[EAS] EVI in Kern County

[Ed Czarnecki]

FEMA training needs to be updated, expanded, and made mandatory for any
personnel making access to the FEMA IPAWS system.  Congress needs to
allocate sufficient funds to FEMA to build a real training capability.

Vendor training is readily available (and in the form of web training 24/7
in some cases).  I have been in communication with several other
manufacturers of alert origination systems.  All of these (including
ourselves) noted that we offer training at no cost on the specific
technology solution, and do not limit the amount of training alert
originators can get.  

All also noted that there have been issues with alert originator staff
turnover, new hires, and crunched schedules - meaning that many have not
availed themselves of the training resources that are at hand.

Here is a very frank example: I recently offered (insisted, actually) that a
county EOC take a staff refresher training on our CAP/EAS originator that we
have in their county.  No cost, any time, at their convenience.  They
declined - stating they were just too busy, with no time for training.  This
is not the only time I've gotten that reply in the last 60 days.

This is not the situation with every EOC.  One region is getting all their
EOC users from multiple counties together in one venue for a multi-day
on-site training session.  There EOCs (small and large) that have a truly
phenomenal positive attitude towards public warning.   Other EOCs ... well
... not so much, at best an afterthought.

I'd invite other AO system providers to chime in with their experiences too
(if any others are on this forum).

-----Original Message-----
From: EAS [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Bill Ruck

I admit that I am sounding like a broken record but this appears to be a
training issue.  The rest of the system worked as expected.

Where is the training for local originators?  Where is the funding for
training?