Some people are just technophiles: they’ll happily engage in most any pursuit — so long as it involves technology. Use this taste for technology to build your readiness by giving some of these super-helpful techie activities to them. Conduct a Backup & Restore Drill – test your ability to access key files quickly from your computer backups (of course you back up!) Try accessing files stored on disks, tapes or in the cloud.

- Download emergency preparedness and productivity Apps for everyone with a Smartphones, iPads, iPods or tablets.

- Create an Emergency Jump Drive for every key position in your response team. Include checklists, staff and client rosters, Incident Command System tip sheets, media talking points – anything that will help people perform their disaster duties well.

- Empower your tech-lovers to take you to heights of preparedness and response capacity.

Tip: If you have a zealous computer/IT person on your team, be sure to share the resources from TechSoup with them!

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February 18th, 2011 | Tags: disaster, disasters, emergency preparedness, plan, Planning, Preparedness, technology prepardness | Category: 2011, STAT, STAT 5MM | Comments (1)

Each disaster demonstrates the importance of knowing the people on your team and the other key players you’ll be working with in an emergency. As you plan your 2011 staff and team safety meetings, remember to include Ice Breakers and team-building exercises into your events. Making this a priority will help your team, and your extended preparedness community, to know each other better as individuals.

Start small with something as simple as a 30-60 second personal introduction from everyone in the group. You can provide questions that everyone should answer, or you could just give some basic guidelines such as: “Share one thing that no one knows about you, that has nothing to do with your emergency services role.”

Make it fun and help people to bond with each other — it will make them a better team!

Tip: Make Ice Breakers a regular part of your meetings. Rotate the responsibility for leading the Ice Breakers so that everyone on your team can lead and share these exercises in their other communities.

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January 14th, 2011 | Tags: plan, Staff Meetings, team, team confidence, Teambuilding | Category: 2011, STAT | Leave a comment

Help your 2011 preparedness initiatives get off to a great start by creating shared goals with your team, and look to see that they follow the SMARTER guidelines:

Specific – have such clarity that everyone understands the intended outcome

Measurable – pick a measurement that matters and remember: quality often means more than quantity

Achievable  - be sure that the goal can be accomplished with your available resources

Relevant – tie your goals to your primary mission

Time-plotted – create a timeline with milestones and a firm end date

Engaging – meaningfully engage your team and extended community in creating and fulfilling your preparedness goals

Resilient – build in back up people and plans so that your project can withstand the inevitable shifts in funding, personnel turnover, and social trends.

Let’s all be SMARTER about preparedness in 2011!

Tip: Give everyone the SMARTER list and help your team become brilliant at creating, refining and fulfilling on project goals.

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January 3rd, 2011 | Tags: goal, guideline, list, mnemonic, plan, Preparedness, team | Category: 2011, STAT, STAT 5MM | Leave a comment

When setting 2010 preparedness goals, it’s great to follow the SMART goal model: Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Realistic, Time-bound.  But for emergency preparedness — a topic that is met with some resistance — it’s even more important to have a BHAG (pronounced “BEE-hag”) – a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  Popularized in the best-selling book by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, a BHAG is both clear and compelling; it’s “an audacious 10-to-30-year goal to progress towards an envisioned future.”

With feedback from your team and community, create and share a positive uplifting, big picture BHAG. Ideally, all of your related SMART goals, milestones, projects, and objectives should clearly and directly help fulfill this larger, more empowering goal. Tip: Even a draft or “straw man” BHAG can help!

CARD’s BHAG: Have EVERY nonprofit prepared to prosper!

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January 11th, 2010 | Tags: empower, future, goal, objectives, plan, Planning, Preparedness, project, read | Category: 2010, STAT, STAT 5MM | Leave a comment

The New Year is a great opportunity for emergency preparedness promoters to practice what we preach, and have planning make a big difference in 2009 preparedness efforts! Ideas:

- Send out an early invitation or save-the-date message to key partners. Whether it’s for your “Preparedness Month” or for a specific anniversary celebration, book time in their calendars now.

- If you’ve always had key preparedness dates catch you off guard, put reminders in your calendar right now. Example: Several weeks before Daylight Saving Time, create a reminder so you’ll have be ready to change the clocks and rotate your emergency supplies.

- Set dates now for renewals of important classes: staff preparedness, First Aid, CPR, fire suppression, etc. Set the date and put reminders in your calendar so that nothing bumps it or gets scheduled on top of it.

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January 5th, 2009 | Tags: Calendar, plan | Category: STAT 5MM, Uncategorized | Leave a comment