Group III, Texas Wing - SWR-TX-030

Citizens Serving Communities: Above and Beyond

Public Affairs Officer - Required FEMA Courses

FEMA has established training requirements to be able to serve in any ICS position functioning under the NIMS schema. In order to comply, you need to take the following actions:

1. GES – All members holding a GES rating and above must take the IS-100 and IS-700 courses, which are available online at the FEMA website www.fema.gov. (see below) – Copies of course completion certificates must be sent to the appropriate ES Officer, as well as your PDO.

2. Command and General Staff Positions – All members having ICS/CAPF 101 position ratings (such as IO) must take, in addition to the GES required courses above, the courses commensurate with their ICS positions. For IO, these are:
   IS100, IS700, IS200. IS300 and IS800.A -- Copies of course completion certificates must be sent to the appropriate ES Officer, as well as your PDO.

NOTE: Failure to provide the training certificate by 30 Sep 07 will preclude the officer from functioning as IO until the training is completed and the certificate is provided.

The IC Level criteria are the minimum NIMS requirements. All IOs are encouraged to seek additional professional development opportunities, such as state emergency PIO training courses and exercise training outside of CAP to hone their skills.

Online, available courses are:

• IS-100 – (ICS 100) Introduction to Incident Command System, I-100 http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is100a.asp  

• IS-200 – (ICS 200) ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is200.asp

• IS-700 – National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is700.asp

• IS-800.– A National Response Plan (NRP), An Introduction http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is800a.asp

The courses listed above may be found here... http://training.fema.gov/IS/NIMS.asp

• ICS-300 – This Course is available via classroom instruction only.

• ICS-400 – This Course is available via classroom instruction only. RECOMMENDED, though not required.

The information above has been adapted from a message posted to the PAO Forum by Capt Steven Solomon, SER DPA.

New document – FEMA Basic Guidance for PIOs (Public Information Officers)

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