Executive Housekeeping Today - June 2008 - (Page 7)

on high school and college campuses—make it a moral and legal imperative for us to act now. What steps should we take in developing an action plan? From the observations of people and organizations, there seems to be some critical thoughts that need to be considered in developing a plan that will be successful: • Buy-in from the top: There needs to be a serious commitment from the top to ensure success. The senior leadership needs to set the tone by supporting the development of a plan, not only in words, but through involvement and committing the resources to enable the plan to become operational and functional. • The establishment of a multi-disciplinary and multifunctional emergency planning group: The key is to have as many departments and areas represented to ensure the success of the plan, yet not too many participants involved—that could cause it to fail. The working group should not be much larger than 10-15 persons that have a direct knowledge of the critical issues involved. Some critical areas would include security, medical, informational technology, logistics, public relations, and facilities personnel. • A clear reporting relationship should be developed (i.e., an organizational chart) that clearly identifies the reporting relationships during an emergency or a training emergency event: When an incident occurs, there should be a designated incident commander who will then initiate the appropriate actions to implement the emergency plan. • All persons involved in the development and implementation of an emergency plan should be trained in how to respond to emergencies: Local county and city emergency groups Some Excellent Resources for Developing a Disaster Plan • U.S. Department of Homeland Security: http://www.ready. gov/ • Federal Emergency Management Administration: http:// www.fema.gov/areyouready/emergency_planning.shtm • American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_601_,00.html • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/ emergencies/index.htm • U.S. Department of Education: http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/ safety/emergencyplan/pandemic/index.html • The Model Community Emergency Response Plan: Produced by Elise G. DeCola and Tim L. Robertson in February 2002 for the YRITWC, the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council in Fairbanks, Alaska: http://www.yritwc.com/emergencyresponse.htm • U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration: http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/emergencypreparedness/index.html are a great resource that can assist with this. • All units within an organization should be expected to develop an emergency plan for their department that should interface seamlessly with the overall emergency plan of the organization as a whole: Share the plans between working groups to ensure that the plans will work together and minimize conflicts and bottlenecks. • The committee should work together to develop a risk assessment to determine the types of emergencies that the organization may reasonably face: Types of emergencies could include medical, fire, bomb threats, explosions, hazardous or biohazardous chemicals and materials, chemical leaks, tornadoes, hurricanes, violent criminal behavior, pandemics, civil protest, infrastructure failure and loss of utilities, etc. The list is subject to change and will need to be flexible and updated on a regular basis. Obviously, the central states need to plan on earthquakes, and the southeastern states on drought emergencies. • Develop a simple plan that is easy-to-read and use: A large book sitting on a shelf will not help anyone. The more portable the plan, the better. There may be a master plan at some central command location; however, the practical plans should be able to be carried in a toolkit or on a custodian’s cart, hanging on a wall, or at your desk. An excellent example of a highly-portable and readable plan is the one that was developed by Boston University. You can review the plan and flip chart at: http://www.bu.edu/ehs/ emergency/index.html (Make sure you click on the tabs). • Develop redundancy in your plan as you will never know what will fail at any given time: A good example of areas that may need redundancy and backup procedures are utilities, radio and phone communications, and information systems (such as the Internet, e-mails, and electronic banking). These (continued on next page) June 2008/Executive Housekeeping Today 7 http://www.ready.gov/ http://www.ready.gov/ http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/emergency_planning.shtm http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/emergency_planning.shtm http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_601_,00.html http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_601_,00.html http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/index.htm http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/index.htm http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/emergencyplan/pandemic/index.html http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/emergencyplan/pandemic/index.html http://www.yritwc.com/emergencyresponse.htm http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/emergencypreparedness/index.html http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/emergencypreparedness/index.html http://www.bu.edu/ehs/emergency/index.html http://www.bu.edu/ehs/emergency/index.html

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - June 2008

Executive Housekeeping Today - June 2008 Contents Executive Corner The Fundamentals of Safety Man vs. Machine: Equipment Safety in Professional Cleaning Operations Frugal Housekeeper Planning for Disaster Eliminating Bed Bugs 2008 Candidate Information Executive Profile IHW Product Information The Green Scene Spring Board Briefing 2008 Call to Convention 2008 Convention Information USGBC Green Tip Product Highlights New Members Joint IEHA/ISSA Members CEH/REH Members Advertisers' Index Calendar of Events Inside I.E.H.A. What I.E.H.A. Has Done for Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - June 2008

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