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TERT Initiative
(May 14, 2007) The
National Joint TERT Initiative (NJTI), a cooperative venture of NENA and
APCO, has announced the opening of positions on the NENA has six positions
on the Taskforce. All six
positions are considered to be open.
Current Taskforce members are eligible for re-appointment but must
re-apply. Currently there is
one vacant position within the group of six NENA allocated members. NENA members who might
be interested in participating on the
Arlington, VA (March 24, 2006)
TERT continues to gather support throughout
the United States. The states of North Carolina, Florida, Texas and South
Carolina have established TERT. To date, several additional states have
indicated their desire to establish TERT. Formal presentations have been
made in Maryland, Michigan, and California and the states of Massachusetts,
Missouri, Ohio, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana have
established TERT steering committees.
In early November, 2005, NENA 2nd
Vice President Jason Barbour and North Central Region Vice President Ron
Bonneau attended the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM)
Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The purpose was to raise awareness of the
TERT initiative and to sign a formal Memorandum of Understanding with IAEM
to advance the TERT program. The TERT program goals were met with
enthusiastic support by IAEM and a formal MOU was approved by both governing
Boards (NENA & IAEM).
National NENA, in early December, 2005,
learned that FEMA was in the process of establishing credentialing of
responders in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina response. The FEMA
credentialing process was established to identify basic knowledge, skills
and abilities (KSA) of various response disciplines to disaster
areas. Disciplines that were initially identified as being formally
credentialed by FEMA were: Fire & Hazardous Materials, Search and Rescue,
Law Enforcement, Incident Management, EMS, Medical & Public Health, Public
Works, and Veterinary. A critical component of public safety response which
was not identified as being credentialed by FEMA was telecommunicators.
NENA began a campaign to address the lack of
credentialing of telecommunicators by FEMA. Throughout the past three months
NENA has met with various federal agencies under Homeland Security and FEMA
to add telecommunicators to the credentialing process.
On March 3, 2006, North Central Region Vice
President Ron Bonneau and NENA Legislative Affairs Director Patrick Halley
met with Kyle Blackman, Division Chief of NIMS who explained the
credentialing process and what his office would expect of NENA in order to
meet the credentialing criteria. The remainder of the day was spent with the
House of Representatives Homeland Security committee staff members and
Andrew Mitchell, the Director of the Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP)
under Homeland Security explaining the TERT initiative and seeking support.
According to Mr. Blackman of the NIMS office,
the credentialing process will require that NENA establish a standardized
“profile” of a public safety telecommunicator, reflecting the knowledge,
skills and abilities of that “profiled” individual. Additionally, NENA will
be responsible for developing a standardized “Tier Deployment Structure
(TDS)” Mr. Blackman also stated that for NIMS to accept a KSA and TDS, it
would be preferred that the telecommunications discipline produce such a
document through the collaborative efforts of the associations most closely
representing those interests, specifically NENA and APCO.
Anticipating that credentialing would become a
reality for telecommunicators, NENA, at the recently completed Operational
Development Conference (ODC) in Orlando, Florida, assigned the task of
working on a TERT Operation Information Directive (OID) to the Disaster
Planning Subcommittee, chaired by John Haynes of Pa. During the three day
working session a first draft of the NENA TERT OID was formulated, which
included deployment processes and a telecommunicators profile. The plan is
to distribute this DRAFT to the NENA National TERT committee for
discussion. The OID Draft is meant to foster discussion of the TERT process
and program and will be fully examined by the TERT committee and State
Coordinators to reach consensus.
NENA has held discussions with the National
Emergency Management Association (NEMA) who are responsible for EMAC
approval of TERT. Plans are underway to meet have a conference call with
NEMA to learn more about the EMAC process. A formal Memorandum of
Understanding with NEMA will be considered in order to advance the TERT
effort and have TERT included in the EMAC resource list.
On Monday, March 6, 2006, NENA President David
Jones had a meeting with APCO President Wanda McCarly about TERT. President
Jones expressed the desire of NENA to have APCO join us in the TERT
initiative. During the meeting President McCarley expressed her
enthusiastic support. She told President Jones that APCO will join with NENA
in the TERT effort. Both NENA and APCO are actively working on the
coordination of this exciting opportunity to work together on TERT. Shortly
thereafter, President McCarly appointed First Vice President Willis Carter
as the APCO Board’s TERT liaison.
Then, on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, during the
4th Annual 9-1-1 Goes to Washington, NENA President David Jones
and 1st Vice President Bill Munn had the opportunity to meet with
Acting FEMA Director Paulison about credentialing of telecommunicators
within the context of the NENA TERT program.
Director Paulison acknowledged that
credentialing telecommunicators was an important issue for future
deployments to both man-made and natural disasters and committed to
President Jones that formal FEMA credentialing of telecommunicators would
occur. Director Paulison assigned the telecommunicators credentialing
process to the NIMS office of FEMA and to Division Chief Kyle Blackman.
Also, on March 8th, NENA President
David Jones appointed North Central Region Vice President Ronald Bonneau as
the NENA National TERT Committee Chairman. The current NENA TERT Committee
consists of members:
Ronald Bonneau - Chairman
Dr. Robert Cobb – Staff
Robert Martin – NENA ED
John Haynes – PA
Craig Whittington – NC
Doug Edmonds -IL
Lisa Dodson – TX
Chip Yarborough – CA
William Winn – SC
RD Porter – MO
Steve Newton – NC
On March 24, 2006, a conference call was held
with members of the National TERT committee and several topics were
discussed. It was generally agreed that the addition of APCO members to the
working committee is something that will help validate the process across
America.
Chairman Bonneau spoke with Division Chief
Blackman and advised him of the anticipated participation of APCO in the
TERT process, which was met with enthusiasm that both organizations can work
towards a consensus document for the KSA’s and Tier Levels that will be
required by NIMS. APCO Chairman Willis Carter relayed that APCO is in the
process of identifying members who will become members of the Joint
NENA/APCO National TERT Committee and expect the APCO members to be named by
the end of April, 2006.
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