I had to sit through another long two days of NIMS training. This time it was IS 400, but it really doesn't matter what they call it, they are all pretty much the same. The class starts out with the obligatory review of everything that we have already learned, which usually means we are going to go over the previous class completely. After lunch we finally get started on the "new" stuff. This time we were learning about the state and federal level of response. Now don't get me wrong I truly believe that ICS is the best thing to happen to the fire service in a long time, but when you have an incident large enough to get the state and federal government involved, hold on to your abbreviation cheat sheet cause "it's gonna get deep out there". I know that there is a lot of things going on when things are that big but do we really need to have an abbreviation for every level of operation? I mean come on! There's the JIC, JIS, MAC, EMAC, EOC, JFO, RRCC, ESF, NRP....... and the list goes on and on. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't one of the first things they told us in IS200 was to use "Plain Text" in everything we do? This was supposed to improve communications and prevent confusion between agencies. It seems to me that the federal government needs to listen to itself. The confusion caused by having so many abbreviations for every possible entity known to emergency operations can only slow things down and will someday be shown as the bureaucratic job protectionism that it is. Don't even get me started on the "forms" one must know to operate within the nims system. At last count some 26 different forms that may have to be filled out just to operate on a wildland fire. My only hope is that the red tape and government sludge created by the current NIMS will be revised and improved before more lives are affected.

My mother always told me that if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem, so here are some of my suggestions for improving NIMS and emergency operations all together.

#1. The Federal Government needs get out of the stone ages. Computers have been around long enough. Don't be afraid the keyboard won't bite. The use of simple scannable cards for personnel and UPC bar codding on materials will greatly improve inventory tracking and personnel.

#2. The private sector can and will probably do some things much better. For instance inventory tracking programs, Personnel allocation programs etc.

#3 Take a look around and learn from our past mistakes. (i.e. Katrina, 911 etc. )

Policy Makers if you are listening......... WE NEED A MORE EFFICIENT SYSTEM!