Setting Up an Emergency Management Agency / EOC

For county, city, tribal, campus or corporate emergency-management offices that activate an Emergency Operations Centre, coordinate Emergency Support Functions, manage shelters and resource requests, and work with many partner agencies. In Resgrid a call is an activation or event, groups are EOC sections and ESFs, and Records carry the situation reports, ICS forms and resource requests.

1 — Department settings

Setting	Value
24-hour time	On.
Modules	Shifts (for activation rosters), Calendar, Documents, Notes, Records, Inventory (warehouse/caches), Checklists on; Trainings optional.
Data classification (security policy)	CUI if you handle FOUO material; Government/CUI preset.
Staffing reset	Off.

2 — Types

Type	Values
Unit types	Mobile command vehicle, Trailer (generator / comms / shelter), Drone, Vehicle. EOC sections are groups, not units.
Call types	EOC activation, Severe weather, Flood, Wildfire, Hazmat, Power outage, Shelter opening, Resource request, Public health, Exercise, Planned event.
Call priorities	Monitoring, Partial activation, Full activation, Emergency.
Certification types	ICS 100/200/300/400/700/800, G-series courses, Shelter management, Damage assessment, PIO.
Document categories	EOP & annexes, ESF checklists, MOUs, Maps, Contact rosters, Sitreps.

3 — Groups, roles, statuses

• Stations: Primary EOC, Alternate EOC, Warehouse with addresses.
• Organisational groups: Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics, Finance/Admin; one group per ESF (ESF-1 Transportation … ESF-15 External affairs).
• Roles: EOC manager, Section chief, ESF lead, Duty officer, PIO, Liaison, Shelter manager, Damage assessor, Radio operator.
• Custom statuses: personnel — Activated (in EOC) · Activated (remote) · Standing by · Off duty · Deployed to field; staffing — Available · Unavailable · Deployed; units — Available · Deployed · Out of service.

4 — Personnel and partners

• Invite agency staff and partner-agency representatives (they can belong to their own department too and switch).
• Contacts: shelter operators, utilities, hospitals, media, mutual-aid coordinators; categories per ESF.
• Distribution lists: esf-leads@, shelters@, pio@ including external addresses.
• Department links to every fire/EMS/law agency that shares a Resgrid department, so the EOC map shows their units.

5 — Activations (calls)

• Create an EOC activation call with priority Partial or Full; dispatch to the section groups and ESF roles; the incident chat channel becomes the EOC channel.
• Use scheduled calls for planned events (parades, elections) and call templates for each activation level.
• Check-in timers: IC 60-minute briefing cadence.
• Weather alerts: subscribe every county zone; threshold Warning → duty officer; Watch → notes.

6 — Records (EOC pack and ICS forms)

From the EOC Coordination Pack: EOC Duty / Shift Log (Quick entry, one per duty officer shift) and Agency / ESF Status Report (Review required, one per ESF per operational period). From the Disaster Field Assessment Pack: Rapid Needs / Initial Damage Assessment (with photo coordinates retained). From Incident Support: ICS 202, 205, 209, 211, 213RR, 214, 215, 260. Number ICS forms per incident. Use the Exercise / AAR pack after every exercise. Legal holds and records requests handle post-event public-records demands.

Deployments track EMAC / state resource orders your agency requests or hosts.

7 — Resource orders and logistics

• Resource orders: municipalities request cots, generators, pumps; the EOC fills from the warehouse or partner departments.
• Inventory: warehouse and trailers as locations; cots, blankets, water, MREs as bulk with reorder points; generators, radios, satellite phones as serialized assets; deployable caches as kits; issue to external agencies via an External location.
• Checklists: EOC readiness (Department, monthly: generators, comms, supplies), Shelter site inspection (per shelter group, annual), Trailer pre-deployment (Unit).
• Work orders (Readiness Pro): generator monthly run and annual load test, trailer inspections.

8 — Communication

• Messages with acknowledgement responses for activation notices.
• Chat: custom channels per ESF with role rules; urgent messages for recalls; export transcripts after each activation.
• Notifications: Document added (EOP category) → section chiefs; Weather alert received.
• Workflows: Call created (EOC activation) → email all ESF leads + post to the EOC Teams channel; Record finalized (ESF status) → compile into the sitrep export nightly.
• Big Board on the EOC wall; Incident Command app for the EOC manager.
• Connect public profile for community preparedness posts.

First-week checklist

• Sections and ESFs as groups; leads as group admins
• Activation templates for partial and full activation
• Weather zones subscribed and tested
• EOC Duty Log and ESF Status Report definitions published
• Warehouse inventory initialised; one resource order run end-to-end
• Department links to partner agencies established