IAMRESPONDING

IamResponding - Notification System for Our Teams


In March 2024 the council subscribed to the IamResponding (IaR) notification and situational awareness system on behalf of our member teams. IaR is used by over sixteen thousand first responder agencies to provide reliable and redundant push, text, and voice notifications to first responders as well as many other features.

 

Our member teams are invited to use IaR to;

  1. Provide call-out to all team members
  2. Provide call-out to Duty Officers only
  3. Provide on-duty scheduling and notification
  4. And much more...

Our vision is to provide a high quality, reliable, and easy-to-use state-wide standard electronic notification system. IaR has the potential to become a central dispatch for our member SAR teams across the state. This will significantly speed up our call-out process and could eliminate the need for a Duty Officer, leaving your volunteers to perform other vital functions for your team.


Conceptually, in the future it could be interfaced with the new NMSP Mark43 CAD system. Additionally, we can use this system to store map-based pre-plans, mark landing zones, photos, and other tribal knowledge useful to our teams.


We are just starting on this journey and are inviting your team to work with us to help achieve this vision.


Our major components are:

  1. IamResponding - our notification and situation awareness system containing a profile for each team member. Each member can login to the system to maintain their own contact information. Permissions can be assigned according to each persons needs.
  2. Team Dispatch Form - this form can be used by the ordering managers or IMT personnel to dispatch multiple teams for missions. 


Trainings will be posted under Events along with information on prerequisites, registration and costs, if any. 


Getting Started

  1. Use the IamResponding Change Form to add or remove individual members (the spreadsheet below can optionally be used submitting more members). 
  2. If you have more than just a few members to add, you may optionally download the member setup spreadsheet, complete the required columns (red) and optionally any other columns in Sheet 1 for each team member. Note: phone numbers should be 10 digit numeric only (eg. 5751112222).  
  3. Attach the completed spreadsheet and send to iamresponding@nmsar.org 
  4. By submitting using this spreadsheet your team members agree to receive emergency notifications and alerts via SMS text messages, emails, and push notifications from the New Mexico Emergency Services Council Inc. You and your members may opt-out at anytime by changing your user profile or submitting the change form above.

What Happens Next

The IaR team will import these members. Each member once added will receive an email containing instructions to complete their profile.

Have each Member:

  • Change their system assigned password
  • Download the mobile app and log in. While the system will work without it, your team will benefit greatly using the app
  • Add any additional contact information: including emergency contact and any family member you would like to notify when you respond.
  • Check the appropriate teams listed in the Dispatch Information.
  • Ensure all your desired notifications are turned on. The best practice as a SAR responder is to always be notified via multiple paths: email, text, and pager (voice call), and we have automatically set your account up for these three methods..
  • Be sure to click the Update button at the bottom of the screen to save changes to your account settings.
  • Run the "Test My Notifications" from the mobile app to check your notifications are working correctly.


The IaR team will customize a Team Dispatch Form for use by all authorized mission dispatch personnel.


Arrange for a virtual training session with the IaR team.


Duty Officers Only

To use IaR to only notify your duty officers (DO) include all DO contacts in the spreadsheet above. Do not include individual team members, as they will not be notified by the system should you choose the DO method of contact for your team. The IaR team will add your DO members to the Team Dispatch form and ensure all necessary personnel have access.


Testing the System

Prior to going live it's important to test the system with your members so all members will understand and know what to expect before an actual mission. The IaR team will work with you to coordinate this testing during our virtual training session.


Go Live

After testing is complete, you will receive an email with 3 steps in order to take your team live on the NM State IAR call-out system.


IamResponding Donations

Our annual subscription is due each March. Your reoccurring donations are needed to offset our ongoing cost. Your team is encouraged to donate a minimum of $10 annually.


You can donate by sending a check to New Mexico Search and Rescue Council, P.O. Box 3396, Albuquerque, NM 87190 or using the donate button below. Please be sure to mark your check memo or donate special instructions for "IamResponding".  


​Thanks for helping to support this project!

Training

  1. High Level Overview Video - 58 minutes
  2. Training Day Video Playlist - various lengths