-Written by David Whittier

You managed to get the budget to get your EOC built.  It’s all installed, the communications work, you’ve just finished putting the finishing touches on your emergency response plan, and you’ve trained a team of smart, hard working folks to work in it when necessary.  You’re all set, right?

Not quite.

There’s still one step you need to take, and that’s a program of continuous exercises.  Exercises will engage your team, get them working together, and give them a chance to clarify their roles and responsibilities.  They will also help you identify any gaps in your emergency planning before the emergency hits.

There are different types of exercises that can be used to evaluate program plans, procedures and capabilities.

• Workshops
• Tabletop exercises
• Functional exercises
• Full-scale exercises

Workshops familiarize team members with emergency response plans and their roles and responsibilities as defined in the plans.  They are also a good way to bring the team together to brainstorm responses.

Tabletop exercises are a chance for team members to meet in an informal, classroom setting to discuss their roles during an emergency and their responses to an emergency.  A facilitator guides participants through a discussion of one or more scenarios. Many tabletop exercises can be conducted in a few hours, so they are cost-effective tools to validate plans and capabilities.

Functional exercises allow your team to validate the emergency plans in a simulated and controlled operational environment.  Functional exercises are designed to exercise specific team members, procedures and resources.

A full-scale exercise is as close to the real thing as possible. It will be longer and will take place on location using, as much as possible, the equipment and personnel you would use during the real thing.  An FSX is a great opportunity to bring in agencies with whom you might work in an emergency, and ensure your collective plans are synched up.

For some examples of how we at Ally have helped our clients design and run exercises to improve their emergency management programs, come check us out here.