**FUTA STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING**

**SW Fire Use Training Academy**

**Albuquerque, NM; April 26, 2006**

**[Attendees]{.underline}**

-   Leon Ben, BIA, Chair

-   Tricia Roller, FWS, Vice-Chair

-   Rick Belger, BLM\--New Mexico

-   Lisa Bye, BLM-New Mexico

-   Charley Luevano, BLM\--New Mexico, FUTA

-   Duane Tewa, BIA\--FUTA

-   Hal Luedtke, BIA\--SW Region

-   Gary Kemp, NPS, for Ken Castro

-   Mary Zabinski, FS\--SW Region, Recording Secretary

**[Review of meeting minutes (Leon Ben)]{.underline}**

-   Meeting began at 1015. Minutes from the last meeting were reviewed
    and corrected.

**[FUTA Fiscal Review (Leon Ben)]{.underline}**

-   Much discussion of the Fiscal Review findings, which not all
    Committee members had seen. Many questions about line items versus
    in-kind costs. Do percentages need to be updated?

-   Confusing terminology\--\"master agreement,\" \"operating plan,\"
    \"work plan.\" Need clarification and/or consistency of terminology.

-   PFTC has higher administrative costs. National fuels group is
    looking at FUTA in comparison to see if they should fund PFTC at
    requested level.

-   Rumors of NPS and FWS paying for PFTC, with BLM, BIA, and FS paying
    for FUTA. Trish will contact Dennis Dupuis to confirm. May 1:
    deadline for draft letter from FUTA Steering Committee Chair through
    SWCG Chair to National Fuels Group re their intentions.

-   Trish will work with FUTA staff to be liaison between the Steering
    Committee and FUTA.

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**[Annual Operating Plan (Leon Ben)]{.underline}**

-   Being worked on.

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**[FY07 Financial Plan (Leon Ben)]{.underline}**

-   Committee members will send their comments on the Plan to Leon Ben
    for forwarding to Susan McDonnell.

**[Fire Use Workshop Update (Trish Roller)]{.underline}**

-   Trish said that the group designing the workshop had not yet met.

-   Still planning a 2-day workshop during the Fall 2006 Session,
    focusing on line officers and Type 3 Incident Commanders.

-   Hal suggested an \"Introduction to Wildland Fire Use.\"

-   Group discussed 2-day versus 5-day course.

-   The design team will commit to a February work group: 12th & Indian
    School in Albuquerque, at the Southern Pueblos Agency office or the
    new BIA National Training Center.

**[Spring 2006 Session (Duane Tewa)]{.underline}**

-   Started out with 35 students, some cancellations. Graduated 31, good
    cross-section from all agencies.

-   Classroom portion went well. Able to get folks out the first few
    weeks on projects. March storms put a damper on field portion,
    Midwest moisture as well.

-   Students expected more burning. 80% said FUTA met expectations. The
    other 20% tied in with actual burning and field experience but still
    saw value in the program. For the most part, everyone was satisfied,
    no real issues.

-   10 field coordinators were able to come in. Last fall, the FUTA
    Field Coordinator Program mentoring program wasn\'t as prevalent as
    the Spring Session, probably because most units were so dry that
    they weren\'t springing loose their field coordinators. Most of the
    field coordinators were from Northern states. This fall, will look
    at field coordinator mentoring to get more folks out burning.

-   Through Communication Plan, will try to market the program better.

-   Long discussions hooking back to Strategic Plan, what changes the
    Steering Committee would like to see, where they want FUTA to be
    5-10 years from now.

-   Student expectations: burn, burn, burn. FUTA mission statement:
    preparing students to be future fuels program leaders.

-   Could tweak curriculum a bit: 1 wk.of burning, 1 wk. of burn plan
    writing, 1 wk. of fuels analsyis. Maybe better discussion in
    pre-work sent out to students.

-   Past talk of shorter sessions, of breaking Academy into 4-week
    spring session (all classroom) with students returning in the fall
    to burn. Will supervisors free up their people twice in a year?
    Students have spent time in classrooms when they could have been out
    burning. This discussion has been repeated often. Time to evaluate
    these ideas sincerely and pursue or discard.

-   Emily Irwin and Duane Tewa will draft a written proposal for
    presentation at the August 1 conference call.

**[Rx Interagency Reference Guide/Burn Boss Refresher
Workshop]{.underline}**

-   Was not held but there\'s discussion at the national level.

-   FWS holds a Burn Boss Refresher at their annual FMO meeting.

-   Rocky Mountain Area offers a weeklong refresher each year. Could tag
    on wildland fire use at the end of the refresher to identify FUM1s
    and FUM2s.

-   Steering Committee could endorse such a workshop at FUTA outside the
    core curriculum. Hal Luedtke will discuss the idea with Jerome
    Macdonald.

**[Review of Spring Session Workshops]{.underline}**

-   **40 Fuel Models:** Evaluations were positive for the most part.
    Instructor Joe Scott \"hit home\" with students who had just
    completed S-390. Workshop will be repeated during the Fall Session.

-   **Interagency Rx Fire Planning & Implementation Policy Workshop:**
    Interagency policy to be finalized by June. Would be good to hold
    the workshop during the Fall Session. Should become standard
    operating procedure after that.

-   **BEHAVE-PLUS**: Very positive feedback from students.

**[RX-341: RX Fire Burn Plan Prep\--Pilot Course @ FUTA]{.underline}**

-   Mary Zabinski will check with Emily Irwin on the status of RX-341.

**[FUTA Website]{.underline}**

-   Mary Zabinski will work with Emily Irwin to update the FUTA Website
    and apprise Steering Committee members.

**[Steering Committee Charter and Operating Guidelines]{.underline}**

-   Membership will revisit the Charter and Operating Guidelines.

**[New Business]{.underline}**

-   Duane Tewa passed out the FUTA 2005 Annual Report.

-   July 14: deadline for submitting topics for the August 1 conference
    call.

-   Next conference call: Tuesday, August 1, 1000 hours MDST.

-   Leon Ben transferred chair of the Committee to Vice-Chair Trish
    Roller.

**[Next Meeting]{.underline}**

Conference call on Tuesday, August 1, 1000-1200 MDST. **Call-in number:
(505)-842-3895; PIN: 70550727#**

**[Adjournment]{.underline}**

Meeting adjourned at 1345.