NA: 015-06
 NIMS Integration Center, October4, 2006
NIMS-Integration-Center@dhs.gov
202-646-3850
NIMS Resource Inventory Management System (NIMS-RIMS)

NIMS Integration Center Releases Criteria for Credentialing Incident Management (IM) Personnel
As part of our nation?s efforts to strengthen catastrophic response capabilities in line with the National Incident Management System (NIMS), FEMA?s NIMS Integration Center has released initial minimum criteria for IM Personnel to be deployed using a national credentialing system. The purpose of this release is to solicit comments and constructive feedback for an open period not to exceed 45 calendar days from the date stated in this NIMS Alert.  Information on how to submit your comments via e-mail is located at the end of this Alert.  
An IM credentialing working group comprised of 22 Subject Matter Experts identified 8 positions anticipated to be most commonly requested during an interstate mutual aid response. They are: 

               1. Finance/Administration Section Chief (Type 3) 
               2. Incident Commander (IC) (Type 3) 
               3. Liaison Officer (Type 3)
               4. Logistics Section Chief (Type 3) 
               5. Operations Section Chief (Type 3) 
               6. Planning Section Chief (Type 3) 
               7. Public Information Officer (Type 3) 
               8. Safety Officer (Type 3) 
            
For each job title, the IM Working Group identified ?requisite? and ?recommended? baseline criteria for education, training, experience, physical/medical fitness, certification, and licensing. These criteria are intended to complement and support existing credentialing systems. Where national standards do not exist under ?requisite? criteria, ?recommended? criteria are listed for current and/or future consideration. 
These recommendations have been submitted to the NIMS Integration Center and will be made available on the NIMS Web page at www.fema.gov/emergency/nims. The NIMS Integration Center again invites NIMS Stakeholders to review these initial criteria for the standardized, national credentialing of IM Personnel.  The IM Working Group will review all responses submitted and as appropriate make any needed revisions with a final NIMS release of the Criteria for credentialing IM personnel. 
All comments and questions should be directed to the following E-mail address: 
    NIMS-credentialing@L-3com.com


www.fema.gov/emergency/nims