UW-Whitewater Continuity of Operations Planning

Tornadoes, house fires, floods…these are relatively common kinds of emergencies that can affect you and your family: in an instant, your whole world can be turned upside down and inside out. Planning now for what you and your family will do in an emergency will not prevent the event from happening, but it will help reduce the severity of the impacts of the event on you and the members of your family.

Help your family prepare for emergencies by involving everyone in the effort to figure out a plan that will work for all of you. There are some great resources that are available for family emergency preparedness planning….three good links:
http://www.fema.gov/plan/index.shtm
http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_500_,00.html
http://www.ready.gov/america/index.html

1. Talk about what to do in an emergency; get all family members involved
2. Make a plan
3. Make a kit
4. Exercise the plan

Great question….here is the answer:

If you knew in advance that starting sometime next month and lasting for the next 15 days, your work group would not be allowed to look at, access, touch, move or use anything that is currently in or at your offices or facilities…

1. What would you do today to prepare for the interruption?

2. What are your unit’s primary critical functions and it’s secondary critical functions?

3. What resources (facilities, equipment, information, people) are required to perform those functions? Are those resources available? How do you access them?

4. Exactly how, and where, would your unit get back to work, doing the things that matter most?

It is easy to think of a thousand similar questions, and that is part of the problem with COOP development: there are usually many more questions than answers, especially at the beginning.

What is the key to making progress toward making sure that your work group can do the things it must do?

Start. Anywhere. Today. Right Now.

If you have questions about continuity of operations planning at UWW, contact:

Ernie Stracener,
Director of Environmental Health, Risk Management, Safety & Loss Control
Hyer Hall, Room #330
stracene@uww.edu
262-472-1856