FEMA ICS/NIMS Training

One of our missions as an amateur radio group is to support our served agencies (fire departments, cities, county, etc.) in times of need in order to supplement communications during a communications outage or when everyday resources are spread thin — think disaster or emergency situations. Coordination for this support in our area happens at the County level with the Kitsap Department of Emergency Management. If you hold a valid amateur radio call sign and are willing to be involved, please follow the steps below.

Get your DEM ID card

Sign up with the Kitsap Department of Emergency Management as an amateur radio volunteer; visit their website and download a volunteer application.  Information about where to send completed applications can be found at the bottom of page 6 on the application.

The DEM ID badge you will then be issued shows that you are part of the Kitsap County Alternate Communications System (ACS) group and will allow you into secure areas during activations or training events. Possession of this ID badge is critical if you plan to participate with ACS in times of need (and we hope you will!).

Training

Everyone who holds a DEM card and would like to participate in exercises and any activations with the City or County should go through online training (courses numbered 100 & 700, below) to understand the basics of the Incident Command System and National Incident Management System. These lay the foundation for how different agencies work together during disaster- or emergency-type incidents and are important to understand how we will fit into the bigger picture during an activation.

The independent study courses are linked here.

Download the PDF documents for each module (or follow along in the web-based module, but that requires doing it all in one go), then take the exams for each when you are ready. Once complete, you will receive an email with a certificate of completion. Save the certificate and email it to Michele(MMoen@kitsap.gov) at the Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management to be added to your list of credentials on file.

Which courses to take:

First, get started with the baseline courses, 100 and 700, and then 200:

ICS-100: an Introduction to the Incident Command System (ICS)
IS-700: an Introduction to the National Incident Management System (NIMS)
ICS-200: ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents

Additional courses available for independent study are 800, 300, and 400:
IS-800: National Response Framework (NRF), an Introduction
ICS-300 and 400 are classroom-only courses for Intermediate and Advanced ICS, respectively. They are taught from time to time at the County DEM and elsewhere.