This lesson presents an overview of the Other NIMS Structures and Interconnectivity.

Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Identify the roles and responsibilities of the Multiagency Coordination Group (MAC Group)
• Describe the Joint Information System (JIS)
• Describe Interconnectivity of NIMS Command and Coordination Structures

(National Incident Management System, Third Edition, October 2017)

The Incident Command System (ICS) and Emergency Operations Centers (EOC), which were discussed in the prior lessons of this course, are two of the four NIMS Command and Coordination structures.

In this lesson, we will learn about Multiagency Coordination (MAC) Groups and the Joint Information System (JIS), and discuss the interconnectivity between the NIMS Command and Coordination structures.

Multiagency Coordination Groups (MAC Group) are part of the off-site incident management structure of NIMS.

MAC Groups are also sometimes referred to as policy groups.

MAC Group members are typically agency administrators, executives or their designees from stakeholder agencies or organizations impacted by and with resources committed to the incident. The MAC Group may also include representatives from non-governmental organizations such as businesses and volunteer organizations.

During incidents, MAC Groups:
• Act as a policy-level body
• Support resource prioritization and allocation
• Make cooperative multi-agency decisions
• Enable decision making among elected and appointed officials and the Incident Commander responsible for managing the incident.

The MAC Group does not perform incident command functions, nor does it replace the primary functions of EOCs or other operations, coordination, or dispatch organizations.

Elected and appointed officials such as governors, tribal leaders, mayors, city managers and county commissioners are key players in incident management because they are responsible for:

• The safety and welfare of their constituents
• The overall effectiveness of incident management efforts within their jurisdiction

Elected and appointed officials operate at the policy level of incident management. The MAC Group provides a way for these policy-level officials to work together, enhancing unity of effort at the senior level.

Steve Grainer, Former Chief, Incident Management Programs, VA Dept. of Fire Programs

Our elected and senior appointed officials have first a moral obligation to do whatever is possible to provide for the well-being, the welfare if you will, of the citizens that elected them and entrusted them with their well-being. On that count my feeling is that elected officials should at a minimum be familiar enough with the core reasoning behind NIMS and the primary components of NIMS, the concepts on which NIMS is built.

Curry Mayer, Former Training & Exercise Chief, Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CA)

NIMS has let people know that everyone who is responsible for public welfare really should have at least an understanding of what the NIMS is about, what are the important pieces of it, what do you have to know to be able to plug into it, and how does it facilitate all of those levels of government working together. So I think the important piece is that appointed officials and our elected officials are those that, they really have two roles. One is that they are charged with protecting the public, and then from their point of view, how do they know that they will be able to do that, and NIMS provides a system that is workable anywhere in the country so that any government entity or any response agency that is needed can plug into the system. And there is the requirement that not only do you, are you aware of what the system is but that you practice it, that you have some training in it so you’re not only, so it’s not just a check the box but that you are actually able to perform a role in the system and ensure that the public is secured for in a large event.

The Joint Information System (JIS) is the fourth NIMS Command and Coordination structure.

JIS integrates incident information and public affairs into a unified organization that provides consistent, coordinated, accurate, accessible, timely and complete information to the public and stakeholders during incident operations.

JIS operates across and supports the other NIMS Command and Coordination structures: ICS, EOC and MAC Group.

JIS activities include:

• Developing and delivering coordinated interagency messages
• Developing, recommending and executing public information plans and strategies
• Advise on public affairs issues that could affect the incident management effort
• Addressing and managing rumors and inaccurate information that could undermine public confidence

The JIS performs these activities in support of the Incident Commander or Unified Command, the EOC Director, and the MAC Group.

The Public Information Officer (PIO) and Joint Information Center (JIC) are two supporting elements of the JIS.

The PIO is a key member of ICS and EOC organizations, though they might go by a different title in EOCs. PIO functions include:

• Advising the Incident Commander, Unified Command or EOC director on public information matters
• Gathering, verifying, coordinating, and disseminating accurate, accessible, and timely information
• Handling inquiries from the media, public and elected officials
• Providing emergency public information and warnings
• Conducting rumor monitoring and response

The JIC is a central location that houses JIS operations and where public information staff perform essential information and public affairs functions.

Normally, an incident should have a single JIC, but the JIS is flexible and can accommodate multiple JICs if necessary.

In some cases, lives will depend on getting information to the public quickly and those responsible take necessary steps to alert the public.

Getting information to the public and stakeholders during an incident requires an ongoing information cycle:

• Gathering complete information for the public and other stakeholders
• Verifying information to ensure accuracy
• Coordinating information with other public information personnel who are part of the JIS to ensure consistency
• Disseminating consistent, coordinated, accurate, accessible, timely and complete information to the public and stakeholders

Well-developed and coordinated public information, education and communications plans enable the sharing of public safety information.

This can include information such as lifesaving measures or evacuation routes.

The information communications plan can include:

• Draft news releases
• Media lists
• Contact information for elected/appointed officials, community leaders, private sector organizations, and public service organizations

Public information communications plans should be included in training and exercises in order to prepare for actual incidents.

Curry Mayer, Former Training & Exercise Chief, Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CA)

Public information is of course important in any event, and NIMS emphasizes that public information in a large event be coordinated so that all those entities—either jurisdictions, agencies, or levels of government—those Public Information Officers come together and have a joint message. So different agencies that, it might be that you have, you know, transportation and food and agriculture that are involved in the event so what are, what those public, the public information message, although one coordinated message needs to include the elements from those different agencies that are involved, and who are the stakeholders, who are the people that have been impacted, and ensuring that your message is coordinated so that everyone that needs to have some kind of information about the event gets what they need from that. The new thing for NIMS is that each level of government and each agency involved has a public information responsibility, but they come together and have one, one message that comes out.

Bill Campbell, Former Director of Training, NY State Emergency Management Office

Public information is number one, it’s one of the command staff positions within the ICS structures so that tells you right up front that in the incident command system we place a lot of emphasis on public information and information in general. I think the importance and significance of public information is higher and greater now than it’s ever been in our history. You’ve got to have a coordinated way to get a consistent message out. We’ve got to be very clear and concise in our message to the public as to what we want them to do. Public information is more than just the public, it’s also the response community too.

Daryl Lee Spiewak, Former Emergency Programs Manager, Brazos River Authority, TX

We need to have a single point of contact for the media so that we can get our information out to the general public. We use the media to get our message out. The citizens of our jurisdiction expect information from us. They want to know what we’re doing, want to know why we are doing things, and more important they want to know what they should be doing. We also found out that if the media isn’t kept in the loop, they are going to go out and start finding stories themselves, finding out information themselves, that means then that we are losing control of the message. The message is being developed by the individual reporters in the media and that’s going to start confusing our citizens and get the wrong message to them. We need a coordinated effort for public information for the safety of the public and the security of the public and that’s what public information allows us to do.

Ron Britton, Former NIMS Coordinator, FEMA, Region 10

Public information is for public safety. We really want that information for people in the environs as well as people who are part of the response community to know what the situation is. They need to know that to stay safe and to perform best. It can also be used to establish information exchanged with the local public to know evacuation routes, where the hospitals they should go to—any number of things that would be of safety interest to the public. One of the reasons it was developed was to provide a consistent message so that different people in different parts of the organization aren’t reporting just what they are seeing, but that there is a centralized system that allows that information to be one-stop shopping and one message that goes out to the public to keep everyone informed, and that’s all very, very safety related, and I think that’s a real key point.

NIMS structures enable incident managers to manage incidents in a unified, consistent manner.

Interconnectivity of NIMS structures is important to allow personnel in diverse geographic areas, with differing roles and responsibilities, and operating within various functions of ICS and/or EOCs to integrate their efforts through common organizational structures, terminology, and processes.

• When an incident occurs or threatens, local emergency personnel manage response using NIMS principles and ICS.
• If the incident is or becomes large or complex, local EOCs activate.
• EOCs receive senior level guidance from MAC Groups.
• A Joint Information Center (JIC) manages the Joint Information System (JIS) operations to ensure coordinated and accurate public messaging among all levels: ICS, EOC and MAC Group.

If required resources are not available locally, they can be obtained under mutual aid agreements from neighboring jurisdictions, or State, tribal, territorial, and interstate sources and assigned to the control of the Incident Commander or Unified Command.

The Federal Government has a variety of capabilities and resources to support domestic incidents.

Most incidents are resolved using capabilities available from the local jurisdiction.

Larger incidents are resolved with support from by neighboring jurisdictions, or State, tribal, territorial, and interstate sources.

The Federal Government only becomes involved with a response:

• When state governors or tribal leaders request Federal assistance and their requests are approved
• When Federal interests are involved
• As statute or regulation authorizes or requires

In most cases the Federal Government plays a supporting role to state, tribal, or territorial governments by providing Federal assistance to the affected jurisdictions.

For example, the Federal Government provides assistance under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act) when the President declares an emergency or major disaster.

In some cases the Federal Government may play a leading role in response, such as when an incident occurs on Federal property or when the Federal Government has primary jurisdiction (such as in a terrorist attack or a major oil spill).

The lesson presented other NIMS Structures and Interconnectivity.

The lesson specifically discussed the :

• Multiagency Coordination Group (MAC Group)
• Joint Information System (JIS) 
• Interconnectivity of NIMS Command and Coordination Structures

The next lesson will introduce you to Communications and Information Management.