FITERAD Organization

 This chart diagrams the FITERAD organization. It is clearly patterned with the same geometry as the previous chart: Nature of Project.
  • The central organization (Program Office) is surrounded with boxes representing organizations (companies, possible university departments...) and consulting individuals called "members" or "teammates."
  • The entire structure forms a consortium-- today these organizational types are sometimes called "virtual corporations."
  • Each member brings specific technical expertise to the project. In many cases, Intellectual Property (IP) applicable to the project will already exist, and only require proper interfacing and/ or minor modification to serve the RAIN System purpose.
  • As elaborated later, the U.S. Federal Government is presently viewed as the sole funding source for the project. The chart shows direct funding to the members from the government, but other arrangements are possible.
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U.S. Government Funding

After talking to virtually hundreds of people from many organizations, it is clear that the U.S. Government is really the only organization who can fund this project. Here are the basic reasons, which are elaborated in a separate page:

  • It is responsible to protect the citizens of the U.S. from catastrophe (when possible).
  • Appropriate agencies have a legacy of "develop-to-requirement," unlike the states, insurance companies or others who might be interested.
  • They have the money and are already spending $Billions on ineffective wildfire fighting.

Intellectual Property (IP)

The sole purpose of FITERAD is to collect the IP needed to make RAIN work. Since virtually all parts of the RAIN System are proven technologies, there exists many companies that are already supplying such technology on other projects. These companies will make excellent members for creating the needed IP, oftentimes by interfacing what already exists. Considerable savings for the taxpayer will result.

Sole Source Procurement

The government can legally issue contracts on a "sole source" basis (non-competitive) when there exists IP that needs relatively minor modification/interfacing which is owned by the contractor. Since considerable existing IP is out there in candidate member businesses and individuals, sole-source procurement should be possible in many instances, saving time and money.