Rothstein Associates Inc. Business Survival ™ Weblog

Fort Morgan, Colorado school district officials are working hard to make sure its schools meet the requirements of the National Incident Management System.

The board approved changes to its crisis management policy, which reflect the work being done on the emergency response compliance plan, said Superintendent Greg Wagers.

Vicki Davis, chairwoman of the district’s security committee, said her committee and the district still had a few chores to do before the district was in full compliance with the National Incident Management System [NIMS] and the incident command system.

See Schools focus on emergency management by Dan Barker.

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The Comprehensive Crisis and Continuity (COOP) Template for Public & Private Schools (K-12) is a powerful yet easy-to-use tool - over 650 pages on CD.

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It is widely recognised that the UK PSTN (Public Switched Telephony Network) infrastructure is one of the most reliable infrastructures in the world with examples of services being quoted as having ‘five 9s availability’: i.e.99.999% availability equating to some 5 minutes downtime across the whole network over a twelve month period.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the connectivity, the telephone circuits, installed by the various Tier I Providers between their respective Local Exchanges.

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Business continuity planning has evolved from simply something companies hope never to roll out, to an important focus of security operations, according to a new survey from AT&T.

AT&T surveyed IT executives from companies throughout the United States that have at least $25 million in annual revenue to get their views on disaster planning and business continuity trends. Among those surveyed, one-third said it has been necessary to put their business continuity plan into action in the past. The most common scenario for rolling out a BC/DR plan was extreme weather. About 25 percent of companies said weather forced their plan to be put in action. Another 19 percent said power outages at facilities were the cause. More than half of companies in Houston and Miami/Orlando/Tampa, known as regions that have been hit hard with hurricanes in recent years, were likely to have invoked their business continuity plan. That compared with 36 percent nationally.

See Survey: Business Continuity Plans Factor in Mobile, Social Networking, By Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor, CSO Online.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Homeland Security Standards Panel (HSSP) has published a Workshop Report on the need for standards-based solutions to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs during emergencies or natural disasters.

The report details the purpose, scope, findings and recommendations, and next steps of the ANSI-HSSP Workshop on Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities and Special Needs, held February 3–4, 2009, at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.

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Small-business owners who think preparing for a disaster is expensive should think again. Being unprepared-and losing everything-can mean paying a much higher price..

See Calculating The True Cost Of Disaster Preparedness.

2009 will see the political consequences of the global credit crunch start to have an impact, according to the 16th annual Political Risk Map from Aon Risk Services, a division of Aon Corporation.

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Images of the aftermath of the violent wind storms and tornadoes that swept across several US states this spring serve as a reminder of the damage wreaked by extreme weather events. But while changing patterns are prompting many businesses to shore up their operations and facilities, many have yet to address longer term climate-related risks.

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You’ve got your Disaster Recovery plan in place (don’t you?) and, if disaster should strike, you’re ready to bounce back quickly. Or are you? Take a look at these three good - and in case of disaster, critical - tips to make sure your plan works.

See 3 Disaster Recovery Tips (Or Risks!) You May Have Overlooked by Keith Ferrell.

Although areas affected by earthquakes are often off-limits immediately following the event, the Virtual Disaster Viewer allows users to access information about building damage, humanitarian response, infrastructure loss, and landslides on the fly.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, PRIVATE SECTOR OFFICE

COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS UPDATE #15 MAY 15, 2009, 4:00 PM

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High-Rise Security and Fire Life Safety, Third Edition, by Geoff Craighead,  is a comprehensive reference for managing security and fire life safety operations within high-rise buildings.

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