627-5804

From PCSAR

Current revision

403-627-5804 is Pincher Creek's Call-Back Number. Provided by Telus through PCES.

When there is not an active incident happening, it is call-forwarded to the manager on-call.

[edit] Purpose

The 403-627-5804 number is currently used for two purposes.

During an activation, it is the main number to reach the Incident Management Team. If the Incident Command Post (ICP) is located within cell range (not sat phone), it's forwarded to the Search Manager (Incident Commander) or perhaps someone handling comms. If the ICP is outside of cell range, it's forwarded to a person (typically "The Call-Back Person" operating from their home) who can coordinate making and receiving calls for the ICP and forwarding messages by inReach or sat phone to the ICP.

Having a specific number for this purpose makes life much simpler for the IMT on incidents with changing personnel. When there's a change in who's answering the phone at the IMT or change in the Call-Back Person there's no need for them to give up their phone to someone else, or to contact again and give a new number to the many people that got the old number (tasking agency representatives, partner agencies, mutual aid SAR groups, subject family contacts, logistics suppliers (food), etc.).

An alternative might be to have a physical cell phone with an assigned nmuber for this purpose. But that was felt to be too cumbersome as when you want to switch who answers the phone, you have to have someone physically touching the phone (a person off-shift and trying to sleep for the next shift to change call forwarding) or move the phone considerable distance to make a change (e.g. ICP relocates to out of cell coverage, phone goes back to Call-Back Person, or Call-Back Person hands off to new Call-Back Person in different location).

Also some members get notification of an incident late (e.g. they are returning from the back country). Others feel they need to have a verbal discussion with someone about whether they can or should respond. These members often want to talk to someone involved in the incident. We normally give out the same number 403-627-5804 as a way for members to connect with the IMT to have those discussions. An app may be a good alternative to this usage, assuming the IMT or a proxy (e.g. Call-Back Person) stays within cell range.

Secondly, once we had the 403-627-5804 number, we decided we could use it as an "On-Call Manager" line. When we assign SAR managers on a rotating basis as the On-Call Manager, the number can be forwarded to them. (Using phone.com allows sophisticated scheduling and selecting of multiple numbers to be called at once. E.g. your cell and work numbers.) This is the first number we ask STARS to try to call. Our members in the past have been told that if they want to give us a heads-up about something they think may become an incident, they can reach the On-Call Manager at this number.

Now with two phone numbers 403-627-2262 and 403-627-5804, we can have a redundant system. Very occasionally, we've had 403-627-2262 fail. About once every 5 years, Telus has messed up the programming and it no longer forwards to STARS. When we missed notifications, we decided that we could publish both numbers. 403-627-2262 as the primary number (dispatch through STARS) and 403-627-5804 (backup, On-Call Manager when available). These are the numbers we've already given out to many tasking agencies, partner agencies and mutual aid SAR groups over many years.

If we change our numbers, I advise taking it slow. The last time we did that we were still getting people trying to reach us in emergency situations at outdated numbers a year after the change.

[edit] Changing the forwarding

The forwarding works like this:

Caller --->  403-627-5804 (Telus) permanently forwarded to ---> 587-315-0065 (Phone.com Calgary) forwards to ---> Manager/Call-Back Person

Normally you change the forwarding of the phone.com number. See Phone.com/Configure/Extensions/Call-Back.

In rare circumstances we may need to change 627-5804 itself. See call forwarding.

[edit] When it's not working

Occasionally (about every 5 years) Telus gives us problems and calls to 403-627-5804 do not go through as intended. We've designed a redundant system to help handle that.

First Notification:

Our Incident Notification System is redundant. Calls from Tasking Agencies and other SAR Groups should be made first to 403-627-2262. Only if that number doesn't work, should these people call 403-627-5804. If 627-5804 is not working, they should know enough to call 403-627-2262 instead.

627-2262 goes to STARS. See PCSAR Doc-80 Incident Notification Process. STARS will use the First Call List to contact a PCSAR member. The first entry on the list is 403-627-5804 for the On-Call Manager. When this doesn't work they will proceed down the list of Call-Out People and SAR Managers until they reach someone.

Call Back:

During an incident 627-5804 is normally used as the Call-Back Number where members can call-back for more information or to let the Call-Out People know that they are responding. During longer incidents the 627-5804 may be forwarded to different Call-Back People as they switch shifts.

If 627-5804 is not working, the Call-Back People will need to use their own personal phone number as the "Call-Back Number". Some of the pre-defined templates in Rapid Notify use 627-5804, so they will have to be recreated.