MAG-03 MAG Communications Planning

MAG-03: MAG Communications Planning

Turning individual PACE plans into one working plan for your whole group

Course Overview, One Page

A single printable page covering what MAG Communications Planning teaches, the 5 lessons, what you need before starting, and the doctrinal sources behind the method. Useful for deciding whether the course is for you, or for handing to somebody in your group who is weighing it up.

Why This Course

BLUF: A MAG where every member has their own solid PACE plan can still fail at the one thing that matters in an actual incident: reaching each other. This course takes what COM-01 taught at the household level and scales it to the group — one shared plan, roles assigned by who actually does what, and a way to prove the plan works before you need it.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Explain why several good household PACE plans don’t automatically add up to one working group plan
  • Assign radio roles (net control, alternate, liaison, mobile, medical, security) by member function rather than enthusiasm
  • Build a complete Group PACE Matrix covering all four tiers with assigned nets, channels, and triggers
  • Prepare that matrix for hand-off into a formal ICS-205 (COM-05)
  • Design and run a communications exercise that validates the plan and feeds corrections back into it

Lessons

LESSON 1

From Household PACE to Group PACE

Why five working household plans can still leave a MAG unable to talk to itself, and what the group plan has to solve that the household plan didn’t.

LESSON 2

Mapping Member Function to Radio Role

Assigning net control, alternate net control, liaison, mobile, medical, and security roles by what a member already does and owns — with a backup for every seat.

LESSON 3

Building the Group PACE Matrix

The core deliverable: one shared Primary/Alternate/Contingency/Emergency matrix with real channels, net control assignments, and activation triggers.

LESSON 4

From Matrix to Form

What the matrix needs before it’s ready to become a formal ICS-205 — the hand-off point into COM-05.

LESSON 5

Designing and Running a Communications Exercise

Capstone: design a real drill for your own MAG, run it, and turn the after-action review into corrections to the matrix.

How This Course Works

Prerequisite COM-01 PACE Communications Planning. This course assumes the PACE tier concept (Primary/Alternate/Contingency/Emergency) is already understood at the individual level.
Format Five lessons, each with a short knowledge check. Complete each lesson’s check to unlock the next.
What you’ll produce A completed Group PACE Matrix for your own MAG and a designed communications exercise with an after-action template.
What comes next COM-05 (ICS-205 Communications Plan) formats this course’s output into the standard incident-communications form.

Start the Course →

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