I am planning to take a CERT course in August, and a NIMS course in September. From what I've been researching, there is no other organized system around me for a community emergency response. It would be counterproductive for me to try to reinvent the wheel. I'll just plug myself into the system that everybody else already recognizes.

By the way, I agree with philip. If CERT or NIMS is failing your community, then it's probably a training issue. Reinventing the wheel would be more difficult I think.