TERT Initiative
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(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
The filing deadline is
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 Boards 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 KSAs 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.