I and II. Really focused in on NRCG direction to keep Type II teams as strong as possible.

The Operations team developed an action item to identify people to serve on type I teams in 2001 and 2003. A process has been identified and there is good cooperation in getting new people on the teams. Trainees have been identified. This should lead to getting the right individuals to 520 who are successful when they attend.

Team Dispatches – There has been confusion whether a team could be dispatched without the regular IC. NRCC and Zone Mobilization Guides will adopt the national language that a Deputy or Alternate IC can take the respective overhead team out both in and out of Region, but there can be no more than two alternates on the core team or that team is not a viable team.

Type II team -- rotation starts on July 1 and runs through September 30.

Dennis Milburn will be taking over as chair of the Operations Committee in the fall.

A new Team Nomination Form has been developed where the nominee indicates whether they have attended S-420 or S-520.

Safety reports from incidents – the Operations Committee will analyze safety reports to look for trends that we can do something about. Trends will be shared with the fire community.

Although the Operations Committee provides oversight for the Northern Rockies Coordinating Center, there is no formal, written operating plan.

Discussion:

• We need to think carefully about the operation plan. – NRCG needs to have a relationship with NRCC. NRCG should not depend on the Operations Committee to do things strategically. The structure of the Operations Committee does not necessarily represent every agency. How does the NRCG charter identify the role?

The committee is new. Jerry Williams spent a couple of hours identifying the work the committee should be focusing on. The committee is groping with the new fire use policy. The committee recognized early on there were all federal agencies represented on the committee and that there should be State representation also. The committee had asked Jerry to try to get a State representative but has not heard back from Jerry yet.

The Committee has begun looking at the resource allocation process and a draft of their work will be out soon.

If a Fire Management Use Team is created in the Geograhic Area, will the Fire Use Committee play any role in the care, maintenance or feeding of the team? Answer—to be determined at a later date.

Handouts: NRCG Training Committee Notes – March 22-23, 1999

Draft Response, 4/12/99 to action item re: AD/Retiree hiring issues

The Training Committee is working on a Northern Rockies Training Center (NRTC) operating plan.

The Training Committee feels there is a need for NRCG to establish a web page. A web page would reduce delays in notification of training nominations, selections, etc.

AD ISSUE (reference handout) –The Training Committee was tasked with looking at the AD/retiree issue from the standpoint of who certifies the employees are qualified and who signs and maintains their red cards. Should there be refresher training for AD’s?

Discussion:

• The Training Committees feels that with the Operations Committee working closer with team rosters that the Geographic Area will begin to get more qualified individuals in the pipeline to fill overhead team rosters.
• Can we hire a MAC group coordinator?
• There needs to be a lot of integrity at the point of hire to ensure people are qualified for what they are red carded for.
• The Training Committee is looking for help from the Operations Committee on which training courses in general need to be presented every year. Which classes will develop the workforce in the future?
• Tom Boatner stated the only non-BLM people they will take responsibility for red carding will be for people where there is a critical skill shortage. If the BLM issues a red card, they will accept responsibility that the individual is indeed qualified. Otherwise, the BLM does not intend to use AD’s.
• Some of the NE states have challenged NARTC with accepting private contractors into some of their courses. The IOS working team will probably be charged with this issue.
• The draft version of 310-1 should be available through PMS in early May. There still remains agency issues – some agencies are indicating they will adopt the draft this year, others are saying they will continue to use the old standards.
• What is the certification of the private instructors in the GAC? Do all instructors meet the qualifications to instruct?
• NWCG meets in June. One of their issues will be a training needs analysis (where have all the firefighters gone?). NWCG is planning to hire a consultant and one of the big components of the issue will be the AD issue.

• Really happy with where the committee has come from and where they are heading. North Idaho needs to get a representative and North Dakota has a vacancy.

• Plan to have a 5-year strategic plan as to where the committee is going ready for the next meeting.

• Prevention workshop (in conjunction with the Great Basin) is scheduled next week—People coming from all across the western United States.

• Jack Peters discussed the Northwest Fire Compact with the group. It was a scoping session to see if the Prevention Committee should be working with Canadian counterparts. Jack felt that the Northwest Fire Compact was still in its infancy and it might be wise to wait a while before doing too much. The Northwest Fire is a group of Northwest states that share boundaries with Canadian provinces. The Compact itself was an agreement for suppression resources so we could share across the border.

• Committee would like to see an NRCG web page

• Montana DES was involved with the development of an all hazards checklist to determine natural disasters to new developments. This will be further discussed at the prevention workshop next week.

• Education: it is going to be exciting to see how the Committee can marry up prevention and education. Mike was astounded to see what the education portion has progressed to. Once we understand all we have, we will be figuring out how to use them to our benefit.

North Dakota – Brian McManus

• Experienced a relatively easy winter and will probably have an earlier fire season than in the past couple of years. Prescribed burning is beginning to crank up. Greenup is starting in the southern and western parts of the state with the rest of the state not far behind.

• Fire crews should be in place by the middle of June. The Zone has sent some folks to Florida to assist in presuppression.

• Have made great strides in the fire weather forecasting issues. This will be the first year fire managers can actually get a spot fire weather forecast.

• Smoke management and air quality have not been real major issues in the past but will probably become more and more important.

• Dispatch Center – building has been completed and moved in before Christmas. Have a full-time dispatcher. Will not make the transition of going to NRCC until 2000.

• North Dakota Fire Council Charter is being circulated for signature and operating plan developed.

• Established several new committees for the North Dakota Fire Council. Working on a web page to distribute information to all the parties who need it.

• Have a number of units that are not currently listed in the 3-letter identification guide. How does North Dakota get the units included? Get information to Colleen Finneman. Guide is updated every year so it will not be done until next year.

• Greenup is probably 2 to 3 weeks ahead of normal. Did receive substantial moisture a week ago. With warm weather, greenup should come in a hurry. There is some limited prescribed burning going on.

• Most currency training is completed or will be in the next 2 weeks. Miles City has hired a fuels specialist who will be on at the end of April. The fuels specialist will be working with the Custer NF and other entities on fuels management projects.

• All station managers and crew leaders are on now. They should be able to handle early season fires.

• This is the third year of coordinated dispatching efforts with DNRC. This has worked out very well especially in the dispatch of local resources.

• Rookie camp will not be done this year because of a drastic cut in the budget.

• Completed Rx 230 in Miles City and a number of local fire department attended in addition of other federal agencies. Rx 300 is scheduled for fall 1999. S 301 is rescheduled for fall 1999.

• The Zone is truly interagency. There is total participation from local government people. Training committee is working real well and is represented by each agency. Scheduled 10 courses this year (mostly 200 level and 390). Will have trained 150 in the Zone. Training schedule is shared with surrounding counties and Zones. Training is very well attended by local government.

• Working on an interagency fire management plan for the Big Sky area. There are private developers, local government, forest service on the steering committee. Have hired a private contractor to develop the plan. Right now the plan is in outline draft stage which has been approved by the steering committee. The steering committee will be meeting again with the contractor and the plan should be close to finalization.

• The training committee decided to put on an engine academy which will be held in June. It will be a type III scenario. Applications to attend will be distributed soon.

• Firewardens will be meeting at Dead Rock this year.

• The Zone is going to change the way they are working with the training committee. The Zone will still have a representative on the training committee, but when there is a request for information, it will need to go to all three dispatch centers.

• Preseason cooperators meetings are scheduled in Helena, Dillon and Great Falls.

• The Zone requests an NRCG Board Member to participate in a preseason visit in Dillon on May 11. NOTE: No Board Member was available to participate in this review.

• Burned about 10,000 acres since last October.

• The Zone has a ride range of conditions – with the central part of the Zone being the driest right now. Helena and Dillon have been responding to some fires and the thousand hour fuels have been totally consumed.

• The Zone met April 6. It was Fred Van Horn’s first official meeting. The Zone has drafted a Northwest Montana Conservation and Education Plan.

• OES folks are receiving no communications from the firewardens.

• The Zone is looking at putting a private contractor on the Board.

• The Zone appointed a task group to work on some agenda items for the Mob Board.

• Developed an initial attack zone for the first 24 hours. Agreed upon by all represented.

• Proposing to go to a single operating plan within the zone. Goal is to have in place by 2000.

• Starting to do some lower elevation burns.

• Will have a Glacier National Park dispatcher in Flathead Interagency Dispatch Center. That will make the Center represented by Park, State, and Forest Service.

• DNRC partners have had some responses to wildland fires. Flathead Forest has had one fire.

• Doing a lot of interagency training. Have had high school classes with interagency cadre of instructors. The individuals come out with all the basic training they need to be a firefighter.

• Type III plan is in place.

• There is one type II plan for teams.

• About halfway through the training season. 124 people through the 200-level courses. Have 190 people through standards for survival.

• There will be new people at Southwest Missoula Incident Coordination Center and Missoula dispatch center.

• Discussing co-location issues – combining Missoula dispatch center and SMICC together at one location (possibly NRCC). In the planning stages now and there are lots of questions to be answered. This Center would then handle the initial attack dispatch of aircraft and smokejumpers. There is also a need to initiate a Missoula area flight following desk for this year. That will be located at NRCC. It was an accident waiting to happen with all the different aircraft that were coming in and out of the zone.

• Dealing with mobilization of local and county forces. Have a plan drafted. Plan will be presented at the Fire Chiefs Meeting and if bought off on will be presented to the SMICC board.

• Moisture conditions in north Idaho are 120 to 130 percent of normal. Lower elevations are greening up.

• IA capability should be in good shape this year. The only unit that is down from last year is the Clearwater Forest – who is down about 20 percent from last year, but should still be OK. Aircraft capability is good.

• The Idaho Panhandle Forest will be implementing interagency centralized dispatch 100 percent this year.

• Big bug project being done on the Coeur d’Alene. Just completed an EIS. Currently working on 4,000 acres being marked and cruised. This will be ongoing through the first part of the summer.

• Training – fire academies will take place first part of June.

• Personnel changes: There is a new Forest Supervisor on the Nez Perce. Also have several new District Rangers who will be getting trained up in the revised fire policy. Getting real good commitment to fire efforts from line officers.

• Clear-Nez Zone will have close to 2 million acres with the capability for wildland fire use.

• Salmon River Canyon Project – expecting a draft EIS out by July.

• T&E – managing fires in anadromous fisheries area – is a big issue – will have an impact on any fire teams coming into the area.

• Lynx and noxious weed issues are hanging out there also.

Handout: Wildland and Prescribed Fire Qualification System Guide, PMS 310-1, March 1999

The new 310-1 is supposed to be available May 3 through the PMS system at NIFC. This is an interim guide for the 1999 field season. At the end of the field season, NWCG will be accepting agency level comments to finalize for 2000 and beyond. Tim said some agencies are planning to adopt the interim guide and some are saying they will continue to use the old guide. Stay tuned for further information.

Handout: Y2K Consequence Management Planning Assumptions

Safely installing your standby electric generator

Your Family Preparedness Needs

The State of Montana, Department of Administration is in charge of computers. Everyone is thinking things are looking pretty good. Each state agency will be asked if they can fulfill their role in the state emergeny plan if there are no communications or power.

On the Federal side – FEMA has had a series of meetings across the country. The federal government has a federal response plan with responsibilities lined out. FS is the lead for fire and incident management teams. FEMA will have emergency operations centers open for a couple days before and a couple days after the first of the year (2000).

As we get closer to 2000 we are going to have a much better idea of what problems may really be.

There could be a threat from terrorist groups.

Last year we did get in the position where we were basically running out of resources to run the wildfire use events. This probably will continue due to the fact that this program will expand, at least in the federal agencies. The challenge is to get management and leadership in place to deal with these events.

Decision needed: How do we want to put management in place for these kinds of events?

Discussion:

• How many times, if ever, were the four national teams all committed at the same time? -- there were three times within our Geograhic Area last year.

• Is one team enough? Should we have more or at least a list of alternates?

• How about a roster of people that would be available to fill these positions rather than having a team.

• These teams are a whole different mind set than the Type II teams. A different skill level. There is a different mission involved.

• State of Montana cannot pay overtime for nonsuppression activities.

• The workload is there and will continue to grow. There are a number of reasons why we don’t want to use type I or II teams.

• An alternative might be Type III teams.

• With only one team on – it never goes off rotation – they have to be available the entire season. Try to find an alternate for each position.

• Should the team be available for national rotation if needed?

• From a Forest Service perspective -- if we are gunshy on using AD’s in command and general staff, we would probably be even more gunshy about using AD’s on the FMUT’s.

After some experience last summer with the inability to quickly move and configure some data, the Forest Service realized they needed to get more involved in GIS. A Forest Service task group was established, but the thought was that instead of looking at this as a Forest Service problem, make it an interagency issue. If the NRCG Directors would adopt the strategic goal that we make our fire information compatible, it would move the current task force a long way down the road. Rich would also like to include interagency members on the task force. On a daily basis we need to be able to come up with a map of every wildland fire incident in the Northern Rockies.

The Incident Medical Specialist program was reviewed and the following recommendations presented to the NRCG Board of Directors:

Region-wide develop eight incident medical teams with four positions each (one manager, one assistant, and two technicians)

Maintain a rotation schedule of teams managed by NRCC. Possibly four teams in 2-hour call, 2 teams in 8-hour call, and two teams off. IMS team mobilization would require one call to the IMS Manager who would in turn contact the rest of the team.

Teams would be committed for 1 year at a time. The IMS Steering Committee would select the manager positions on a competitive basis. The Manager’s and IMS coordinators would be responsible for filling out the teams from a list of qualified people.

In addition to the eight teams (32 people) up to an additional 24 people would be maintained as a pool of identified alternates from which additional teams could be configured or existing teams could be supplemented for larger incidents.

Handout: Process paper: Fire Management Resource Priority and Allocation Guidelines for the Northern Rockies, April 15, 1999

There was a requirement that each Geographic Area develop a process for the allocation of fire management resources across the full range of fire management activities. Mike Plattes and Rick Hafenfeld drafted a response for the Geograhic Area. Since the Fire Use Committee had begun work in this area, the draft was given to the Fire Use Committee to finalize.

DNRC is stepping down from the lead on the Airshed Monitoring Unit. The Airshed Executive Board has been studying many options to decide how to best continue the work on the Monitoring Unit. With the plans for increased burning, it is going to be critical to ensure the work done by the Monitoring Unit continues and meets the needs of all cooperators.

Handout: Implementation Strategies for 1998 Fire and Management Review, April 15, 1999, Draft

Rick headed up a task force to prepare an action plan for the 1998 Fire Season Review report developed by the Coy Jemmett task force. The action plan divides the implementation strategy into:

• what we are already doing now

• short term things

• longer term strategies

Handout: Northern Rockies S-520 Candidates for 2001 and 2003

The Geographic Area has been having problems filling teams and has had a high failure rate at S-520. The Operations Committee began a process to identify candidates early on so they can complete their task books and serve in training slots prior to attending S-520.

Tom shared a prioritized list of S-520 candidates for 2001 and 2003. The identified individuals are committed to go through the process and serve on teams when their training is completed. Supervisors have also committed to allow the individuals the opportunity to complete the assignment.

The next logical step would be to start this process for Type II teams. It will be more complicated because there are more teams.

Handout: Sample datatable of BLM personnel for fire assignments

When Tom first got here and started looking at the resources that were on type I and II teams, he felt the BLM was underrepresented. When he asked who was targeted, there was nothing. Tom developed a database and has been working with BLM unit managers to get the needed information. When all the information has been gathered, it will be easy to see what training needs to be completed and where individuals should be targted if they wish to advance in the fire organization.

Tom wants to get country/local government/DNRC people on the list if they are willing.

Handout: Mobilization of Local Firefighting Resources Guide, 1/99

Tim and Mike Plattes have had various meetings with contractors. The contractors are fairly upset with how we are using them. They are getting organized and learning how our system works. Northwest Contractors had their meeting a couple of weeks ago. They are waiting to see what NRCG is going to do.

Handout: Engine Dispatch in the Northern Rockies Geographic Area

In order to deal with the increasing issues regarding dispatching the various mix of engines within the Geographic Area (agency, local government, and contractor), the follow proposals are made to the Board of Directors:

1. Each NRCG Zone will establish Zone Mobilization Boards that include representation from agencies, local government, and contractors.
2. Zones with multiple dispatch offices may choose to divide into smaller subdivisions centered on a dispatch office. If subdivisions are created, they will establish Mobilization Boards that include representatives from all groups mentioned in the proceeding recommentation.
3. Local Mobilization Boards will establish the dispatch rotation for engines within their area.
4. All Mobilization Boards will use the established Northern Rockies dispatch system to status and order engines, i.e., each Mobilization Board will use a single dispatch office as a point of contact. Mobilization boards will not create added or extra layers in the current dispatch system.

Discussion:

• Add a statement that cost effectiveness must be considered (or add as an assumption)

• A piece of equipment can only sign up in one Zone.

• Who takes the lead?

• Contractors within the Zones would get together and appoint a representative to be on the Mobilization Board. One contractor would represent all the contractors in the Zone.

• Put wording that says zone mobilization boards need to contact dispatch offices.

Debby described some instances that have occurred in the past few years where there have been grievances filed that must be dealt with after the fire is over and people have gone home. These instances become very difficult to deal with. It would have been easier to deal with the issue if we had gotten feedback in a timely matter that something occurred that was inappropriate.

Debby has a concern that some human resource specialists do not feel they have the authority to try to resolve issues on the incident. Debby will be attending the Human Resource Specialist Meeting in May and has been in contact with the national Human Resource Specialist person. Through these contacts, Debby hopes to highlight some areas that need to be improved upon.

Discussion:

• Performance issues seem to be networked really well across organizational boundaries and many times can be resolved with a few phone calls. Human Resource incidents are sometimes not even heard of until after the fact and then become more difficult to deal with.

• BIA was having a similar problem and has been fairly successful with the "Code of Conduct" which is known to all employees.

• The ideal way to solve the problem is that these issues are resolved on the fire by the human resource specialist and then everybody knows the resolution when the fire is over.

• If an accusation is made, what do we want to accomplish?

We want to know what happened

We want to know if there was due process

Do we need to punish?

What do we do to correct behavior?

• One of the things we need to grapple with is that we have created a culture that promotes complaints and retribution.

• Agencies need to be involved in the resolution.

• If a human resource specialist does not feel they can resolve an issue on an incident, can we give them a list of what their next step should be?

• We need to make sure employees notify their supervisor that something has arisen.

• The more we can work with our counterparts (both in fire and human resources) on early intervention we should be able to resolve 99 percent of the problems.

Tom Harbour is going to daylight this issue at the National Ops committee meeting next week. Even if the fire people need to be out of the loop for whatever reason, there needs to be some kind of notification made.

Reminder to Zone Coordinators to get their preparedness visits scheduled and to submit a narrative to Sandy documenting the readiness of the Zone.

We have had an agency administrator meeting planned or scheduled for the past few years, but have not yet had one. Do we need to reschedule an agency administrator meeting?

Discussion:

• Rocky Mountain Geographic Area had a conference call and heightened the awareness of the line officers. They are supportive. One thing that came out is the need to seriously look at how fires are managed – the idea of throwing all you can as fast as you can may have been viable in the past but with fewer resources is not possible today. Resource prioritization is necessary. Agency administrators said they will encourage subordinates to look at alternative suppression strategies.

• We have been developing additional resources from within the local government ranks and that needs to be continued.

• AD’s are a viable resource.

• Do we have anything we need to make line officers to be more aware of and be more supportive? Group consensus was it is more efficient for each Director to deal with the line managers within their own agencies.

• Dan O’Brien said it was beneficial for his boss to hear the same thing from a whole lot of other people. On the other hand for his agency administrator to go to three geograhic areas and hear the same thing would not be productive.

• Would like stronger support early on from line officers. We could generate a letter from NRCG and have line officers sign it.

• Meeting with agency administrators would not buy us a whole lot.

• Plant a thought for some time down the line – if we have activated a MAC and placed orders for things that are not being filled, bring agency administrators into a conference call and let them see all the things that are happening.

Steve talked to the contracting association and told them NRCG was not interested in signing an agreement with them because of the sole source issue. The association said they did not mean that they were the only place to go if we signed a contract. They are willing to revisit the language in the MOU and try again for signature. The reason why they want this agreement is so that they can have confidence that they know they are going to play by the rules and abide by 310-1 and mobilization policies and procedures. They understand we are not going to make exclusive use of their association.

Discussion:

• If there can be something designed that is of mutual benefit – then it would be good.

• There could be some sort of liability if GACs are hiring contractors who have not been certified.

• We can already honor agreements with PNW’s contract.

Handout: Training Needs Analysis—Update

The needs analysis continues.

Discussion:

• Steve contends the GAC has sufficient people qualified – they are just not available.

• Mark Vore stated there are a lot of qualified people out there – we just can’t get them. The Idaho Panhandle FMO’s looked at the concept of making more people available as the planning levels increase. At some planning level, only people available to do essential agency business are unavailable. If you could put this in writing it might make it easier to get people.

• It seems we are training people who don’t want to go to fires.

• Goes back to targeting people who are truly interested and have supervisor support.

• Attendance at training sessions is going to be more and more predicated on the employee’s availability to go to fires.

Steve gave a demonstration of the red card system the State will be using. There was consensus among the group that it is ridiculous that we are using at least three different red card systems. The feeling is that as agencies, our hands are probably pretty much tied as to what system we use, but the feeling is it would be worthwhile to ask questions.

Handout: Point Fire Brief

Tom gave an overview of what occurred on the Point Fire southwest of Boise, Idaho, on July 28, 1995. As a result of this incident, the BLM is reemphasizing with all firefighters that everyone gets a full briefing and understands the chain of command and who is in charge. People will be assigned based on their experience.

Stephen was introduced to the NRCG group. Stephen will be heading up the Voice and Data Transmission Task Force. He had just returned from a meeting with Department of Interior representatives and briefed the group on some of the issues they would be dealing with (digital, wide band radio frequencies, new radio purchase, etc.).