BEFORE YOU BEGIN … OEM Communications is committed to providing emergency communications services for the Pima County Office of Emergency Management. This is serious stuff, and if you truly want to learn about and to be a part of emergency response, you need to have a basic understanding of the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). This is why we require, at a minimum, that you complete the four FEMA ISP (Independent Study Program) courses that give you the basics in these areas before you can apply for membership. The courses are online, and you can take them at your own pace. Each time you pass an exam, you are given the opportunity to request a PDF certificate of completion. Copies of these PDFs can be e-mailed to the Office of Emergency Management before or with your application for membership (see #4 below). FEMA course list: contains links to the courses, (or see this link).
Courses you need to complete:
IS-100.b Introduction to Incident Command System, ICS-100
IS-200.b ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents
IS-700.a National Incident Management System (NIMS) An Introduction
IS-800.b National Response Framework, An Introduction.
To apply, complete the following steps:
- Download the Membership Application form
- Fill it out.
- EITHER: Print a copy and hand it to a member of the OEM staff.
- OR: Save a copy on your computer, and then attach it to an e-mail to OEM.
- IMPORTANT: If you intend to attach the form in conjunction with using the submission tool, you must first save the completed form to your computer. If you don’t do this, the form you attach will be blank!
The application form must be opened in Adobe Reader if you want to save the form with the data you enter. Internet Explorer and Safari normally open PDF files in Adobe Reader, but Chrome and Firefox may require a tweak to their default configuration settings. You can tell if the form has been opened in Reader by the presence of both the Reader toolbar and a violet-colored banner at the top of the document. If you do not see the sentence “You can save data typed into this form.” in the banner, you will need to download the form from the website and open it as a stand-alone file instead of from in the browser. Download and install Adobe Reader here if you need it.
- Type “chrome://plug-ins” in the address bar.
- Press ENTER.
- On the Plug-ins page find “Chrome PDF Viewer” in the list.
- If it is grayed out (and “Enable” is showing as a link), skip to the next step. Otherwise, click “Disable”.
- Find “Adobe Reader” in the list.
- If it is grayed-out, click “Enable”. The “Always allowed” box should be checked.
- Close and restart Chrome.
To force Firefox to open PDF files in Adobe Reader: Like Chrome, Firefox defaults to using its own PDF viewer to open PDF files from within the browser. When that happens, a banner is displayed above the document containing a button labeled “Open With Different Viewer”.
- Click the button.
- In the dialogue box that opens up, select “Open with” and make sure “Adobe Reader” is showing in the drop-down window.
- Check the box labeled “Do this automatically for files like this from now on.”
- Click OK.
- Close and restart Firefox.
Open PCOEM Communications Membership Application After completing the form, save it to your computer and then send it to OEM using the handy submission tool below. You will get a confirmation email and also be re-directed to a page that will tell you that your application form has been received. Handy Submission Tool
Please use this form to email your completed OEMComm Member Application to the Pima County Office of Emergency Management.
