velcroMedic1987

A lot of it is common sense. If you're at any kind of work related function or you're in uniform (including social ones like installation dinners, etc.), I would use their title/rank.

If you run into your Captain at the mall, use his first name.

If you introduce your girlfriend to your Chief, use his name and title - "this is my Chief, Bob".

If you're out for beers together, use their name.

Believe me, if they want you to address them a certain way, they'll tell you!!! If you're courteous at all times and professional in uniiform/at work, you should have no problems!

My two cents.

What irritates me is that so many of us took the old ICS class BEFORE our fearless government saw an oppurtunity to turn it into a matter of money.  I took the ICS course in 1995, with Ray Rush.  It was a little boring but I got the basic concept.  Now, we have to take I-100, I-700 and more for Officers - but it almost seems like it is redundant!  All of these classes are pretty much the same, right?

Nothing for nothing, I really think the old ICS class we took covered our day to day stuff just fine....

Anyone else thinking the same thing I am?!

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You don't need to retake ICS if you took the 100 or 200 previously. If it was the old OFPC fireground ICS, the objectives are different from the national training curriculum (that predates NIMS) and you should take it.

I gotta say that if you took the course 10 years ago and don't really use ICS on a daily basis, a refresher isn't such a bad idea!

Every level of ICS (100, 200, 300, 400) is based on the same principles but the courses all vary in their focus. The 400 is geared for major incidents and command staff (Commissioners, Chiefs, Department Heads), the 300 focuses on developing a plan for extended operations, the 200 is about basic concepts and initial ICS and the 100 is just an orientation. They're all different!

Maybe the "old ICS class" covers day to day stuff but we very seldom actually apply the concepts in it and what about the NON-day to day stuff? Tornados, Microbursts, larger fires/haz-mats, MCI's, etc.????

We're not all that well prepared and practiced when it comes to using ICS!!!

I've been to plenty of incidents where we're supposedly doing ICS and nobody has a freakin' idea of where people are or what they're doing!!!

I couldn't agree any more! Personally, I wouldn't voluntarily take a class so that I could get qualified in the Incident Management skills that were oh so carefully honed in Louisiana last summer; but since I was forced to do so, I had to waste a Saturday afternoon by sitting in a classroom and learing crap I already knew. What I don't understand is that since NIMS is considered ICS-700 and is a required class, why is 300 being required in addition to the 700 class? Logically speaking, wouldn't ICS-700 supercede ICS-300??

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1 - NIMS and ICS weren't used in Louisiana, that was a MAJOR part of the problem! Another big part of the problem was the politics but that's another topic.

2 - NIMS is NOT another ICS course. ICS is only the way NIMS requires us to manage incidents. The FEMA Independent Study (Independent Study = IS, not ICS) Course on NIMS Awareness is IS-700. The ICS course structure is I-100, 200, 300, and 400. The ICS training curriculum ends in the 400's with specialty position training.

3 - To be NIMS compliant, we have to do more than just take this training. There are several other sections of NIMS besides "command and management" where ICS lives.

4 - If ICS is such crap, why did the FDNY develop two incident management teams and send them out west to work with wildfire teams at wildfires?