Incident Business Practices Working Team Meeting

February 22, 1999

Attending: Tory Majors, Bill Bradshaw, Patrick O'Leary, Tony Recker, Ed Lewis, Brenda Breslin-Hancock.

Charter: Bill Bradshaw recommended changing the charter to get us out of emergency response and more into oversight. Also recommended two state people as working team members, rather than one - one east and one west. Bump membership up to 10? Would also like to ask FEMA to have a member sit on the working team. Currently in the charter is that we will schedule our annual meeting a year in advance; when we do that, conflicting schedules cause a change in the date. Ed Shepard, BLM, is our liaison. Tory will make changes to the charter and forward to NWCG for acceptance.

Information Dissemination: Tory will get minutes typed up of meetings and phone calls.

Updates: Tory did not attend the last NWCG meeting. She did send a memo updating them on Incident Base Automation. Has presented a draft of the change of Comptroller to Incident Business Advisor (IBA). Needs to follow up with another memo, but will send most recent package asking them to adopt name change and sanction guide. With the guide, trying to cut down on what an IBA would need to carry with them. Have put in the national mob guide the mnemonic for IBA I, II, and III. Tory will go to the IOS and Training Working Teams to get it sanctioned. Tory has no problem sending the guide in draft form prior to it being sanctioned. Members should look through the guide and give Tory comments by March 15. Tory will present the guide at the Interagency Incident Business Practices Meeting, but will not distribute copies.

NWCG Web Site: Want to post membership, meeting notes, issues being worked on, what's happening with the team, tie to e-mail. Also want to link to training, link to regional sites or coordination centers. Also a suggestion for a bulletin board where people can post questions to be answered promptly.

Current Projects: Will designate one team member as lead for what we have currently going on. Designations are:

Ed Lewis - Exempt/Non-Exempt issue and other forms revision

Bill Bradshaw - OF-288 Form revision project

Tory Majors - Incident Base Automation, Handbook, IBA

Bill Bradshaw has the camera ready of forms.

AD-5 Table: Instead of listing as R-1, R-2, etc., change headings to geographic areas. Regions designate technical specialists; those are also in the table, but tried to match the mnemonics.

Other Working Teams' Notes: Tory asked if team members were interested in copies of notes from other Working Team meetings. The general answer was only if there is a significant item pertinent to this team. Bill Bradshaw interested in paper copies. Most of these notes are also available on the NWCG web site.

Handbook: All suggested changes have been sent to key people for review.

There were a lot of suggestions for a travel section for the handbook. There was also a comment that specific agency travel regulations don't belong in the handbook. Tory suggested guidelines. In Chapter 10, there is a place for travel and timekeeping. Could expand that. What one needs to know depending on who they work for. Requirements vs. entitlements. Section 17 - Travel. Leave timekeeping stuff where it is. Overall guidelines including travel to foreign countries and FEMA.

Tory doesn't want to put appropriation guides in the handbook. Could put a general statement about FEMA that typical fire funds are not appropriate to be used for FEMA assignments.

Time line on the handbook - once the procurement people have looked at their part (mid-March?), goal would be to have it published by June 1. Will probably not include forms revisions or travel section.

AD Pay Plan in the handbook is the official direction. There was discussion on the FS vs. BLM/Interior directives processes. Tory asked if other Interior Bureau's employees were ignoring the Interagency Incident Business Handbook or the AD Pay plan that came out in 1999 since it didn't have Bureau specific directive page or signature with it. Ed Lewis to scope out interior process for approving directives through Jim Douglas. Right now the handbook is under the guise of NWCG.

Chapter 20 to include the new tools for EFT. Have to find a way to capture routing numbers and account numbers securely.

Buying Team Guide: Patrick following up on the Buying Team Guide. Have been asked to get it published. Once Patrick is finished reviewing, Tory will take it to the cache and get a PMS number assigned. The guide has been used for the last two years. Patrick needs to talk with the group before he can give a target date.

There was discussion of the appropriateness of Buying Teams paying the cost of services, i.e., hotel rooms. How to spread the word? Draft letter is out. It will be distributed at this meeting. It will be a FS letter; Interior will probably use our letter to create their own. Potential for duplicate payments when buying teams use their credit cards or checks.

Incident Base Automation: Tory shared the memo she sent to NWCG. Judy Carvelho contacted Tory about how to go about random sampling. Tory put her in touch with the economist working on 24 hour pay. Tory also needs to get in touch with Bill Brimberry to see if he can work with the group to develop the strategic plan.

Tory attended } How to be a Project Manager~ training in January. Training was sponsored by the people working on ROSS. Instructor narrowed down key focus areas. Talked about what software exists to develop project plans. Once we get Phase 1 of the Incident Base Automation report, we can use project planning training as guidance.

Tory asked about a template for costs for the handbook - what people supplement in Chapter 80. Could create a chart or table like she did with the AD-5 rates.

ICARS: R-6 figures. Probably will not get done with this revision. Will get this information posted electronically.

Recruitment Plan: Tory would like to wait until we get the Kenn Perry report. NWCG is looking at all functional areas. They want all the working teams to look at how to do that.

Issues from the 11/30-12/3 Meeting : Some were agency specific. One of the issues was the purchase card and convenience checks. Whether to issue FS policy and interior policy. Tory would like to see it come out of the agencies, rather than this working team.

Cross billing issue - Bill to address on the agenda.

Severity issue and the problems dispatch is faced with.

AD 1-4 format - Positions that would fall under each category. Actually go through the mnemonics. Tory needs to talk with Gary Wilson about that.

OF-288 re-write - will get original group of names to Bill. Tory has a lot of suggestions that have been sent to her. Time line is April 1, 2000. Takes nine months to get through GSA.

Property tags - defer.

Budget for Incident Base Automation as well as working team - defer.

Request to have a National Mobile Commissary invoice form approved and be able to order through the cache. Tory would like to have a dual system. If the forms are available through the cache, the contract should be available there, too.

Next meeting in Boise, April 20-21. Would like to see on the agenda Incident Base Automation update and a 24 hour pay progress report. Send other agenda items to Tory.