National Wildfire Coordinating Group 89th Meeting Minutes January 2004
The 89th meeting of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group was held in Tucson, Arizona, January 27–28, 2004.
Members attending:	Jim Stires (Chair), Bureau of Indian Affairs Kirk Rowdabaugh (Vice-Chair), NASF, Arizona State Forester Allen Deitz (Executive Secretary), NWCG Program Management Office Don Artley for Mike Long, National Association of State Foresters Jim Erickson, Intertribal Timber Council Alice Forbes, U. S. Forest Service Larry Hamilton, Bureau of Land Management Mike Hilbruner, USFS – Fire Systems Research Edy Williams Rhodes, National Park Service Phil Street, Fish and Wildlife Service Jim Smalley, National Fire Protection Association Sue Vap, National Park Service
Guests Attending:	Gary Bowers, Bureau of Land Management Barry Mathias, NWCG Program Management Office Kevin Porteck, Department of Defense, USAF Shari Shetler, Information Resources Management Working Team, BLM
	January 27, 2004
	Paul Broyles, Safety & Health Working Team (via telephone conference) Rose Davis, USFS – NIFC Public Affairs Hallie Locklear, Incident Business Practices Working Team, BLM Paul Schlobohm, Fire Danger Working Team, BLM Don Smurthwaite, BLM – NIFC External Affairs Jim Stumpf, NIMO Task Group Tory Majors, Incident Business Practices Working Team, USFS
	January 28, 2004
	Judy Crosby, NWCG Program Management Office Phil Murphy, Information Resources Management Working Team, NASF

1.  Welcome and introductions.
Jim Stires welcomed everyone and introduced the new members of the NWCG. Alice Forbes, Operations Director, is replacing Tom Harbour as the Forest Service member. Michael Long, Florida State Forester, is the new Eastern representative for the National Association of State Foresters.

2.  Minutes of the 88th NWCG meeting were approved as distributed.

3.  Update on the National Interagency Complex Incident Management Organization (NIMO) Study. (Agenda Item 3)
Jim Stumpf presented an overview of the fifth draft of the NIMO report. This report is from the group chartered by NWCG in January, 2003, to look at improving the complex incident management system. The NWCG tasked the group to review the “Jacob’s Report” and evaluate alternative implementation strategies. The group was asked to develop recommendations for implementing the report’s actions and to develop specific implementation options.

Several years ago a minimum need for IMT currency was two team assignments per year. Question arises about upper limits: are four assignments acceptable? How about six? What are the impacts to team members’ jobs “back home”?

The task group is asking for feedback on the draft report by March 10, earlier if possible. The group is planning a final presentation to NWCG at the May 2004 NWCG meeting. Their expectation is to then present to the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) in June 2004.

Discussion:
Option 2 appears weak and should be strengthened.

There is a need to build in incentives for increased active participation of non-federal resources in IMTs.

Cost figures should be attached to the options – cost/benefit analysis needed for each option – this will be especially critical for the incentive issue. It also would be good to look at alternative funding sources for the options (DHS, etc.). These issues will be critical when addressing WFLC.

There is a need to look at cultural issues – where will new positions come from? Need to look at integrating commitment deeper into the organizations. If you work for a land management organization, you are committed to fire – fire should be part of job descriptions. There is also a need to demonstrate long-term career benefits tied in to the fire commitment. Concern was expressed that this effort is not coordinated with other efforts underway, such as the efforts to professionalize the workforce.

Questions to be answered: Who will NIMO work for? What do the NIMO teams do in non-fire season? Answers are especially needed for marketing to upper management.

The options show NIMO buy-in in a big way – there is no way to “test the water” with a small implementation – an option with two or three NIMO teams would be good.

Jim Stumpf asked for contact information for other groups that should be briefed on the report.

4.  Briefing on Department of Defense (DoD) membership participation in NWCG. (Agenda Item 2)
Kevin Porteck, from the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, is the staff officer in charge of forestry, range and wildlife management. Kevin presented a briefing on the DoD Wildland Fire Policy of October 2000. Included in this policy is an action item for DoD to seek NWCG membership.

Discussion:
There probably will be increasing congressional interest in access to military resources for firefighting. This will probably involve re-looking at the Economy Act of 1933.

Access to, and implementation of, NWCG qualifications and certification standards is available and they could be adopted with or without membership or NWCG participation. However, membership would allow DoD to issue the redcards, rather than depending on other NWCG agencies to issue the certifications.

In past discussions on DoD participation, NWCG was ready to accept DoD as member but DoD had issues and it was put on hold.

There is a need to look for assurance that employees, especially civilians, are actually part of the volunteer militia and made available to the states and agencies for use on fires regardless of the jurisdictional boundaries of the fire. There may also be issues for pay because DoD civilian pay is not the same as the agencies

Because of the DoD structure, there is a need to be sure the representative to the NWCG actually represents the DoD as a whole. Funding is also an issue to the point that all members do contribute some funding to NWCG.

NWCG needs an official letter requesting membership and nominating a representative.

Further discussion and decisions to be determined in NWCG Executive Session.

Action from Executive Session: Stires will draft letter to DOD offering full membership.

5.  Recommendations on work/rest and length of assignment guidelines for the 2004 fire season. (Agenda Item 11)
Tory Majors and Hallie Locklear, Incident Business Practices Working Team (IBPWT), presented the proposed guidelines from the IBPWT and the Safety & Health Working Team (SHWT). The draft has been distributed and the IBPWT and SHWT are still receiving comments.

Comments reflected the need to simplify the process to return to the 2:1 work to rest ratio. Comments also support continuing with 14-day assignments and mandatory two days off on back-to-back assignments.

The big change is proposing the mandatory two days off (instead of one day) between assignments. If the decision is to remain with one day off, they (the field commenters) have requested reasons for such a decision.

This version of the policy is trying to put the responsibility on the management to make the decisions and gives them the flexibility to address the individual situations and needs. This version removes the attempt to pre-define every fire size and situation – initial attack is considered an incident and the same guidelines will apply.

Discussion:
The BLM Fire Director has had briefings recommending keeping the one day off policy, with administrative discretion for an additional day off. Cost containment is a concern. It was pointed out that as is, it does allow management discretion while giving strong direction.

The mandatory days off could have major impacts on state employees who don’t get paid days off – mandatory two days could end up clipping two days of overtime at the end of a pay period – resulting in money lost to the employee.

Based on feedback from hotshot crews, this appears to be a safety concern and they feel they need the two days off.

Concern was expressed that there is no limit on length of shift – even though it says “should not exceed 24 hours,” it is completely open-ended.

Proposed changes:

• Insert “(for example, initial attack)” after “…in situations where this does occur” in the third paragraph, section 12.7-1.
• Move the sentence, “(State regulations may preclude… employees)” to the end of the first sentence under “3. Day Off”, section 12.7-2.

Decision: Motion to adopt the guidelines as amended. Seconded and passed.

6.  SHWT recommended revision to current (2/26/03) National Incident Operations Driving Guidelines. (added Agenda Item)
Handout: SHWT memo to NWCG – “National Incident Operations Driving Guidelines”

Discussion:
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has modified the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) requirements – memo does not reflect the change. It was pointed out that these guidelines are intentionally more restrictive than the DOT regulations, current and/or proposed.

Concern was expressed that the exception in #4 is open-ended.

Further discussion was deferred pending a conference call with Paul Broyles, SHWT Chair. During the conference call, the following points were clarified:

• DOT specifically exempts fire agencies from the CDL standards
• “Immediate and critical fire or public safety” is the key phrase for identifying when the DOT exemptions apply
• Fire has opted to adopt much of the DOT stds
• Fire can set work/rest standards, as long as they don’t conflict
• The exceptions, as drafted, are consistent with the work/rest guidelines

The SHWT was requested to pull the second paragraph and pieces of the third paragraph from the cover memo and incorporate them into the guidelines.

Decision: Motion to adopt the guidelines as modified. Seconded and passed.

7.  Briefing on IBPWT Issues (Agenda Item 12)
A. Update on contracting resources
In the late ‘90s, an EERA Task Group was formed. It looked at clauses, forms, etc. to determine what needed to be changed. Shortly after, the Forest Service had the fires of 2000 and 2002 – this prompted the FS Efficiency Group to look at cleaning up the EERA process.

The current attempt is to merge both efforts – both agree on the need to change EERA clauses; incorporate behavior guidelines (last May); and update and maintain a single set of forms. The divergence between the two is at standard methods of hiring.
Outcome: If the choice is to hire equipment at daily rate, then the formula for determining the daily rate is standardized.

Forms need to be revised – because they are standard forms, it will take time. “Test” forms can be implemented through PMS in the interim.

The NWCG cover memo for the contracting package from the IBPWT has been signed and will be distributed to the directors for distribution to their agencies.

B. AD Pay Plan
Two task groups have been put together: one to look at the AD-5 positions, and the other to look at the use of the pay plans.

The group is an interagency group looking at every ICS position to determine if it is in the appropriate AD level. In essence, the group is creating PDs and classifying them for each position. In December, the concern was identified that if implemented, it would be implementing apples and oranges.

At this time, the pay plans will be going out from FS with no change in rates from last year.

The task group is going forward with a deadline of October 1, 2004. It will be working with External Affairs to write an implementation plan for the 2005 pay plan to hopefully avoid some of the reactions to changes.

Fact is, there really is not across-the-board pay equity. The original creation of the pay plan was to deal with agricultural labor – not fire overhead positions.

Discussion:
The concern was expressed that strategically, NWCG is not addressing this appropriately. Maybe NWCG just needs to say there is no pay equity and avoid long, detailed explanations and responses. A consistent and (probably) hard-line message needs to be the response.

An NWCG response is a way to give a unified, interagency response. The NWCG response needs to be in concert with the Forest Service response – maybe with an explanation of what is being done.

The working team is taking an appropriate approach with the PDs and classification. The target date of October 1, 2004 is acceptable.

It was noted that the DOI pay plan was signed January 2, 2004. BLM is sending it out with an explanation of the work being done and targets 2005 for completion. The Forest Service is doing the same.

NWCG may need to reiterate the hiring process and cover non-discriminatory processes.

Action: NWCG response will be drafted by IBPWT

C. Interagency Incident Business Management Handbook (IIBMH) revision
The IIBMH was updated by a task group – the working team is now reviewing it. It should be out in PMS in April.

Discussion: It was suggested that the driving guidelines should be included in the handbook because it is a logical place for them. The Working Team agreed to include them.

Action: IBPWT will include the driving guidelines in the handbook. Final draft handbook to be presented to NWCG for formal adoption at the NWCG May 2004 meeting.

D. National Interagency Business Practices Workshop
The decision was made to go ahead with the workshop, even though budgets were an issue. It will be a working workshop to identify critical issues in 3 areas: contracting resources, accountability and cost containment, and resource availability. “Extreme Makeover in Incident Business Management” is the theme; the workshop will be stressing thinking out of the box for near-term changes. The workshop results will help the IBPWT to identify and prioritize work for the next several years.

E. IPBWT issue and concern
The IBPWT frequently encounters a lack of interaction and feedback from other teams when needed. This creates a great deal of extra work and delay for the team. The team is asking the NWCG Parent Group to put in place a process for follow-up (through liaisons or chair) to ensure teams are engaged when tasks are assigned to teams. There is a need to instill the need and responsibility to respond and communicate between and within teams.

The NWCG Chair acknowledged that the message has been received and understood. NWCG team liaisons will make an effort to help solve this problem.

8.  Findings and recommendation from IBPWT and SHWT research into youth employment in fire operations. (Agenda Item 10)
The current agency interpretation of the law is 18 year age limit. Will need to involve the Office of General Counsel (OGC) for further interpretation. If the OGC says differently, then the fire policy would need to change to comply with the new interpretation to lower the age limit.

Discussion:
The BLM Solicitor’s Office should be requested to coordinate with the OGC for interpretation of the policy.

The States position is to not support anything more stringent than federal law. Oregon’s position is the law says 16 years.

Based on the Cramer fire and 30-Mile fire, it is doubtful the Forest Service would adopt anything less than 18 yrs.

Until we have federal interpretation, there is not a lot NWCG can do.

Action: The IBPWT will remove guidance from the IIBMH pending resolution and further guidance from the DOI Solicitor’s Office.

9.  Briefing on guideline for media involvement in fire operations (Don Smurthwaite & Rose Davis) (Agenda Item 5)
The draft guideline was developed by an ad hoc task group in response to a WFLC request to NWCG. It was stressed that this guideline is just to provide consistency in media access to fires – not to address other issues such as shortage of FIOs, and does not try to address all variations of conditions and circumstances.

Discussion:
The PPE guidance, as worded, is ambiguous. Suggestion: change “appropriate training” to “appropriate briefing”.

Concern was expressed about the work-capacity test requirement and the accompanying “will not administer” statement. One possibility would be self-certification; another possibility is some sort of liability waiver. Suggestion: remove the work-capacity test requirement; leave the general “good physical condition” statement.

Concern was expressed about airborne media, especially when involving restricted air space. Suggestion: add a statement regarding flight restrictions – must conform to FAA regulations.

Decision: Motion to approve the guideline as amended and forward to WFLC. Seconded and passed.

Action: Rose Davis and Don Smurthwaite to update the NWCG following the WFLC meeting.

The “Wildland Fire in the United States” brochure, a WFEWT effort, was distributed to meeting attendees. Sue Vap, WFEWT Liaison, presented a gift certificate and letter of appreciation to Don Smurthwaite in recognition by the WFEWT of his contributions to the effort.

10.  Proposed standard for Fire Danger Pocket Cards (Agenda Item 9)
The standard is modeled on content from FireFamily Plus (FF+), but the standard does not require the use of FF+ to create the pocket card. This standard addresses the content of the card – not the step-by-step process of how to create it, or who gets the card, or how many to make.

Discussion:
The standard needs clarification of intended use and expectations. The standard may need to address when cards would be created, under what conditions. It was pointed out that requirements to issue and decisions to issue a card are based on individual NWCG agency policy.

It was noted that it will probably be next fall before the next FF+ revision could accommodate the missing pieces.

Suggestion made that this should be tied to the thirty-mile action plan – maybe with a statement in the cover memo.

Decision: Motion to adopt standard with added statements suggested by Don Artley in the authority now, with expected FF+ update next fall. Seconded and passed.

Note: The next day Mike Hilbruner reported the FF+ could be updated within a month or so to accommodate the three missing data items needed for generating pocket cards to meet the new standard.

Actions:

• Parent Group will prepare memo to agencies to promulgate standard prior to onset of 2004 fire season
• Don Artley will give suggested wording for changes to Paul Schlobohm
• Paul will send updated standard to NWCG Executive Secretary for distribution with cover memo

11.  Briefing on status of updating the NWCG MOU (Agenda Item 4)
Don Artley, Edy Williams Rhodes, Sue Vap, Phil Street, and Alice Forbes worked to develop two different draft updates of the NWCG memorandum of understanding (MOU). Draft # 2 follows current formatting guidelines for MOUs. The group is asking for feedback on the drafts. The use of draft #2 was recommended since it uses a standard format.

Discussion:
It was suggested and agreed to remove paragraph IV.4.

Concern was expressed that WFLC membership is broader than NWCG – if signed by WFLC would that mean NWCG membership would be expected to add the other WFLC members? The suggestion was made to go to WFLC with a briefing of the options and ask the question of who they think should sign. It was suggested this be done in concert with the NWFAEB presenting their charter.

Action: NWCG will request an agenda item on the next (after February 2004) WFLC meeting agenda to brief WFLC on options for updating and signing the MOU and ask their position on appropriate signatories.

12.  Briefing and action on NWCG participation in the implementation plan for the recommendations in the report to Congress entitled: “The Changing Role and Needs of Local, Rural, and Volunteer Fire Departments in the Wildland-Urban Interface.” (Agenda Item 7)
The report effort was not driven by the federal agencies and states, but rather by the IAFC, Volunteer FD group. The group recognizes NWCG working teams are working on related issues. The group is asking for NWCG support and concurrence of these efforts; and asks to task some of these action items from the implementation plan matrix to NWCG working teams. For example: Issue 1 – a, b, c, d all appear to be appropriate for the TWT to address.

Discussion:
Regarding Issue 1 – a: The identified group working on it includes Billy Terry and Al Murphy who are TWT members – they should liaise with the TWT to ensure the group’s efforts are on track.

Regarding Issue 1 – b, c, & d: suggestions made for participation of the GATRs and a possible tie-in/relationship with the NIMO group.

Discussion and action on Issue 4 – d was deferred until after the IRMWT briefing on Fire Statistics/Fire Occurrence reporting.

Actions:

• NWCG chair will send a letter to the chair of the Geographic Area Managers Group expressing NWCG support of this need and encouraging their support of the effort through participation of the GATRs [Issue 1-b, c, & d].
• NWCG will task IOSWT to clarify the current policy [Issue 2-a].
• NWCG will task IOSWT to evaluate NFPA equivalencies and give NWCG recommendation on usability [Issue 2-b].
• Don Artley will draft the IOSWT tasking letter and send it to Jim Stires for signature and tasking
• NWCG will issue a letter reiterating the standard policy as stated in 310-1. Jim Stires will draft the letter. [Issue 2-c] NWCG will task IBPWT and IOSWT to draft a mutual aid agreement template [Issue 2-f]. Note: from a WFLC action item, NWCG has tasked the IBPWT to draft a cost-sharing agreement process on multi-jurisdictional fires.

13.  Information Resources Management Working Team (IRMWT) briefing and overview. (Agenda Item 13)
Shari Shetler, IRMWT Chair, provided an overview of the purpose of the working team, how it fits in with the rest of the wildland fire community and the agency IRM communities, and recent accomplishments and current activities of the team.

14.  GAO Report (GAO 03-1047): “Technologies Hold Promise for Wildland Fire Management, but Challenges Remain – September 2003” (Added Agenda Item)
The Departments of the Interior and Agriculture have prepared a joint action plan to address the GAO Report recommendations. The cover memo submitting the plan to the GAO is expected to be signed within the next two weeks.

Discussion:
The suggestion was made to treat the process of addressing the actions as a project. A layout of the timeline and schedule should be developed and the actions should then be managed to the schedule.

Action: IRMWT will follow-up with the Geospatial Task Group to confirm they are coordinating with the FGDC and national standards. The IRMWT will also task the group to look into possible grants for developing geospatial data standards.

15.  Briefing on the draft update of the NWCG IRM Strategy. (Agenda Item 15)
The IRMWT and IRM-PMO have drafted the strategy for NWCG. The IRMWT is asking the NWCG to review the draft and return comments to the IMRWT Chair. The IRMWT is proposing to submit a final draft to the NWCG for approval at the NWCG meeting in May.

Discussion:
This strategy will provide a good filtering process for NWCG IRM projects. It will prevent systems being spun up without appropriate analysis. It will help sort out which systems to work on and which ones to let slip. It was noted that some projects can’t wait (examples: FireCode and NFPORS). The strategy needs to address how to maximize the value of all projects. It was also noted that information on emerging technology must be a two-way flow: what new technology is out there, and knowing what the business community needs.

It was explained that the strategy provides the framework to capture these types of issues. Enterprise architecture will help manage technology over time.

Action: NWCG members will review draft and return comments to Shari Shetler by March 12, 2004.

16.  Briefing on the status of the initiative to develop an interagency IT CPIC process. (Agenda Item 15)
The departments (DOI & USDA) have different interpretations of the OMB guidelines and requirements for capital planning and investment control (CPIC). These differences create additional workload for projects with additional reporting requirements, inconsistent direction between projects, and complications and delays during interagency implementation of systems.

The IRMWT has been working with the departments and agencies trying to develop agreement and common understanding of the processes to reduce the inconsistencies. A white paper is currently being developed for presentation to the DOI. If the issues are not resolved, then WFLC will be approached for help in resolving it.

NWCG would like an update at the May 2004 NWCG meeting. If a satisfactory resolution has not been achieved by May, the NWCG will approach WFLC for resolution.

Action: IRMWT will provide the NWCG with an update at the May 2004 NWCG meeting.

17.  Briefing on the Wildland Fire Enterprise Architecture (EA) Strategy (Agenda Item 16)
Judy Crosby, NWCG Data Architect, and Al Borup, NWCG Applications Architect, have received Federal Enterprise Architecture certification.

The development and management of enterprise architecture is mandated for all federal departments and agencies. The NWCG IRM-PMO architects have been working with representatives from the departments and agencies to collaborate on the development of a unified wildland fire enterprise architecture.

The wildland fire EA has its roots in the 1996 NWCG IRM Strategy Report (the Yellow Book). The development of a single wildland fire EA is also directed by the recent GAO report on geospatial technology and wildland fire.

The IRMWT is currently seeking executive buy in and support for the interagency wildland fire EA effort. An interagency, cross-departmental EA steering group is proposed to be chartered by WFLC. The IRMWT is asking for NWCG endorsement and support of the steering group and the charter.

Discussion:
Concern was expressed that the signatories on the draft charter may not be the correct signatories. It was suggested that only the WFLC chair needs to sign it.

Decision: NWCG position is to support and endorse the EA effort and steering group. NWCG approves the charter and will submit it to WFLC for their consideration.

18.  Wildland Fire Computer Applications Inventory (Agenda Item 15)
Two inventory reports (one grouped by agency, the other by business subject area) were distributed. The inventory is incomplete and efforts to gather missing information are continuing.

Discussion:
The NWCG requests the IRMWT and IRM-PMO to come to the May 2004 NWCG meeting with a recommended approach to evaluating and prioritizing the systems on the inventory.

19.  Update on the Fire Occurrence Reporting Project (Agenda Item 14)
The IRMWT and IRM-PMO recommend a business requirements study be done before a project is chartered to develop a system. This study will review and validate work done in the past business study and evaluate existing systems.

In preparation for chartering a project, they further recommend the NWCG identify a business stewardship group, two business leads (NASF and federal), a managing partner, and a project manager. The IRMWT and IRM-PMO also recommend the National Fire and Aviation Executive Board (NFAEB) be the chartering group.

Discussion:
Texas State Forestry has been piloting a system and has asked states (NASF) for data to evaluate the capabilities of their system to consolidate the states’ data. This is not currently intended to be a long term solution. If/when a new single system is developed, they would expect to migrate to the new system.

NASF has had a presentation from the NFIRS database person. NFIRS has never provided a report, nobody can have access to it because the data is proprietary, and it is not user friendly.

The FPA System will need fire occurrence data. A business requirements study was done as a result of the 1995 Fire Plan, but it never went any further after the study. Meanwhile, the situation has continued to get worse with additional “systems” being created.

Even an agreement – at least for the interim – on a common basic set of data elements for reporting would be a useful step to help get through the next year. For 2004, we can agree to those nine elements and a couple more to be used as an interim reporting base. This would be the same data going into the National Fire Plan report.

Identifying and agreeing upon the nine core data elements as an interim solution should be done by a separate group, possibly the IOSWT.

Decision: The five agencies each agreed that the SME on their staff for occurrence will meet to develop a scheme to report those nine elements in conjunction with the state subject matter expert (Don Galloway).

Decisions:

• NWCG members agreed to provide SMEs to the business requirements study. The SME group will select the federal business lead.
• NASF will identify a co-business lead
• Project Manager should be George Conley which will not impede the implementation of IQCS
• Outside of travel and employee time there will be no additional cost
• The business requirements study is expected to be completed within six months with a progress report at the May NWCG meeting.
• Charter to be signed by the NWCG chair

20.  Aviation Management Council participation with the IRMWT and PMO (Agenda Item 17)
Rick Mills is asking that the Aviation Management Council (Rick Mills and his Forest Service counterpart) participate with the IRMWT and be allowed to request consultation with the PMO for the leveraging of resources, etc.

Decision: Invite them to become a member of the IRMWT.

21.  Appointment of new Chair to the IBPWT (Agenda Item 18)
Decision: Motion to appoint Hallie Locklear as the new chair for the IBPWT; Veronica Belton will be the new BLM representative to the team. Seconded and passed.

22.  TWT recommendation and cost estimate on translating some fire courses into Spanish (Agenda Item 19)
Needed information will be available by March 1, 2004.

Action: Carry over to the May NWCG meeting

23.  Update on TWT action to formally adopt the Incident Business Advisor Course (Agenda Item 20)
Jim Glenn is the acting chair for the TWT. Hallie Locklear and Tory Majors (IBPWT) will be attending the TWT meeting in February. The course will be incorporated in the revised 310-1.

24.  Update on the IOSWT actions required to incorporate the IBA position into ICS (Agenda Item 21)
The Incident Business Advisor (IBA) position will be considered as a new position in the new 310-1 in February.

25.  Fire Weather Working Team issues. (Agenda Item 24)
A – Chair and Membership
Mike Ziolko, Oregon Department of Forestry, will be the state representative on FWWT.

The Chairmanship of the FWWT was due to be rotated about a year ago. The current chair is willing to stay in that role.

Decision: Motion that Wayne Mitchell be appointed for another term as the chair. Seconded and passed.

Action: Jim Erickson will write a letter to Wayne Mitchell thanking him for his dedication and service. Copy of letter to be sent to Andrea Tuttle, State Forester in California.

B – FWWT & FDWT combination
There has been a lot of support to combine the FWWT and FDWT into a single team.

Action: Request that the teams re-craft a charter to combine the two Working Teams. Draft charter to be presented at the May NWCG meeting.

26.  Briefing on the status of the FUWT draft Prescribed Fire Risk Assessment Tool. (Agenda Item 23)
The FUWT was charged to look into several issues:

• Go/No-go Checklist – Comments were requested back from the field; there were virtually no comments.
• Complexity Analysis – Added some specificity. Pared down the numerical scoring. More of a planning tool instead of a ranking tool.
• Risk Analysis – Looking at expanding to an interagency process. The comments back from the field were not very high.

We are moving away from the cookbook approach and are looking for more of a planning view. Proposing NWCG agency administrator pre-ignition approval.

Scrap the risk analysis and assessment process. Risk = probability and consequences, which is built into the complexity analysis. There is some concern about having a certain score on the Complexity Analysis result in a specific result.

Approval would expire after a set number of days. This should be established by the individual agency. They still have to get further permission the day before the burn; and you also still have the go/no-go checklist.

Discussion:
The question was asked if it is a GAO recommendation to have a common interagency risk assessment. Bill Leenhouts didn't know if GAO's recommendation was to have a common interagency risk assessment, but laid out some good reasons why any effective risk assessment (common interagency or uncommon customized) would be very difficult to develop. We have to make sure that there is no pending action item for GAO. Bill Leenhouts, on January 30, 2004, provided NWCG a rationale to respond to GAO if necessary.

27.  NWCG review of updated 410-1. (Agenda Item 22)
Bob Leaverton, IOSWT Chair, had asked the NWCG to consider what needs to be done to publish the 410-1. More field review needed to be done – draft was sent out by the agencies, safety team, etc. with a request for comments back by January 9, 2004. Comments received are not significant. Changes to the draft can be done quickly and the IOSWT would like to print the updated version. The 2004 printed version could be printed and ready for distribution by April 2004.

Decision: Motion to print the revised version of the fireline handbook for issuance in 2004. PMS should not produce any additional prior-year versions of the handbook. In regards to the issue on engine staffing, the parent group reaffirms that engine staffing minimum should be two (2). Seconded and passed.

28.  Proposal to update 310-1. (Agenda Item 22)
IOSWT proposes an expedited process to update the 310-1 and propose to establish a contract for the review of the 310-1. The purpose of this briefing is to notify the parent group of the need to move forward with that contract as a priority for FY04 and FY05; the IOSWT has included it as a line item in their budget request. The IOSWT is screening additional positions and will be talking with the TWT in February.

Discussion:
It was not contracted out the last time it was revised. It was a long painful process – this proposed approach is trying to avoid some of that pain.

The new revision should address the language on acceptance of cooperator qualification for initial attack. There is also some concern regarding the mandatory requirement for some of the training. Changing “suggested” to “required” needs to be carefully approached.

Priority will be given to address this contract within the FY04 and FY05 budgets.

29.  Charter revision for the Fire Equipment Working Team (Agenda Item 25)
Tory Majors, FEWT Chair, asked the NWCG to review the draft revision of the FEWT charter and approve the new version. The revision increases the team membership from 8 to 10 to get additional representation from the states, GSA, and aviation community.

Discussion:
The FEWT memo of January 16, 2004 indicates that they are looking for a new member from the NPS. The team chair should work directly with the NPS to identify a member.

Decision: Motion to approve the revised charter as presented. Seconded and passed.

Action: NWCG Chair will sign and provide the signed copy to the working team chair

30.  International Programs (Agenda Item 1)
Action: Tom Frey and Dale Dague will work with CIFFC and FFMG to finalize an international code of conduct for the exchange of personnel.

There is interest in starting to work on international equivalencies for qualifications. These apply to both the Australia contingency (FFMG) and the Canadians (CIFFC).

Discussion:
Suggest putting a small group together to identify course equivalency. This effort is between the U.S., CIFFC, and FFMG. Would pre identify qualified personnel for ICS positions. The equivalencies should go two ways.

Need to be clear about the process regarding how we evaluate the equivalencies. Expected first step: Request that Tom and Dale come back and lay out the systematic approach to determine equivalency. The IOSWT and TWT need to be involved. Need to also include the states – this needs to be a separate effort.

Having a good connection with predictive services and their fire program is important. When we are doing these exchanges, we need to be sure we are not overwhelming any office or program and are not generating any redundancy. Tasks need to be sent through the chair of FFMG, so we want the same clearance through Tom Frey and Dale Dague.

Action: Tom Frey and Dale Dague, working with the IOSWT (Bob Leaverton) and TWT (Logan Lee), CIFFC, and FFMG to put together a task group to develop international equivalencies. The process used to develop those equivalencies be documented and made available to the parent group to be used to begin the process of working with the states and VFDs.

Task Group Action: For May meeting: identify who is on the task group and how they plan on getting this done. Give us a plan. Final product due at the May meeting

31.  Briefing on the status of WT tasking to implement action items in the “Strategic Direction to Implement the Federal Fire Policy”. (Agenda Item 6)
The goal is to have the glossary revision done and the glossary available by May 1, 2004.

Larrry Hamilton distributed copies of “NWCG Projected Course Revision/Development Schedule” from the TWT. The lined out items are completed. Current status and schedule of course revisions was not available from the FUWT.

Action: Kirk Rowdabaugh will get FUWT status from Leenhouts and will include in the notes for this meeting.

32.  Briefing on Lessons Learned Center. (Added Agenda Item)
Paula Nasiatka briefed the NWCG on current activity at the Lessons Learned Center. They are currently undertaking a major knowledge management project. It is contracted using interagency fuels dollars and is currently setting up a prototype.

Working with S&HWT to develop a library of incident reviews; plans are to move the data to a database with search capabilities.

The Center is working to capture “good” as well as “bad” lessons learned. Users have indicated the need to see success stories and good examples, as well as the usual lessons learned from less-than-successful efforts.

33.  (Added Agenda Item)
Larry Hamilton reported the BLM is developing an on-line training course, “Do What’s Right”, to address EEO and conduct for the wildland fire community. The course will be generalized and can be used as stand-alone, refresher, etc. training. The BLM will be contracting to make it available through the Internet. Starting this year, BLM will begin to require its use for training.

34.  Future meeting dates and locations.

Follow-up Actions