FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN
R2 –WEEKLY BULLETIN
Volume 1, Issue 12 April 10, 2009
P.R. COOP COUP
Marie E. Gonzalez (center) with CAD Director Alex DeLaCampa (left), Acting
Regional Administrator Michael Moriarty, and Rex Wamsley, Director of
National Continuity Programs (right). Marie was honored for four years of
service with the Continuity of Operations (COOP) program, which culminated in
the first federally sponsored COOP exercise in Puerto Rico.
The Caribbean Area Division (CAD) held San
Juan Resilience 2009, an earthquake-based Continuity
Tabletop Exercise March 30- April 1, and it drew quite a
crowd.
In addition to Rex Wamsley, National Continuity
Division Director, Acting Regional Administrator Mike
Moriarty and Region II National Continuity Program
Manager Russell Fox, the two-day exercise brought
together over 70 lead executives and Continuity of
Operations (COOP) Plan Managers from more than 40
federal agencies in Puerto Rico. Participants topped 150.
The group was trained on National Continuity
Priorities, Policies and Updates, and two tabletop players
from each agency participated in an earthquake-based
scenario with six major events.
The exercise gave the players the opportunity to
test their agency’s current COOP Plans in such areas as
Essential Functions, Alert and Notification, Continuity
Communications, Delegation of Authority, Orders of
Succession, Vital Records, Continuity Facility Procedures
and Security, Human Capital and Reconstitution.
‘Hot Wash’ discussions, facilitated by staff from
HQs, Region II and the CAD, identified lessons learned,
including the need to establish COOP facilities separate
from the Primary Site, the need to explore alternative
communications technology – like GETS cards and
satellite phones – and procedures for increasing
interagency coordination and the sharing of resources.
The exercise served as a catalyst for increased
attention and commitment to continuity in Puerto Rico. To
build on this success, monthly conference calls,
additional training and interagency exercises are
planned to build on this success.

CREDENTIALING:
IT’S EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS
If you work for FEMA – as a PFT, CORE,
DAE or private contractor – and represent the
agency in any disaster-related position, you need
to know about credentialing, a new initiative of the
Disaster Reserve Workforce Division (DRWD) that
will ultimately ensure the consistent delivery of
services to disaster victims by professionalizing
the FEMA workforce.
The Agency-wide program will be rolled
out via Cadre-Specific Credentialing Plans and the
Disaster Workforce Task Books. This will provide
a transparent process by which to document and
assess the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs)
of the FEMA workforce.
There are four Credentialing Types:
Trainee; Type III-Basically Qualified; Type II-Fully
Qualified and Type 1-Expert. Compensation will
eventually be tied to typing.
Your level of typing will be determined by
Training; Education; Exercises; Formal mentoring
and Disaster experience.
The credentialing process will begin with
DAEs as soon as each Cadre completes their
Cadre-Specific Credentialing Plans. (In the interim
begin collecting records of all the courses you
have taken, either at a JFO or EMI, as well as
records of your deployments and evaluations.)
The process will then proceed through PFTs and
COREs with field assignments.
By 2011, the credentialing project will be
completed and implemented. As a result, FEMA
will transform its Disaster Workforce into one that
is credentialed to national standards, supported by
a highly integrated, standardized and systematic
program that will drive the Agency toward a
culture of demonstrable professional excellence.
NOTE: EA Cadre Members - please take
the Skill Assessment survey below, and return
by April 21.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PwIU
dZjfiK2oOZekAKtkBg_3d_3d
Contact your Cadre Manager with questions about
credentialing and typing in your specific cadre.
FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN
‘The Book’ Thrown At
Region; Priorities Defined
For the past two months, External Affairs has
been working on a document designed to capture
Region II in its entirety, and to provide each employee
a complete picture of how we are structured, what each
division does, and to provide an overview of Regional
goals and priorities.
The first part of the project – simply known as
The Book, 2009 – contains the Region II 2009 Strategic
Plan, a Regional profile examining the geographic and
demographic characteristics of New York, New Jersey,
Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, including risk
factors facing each area, a disaster history of each
jurisdiction, preparedness efforts and an analysis of
each area’s needs and priorities. The Book also
includes overviews of each Region II division with its
mission information, staff, and priorities for the coming
year.
The second part of the project is a volume
called, The Data, 2009 which provides detailed
numerical data on a wide variety of regional
parameters, including disaster declarations, IA and PA
funding, NFIP insurance figures, HMPG summaries,
and mitigation grants obligated and awarded. It also
features dozens of maps, charts and spreadsheets.
Finally, this project also includes a directory on
the common drive of Regional employees, with short
biographies of each staffer. Ultimately this will include
photos, to aid in the recognition of new faces in the
halls and to advance congeniality.
The project grew out of recognition that Region
II and, in the larger sense, FEMA itself, needed
improved transparency, better integration of our various
responsibilities, and more straightforward, direct
communication, both internally and with the general
public.
And, in addition to increasing our
understanding of how the Region works, the project is
expected to encourage more active participation in our
common mission, more ideas, suggestions, critiques,
and a livelier, ongoing dialogue about processes and
purpose that should provide all of with a stronger sense
of commitment to FEMA and each other.
FACES OF THE REGION
Ben Sklaver, Preparedness Analysis and Planning
Specialist, Preparedness Division
Ben Sklaver has been around.
Prior to joining Region II as a Preparedness
Analysis and Planning Specialist for the National
Preparedness Division, Ben served six years as a
Program Analyst with the International Emergency
and Refugee Health Branch of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
He participated in disaster response operations
and training in Thailand, Zambia, Malawi, South
Africa, Chad, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Vietnam and El
Salvador, and was also responsible for oversight
and synchronization of complex international relief
efforts, managing more than $5M in CDC grants
annually, as well as contracts with private and
public organizations involved in international
disaster response.
Domestically, functioning under ESF-8, Ben
led the CDC public health emergency response
team in Dallas, TX following hurricanes Katrina
and Rita.
Ben serves as a Captain in the U.S. Army
Reserves, assigned to the 422nd Civil Affairs
Battalion in Greensboro, NC. From 2006 – 2007
he was deployed to the Horn of Africa in the
Global War on Terrorism. As a Civil Affairs team
leader, Ben drilled wells, built schools and
mentored Ugandan military forces to help secure
areas of northern Uganda controlled by the Lords
Resistance Army, a group with ties to Al Qaeda.
Next week, Ben’s unit will be mobilized again
for six weeks of training before going to Iraq for a
year. “It’s really the best job,” Ben says, “I work
with good people who are passionate about what
they do: Bringing real, concrete change – schools,
drinking water – to civilians.”
When his deployment ends, Ben looks forward
to returning to his duties with the Preparedness
Division, and friends and family in Connecticut.

FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN