The Formal Agreement and Standard Operating Procedure Template Suite and Reference Library provide members of the emergency response community with guidance to develop their own formal agreements and standard operating procedures (SOPs) relating to communications interoperability.
The Formal Agreement and SOP Template Suite includes guidance documents for the construction of a:
Charter
Executive Order
Local-to-Local Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
State-to-Local MOU
System-to-System Console Patch SOP Mobile Gateway Patch SOP
Shared Channel SOP
Shared System SOP Radio Cache SOP
Each guidance document is divided into two parts. Part I highlights sample language, references formal agreements/SOPs, and provides “Questions to Consider” when creating a formal agreement or SOP. Part II provides a template with input fields and customizable pre-populated language that practitioners can tailor to meet the needs of their formal agreement or SOP.
Collectively, the Formal Agreement and SOP Reference Library (available at http://www.niix.org/) contains over 200 formal agreement and SOP examples. When using the Template Suite to construct a formal agreement or SOP, emergency responders are encouraged to leverage the real-world examples contained within the Reference Library. Stakeholders should also recognize that inclusion in the Reference Library does not constitute an official endorsement on the part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The emergency response community was regularly engaged throughout the development of the Template Suite and Reference Library. Practitioner working groups vetted each of the Template Suite’s nine guidance documents; additionally, formal agreements and SOPs contained within the Reference Library were collected from interoperable communications stakeholders answering a nationwide solicitation by the Office of Emergency Communications. As such, the Formal Agreement and SOP Template Suite and Reference Library are truly practitioner-driven.
In addition to the Template Suite provided on the SAFECOM Web site, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council has made both the Formal Agreement and SOP Template Suite and the Reference Library accessible through the National Interoperability Information eXchange (NIIX) Web site. The NIIX Web site is accessible at http://localhost/HuberJ/Local%20Settings/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/OLKF/www.niix.org.