Community Organizations Active in Disasters (COAD) will engage in the 2013 Future of Business Conference scheduled for April 25 & 26, 2013. There will be a showcase event to open the Conference on April 25th from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM. COAD will take this opportunity to disseminate Emergency Preparedness and Continuity of Operations Planning information for businesses . Come and find out more about COAD and how your organization can get involved. To find out more about the Future of Business Conference, visit http://sustainableconnections.org/events/2013-future-of-business-conference-inspiration-and-innovation
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
March 19th COAD Meeting Summary
I. Introductions: In attendance were Lauri McBeath, Chalice Dew-Johnson, Bob Jacobson, Noriko Lao, Mavis Dalzell, Natalie Chavez.
II. All tables that were set aside for non-profits at the Spring Business Showcase were taken so COAD will not have a table at that event.
III. Stacey/Red Cross will keep an eye out for small business events that may be of interest to COAD.
IV. COAD will be participating at the Future of Business Conference on April 25th & 26th, which is being put on by Sustainable Connections.
April 25th is an evening event and April 26th is during the day. COAD will be having a table on April 25th at the Downtown Depot Market Square, set-up time for COAD volunteers is 5pm.
*Please contact Mavis Dalzell if you are willing to volunteer a 2 hour shift at the table to hand out information about the COAD, thanks!
We will have the following at the COAD table during this event:
1. COAD Flyer
2. COAD Resource List
3. Small Business Reference List
4. Family Preparedness Booklets
5. Red Cross Small Business Readiness Questionnaire
6. Sample CERT preparedness kits
Chalice will follow up with getting the COAD table secured for this event.
V. Table Top Exercise- organized by Kent Catlin
The table top will be specifically for the COAD. We are hoping to incorporate the Volunteer Center into this table top exercise. It is proposed to have the table top set for Tuesday June18th from 2-5pm.
Mavis will confirm the table top time at St. Luke's Health Education so that the time is secured for this exercise.
Mavis will also e-mail Mallory at Saturna so that she is invited to be part of the planning for this exercise. Chalice, Patrick, Kent, and Mallory will be the Table Top Planning Team for this exercise.
VI. Chalice will be drafting a letter to COAD members and to those on the COAD e-mail distribution list. There will actually be 2 letters drafted, one about COAD communication, including the MyStateUSA profile updates twice/year for COAD member organizations. The other letter will be specifically about the COAD Table Top in June and will stress the importance for COAD organizations to participate. RSVP will be needed so that the Table Top Team can organize the exercise efficiently.
VII. The WA VOAD was discussed briefly regarding extending an invite for their participation in the COAD Table Top Exercise. Their role would be as observers.
VIII. The April COAD Meeting is canceled due to having the COAD info table at the April 25th Business Conference. The next COAD meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 3pm at St. Luke's - Health Education Center.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
January 15th COAD Meeting Summary
Summary:
WHATCOM COAD MEETING
January 15, 2013
Attendees: Kent Catlin & Chalice Dew-Johnson (DEM/WUEM); Maggie Albert (MRC); Noriko Lao, Mavis Dalzell & Patrick Hurley (ARC); Charles Law (Roosevelt Neighborhood Assoc.); Russ Weston (Grange); Mallory Graving (Saturna Capital), Don Chumley (COAD, LDS)
New Attendee: Mallory Graving of Saturna Capital. Saturna Capital is able to contribute knowledge and skills in the area of communications.
The COAD Blog: The blog can be found at: http://whatcomcoad.blogspot.com/. It contains minutes from past meetings and information on upcoming activities and meetings. The group decided to add a sidebar with permanent links to resources, including a COAD overview, COAD flyer, COAD flow chart, and membership information and forms. You may subscribe at the blog page to receive notifications whenever the blog is updated.
The Role of LDS in COAD: LDS is a core organization in COAD and does most of the background work, including maintaining and updating membership information, the resource binders, and the COAD Unit Managers who will staff the EOC on behalf of COAD. There may be a need to re-train Unit Managers to ensure enough are available to staff the EOC if necessary.
COAD Tabletop Exercise: There will be a stand alone tabletop exercise for COAD on May 21st during the regularly scheduled COAD meeting. It will likely take 2 hours. The exercise will then tie in to a broader functional exercise held in the spring. The exercise will help keep membership connected and practice implementing the COAD flow chart.
Action: Kent
Action: Mavis will send out an invitation to member organizations asking participants to RSVP. When the invitation is sent, we can also ask organizations to confirm their desired membership level such as “active” or “active for disasters”.
MyState USA : COAD Members are invited to sign up for MyState USA
Sustainable Connections Business Conference: COAD will set up an information booth at the spring conference (likely held at the end of April) to educate businesses on preparedness planning.
Action: Patrick will monitor the timing and particulars of the event.
Future COAD Meetings: Meetings will continue to be scheduled every month, but meetings may be cancelled in advance if there are no agenda items requiring attention.
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be on March 19th at 3:00pm. Monitor your email or the COAD blog for any changes in the schedule.
Friday, December 7, 2012
November 20th COAD Meeting Summary
Summary:
WHATCOM COAD MEETING
November 20, 2012
Attendees: Angela Murray (WVC), Hollie Moe (WVC), Kent Catlin (DEM/WUEM), Bill Aiken (MRC), Herm Fransen (World Renew), Noriko Lao (ARC), Mavis Dalzell (ARC), Patrick Hurley (ARC), Charles Law (Roosevelt Neighborhood Assoc.)
New Attendees:
- Herm Fransen represented World Renew, which is an international organization that focuses on initial response, needs assessing, and reconstruction.
- Angela Murray and Hollie Moe represented WVC in place of Sue Ellen. Angela is the new Executive Director of WVC.
Continued Outreach to Local Businesses – after the September seminar, the group will continue to reach out to local businesses by joining pre-existing events that businesses are likely to attend, rather than hosting stand-alone events. Possible events include: The Northwest Business Expo and Technology Showcase, likely to be held in September 2013, and the Sustainable Connections 2013 Future of Business Conference, in the spring. Specifically, COAD would like to organize an information booth at such events.
- Action item: Patrick will look into the timing and particulars of the Sustainable Connections event.
Future Projects – continuing its discussion from October, COAD is discussing possible future projects for next year. Ideas raised include:
- Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) training for COAD member groups.
After discussion, it was decided that COAD would first pursue the MYN training. DEM will provide three train-the-trainer sessions and the attendees could take the training back to their organization or group. It was mentioned that such training may be particularly useful for those in the county. It was also mentioned that neighborhood associations may be interested. The particulars of the training and the participants will be discussed at the next meeting
COAD Structure and Role – The role of COAD during disasters was discussed, due in part to the presence of new members.
- In the event of a disaster, trained COAD Managers would staff the EOC on behalf of COAD and use the COAD resource binder to identify organizations that could provide specific assistance.
- It was decided that the flow chart should be re-circulated so members can better understand COAD’s role. The flow chart will be discussed at the next meeting.
- Action item:
- It was decided that a table top exercise may be useful to put the flow chart to use and analyze how the EOC, COAD, and WVC operate together during a disaster. It would be facilitated by DEM. The possible exercise will be discussed further at the next meeting.
- Because they have played such a prominent role in developing the flow chart, maintaining the resource binder, and developing the COAD Managers, it would be very useful to have the Chumleys at the next meeting, as well as Chalice.
- Action item: Mavis will inquire about the Chumleys’ possible attendance at a future meeting.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
YOUR SMALL BUSINESS CAN BE DISASTER READY
Hosted by Whatcom Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD):
Did you know that:
*15-40% of businesses fail following a natural or man-made disaster.
*94% of small business owners believe a disaster could seriously
disrupt their business within the next two years.
*82% of Americans agree "If someone could make it easy for me to be
prepared, I'd do it."
On THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 from 1-5 PM there will be a free seminar for
the public on how to make your business disaster ready. Participants
will learn how to do disaster planning for their business. They will
learn:
1) What you should be planning for?
2) What goes in a plan?
3) Who should assist you in making the plan?
4) Were to find planning resources in your community?
SEMINAR AGENDA:
Welcome - 1:15
Whatcom Unified Emergency Management - 1:20
Guest Speaker - Wendy Freitag -1:25 (45 minutes)
Q & A - 2:10
Introduction to the Booths - 2:25
Close and release participants to visit booths - 2:30-5:00
LOCATION:
Room "A" at St. Luke's Health Education Center,3333 Squalicum
Parkway, Bellingham, WA
For more information contact Sue Ellen Heflin: 360-734-3055 or
http://whatcomcoad.blogspot.com/
#
Monday, August 6, 2012
July 17th COAD Meeting Summary
Summary:
WHATCOM COAD MEETING
July 17, 2012
Attendees: Natalie Chavez, Marie Miller, Noriko Lao, Mavis Dalzell, Patrick Hurley, Chalice Dew-Johnson, Jonah Stinson, Russ Weston, Maggie Albert, Bill Aiken, Lawana Chapman.
Small Business Disaster Preparedness Seminar:
· Flyer – Has been revised and will be shared for distribution.
· Publicity – The flyer has been shared with many possible attendees and chambers of commerce in and outside of Bellingham Kent
· Information booths –
o There will be approximately 15 tables for information booths. 7 tables are spoken for by ARC (2 tables), CERT, Somebody Cares, COAD, WVC, and WUEM.
o It has not been confirmed whether Geri and Don will be able to represent COAD.
o Mavis will contact 211 to see if they want to have a booth.
o It was suggested that attendees could benefit from an information booth on IT preparedness issues, but the group did not know an appropriate organization to provide the information. Patrick will inquire with the Technology Alliance Group.
o Sue Ellen has been in contact with the WWU Center for Economic Vitality, but it was suggested that the Small Business Development Center
o Mavis will contact the Humane Society.
o It was also suggested that WAVOAD had an agricultural resource that could provide information to attendees on handling large animals. Noriko will check.
o For-profit businesses will not have information booths due to the lack of space, but there will be space at one table for local merchants to advertise their relevant services.
o All organizations having booths will provide brief summaries of their organization/booth.
· Refreshments – Mavis continues looking for businesses to assist with refreshments, including Costco, Haggen’s, and Cost Cutter. Marie will contact Starbucks and has confirmed water would be available from the American Legion. Russ will contact a local bakery. Natalie will contact Rocket Donuts and The Grace Café.
· Seminar Content and Agenda: Chalice shared a draft agenda. The tentative program is as follows: A COAD representative will welcome attendees and explain COAD and how businesses can be involved (WECU is an example); WUEM will provide introductory remarks about small business preparedness and September being preparedness month; The keynote speaker will speak for about 45 minutes, followed by Q&A; A COAD representative will close the seminar with an overview of the information booths. The remainder of time before and after the presentations will be for attendees to visit the various information booths.
· Resource List – Chalice also shared a draft resource list that will be distributed to attendees and welcomed any feedback. It was suggested that links for the WTA and PSE could be added.
Next Meeting: August 21st, 3:00pm at Health Education Center
Friday, July 13, 2012
June 19th COAD Meeting Summary
Summary:
WHATCOM COAD MEETING
June 19, 2012
Attendees: Sue Ellen Heflin (Whatcom Volunteer Center
Small Business Preparedness Seminar:
· Venue – Chalice has been working with the Health Education Center
· Information booths –
o There will be approximately 15 tables for information booths. 7 tables are spoken for by ARC (2 tables), CERT, Somebody Cares, COAD, WVC, and WUEM.
o It is unknown if the organizations 211, 501 Commons, or the WWU Center
o The idea of a Humane Society booth was raised. Mavis will contact them. It was also suggested that WAVOAD had an agricultural resource that could provide information to attendees on handling large animals
o For-profit businesses will not have information booths due to the lack of space, but there may be space at one table for local merchant to advertise their relevant services.
· Brochure/Flyer – Some edits have been made. Prior to the event it may be updated again to, among other things, list the organizations with information booths.
· Publicity – The flyer has been shared with many possible attendees and chambers of commerce have been informed. Sue Ellen has been in contact with Sustainable Connections, which will be involved in disseminating the flyer to its members. Kent
· Seminar Content: The tentative program is as follows: A COAD representative will welcome attendees and explain COAD and how businesses can be involved (WECU is an example); WUEM will provide introductory remarks about small business preparedness and September being preparedness month; The keynote speaker will speak for about 45 minutes, followed by Q&A; A COAD representative will close the seminar with an overview of the information booths. Organizations with information booths are asked to provide a short summary (a couple of sentences) of their organization and their booth. The remainder of time before and after the presentations will be for attendees to visit the various information booths.
· Refreshments – It was confirmed that refreshments would be allowed in the venue. Mavis continues looking for businesses to assist with refreshments; It was understood from the last meeting that Marie from Somebody Cares may know of a source for coffee.
Next Meeting: July 17th, 3:00pm.
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