Basic Guidance for Public Information Officers (PIOs) 
The Incident Management Systems Division has coordinated with local, tribal, state, and federal Public Information professionals to develop NIMS Basic Guidance for Public Information Officers (PIOs). The document provides fundamental guidance for any person or group delegated PIO responsibilities during an incident or event where informing the public is necessary. It contains the NIMS Incident Command System (ICS) approach to managing the Joint Information System (JIS) during response operations as well as information management during non-crisis events. The guidance also addresses actions for preparedness, disaster/emergency response, Joint Information Centers (JICs), incident recovery, and federal public information support.   
 
The Incident Management Systems Division has released a draft of the Basic Guidance for PIOs for a two-week national comment period. All comments are due to the Incident Management Systems Division by Friday, September 14, 2007.  
 
The draft can be located at the following link: 
http://www.dhs.gov/xprepresp/publications/
 
If you would like to request a comment form, please email FEMA-NIMS@dhs.gov. While a comment form will help assure clarity and consistency, it is not a requirement. You may also submit you comments directly to that email address.  
 
It is the intent of the Incident Management Systems Division to make this guidance document both valuable and user-friendly to PIOs at all levels of government and positions in the ICS structure. To this end, the Division welcomes specific comments and general feedback regarding the content and layout of the document.