Emergency Communications Constituency Group Notes

Posted by Carlyn Foshee Chatfield on October 13, 2010

2010 topics of interest:

• • Who owns Emergency Communications (departments, president's office, public affairs, etc.)?

  • Is anyone collaborating with local government offices, local police, fire, etc.?

  • What different modes of communication are you using? Does it depend on the crisis?

  • How do you set the bar for what makes for an emergency that needs a message distribution?

  • What numbers or addresses do you use for emergencies? If you send every emergency message or test to every number, what do you do about the call-backs?

  • How often do you test your system?

  • If you are using self-subscribed systems, what percentage of your campus subscribes?

  • How often do you verify the contact info is correct? (tied to registration, employee benefit signup, 365-day old reminder pop up, etc.)

  • Has anyone used their emergency communications yet? If so, what were the incidents? (brush fire, hurricane closure, early dismissal due to flooding or storm, reports of a shooter, others discussed)

  • What are your evacuation plans? Have they been tested?

  • What does an "all clear" mean and when do you send that kind of message?

  • How do you reach into classrooms with an emergency message?

  • Can a phishing message, spoofed address for an internal address, send out a fake emergency message? (ie, there is a shooter on campus, reply to this message with contact info for further details....)

  • 2-way communications: are you designating a web site or other focal point where updates will be posted? Is there a phone number to accept incoming calls and questions?

  • What do you do about successive hits? University of South Florida dealt with 4 hurricanes in one year. They occurred, coincidentally, about two weeks apart.

  • What about long-term evacuations (storm versus shooter)? How are you tracking or communicating with employees to find out when they can come back to campus?

  • Do you allow, encourage, or discourage parent phone numbers in your emergency communications systems?

  • If you have stopped installing or have removed landlines, how do your emergency communications work with students in areas that don't have wireless? (basements of old campus buildings, and other spaces where wireless is not strong)

  • What kind of safeguards do you have on your emergcomm system if you deal with multiple campuses?

  • Has anyone heard of or plan to implement CAP (FEMA approved standard)? CAP solves a number of problems on digital signage RSS feeds like expiration dates

  • Is there a place for Twitter and/or other social media for communicating during emergency situations?