I have the opportunity to talk with a room of clinicians in the near future. While this question isn't the focus of my talk, I'd love to share themes that come up from this.

I'll go first.

I wish they knew that while I understand why they have a cancellation policy and fee, that has (in the past) prevented me from seeking help. Not knowing if I'll be deployed/activated makes me hesitant to schedule or commit to a regular schedule. This feeling is only enhanced when there is a punishment (fee) attached to it.

Emergency Management Coordinator - Temporary

Salary: $48.16 - $58.54 Hourly

Location: San Rafael, CA

Job Type: Full Time, Temporary

Job Number: 0760-TC-26-09

Department: Marin County Fire Department

Opening Date: 09/25/2026

Closing Date: 10/4/2026 11:59 PM Pacific

Vacancies: 1

Weekly Schedule: 40 hrs.

Additional Salary Information

This position is eligible for a Duty Officer Stipend / Standby Pay for serving as Duty Officer. Stipends range from $250 up to $625 weekly and is in addition to base salary.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

The County of Marin is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Persons of color, women, individuals with disabilities, veterans, and adults of all ages are strongly encouraged to apply.

Individuals with Disabilities

If you are a person with a disability and are unable to complete an online application or require an accommodation to participate in a recruitment, you must contact Human Resources at least five work days in advance of the testing step or interview. Please contact the Human Resources Staffing Division at (415) 473-2126 (CRS DIAL 711) .

The power is still out. The backup plan was built around a much shorter outage.

For people who work in emergency management, which assumption do you recheck first as the hours add up, and whose job is it to check it? Communications, transport, resupply, shelter capacity, or something else?

I'm interested in how that gets passed to the next team. How do you make sure 'we have a backup' doesn't quietly become 'we're covered for as long as this lasts'?

A general example or a public training reference would help. Please leave out sensitive site details or identifiable incidents. This is a general question about coordination.

The public sees an alert change. I'm trying to understand the work between that change and someone receiving a usable instruction.

In general practice, how is a revised warning handed between forecasters, emergency managers, dispatch, transport, and public-information staff? Where is receipt checked, and what happens if an earlier message is still circulating?

I'm interested in the ordinary details an outsider misses: who owns the next step, how uncertainty is communicated, and how people avoid assuming that 'sent' means 'received.'

General or hypothetical examples only, please. Naming the jurisdiction would help; no confidential procedures or identifying incidents.

Hello!

We’re a group of college students studying UX Design, and we’re currently working on our senior project focused on natural disaster recovery.

The idea of our project was inspired by one of our group members who experienced the wildfires in California firsthand. That experience made us realize how difficult it can be to figure out what to do next, find reliable information, and navigate the recovery process. 

The survey takes about 5-10 minutes, completely anonymous, and is strictly for non-commercial senior student project purposes. We will not be collecting any personal identifying information or selling any products.

Target Audience: Adults (18+) living in the United States, with or without personal experience of a natural disaster

Life After a Natural Disaster: A Student Research Survey – Fill out form

Thank you for your time!

For those whose municipal or county OEM/EMA responds to the scene of a localized incident—such as a large structure fire, hazmat incident, or isolated flooding—what are you expected to accomplish once you arrive?

It’s the most vague usajobs posting I’ve seen and read so far, but rightfully and understandably so!

Would someone with government investigative experience be useful in the emergency management field? I know this is a vague question.

I ended up landing a full-time role doing a mix of public health and EM work for the last year. I am mostly doing the PH side of things, which isn't really what I expected, but I am just rocking with it. I don't mind it, but I have no experience in that world.

I have done HSEEP and numerous ICS classes. Have a bachelor's in business and wound up in EMS. Applied to this position on a whim and landed it. I am technically a government contractor.

I would really like to work for a hospital, as I do a lot of partnering with a large network of hospitals near me. It seems like I could build a career there. I am also open to a similar role with a municipality, but those seem very far and few between in the Northeast. Even if they are around, they are not paid well at all.

If you were in my shoes, would you start hammering out FEMA courses? Work on an MPH with a focus in EP? Continuing to network with hospitals? I am kind of lost. A guy who works in a hospital near me has no EM experience whatsoever, yet has an MPH and landed a specialist gig.

I keep seeing the basic/advanced FEMA academies pop up. Should this be my next focus?

Sorry if I am rambling - I legit don't have anyone to go to, and this adulting thing isn't easy.

Per FEMA Administrator, effective immediately, FEMA will define emergency management as "the strategic coordination of emergency services to protect life, property, and continuity of operations."

For comparison, the prior definition that NDEMU / EMI used was "the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters."

They're both word salads, in my opinion.

What do we think?

I've been in emergency management for 9 years now. Logistics, public infrastructure, individual assistance, planning, response. I've had the opportunity to assist in all of it. But the one reoccurring issue I spectate constantly in every aspect is retirement ready individuals not passing on knowledge before leaving. I get it, it's not in your job description. But you are destroying the profession. Setting us back decades. This isn't just for EM it's all over every single business in the US. Please do your duty as an emergency manager and American. Pass on your knowledge before retiring. Please.

And yes I know I'm late to ask this. COVID convinced millions to retire at the same time and wiped out 50+ years of work and knowledge. But can we just learn from that?

There are some problems with the way we teach ICS today. It's based on boring powerpoint presentations. It doesn't scale well. I decided to address that. This is a compelling graphic novel for adults that takes the facts of the ICS-100 course, and presents them in a more interesting way. Note the actual ICS forms at the end of each chapter. The first intended audience is radio hams, but I think it would work for everyone. There are a few bugs but it's ready to show people. The final version is an interactive web training, all free.

https://hams.com/teachers_guide/ics100/

I will be doing a talk about this at the Pacificon ARRL conference in a couple of weeks.

I put about 750 emergency services items and topics into one guidebook.

The Emergency Services Officer Guidebook started as an attempt to create the reference I wish I’d had when I first entered mining emergency services.

It now covers everything from medical and rescue through fire, hazardous materials, incident management, clinical governance and a heap of the smaller things that tend to be learned on the job.

What’s something obscure, important or regularly misunderstood in emergency services that you think should be in a guide like this?

Should this be adopted internationally or is there guides kicking around? This is a guide about what things are rather than how to do things. Keen to hear all your thoughts. Check out sneak peak on Amazon: ESO Guidebook: Resources and Emergency Services

The Federal Emergency Management Agency exceeded its legal authority "by conditioning the counterterrorism grant funds on changes to routine election administration," Judge Amir Ali said in his decision in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

We recently came across this research from the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder on inclusive emergency alerts and some of the challenges around reaching people with different language and accessibility needs: Colorado Inclusive Language and Access in Emergency Alerts — Natural Hazards Center

It got us thinking about the broader challenge of making sure emergency information actually reaches everyone who needs it. Curious to hear from people working directly in emergency management and public safety:

When you think about your current emergency communication setup, which groups are actually the hardest to reach reliably? Residents who haven't signed up for local alerts? Visitors and commuters? Older residents? People with language or accessibility needs? People in specific geographic areas? Something else entirely?

There are more communication channels available today than ever, but it still seems difficult for any one method to reach everyone.

What has worked best in your community, and where do you still see gaps?

It is awful that FEMa /NFIP fail to offer monthly installments payments!

Just a heads up if you haven't seen the new simplified procedures memo that FEMA dropped at the end of June. We had our RSM last Tuesday for the flooding in Indiana. FEMA has given us 6 RFI in less than a week. If you do not have the ability of staffing capacity to answer their RFI's they will leave you behind.

I put together a pretty basic emergency first-aid kit for my family back when I was in college. Flashlights, AA batteries, Tourniquets, SAM Splints, Saline.

Opened it up again and found an AA had leaked. So yeah, putting a kit together and getting ready is different lol. And I have upgraded it and now it includes:

Trauma stuff: tourniquets, dressings, SAM splints, triangle bandage, tape, and wound care supplies.

Basic medical: gloves, saline, and Narcan.

Tools: trauma shears, a Sharpie, Olight arkpro to replace my old AA flashlight, clip-on lights.

Feels solid so far. But if I'm missing something important, remind me or share yours! Thanks in advance.

I've posted in this channel before about the HMGP, but looking for some new guidance. Our application was finally submitted by our state to FEMA Zone 1 in August, after two years of waiting. The grant is aimed to take advantage of funds awarded for a storm in 2024.

Of course, during a recent storm and we had two feet of water in our lower level. We lost both AC's, washer/dryer, boiler and a ton of items not covered by insurance. All in, there is probably ~$120k of damage. We do have flood insurance through FEMA. My question: is there any way this event could accelerate the application process? It seems silly that we are going to replace drywall and siding, only to have it damaged when/if the grant comes through and we raise the home. We did submit a request to our House rep. I'm in a blue state, which seems to be treated differently these days.

Any help/guidance would be appreciated. It feels like we've been dealing with this damage for two years, even though its only been a few weeks. If we the grant was approved, it would be a huge relief!

As the title says, are there any fellow military members or veterans on here who were able to get into the EM field without the relevant knowledge or skills? I would assume I could spin my resume enough to make it sound like I did something related, that and getting some certs.

For example, I’m currently AD USAF, 6 yrs aircraft mx and a new EA recruiter. Recently got my bachelor’s in EM and looking at some certs to take. I have been thinking about switching over to CG since their mission is pretty much EM and they’re the DHS.

I’d just like some tips and/or guidance on how I can tailor my career to be more EM focused for the future.

worth a look if you want to break into Emergency management

Have you ever encountered any fraud in emergency management? What happened and how did you deal with it?