NATIONAL
WILDFIRE COORDINATING GROUP National Interagency Fire Center 3833 South Development Avenue Boise, Idaho 83705 |
To: | NWCG and NFAEB Sub-Group Chairs | |
From: | NWCG Chair | |
Date: | March 4, 2008 | |
Subject: | NWCG Restructuring | |
At
the January 2008 Meeting, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG)
invited the chairs of the various sub-groups of the NWCG, National Fire
and Aviation Executive Board (NFAEB), and National Multi-agency Coordination
(NMAC) Group to participate in creating a new organization structure for
the recently re-chartered NWCG. The purpose of this memorandum is to provide
follow-up information related to that meeting.
The attached sheet provides an overview of the week’s events and outcomes. You should share this information with your team/group members. Your participation
in the NWCG re-structuring activities is appreciated. If you have any
questions or comments, feel free to contact any of the NWCG members. |
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Summary
of NWCG Re-structuring Activities
at the NWCG Meeting - January 2008 Background Through the years, various interagency organizations have sprouted at different levels within the federal and state governments to support areas of wildland fire and fuels management. In 1976, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) was created to develop interagency standards and guidelines for incident management. In 2002, the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) was created to implement the National Fire Plan and oversee national fire policy. In 2007, The Fire Executive Council (FEC) was created to provide a conduit between WFLC and wildland fire field operations. Previous
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A Step Forward Wildland Fire leaders recognized that things needed to be simplified and embarked on a re-chartering and reorganizing of the governance structure. In October 2007, the following new Wildland Fire Governance Structure was accepted by the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC), the Federal Executive Council (FEC), and the NWCG. Interagency Wildland Fire Governance Structure Under the WFLC, the National Fire and Aviation Executive Board (NFAEB), the National Multi-Agency Coordination (NMAC) Group, and the NWCG, more than 50 teams existed. Overlap and confusion about roles crept into what had become a complicated organization. To bring new efficiencies and to reduce this confusion, interagency fire leaders decided to combine and streamline the various interagency groups and teams under a single NWCG organization. Because the “NWCG” name is imbedded in many policies, practices, and procedures, they decided to retain the NWCG name and to combine the functions of the NFAEB and the NMAC Group into a single NWCG Charter. Objectives of the new NWCG organization are to:
Group Involvement At their January 2008 Meeting, the NWCG invited the chairs of the various sub-groups of the WFLC, NWCG, NFAEB, and NMAC to participate in the creation of a new organization structure for the re-chartered NWCG. Five break-out groups consisting of a total of 30 sub-group chairs and NWCG members were tasked with defining their activities and designing a proposed substructure for the NWCG. The groups were instructed to apply a new organization naming convention and hierarchy that includes “committees”, “sub-committees”, and “task teams”. The next step is to evaluate the substructure proposals that were produced at the January Meeting and decide upon the new NWCG substructure. The NWCG has a goal of settling on a new substructure this spring, with the full implementation completed within the next two years.
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