During the lifespan of an assignment, PIOs are expected to produce:
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Bulletin boards for use in camp and posted with information that incident personnel will find relevant and useful;
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Daily or twice-daily incident updates disseminated to the media, members of the public who want to receive their information directly from the incident and internal audiences who are tracking on the progress of the incident;
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Community information centers that may be staff or not but which should feature maps, updates and photos that address local concerns such as protection applied at historic cabins or how a campground looks after the fire has passed through;
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A trapline that services both the local community and visitors to the area with pertinent information that may affect their activities such as road or area closures. Trapline locations should be in areas of high foot traffic and should feature small maps of the fire and written updates with contact numbers for more information;
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Information about the incident should be posted on Inciweb, the national fire database, and all audiences both internal and external should be reminded that the most updated information about the incident is posted there;
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Community Thank-Yous are also a product of the information function and can be accomplished using letters, certificates of appreciation or photo certificates;
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Lead PIOs and their designates will be expected to write a narrative for the executive summary listing the accomplishments and lessons learned by the information function;
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If the incident is on-going, the lead PIO is also expected to write a transition plan for the incoming lead PIO;
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A complete documentation package that meets the national direction and is turned into the documentation unit leader in a timely manner is also expected;
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And personnel evaluations for all members of the information function are very important for assigned personnel and especially trainees on the incident. For those who are trainees, training PIOs must also meet with the training officer and complete the required documentation for the trainee to receive the proper recognition.
As experienced information officers know, the preceding list presents only an overview of the work involved. For every product developed and delivered, there are multiple steps that must be completed successfully. So, here are some tools to help complete the steps.
