November 3, 2009--COLLEGE STATION, Texas--Incident management professionals from across the nation will converge in Houston, Texas Nov. 4-6 for the Second Annual All-Hazard Incident Management Team (AHIMT) Training and Education Conference. Developed at the grassroots level, the conference is now a national effort to help build the capabilities of local incident management - a need identified in reports following previous significant incidents in the United States like Hurricane Katrina and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
The AHIMT conference arms policy and decision-makers, AHIMT members, training coordinators and team managers with concise and detailed information regarding the continuing development of the AHIMT Program. Training focuses on best practices and lessons learned from response experiences.
Led by the Texas Forest Service (TFS), the conference will take place at the Houston Hobby Hilton and over 350 attendees – triple the number of last year’s attendance - are registered. Participants include incident management personnel from the Tohono O'odham Nation.
Texas Division of Emergency Management Director Jack Colley will deliver the keynote address. Director Colley, who tapped TFS with developing and sustaining the Texas Type 3 AHIMT Program, has been a strong proponent of the regional IMTs since its inception.
An impressive cadre joins Colley to provide the latest developments in incident management. Presenters include Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Representative Don Grant and US Fire Administration Program Manager Stephen Foley.
TFS Interim Director Tom Boggus noted his agency is honored to have this opportunity.
“Texas Forest Service has a long and proven history with incident management. It‘s exciting that our agency will help showcase this by working with Type 3 IMT members to conduct this national conference,” Boggus said.
The conference planning has been conducted with the same precision, expertise and process that would typically be employed by an incident management team during an emergency response.
“The beauty of the incident command system is its flexibility in adapting to situations – our approach in developing and executing the conference has followed these same best practices. Already, through deliberate planning we have tripled the size of last year’s conference,” TFS Incident Response Department Head Paul Hannemann said.
The Texas Type 3 AHIMT program, under the auspices of TFS, has over 350 team members representing 50-plus jurisdictions from throughout the state. Bob Koenig serves as TFS Incident Management Team Coordinator. At the national level, and since its inception in 2003, the United States Fire Administration’s All-Hazard Incident Management Team Technical Assistance Program has been successful in developing local incident management capability needs identified in the 9/11 Commission Report, the Katrina After-Action Reports, and the FEMA’s Responding to Incidents of National Significance, report published in 2004. This second AHIMT training and educational conference is integral to the continued improvement and enhancement for the sustainment of these Type 3 IMTs.
Contact: Bob Koenig
(979)450-8659 bkoenig@tfs.tamu.edu