When will IPER training be available in our state or territory?
As soon as FEMA has certified the two IPER courses and your Instructional Team is trained and ready to deliver them. The teams will be prepared in Train-the-Trainer Institutes that will take place between July and October 2010 with institutes offered in regions throughout the country. A master calendar of all institutes provides the dates, locations, and states included in each regional institute.

Who should be assigned to our state’s IPER Instructional Team?
Each IPER Instructional Team should include three-to-five individuals. Team members will be drawn from state archives and records management, state emergency management/COOP, and information technology, and ideally will also include a representative of local government—a municipal clerk, county recorder, or other local official for whom recordkeeping is a core function. The members of the Instructional Team will be those who will be responsible for delivering IPER training in your state.

What activities should the Instructional Teams pursue to lay the groundwork for training?
The members of each state’s Instructional Team are encouraged to work together to strengthen their own knowledge and skills, establish essential connections, and assemble necessary resources. See ideas for Team Activities.

How many training programs must our state offer?
The goal of the project is to train a minimum of 30 people per state or territory in both courses. Our hope is that once the Instructional Teams are trained in delivery and have the course materials available, the courses will continue to be offered on an ongoing basis to provide this critical skill within the state/territory. In addition, you will have the opportunity to promote use of the self-directed courses on CD or the Web.

Will there be any charge for use of the online webinar delivery service?
No, the IPER grant will pay for the online training system through the end of the project. States that have their own online delivery systems in place are, of course, free to use them instead.

What other costs should we anticipate?
The primary costs to each state in delivering the IPER courses will be in the time contributed by members of the training teams. Expenses to attend the Train-the-Trainer Institutes will be covered by the grant. Copies of manuals will be provided electronically so they can be printed out by each student. We will send 50 copies of each of the CDs to each state and territory for the three self-directed modules. States are welcome to create additional copies for further distribution at their own expense.

Which other states are in our region?
The map above shows the six IPER Train-the-Trainer Institute regions. The IPER project hopes to foster cooperation among the states as well as to connect them with the FEMA and National Archives staff that serve in each region.

Until the IPER courses are ready, what other training opportunities are available?
The Introduction to Records and Information Management course is now available online. We are recommending that people who have little or no records management background take this 90-minute course before taking the two main IPER webinars. You can see the course now at http://www.statearchivists.org/iper/rim/index.htm. The course is targeted at employees working at all levels of government.

In addition, many state archives and records management agencies have training programs of their own. Some offer courses on emergency preparedness and essential records. Links to currently available training opportunities are available at http://www.statearchivists.org/prepare/training.

Who should I call with questions?
The IPER project staff is based at The Georgia Archives in Morrow, Georgia (suburban Atlanta).

Verna Edwards, IPER Curriculum Manager
Cell: 678-628-7227
Email: vedwards@statearchivists.org

Irene van Bavel, IPER Program Officer
Office: 678-364-3832
Email: ivanbavel@statearchivists.org

Mailing address
IPER Project c/o The Georgia Archives
5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow GA 30260