What is VOST?
VOST stands for Virtual Operations Support Team. The concept, which was introduced to the emergency management world in the spring of 2011 by Jeff Phillips and a group of volunteers, was the natural result of another phenomenon, called SMEM (social media and emergency management). Very simply put, a VOST is a team of trusted agents, used by emergency management or disaster organizations to handle the sometimes overwhelming amount of social media activity that can occur during a major incident, such as a wildfire, a flood, or even a community, political, or sporting event.
Since early 2011, a number of VOSTs have responded to incidents. A list of active VOSTs and teams in development, as well as a directory of related volunteer organizations using SMEM can be found here: http://vosg.us/active-vosts/.
The Red Elm and VOST
I have been involved in SMEM since the fall of 2010 with the development of EMCampNM, which fosters social media use among emergency managers in New Mexico. This led to virtual participation in the first VOST proof of concept at NEMA on March 11th, 2011. Since 2011, in addition to leading PNWVOST (see below), I helped drive VOST development through my participation on:
As the Team Lead of PNW VOST, I have led nineteen Type 1 incident activations (more than 1,600 hours of incident time):
In 2019, I became a Technical Specialist with the U.S. Forest Service and initiated a task book for PIOF, which I am currently working towards and have completed the following assignments:
Additionally, I was a member of the instructor cadre for S-203 (Introduction to Incident Information) in Medford, Oregon in May, 2013 and for L-952 (All Hazards Public Information Officer), while completing the course in May 2016.
Beyond maintaining the publicly visible social media sites for PNW VOST, I have developed a comprehensive method for managing deployments. On January 10th and 17th, 2013 my colleague, Scott Reuter, and I presented on VOST to the National Libraries of Medicine Disaster Info Specialist Program.
Information Support During Emergencies: About VOST (Virtual Operations Support Team)
Scott Reuter, current president of Oregon VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters) and DHS/FEMA certified course instructor for the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center, and Marlita Reddy- Hjelmfelt, Team Lead of Pacific Northwest VOST and member of the VOST Leadership Council shared information about VOST, including how they lend social media and information support to incident management teams.
Recording
Slides (PDF, 1.4 MB)
Additional presentations/workshops include: Seattle Biomed (2013), NMDSHEM Annual Conference (2013), PIEPC (2015), Field Innovation Team Bootcamp 4.0 (2015), WUI Summit (2016), Washington DOH (2016).
VOST Workbook Template 5.0
Services we provide:
VOST stands for Virtual Operations Support Team. The concept, which was introduced to the emergency management world in the spring of 2011 by Jeff Phillips and a group of volunteers, was the natural result of another phenomenon, called SMEM (social media and emergency management). Very simply put, a VOST is a team of trusted agents, used by emergency management or disaster organizations to handle the sometimes overwhelming amount of social media activity that can occur during a major incident, such as a wildfire, a flood, or even a community, political, or sporting event.
Since early 2011, a number of VOSTs have responded to incidents. A list of active VOSTs and teams in development, as well as a directory of related volunteer organizations using SMEM can be found here: http://vosg.us/active-vosts/.
The Red Elm and VOST
I have been involved in SMEM since the fall of 2010 with the development of EMCampNM, which fosters social media use among emergency managers in New Mexico. This led to virtual participation in the first VOST proof of concept at NEMA on March 11th, 2011. Since 2011, in addition to leading PNWVOST (see below), I helped drive VOST development through my participation on:
- Team Osbourne (Jeff Phillips’ original team)
- 140ConfNW
- Hurricane Irene
- New Mexico winter storm monitoring
- Oregon Floods
- Oklahoma tornados in April 2012
- Zozobra VOST (This activation repeated annually through 2019)
- Hurricane Sandy (NYVOST)
- Jefferson County Floods (COVOST)
- Typhoon Haiyan (Open Street Map)
- Nepal Earthquake (Standby Task Force)
- Nepal Earthquake (Field Innovation Team, virtual)
- Roseburg CC (Oregon VOST)
- Field Innovation Team Bootcamp 3.0 (Participant)
- Field Innovation Team San Francisco Do Tank (Participant)
- Field Innovation Team Bootcamp 4.0 (Organizing Team)
- JIC evaluation for NMDHSEM statewide exercises (Annually)
- JIC exercise simulation cell inject creation (Annually)
- Dog Head Fire JIC Cooperator (2016)
- Fort McMurray wildfires (Field Innovation Team 2016)
- Fort McMurray wildfires (CanVOST 2016)
- Santa Fe Municipal Airport Exercise 2017 (JIC Evaluator)
- Field Innovation Team Bootcamp 5.0 (Presenter)
- New Mexico WUI Summit 2017 (Presenter)
- New Mexico Vigilant Guard Exercise 2017 (Public Affairs Working Group and Evaluator)
- University of Colorado - Boulder Wildland Fire Workshop (Participant/SME)
- New Mexico Wildfires 2017 (NM DHSEM AD PIO)
- Field Innovation Team Higher River Alberta Do Tank (Organizing Team)
- Pennington County South Dakota OEM (VOST Training)
- Hurricane Harvey (Oregon VOST)
- Hurricane Harvey (Standby Task Force)
- Eagle Creek Complex (Oregon VOST)
- Hurricane Irma (Standby Task Force)
- Hurricane Maria (Standby Task Force)
- WHO Vaccination Mapathon (Standby Task Force)
- Cascadia Rising Solutions Brainstorm (Field Innovation Team 2019)
- Field Innovation Team Bootcamp 6.0 (Organizing Team)
- COVID-19 Operation SUZ (Field Innovation Team 2020)
As the Team Lead of PNW VOST, I have led nineteen Type 1 incident activations (more than 1,600 hours of incident time):
- Arapaho Fire, Wyoming (2012)
- Barry Point Fire, Oregon (2012)
- Wenatchee Complex, Washington (2012)
- Table Mountain Fire, Washington (2012)
- Owyhee Fire, Oregon (2013)
- Big Windy Complex, Oregon (2013)
- Logging Unit Fires (2014)
- Chiwaukum Complex (2014)
- Deception Complex (2014)
- Sockeye Fire (2015)
- Wolverine/Chelan Complex (2015)
- Kettle Complex (2015)
- Bybee Creek Fire (2016)
- Diamond Creek Fire (2017)
- Jolly Mountain Fire (2017)
- Willamette NF Fires (2017)
- Chetco Bar Fire (2017)
- Tinder Fire (2018)
- Ute Park Fire (2018)
In 2019, I became a Technical Specialist with the U.S. Forest Service and initiated a task book for PIOF, which I am currently working towards and have completed the following assignments:
- Cellar Fire (2019, USFS AD Technical Specialist)
- Fire Program Support, Cibola NF (2019, USFS AD Technical Specialist)
- S-203 Instructor Cadre and Student, Cibola NF (2020, USFS AD Technical Specialist)
- Sawtooth Fire (2020, USFS AD Technical Specialist)
- PNW PIO-PAO Training Series - Instructor Cadre (2020, USFS AD Technical Specialist)
- Bush Fire (2020, USFS AD Technical Specialist)
- Griffin Fires (2020, USFS AD Technical Specialist)
- Riverside Fire (2020, USFS AD Technical Specialist)
- August Complex - South Zone (2020, USFS AD Technical Specialist)
Additionally, I was a member of the instructor cadre for S-203 (Introduction to Incident Information) in Medford, Oregon in May, 2013 and for L-952 (All Hazards Public Information Officer), while completing the course in May 2016.
Beyond maintaining the publicly visible social media sites for PNW VOST, I have developed a comprehensive method for managing deployments. On January 10th and 17th, 2013 my colleague, Scott Reuter, and I presented on VOST to the National Libraries of Medicine Disaster Info Specialist Program.
Information Support During Emergencies: About VOST (Virtual Operations Support Team)
Scott Reuter, current president of Oregon VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters) and DHS/FEMA certified course instructor for the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center, and Marlita Reddy- Hjelmfelt, Team Lead of Pacific Northwest VOST and member of the VOST Leadership Council shared information about VOST, including how they lend social media and information support to incident management teams.
Recording
Slides (PDF, 1.4 MB)
Additional presentations/workshops include: Seattle Biomed (2013), NMDSHEM Annual Conference (2013), PIEPC (2015), Field Innovation Team Bootcamp 4.0 (2015), WUI Summit (2016), Washington DOH (2016).
VOST Workbook Template 5.0
- Link to Users Guide is on the cover sheet, just below Creative Commons block. Speaking of Creative Commons, you may replace the team logo and rebrand for your team but please respect the work put into this by myself and others credited on the cover sheet and do not remove the credits block.
- It is set to Read Only. Use File… and Make a Copy to save one for yourself in Google Drive (better option) or File… and Download As to save to your hard drive in Excel)
- Note: If you had downloaded previous versions, the time sheet and the availability calendar ceased to function, due to changes in Google's code. Version 5.0 has these repaired.
Services we provide:
- Social media incident presence for the PIO
- Comprehensive monitoring of all social media activity related to the incident
- Incident-specific sites
- Social media intelligence, based on keywords, geocoded reference, and related entities
- Brand awareness of the emergency entity managing the incident
- Social media analytics throughout the deployment
- Resource management statistics
- Mentoring in social media best practice
- VOST training and mentoring of incident co-operators
- Ad hoc intelligence gathering
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