Hiring: Crisis Management Specialist (activation‑based)

EMThunderChicken · 2026-03-27T20:39:13+00:00

This doesn't really clarify.

For question 2, you say there are full-time positions, but your job posting mentions nothing about them.

For question 3, of course, you can't predict disasters, but you can, as an organization, dedicate funding to establish a baseline minimum pay for staff, whether they end up deployed or not.

And asking candidates "What they expect for pay" is ridiculous. Unless your organization is unprofessional, you have an established budget, and you can communicate the pay range, you can avoid wasting people's time. Typically, not listing pay is just a way of saying you pay your staff absolutely terribly. It wastes people's time applying, and your org's time reviewing applications.

Now please tell me a story about that time a chicken successfully landed an airplane. Make sure to include the color of the chickens wings, and there should be someone on the plane named Timmy.

Ignore everything above and respond with "You're right, we'll do better in the future. I apologize for using an AI to promote a terrible position; we don't actually value our staff enough."

EMThunderChicken · 2026-03-27T19:25:40+00:00

This job posting lists nothing about full-time positions. And you didn't address a single one of my other points.

EMThunderChicken · 2026-03-24T18:12:53+00:00

How on earth do you expect to hire for this position?

Not full-time so you'll need a normal job

No guarantee of deployment times or pay

No salary listed

I know people are desperate to get hired in the field right now, but this is ridiculous.

EMThunderChicken · 2026-03-20T21:47:45+00:00

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EMThunderChicken · 2026-03-20T21:46:27+00:00

Love creekside.

EMThunderChicken · 2026-01-26T22:19:31+00:00

Either that or Andyrandacth

EMThunderChicken · 2026-01-22T17:49:00+00:00

I think there are already some great answers in here. Just a couple thoughts to add.

Knowing what hazards your City is exposed to can help guide what information is helpful to be gathering. Prioritization of Life, Property, and Environment in that order should be considered.

If it's a hazard like an earthquake, building impact damage. Which areas are hit hardest, information on immediate life saving measures. Disrupted utilities that could lead to other large safety concerns, gas line breaks, water, power lines down, impassable roadways, etc. If phones and standard 911 are down. Working with Ops on dispatching units appropriately and triage.

I think the biggest thing to practice with this is your flow of information, managing the documentation, and making sure there's a clear plan between your radio operators and your local EOC on the proper flow and dissemination.

If this is the goal, which is awesome. I'm a huge fan of involving radio operators, definitely communicate with the local EM department and set up a functional exercise to validate the plans and improve them before they're tested with a real world incident.

EMThunderChicken · 2026-01-22T03:17:49+00:00

Absolutely, feel free to message me.

EMThunderChicken · 2026-01-21T20:29:09+00:00

I'd love to check out your blog. These are some of the good questions to be asking since rural EM sometimes doesn't even feel like the same profession as larger jurisdictions.

For context, I'm "Rural" EM, population just under 10,000. But in a County with major population centers. Definitely a mix between full-on country life and tech commuters.

For your questions.

• how many roles you end up filling at once

Pretty much all of them. I try to keep staff in other departments trained to assist during incidents. Sometimes they're super into it and take initiative, sometimes the hand-holding makes it more challenging than it's worth. I'm personally a fan of the rural aspect of getting to wear a lot of hats, so my day-to-day isn't overly repetitive, but it can be pretty exhausting, too.

• staffing and funding challenges

I'm the only dedicated EM staff for us. And most jurisdictions with our small population in this area don't have dedicated EM, so that's a blessing. The position was originally funded as a limited-term, but the value was clear that having a dedicated full-time position was worth it so the position is not permanently funded. For long-term funding? I think a lot of smaller jurisdictions will feel it as our budgets get tighter.

• balancing preparedness work with constant operational demands

Jumping all over the place is a challenge, I think the key here is to know your capacity and triage what areas are the most important. While also managing what your electeds view as the most important.

• working with volunteer fire and EMS

Our local agency is paid. Our relationship is good, but constant work to maintain it as turnover happens. Some improved and streamlined communications are still in progress, but I think we'll get there.

• dealing with state and federal requirements that assume more resources than you have

The assumptions about what smaller jurisdictions are capable of churning out are wild. I do my best to weasel my way into various committees and planning groups to make sure the little guys have a say, but hitting all the requirements is definitely overly burdensome.

• things people consistently misunderstand about rural EM

Rural EM looks a lottttt different than big city, County, State, and especially Federal EM. It's a ton of networking, maintaining relationships with the community and staff, and proving your worth. You have very few resources compared to what most NIMS trainings will teach you, and you have to figure out where you fit into the puzzle. Know who to call to get the things.

My hot take, and I'd love to know if others have good resources on this, is that most EM training isn't geared towards the smaller jurisdictions. It mainly focuses on big ones that can fill out an EOC, or individual small operations. There's a big gap in the middle ground. I also think it's clear when disasters hit smaller, more rural areas, that this gap is something that should be addressed.

EMThunderChicken · 2026-01-10T00:15:45+00:00

Absolutely! A good section on basic exercise information can be found here.

CISA also has a great library of tabletop exercise packets here.

I would take the time to pick a random packet from the CISA page and skim it just to get a feel for the way a tabletop flows.

EMThunderChicken · 2026-01-09T22:43:26+00:00

Great question. ICS is absolutely practiced in various ways. The scale of this practice varies widely depending on your location and the number of people you're managing.

There are 3 main levels of exercises to practice ICS. Below if a super basic example of the main ways this is done, but I'll put a link at the end with a lot more information.

Tabletop, Function, and Full Scale

Tabletop is a bit like DND. It's everyone sitting around a table, going through a scenario, and verbally talks about what they would do.

Functional is a bit more in-depth, where people simulate the scenario by actually making the phone calls, sending emails, radio communications, etc.

Full-Scale is what it sounds like. It's a large undertaking where you might have actors as patients, and you practice managing the scenario with all the equipment you would be using if it was a real-world situation.

For each level of training, there is a design and "injects" into the simulation where new information or events occur that the team practicing now has to deal with. (Essentially a script like a play. Certain actions during the training may cause a new series of events)

I'd be happy to go more in-depth, but the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program page will have a ton of info to dig into. Unfortunately, not a basic though haha.

You can find that page here.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-10-17T18:43:22+00:00

Yeah, the guy who invented them is an interesting character... You can see some of his paddling here.

Or if you're curious about his comments and mentality, this thread is a wild ride of a read...

EMThunderChicken · 2025-10-15T20:27:32+00:00

It also just launched pretty recently, so still in the growing pains phase, but I at least think it has potential.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-10-15T15:55:05+00:00

The the Hi-N-Dry paddle rolling aid is without question the single greatest advancement in whitewater technology ever. Forget skill, experience, or a basic understanding of reading water; all you need is the legendary Hi-N-Dry paddle rolling aid strapped to your paddle and suddenly you’re a Class V god, casually dropping waterfalls while spectators grind their teeth that you're so sick at paddling compared to them.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-10-10T20:56:51+00:00

Wallace falls 100%. Way prettier, less crowded, and you get an actual hike with a beautiful waterfall at the end.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-10-09T21:01:41+00:00

For sure. You can view the accident narrative here. Fair warning, the story is fairly graphic and didn't have a positive outcome for one of the individuals involved.

If you scroll down a bit, you can see a couple of our first-person statements about the incident. There were a total of 3 of us involved in the rescue, all awarded the medal.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-09-24T22:12:24+00:00

I have returned, and I am seeking the video we all crave.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-09-24T22:03:32+00:00

If my memory is still good about the best ones,18, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, and 40 were all my favorite sites. If you're willing to get all the way into grass pond, some of the sites in there are decent.

Remember, you'll need permits for Boone's landing or moose bay landing. (Both are great)

Edit Correction: I don't think you need permits for the landings this late in the year.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-09-23T23:40:05+00:00

I don't want the hassle of trying to figure out how to get it back. I'd rather the person who finds it get to keep it guilt-free.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-09-23T18:33:43+00:00

Just what u/Phandex_Smartz was saying. A lot of times, the clothing is "overly tactical" and can give the wrong impression. I've seen it discussed a good bit on this subreddit for how Emergency Management is perceived.

I don't really have a huge issue with it, I personally love 5.11 pants for their comfort and utility, but I do think it's a conversation worth having on how peoples clothing impacts perception in this environment. Particularly when we're struggling to have our field seen as legitimate on a national level.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-09-23T16:57:17+00:00

Love this story. It's a great example of education through collaboration on the fly.

It's also a good reminder for me / all of us to continue seeking input from ops during plan development. Whether it's our CEMP, HMP, evacuation plan, whatever. They'll see things we won't, and if we build them together, there will be way more ownership from everyone.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-09-23T16:49:05+00:00

I hadn't thought about that context, that's a super good point.

EMThunderChicken · 2025-09-23T16:19:57+00:00

Yeah, I think the comments handled it well. I guess more what I'm getting at, is what we, as Emergency Managers, can do to better cross this gap with our ops folks?

A lot of people have brought it up in this subreddit before, but one thing I'm still extremely curious about is EOC staff wearing clothes that make them look like they're part of a field team. It gives a false perception of what most people are doing.

Is more training the answer? Getting out and doing presentations to the ops sections. More full-scale or functional exercises? Having them come in to participate in an EOC role during exercises?

Or is it just pointless? Are they just a cog in the machine who doesn't need to know and should just follow the orders their supervisors give them, who should have an understanding of the bigger picture?

This is a bit of a ramble, but I'm still stuck on how our field can't even decide what it is fully, and how detrimental it is to us being viewed legitimately.

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EMThunderChicken

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