by Eric Holdeman: Emergency management in the blogosphere
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It is important that as emergency managers that we keep our eyes on the legislative ball as it bounces along at the federal, state and local levels.
Sometimes people say they don't like "politics" but let me tell you that you cannot be an effective emergency manager if you just focus on the four phases and don't know what is being written in our various legislative bodies that will impact your ability to function.
Bill Cumming has a nice update on the Stafford Act machinations that you might want to take a look at. Reforming the Act has been debated for many years. Eventually someone is going to take on that challenge and the tweaking will end and a full blown rewrite will happen.
See Robert T. Stafford Act
The following message is from Gail McGovern, President and CEO, American Red Cross:
"I'm very pleased to tell you all that Charley Shimanski will become our Senior Vice President of Disaster Services, reporting directly to me.
Charley Shimanski, a 25-year emergency responder, risk management specialist and Chief Executive at our Mile High Chapter in Denver, will work alongside Joe through this hurricane season, ensuring a smooth transition until he replaces Joe this fall. While Charley is onboarding, Joe will still be leading Disaster Services as SVP until after the hurricane season this November, at which point Charley will take over.
Charley is ideally suited for his new role and brings a wealth of financial acumen to the position. As chief executive of the Mile High Chapter, he grew the revenue and managed expenditures to achieve a surplus of $533,000 in fiscal year 2009, the chapter's fourth consecutive year of surplus. He also set the stage for dramatic growth in FY10 revenues, staff and service delivery, while also maintaining vital partnerships with disaster response organizations and political officials statewide.
As I mentioned, Charley will bring the financial management background necessary to oversee our complex Disaster Services organization and build its infrastructure for the future. At Mile High, he is responsible for one of the largest Red Cross financial Centers of Expertise (to include 5 states, $23 million in expenditures). Moreover, in a previous position at OppenheimerFunds in Denver, Charley managed worldwide banking relationships and automated investment systems; he was also responsible for implementing PC-based accounting and client management systems at another investment firm. Charley's blend of operational and financial skills will make him a valued addition to the senior team.
Immediately prior to joining the Red Cross, Charley served as President and CEO of the Colorado Nonprofit Association, which represented all 19,000 Colorado non-profits, and he doubled the association's operating revenue in three years through aggressive fundraising and building strong partnerships.
No stranger to disasters, outside of his day-job Charley is a 25-year volunteer rescue professional and former Emergency Medical Technician, specializing in helicopter rescue. He just completed a two-year term as the volunteer President of the Mountain Rescue Association, where he supervised and taught volunteer search and rescue professionals internationally and acted as their national spokesperson. He helped coordinate the Colorado search and rescue dog response to the World Trade Center collapse on 9/11 and has authored several national training manuals on rescue operations. I can't think of an outlook more suited to Red Cross disaster relief.
An experienced Red Cross spokesperson for local, regional and national media, Charley worked in Denver International Airport Emergency Operations Center after the Continental Airlines flight 1404 crash in December 2008. I believe he will be a credible Red Cross spokesperson during times of national disaster when the public is looking for a calm and competent presence.
As Charley comes aboard, I'm thankful that Joe is not going far when he leaves Disaster Services in November. Joe is the consummate professional and has been an outstanding SVP of Disaster Services for the past five years. We will continue to rely on his always-sound counsel, experience and good judgment and the great Disaster Services team he has built."
I'm always looking for information from wherever I can find it. Interestingly this event described below is not a Webinar, but a teleconference. If you live in Hurricane Land, it might be something to check out.
Hurricane Preparedness Teleconference
Tuesday, July 13
11am Pacific | 2pm Eastern
Hurricane Season is here. Are you prepared? Join in this Digital Communities teleconference and gain insight on how to prepare from experts who have been on the ground during major hurricanes.
Discussions will include:
⢠Resources to monitor and track potential hurricane activity
⢠Hurricane preparedness tips for public safety professionals and citizens
⢠Ensuring communications before, during and after a hurricane
Speakers are:
Tanya Lin-Jones: PMP, Manager Emergency Response Team Operations, Sprint Nextel Corp.
Mark Suddith: Editor, Hurricanetrack.com
Register Here
Bill Schrier is the CIO for the City of Seattle and he blogs.
His latest posting is on the relentless move to social media and how it can help government interact with its citizenry. All the IT changes that have happened have moved us along a trail of bits and bites, computing our way into the 21st Century.
While it is natural to resist change--change is inevitable. Perhaps not always for the good, but change will happen. I think the issue is not "Should we change?" but "When should we change?" Timing a change is as important as the change itself. Change to early and you have lots of grief to go with it. Change to late and you then are trying to catch up with market and societal forces.
Be sure and pop-in occasionally to read Bill's blog. I think you will read thoughtful postings that will assist you in deciding when to adopt and change technologies or at least your thinking on a topic.
See the NY Times story State Budget Disaster
There is a mixture of politics and money in the air this summer. Should Congress reduce federal spending to start addressing the deficit and risk plunging the nation back into a recession, killing the recovery? Or, maybe the situation isn't that bad?
While states may have to "suck it up" and have more layoffs and eventually raise taxes to meet the needs of governing, doing so doesn't put the recovery at risk--or so some think. Both opinions are in the linked story.
Personally, I don't know what the right answer is. What I do know is this:
- Many states have as much political gridlock as the federal government
- Action will not come until there is a fiscal catastrophe for the organization
- Taxes being raised will be the final step taken by any elected official in this current environment.
- Citizens are going to be paying much more attention to their state and local government budgets and wanting accountability.
- The costs of providing services and the pay and benefits going to government workers, including first responders will come under the microscope.
- Emergency management is not immune from coming under the budget cutting knife
Bill Cumming shared the NY Times link. Leave a comment
OK, so you are now motivated to start dabbling in social media for your organization. Where do you start?
While it is not comprehensive, see the article Few Creating Specific Plans for Social Media, Survey Says Perhaps this will give you a few ideas for a path forward on implementing social media for your agency or organization.
Go ahead, dip your toes in the water!
Some of you may have been wondering about FEMA's role in the current Gulf Oil spill. There is a CRS Report Potential Stafford Act Declarations for the Gulf Coast Oil Spill: Issues for Congress
It is an informative document that provides some historical background on the oil spills and how they have been treated in the past. With the Federal Government now putting the heat on BP it doesn't look like there will be a Stafford Act declaration--for now anyway.
The disaster fund is out of cash anyway.
Bill Cumming shared this information.
"You are judged by your actions, not your intentions." Lorna McLaren
We have many "to do" lists. They can be projects at home or work. For our families there might also be "to do" lists of vacations, promises of Disneyland, a trip to a national park, or perhaps a family outing to a ballgame.
Lists and promises are good, but the action is what counts. Do you follow through on what your intentions are? We all run into people who promise the world and then don't show up for the main event. While good intentions and words are swell, it is your actions that count.
I suppose if you are not into the publishing world it doesn't make a hill of beans about how a web site is configured and what software it uses.
Governing Magazine just made the switch to a new format and content management system called Clickability.
While I've been blogging at Blogspot and they have been importing the blog posts I need to switch over to using Clickability. The challenge like in all software switches is learning the new system. Zach Presnall at e.Republic put together a nice little web training session for me. Now I need to bite the bullet and learn it and "switch."
See the write up on Governing at Media Business
Government Technology has an article on how California is pushing it's departments to develop smart phone applications for citizens to use. It will be interesting to see if California OES (which I think they now have a new name) will take on that challenge and do some App development for emergency management and homeland security.
Some possible applications:
- Shelter locations
- Livestock/pet shelters
- Location of utility system outages
- Road Closures
- Hospital Status--which ones are on diversion
- Seismic reports on the location and strength of earthquakes
- Damage reporting app
And, you don't have to be California to take on this challenge. If you have a talented web person on your team or in your government--maybe they are interested in doing an app for you now. Leave a comment
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