August 1, 2008
This newsletter is for
public agencies, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and other
stakeholders involved or interested in public-private partnerships for joint
emergency preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.
Michigan State University (MSU) produces the newsletter through the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP)-Community Facilitation Program under a grant awarded by the Training & Exercises Integration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This newsletter provides ideas, suggestions, best practices, and lessons learned to establish critical incident protocols using public-private partnerships.
Michigan State University
through the CIP Program will “enhance cities, counties, and region’s
capabilities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from man-made and natural
disasters through public and private sector collaboration, communication, and
cooperation.” MSU facilitates public-private partnerships and the CIP
Program is free of charge to participating communities.
Please visit our website at www.cip.msu.edu for more information about the program.
Participating Communities in the CIP Program
The CIP Program has been
initiated in 41 communities in 23 states with over 3,300 participants
establishing community public-private partnerships for joint management of
critical incidents. We are looking to work with other cities, counties and
regions. Is there a location in the nation that you think may be interested in
developing a public-private partnership? If so, please let us know.
Currently, we are working with the following communities:
Alabama: Hoover
Arizona: Casa Grande
California: Mountain View
Colorado: Littleton
Connecticut: Norwalk
Florida: Western Panhandle
Illinois: Lake-Cook Regional, Libertyville
Indiana: Evansville
Kansas: Douglas County
Maryland: Annapolis, Carroll County, Rockville
Michigan: Marquette County, Monroe, Oakland County
Missouri/Illinois: Gateway Citizen Corps
Coalition, St. Louis
Montana: Lewis & Clark
County
Nevada: Clark County
North
Carolina:
Buncombe County, Greensboro
Ohio: Brooklyn
Pennsylvania: Allentown, Bethlehem,
Northampton County, Perkiomen Valley
South Carolina: Horry County
Texas: Dallas
Utah: Layton, Sandy City
Virginia:
Arlington
County, Richmond
Washington: Redmond
Wisconsin: Brown County, Dane County, Eau Claire County,
Milwaukee, Outagamie County, Racine County, Superior, Winnebago County
CIP Program
Activities
August 1, 2008: Columbia, SC (Initiating the CIP Program)
September 9, 2008: Norwalk, CT (Facilitating Tabletop Exercise)
September 14/15, 2008: Atlanta, GA (ASIS Conference)
September 26, 2008: Detroit, MI (Initiating the CIP Program)
September 30, 2008: Naperville, IL (Initiating the CIP Program)
October 7, 2008: Dane County, WI (Facilitating Tabletop Exercise)
October 21, 2008: Lake-Cook IL Regional (Facilitating Tabletop Exercise)
October 21, 2008: Atlanta, GA (IEDC Conference)
October 26, 2008: Richmond, VA (EPA Conference)
Welcome Outagamie and Winnebago Counties, WI to the CIP Program
Outagamie and Winnebago Counties, Wisconsin have recently joined the CIP Program as our 40th and 41st communities. These adjacent counties are not only building a county-wide partnership but are planning on working together, along with Brown County who is also participating in the CIP Program. These three counties sit side-by-side and will focus on regional issues.
Each of these counties has a staff person whose primary function is public/private partnerships for crisis management. As the CIP staff works with various government agencies on a local, county, state, or federal level, we see more emergency management departments specifically assigning this function within their organization as a visible job title. This sends an important message to the community, businesses, and other organizations.
The State of Wisconsin has demonstrated a strong commitment to public/private partnerships by awarding financial grants to cities and counties over the last two years. The state has provided leadership by encouraging participants to stimulate collaboration between government, businesses, and non-profit organizations on how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impact of man-made and natural disasters, critical incidents, and other related events. For more information on Wisconsin’s project, please contact David Duecker, Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance at (608) 261-7538 or david.duecker@wisconsin.gov.
Catalog of Courses/Training
Traditionally, the federal government offers preparedness courses to government entities; however, more of these trainings are now offered to the private sector as well. For communities that have developed a public/private partnership or for others interested in preparedness courses, the following three sources are available:
The FEMA Training & Exercise Integration Secretariat/Training Operations (TEI/TO) Course Catalog has over 100 courses, which range from weapons of mass destruction terrorism to citizen preparedness. These courses are divided by level: awareness, performance and management.
The TEI/TO Course Catalog is available at: https://www.firstrespondertraining.gov/webforms/pdfs/gt_catalog.pdf.
The Federal Sponsored Course Catalog is another resource with over 100 courses available to both the public and private sectors, which highlight prevention, protection, response, and on-site incident management. Learn about these courses at: https://www.firstrespondertraining.gov/webforms/pdfs/fed_catalog.pdf.
The State Sponsored Course Catalog lists available training sessions across the nation according to mission areas: common, protection, response, (on-site incident management), and recovery. This catalog is available at: https://www.firstrespondertraining.gov/webforms/pdfs/state_catalog.pdf.
You may also access all three catalogs at: https://www.firstrespondertraining.gov/odp_webforms.
Of course, there are many other sources for workshops as well.
Review for Comment – FEMA Proposed Snow Policy
FEMA is soliciting comments through August 25, 2008 to develop a proposed snow assistance and severe winter storm policy. This is applicable to FEMA evaluating requests for a ‘major disaster declaration’, not an emergency declaration. Some of the proposed changes would:
o change the methodology used by FEMA to determine whether a snowfall qualifies as a record or near-record snowfall.
o change the procedure to use the highest National Weather Service historical data, rather than the lowest as currently used.
o change the processes for states to meet the criteria for a major disaster declaration.
To review and/or offer comment on the proposed policy, please refer to Docket ID FEMA-2005-0005 at http://www.regulations.gov.
Public/Private Partnership Websites
One way of promoting the value of public/private partnerships is for participating communities in the CIP Program to designate a website that profiles the organization. The Lake-Cook Regional Critical Incident Partnership (LCRCIP), which is located north of Chicago on the border of Lake and County Counties and the Brown County, Wisconsin Partnership provide leadership for collaboration and their websites serves as a mechanism to disseminate information to others.
The LCRCIP website states their purpose is, “to share best practices and lessons learned to improve our collective ability to respond to critical incidents in our community. Training and exercising emergency plans and learning about our strengths and weaknesses enable us to build a stronger response network, which improves our overall preparedness for any hazard that we face” (LCRCIP, 2008, para #1). For more information about the LCRCIP, please go to: http://www.lcrcip.org.
The Brown County website states their mission, which is, “bringing together key public and private sector stakeholders to identify mutual concerns and develop strategies to make communities safer" (Brown County Office of Emergency Management, 2008, para #1). For more information about the Brown County WI Partnership, please go to: http://bcppp.com.
Professional Practices for Business Continuity
Business continuity continues to expand as public and private sector professionals provide direction and guidance on how organizations can maintain operations and services during and after a disruptive event. The CIP staff, who provides training in this area, occasionally receives inquiries regarding business continuity and how to access additional information.
One excellent resource for business continuity is DRI International. DRI not only provides a wealth of information on business continuity but is one of the premier organizations offering certification for this discipline. To learn more about this organization, please visit their website at: https://www.drii.org
For additional information on business continuity, there are the ten professional practices available to download at: https://www.drii.org/professional_prac/profprac_details.html.
The subject areas include how professional practices came to exist; project initiation and management; risk evaluation and control; business impact analysis; developing business continuity strategies; emergency response and operations; developing and implementing business continuity plans; exercising and maintaining business continuity plans; public relations and crisis coordination; coordination with external agencies; and, sources and references related to business continuity/disaster recovery.
The Value of Public/Private Partnerships - Utility Company Perspective
Recently, the CIP staff participated in a panel discussion at a business continuity conference for utility companies. One of the companies illustrated why partnerships should be an integral component of a utility’s business continuity program.
Here are a few reasons for partnering:
o The public sector needs to know your business, which you know best.
o The public sector knows the other players in the public sector better than you do.
o The public sector knows your neighbor and the neighborhood better than you do. (Cleary, 2008)
Here are some recommendations:
o Meet and discuss how interactions will take place during an incident – even if you do not “drill”, identify assumptions of what is needed and required from each other.
o Periodically review people, assumptions, and changes to infrastructure and/or other aspects that influence planning (a good example is a road that was essential for emergency plant response but has now changed).
o Knowledge of partner’s capabilities and limitations lead to informed decision-making (Cleary, 2008).
As the CIP staff works with more communities across the nation, we are seeing more utility companies involved in these partnerships for joint crisis management.
Recent Postings to the CIP Information Exchange Website
The CIP Information
Exchange website is a large database for public and private sector
professionals interested in homeland security, emergency preparedness, business
continuity, disaster recovery, and emergency management. It also contains
research publications, government documents, news items, and more.
To enter the CIP Information Exchange website, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and click on Angel Guest Account from the drop-down menu. Click on proceed and in the next webpage box, enter “msu.msu@angel” and “partnership” (both without quotation marks) as the password. On the next page, click on Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) – Community Facilitation, which launches the main menu.
Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are a variety of recent postings, including:
o Family Preparedness for First Responders
o Training for Nuclear Waste Incident Response
o Schools Turn to VARS for Surveillance, Security Solutions
o Testimony on Emerging Threats before U.S. House of Representatives
o Public-Private Alliances to the Rescue – Aidmatrix Foundation
There are numerous other resources located on the website. To locate a specific topic, utilize the "search" function.
Past Newsletters
If you are interested in viewing past CIP
Update newsletters, please go to www.cip.msu.edu and select "Newsletters" from the main
menu.
Closing
If you have any topics and/or ideas for a
future CIP Update newsletter, please contact Brit Weber at weberbr@msu.edu or (517) 355-2227 or other MSU staff members. About every three weeks
you will receive this newsletter via email. If you no longer wish to be on this
list, please reply to this email.
Disclaimer
The views expressed here are those of the
author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security or Michigan State University.
Source
Lake-Cook Regional Critical Incident Partnership. (2008). Retrieved on July 30, 2008 from http://www.lcrcip.org website.
Brown County Office of Emergency Management. (2008). Retrieved on July 28, 2008 from http://bcppp.com/default.aspx website.
Cleary, Anne. (June 4, 2008). Power Point Presentation at EEI Business Continuity Conference, Phoenix, AZ.
Brit
Weber
Program Director
CIP-Community Facilitation Program
School of Criminal Justice
Michigan State University
1407 S. Harrison Rd., 335 Nisbet Bldg.
East Lansing, MI 48823
Work: (517) 355-2227
Cell: (517) 206-1640
weberbr@msu.edu
Please visit our website: http://www.cip.msu.edu