CIP Update

February 06, 2009

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 & Exercise Integration/Training Operations, 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 44 communities in 23 states with over 3,600 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, Naperville
Indiana:  Evansville
Kansas:  Douglas County
Maryland:  Annapolis, Carroll County, Rockville
Michigan:  Detroit, 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:  Columbia, 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

The Last Word From FEMA’s Paulison

Outgoing FEMA Director, R. David Paulison shared his thoughts about the agency and the nation’s efforts in preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.  His comments regarding “planning” were very timely.  Last month we participated in a Preparedness Summit hosted by FEMA Region V and former Regional Director Ed Buikema, where preparedness and planning were the salient topics.

In an interview, Paulison stated, “Planning was a weakness in almost all the states.  So our [emergency management performance grant] dollars . . . they have to spend 25% of those dollars on planning, and that’s really helped a lot, made a big difference.  I think also that based on what happened in Katrina, a lot of the emergency managers ... were going back and asking themselves, ‘OK, what do I do if that was my state or if that was my city, am I ready?’  And it’s caused a renewed interest in planning.  Plus, the amount of dollars that we’ve put out for exercises, for planning, for training, millions of dollars have gone out to the states.  So I think we’re much better prepared as a country as a whole for dealing with disasters (Fowler, 2009, para. 5)”. 

The focus on planning is critical to creating successful operations, regardless of the mission, product, or service.  Is your agency, business, organization, or partnership dedicating time to the planning process?

Disaster Recovery Journal Promotes the CIP Program

In the Winter 2009 issue of the Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) there is an editorial by Peter R. Laz, MBCP, who profiled the CIP Program and discussed the value of public/private partnerships at the community level.  The DRJ mission is to deliver how-to knowledge on business continuity planning.  The DRJ is known for its trade publication, which is used by professionals internationally.  Equally, value-driven services are provided via website and national conferences are well attended.

 “Ultimately, the quality of life in the community increases through these partnerships because both sectors contribute to improving overall preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery capabilities (Laz, 2009, pg. 12)”.

Our thanks to Mr. Laz and the Disaster Recovery Journal for promoting public/private partnerships and the editorial on the CIP Program.  To learn more about the DRJ, go to: http://www.drj.com.

Crisis Leadership for Local Officials – Training

The National league of Cities (NLC) is offering a brand new program to communities across the nation to assist local leaders on crisis management.  This program is funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with a grant awarded to NLC and seeks to work with a minimum of 44 communities over the next two years.  This NLC initiative is supported by the International City/County Management Association.

The Crisis Leadership for Local Officials one and half day workshop will cover five broad areas, including:

· Identifying hazards that impact your community and region.

· Identifying your community and region’s emergency management structure.

· Identifying the critical roles and responsibilities of local elected and appointed officials before, during and after emergencies.

· Identifying the types of resources in the community and region.

· Recognizing your community and region’s limitations and how to access additional resources.

For more information, go to: http://www.nlc.org/articles/articleItems/NCW11909/CrisisLead.aspx or contact James Weed at (202) 626-3051 or weed@nlc.org.

Ready Your Business: 12 Point Program for Success, Business Continuity Planning

The document was produced by the Private-Public Partnership of Dane County (Madison), Wisconsin.  This comprehensive guide was created through a public and private collaborative effort of various public sector agencies, numerous businesses, educational institutions, and other entities.

The Ready Your Business document is a simple, clear and concise narrative, along with many check-off lists.  In addition to the 12 points, the appendix contains a business pandemic influenza planning checklist, building disaster resistant communities information, resource links, and more.

The 12 points include: creating a planning team, continuity of authority, risks and hazards, internal/external resources and capabilities, vulnerability assessment, essential business functions, employees/owner contacts, evacuation and sheltering, workplace emergency supply kit, insurance coverage, vital records, and data protection/storage/recovery.

Kathy Krusiec, former Director, Dane County Emergency Management states in an opening letter, “Ready Your Business is a tool for building a disaster resistance community.  Today’s workshop is a beginning to help guide the planner through the basic elements of business continuity planning, and preparing them for developing their businesses’ customized plans (Private-Public Partnership of Dane County, 2008, p. 8)”.

This document is a great resource for any size business, including the small business owner.  To obtain a copy, you may download one from the Private-Public Partnership of Dane County website under Resources.  While you peruse the website, note the number of co-sponsor organizations along with the co-chairs.  Dane County government agencies, businesses and not-for-profits are committed to collaboration for joint critical incident management.  The website is located at: http://www.co.dane.wi.us/emergency/private_public.htm.

Also, you can download a copy from our CIP Information Exchange website, which is described below.

We are proud to be a partner in assisting Dane County through our CIP Program that led to the creation of the Private-Public Partnership of Dane County organization.

Public Comments: NFPA1600 Standard and Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Program

Many of the readers of the CIP Update are familiar with the NFPA1600 Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs.  This standard is an excellent resource for any government, business, or not-for-profit organization to use as guide in developing preparedness plans.  Currently, this standard is in the revision process and NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) is seeking public comments.  The importance of this document is gaining increased recognition in relation to a brand new proposal to enhance the level of emergency preparedness for the nation’s businesses.

Currently, FEMA is seeking public comments on new legislation that was a result of the 9/11 Commission recommendations.  The Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Accreditation and Certification Program, known as PS-Prep, will be administered by FEMA and other federal agencies.  The intent of PS-Prep is to establish a common set of criteria for private sector preparedness, including disaster management, emergency management, and business continuity programs.  The goal of this voluntary program is to enhance nationwide resilience in an all hazards environment by improving private sector preparedness. 

PS-Prep indicates that businesses could voluntarily participate in the program and preparedness plans would be compared against a standard, such as NFPA1600 and others.  Therefore, we encourage you to offer your public comments to either NFPA or FEMA on these two issues.

To leave a comment on NFPA1600, go to http://submissions.nfpa.org/onlinesub/onsubmain.php and follow the instructions.

If you are interested in learning what others from around the nation are saying about PS-Prep and/or want to leave a comment on this new program please go to: http://www.fema.gov/business/certification/index.htm.  This website provides an overview, but to leave a comment or read additional comments, click on Federal Registration Notice/Document ID FEMA2008-0017.  Enter FEMA 2008 0017 in the search window, and you will be redirected to the comments page.

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’ database, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and using the drop-down menu, select Angel Guest Account.  Click on ‘proceed’, and on the next webpage, enter “msu.msu” in the Angel Guest User box and “partnership” (both without quotation marks) as the password to log on.  On the next page, click on Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) – Community Facilitation, which launches to the main menu.

Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are a variety of recent postings, including:

· Ready Your Business: 12 Point Program for Success, Business Continuity Planning

· DHS – Infrastructure Taxonomy (November 2008)

· Protecting Worker Safety and Health under the National Response Framework

· Federal Preparedness Report (January 2009)

· 2009 FEMA Transition (Overview of FEMA)

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.

Sources

Fowler, Daniel.  (January 23, 2009).  CQ Homeland Security.  The Last Word From FEMA’s Paulison and Johnson.  As reported in the FEMA EMI Higher Education Activity Reports.

Laz, Peter R.  (Winter 2009).  Disaster Recovery Journal.  Editorial on A Successful Model for Private-Public Partnerships, p. 12.

Private-Public Partnership of Dane County.  (2008).  Ready Your Business: 12 Point Program for Success, Business Continuity Planning.  Retrieved on February 3, 2009 from http://www.co.dane.wi.us/emergency/private_public.htm .

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