My team works with many emergency managers who inherit programs and see an Emergency Operations Plan update as a way to reignite their program. There are better ways to do that, but for those who go the EOP route first, they sometimes get hung-up on organizing who goes where. Frankly, it doesn’t help when Incident […]
Month – November 2020
Sirens Ring, Are You Listening?
Winter storms sometimes evoke memories of emergency operations center (EOC) activations. The activations take time away from family and can stress relationships ‒ especially when the power is out at home and a spouse learns the EOC is “enjoying” generator power, catered food and plenty of television. The storms are often slow-moving and far-reaching. They […]
What do EM’s have to cheer about this holiday season?
Hurricane and fire seasons are now, for the most part, behind us. Those who chose to prepare this year for severe winter weather have already begun to do so. Many are attending an annual conference this week in Las Vegas. Daylight Savings Time is now in effect. One can almost feel a degree of seasonal […]
Is Time a Scarce Resource?
We regularly survey emergency managers to identify the training they feel is most important for success. This year, we again noticed a puzzling trend. Nearly all emergency managers continue to say they have far too much work, but about forty-percent say time and quality management is “not important.” We discussed the lack of interest in […]
Survey Says…
A member of our team recently conducted an informal survey of emergency managers and confirmed what many suspect. A group of approximately 1500 people associated with an online emergency management forum were invited to participate in the anonymous, online survey. It contained 25 questions and took respondents an average of 14 minutes to complete it. […]
Are we Ready?
The national Ready Campaign (http://www.ready.gov/) recently turned ten years old. The campaign asks “Are you ready?” and provides information to get everyone thinking about disaster. It suggests people can do three things to get ready: stay informed, make a plan, and build a kit. As emergency managers, we’re obligated to ask ourselves similar questions. Is […]