My Review - FEMA Region II Emergency Communications Workshop
It’s been about 24 hours since this event and here are my impressions this event.
We had a team of 7 persons from our city attend.(2 from FD/OEM, 2 from PD and 3 for the OEM Comms team)
On the positive side, It was interesting to see all the types of communications command trucks, some of the few (limited) vendors (about 8-10 vendors max if that) and to network with Federal, State, County and local and neighboring OEM officials and personnel (Hams too).
Disappointingly though, for a seven (7) plus hour planned event, The were no seats...especially in the briefing and food tents. Otherwise, that’s a lot of walking and standing!
The event briefings started late by a minimum of 45 minutes.
The exercise was mostly checking radio “interoperability” of what I could monitor and also was shortened since the timeline was already off due to the later start.
Though the weather was bright and sunny the temperature was rather on the cool / cold side.
Refreshments: They did provide hot coffee, tea, cold juices bagels and some fruit (apples and bananas).
The event eventually became more of a “dog and pony” show with the various departments showing off their mobile communications command post and equipment.
What agency had the tallest telescoping tower deployed (antenna, camera, lights) seemed to be a focal point. FYI: NJ Transit had the tallest.
We Left early around 11 AM and we’re not there to see what was served for lunch.
However, Later on, one of our members returned to this event and took video.
He reported lunch was cold cut sandwiches, chips and hot and cold drinks.
Our group was hoping for some more sit down (in a chair) instructions and training at the least for the briefings and reports from the agencies involved. Perhaps this should be considered in future event scheduled for around May of 2020.
IMHO All training and the exercise should have taken place during the 1st half or before the lunch break. After lunch the vehicle equipment rally and vendor demos.
So, all in all, On a scale 1 -10,
I give this event a 5.5
Thanks for reading.