Posted by Colleen Keller on February 5, 2010

ITCOMM Community Resources: Crisis Communications

IT Crisis Communications

See sample university crisis message templates attached at the bottom of this page.

Several IT communicators were interested in a notebook I created at Rice for IT Crisis Communications. I am sharing the outline of the book, sample pages, and templates so you can create your own book. This book was created about one month after listening to a webcast of Gerard Braud's presentation on Crisis Communications Plans. http://www.braudcommunications.com/crisiscommunications.html

• • IT Crisis Communication Notebooks - who gets them?

  • What's in the Crisis Communication notebooks?

    • • Overview of Crisis Communication Plan

      • Steps to Take (spelled out exactly, including names, URLs, mailing list addresses and instructions, and individual contact email addresses and phone numbers)

        • • Notify IT first

      • What to Say (pre-written and approved by IT Administration prior to any portents of a crisis)

      • List of telephone numbers for ride-out team, relief team, and off-site support team members

      • Conference call quick start instructions

      • Disaster Recovery planning, General Crisis planning, and specific Hurricane Planning Guide (created by IT Security Officer)

        • • List of phone numbers for all IT Staff members

          • List of services provided to employees by University after Hurricane Ike (September 2008). Remember for 95% of the city, there was no power, no traffic lights, no infrastructure for either the city or for families of workers for a minimum of one week after the storm. The campus never lost these amenities and it was like an oasis of power outlets, lights, flushing toilets, and air conditioning.

            • • bags of ice were available through housing and dining

              • child care was set up in the rec center

              • showers were available in three primary general use facilities on campus

              • laundry facilities were available in the dorms

Comments

What is your strategy for keeping the content in the binder up-to-date? What do you do when there are new service messages, new supported technology, staff changes, or a revised routine.

Posted by: rochellescott on September 1, 2011

Good question! Because Houston is in the Gulf Coast hurricane zone, we use the beginning of hurricane season each year as our target date for revisions. We begin reviewing content in May and our deadline is June 1 to have all content reviewed, approved if necessary, and distributed back out to the directors and ride out team members who keep copies of the binders. This year, we made the cover insert orange instead of yellow, to differentiate between the 2010 and 2011 versions.

When we were reviewing last year's content, I realized we had changed our internal communications somewhat, and we had several staff changes. These were all incorporated in the revisions. If any of our routines had changed, we would have revised that content as well. If we need a mid-year change, I would just give updated pages to the binder owners and say, "Replace your current section 3 with these pages so you have the latest procedures for routine X."

Posted by: carlyn@rice.edu on September 1, 2011

Thanks to CEO Joe DiPasquale for sharing Regroup's templates for crisis communication messages! (see attachment).

Posted by: carlyn@rice.edu on March 3, 2011

Here is a basic list of sample emergency messages that can be customized beforehand and at the time of the alert.

Sample Emergency Alert Messages

Posted by: bryancrum on March 2, 2011