Deepen Your Disaster Readiness Summit

This invitation-only event was held on Tuesday, October 5, 2010, for Bay Area nonprofits involved in The San Francisco Foundation’s Disaster Preparedness Technical Assistance Program.

Support for the summit provided by The San Francisco Foundation, The California Endowment, and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.

When:
Tuesday, October 5, 2010

8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Registration and light breakfast

9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Program and lunch

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Networking Reception

Where:
The California Endowment Conference Center
1111 Broadway, 7th floor
Oakland
Directions
Walking distance from Oakland’s 12th Street BART Station

The conference center is accessible to people with disabilities.

Videos

Click here to watch videos of many of the sessions online.

Sessions  

Opening Plenary

Keynote: Karen Baker, Secretary for Service and Volunteering, CaliforniaVolunteers, Office of the Governor

Simultaneous Sessions: In-Depth Workshops

• Maintaining and Practicing Your Disaster Plan and Embedding Preparedness into Your Agency – Deborah Kent, President, DKSF Consulting, and Stasha Wyskiel, Manager, Business Continuity Planning, Gap, Inc.

Download their presentation [note: 4 MB PDF]

Download their handout [PDF]

Nonprofit organizations can bring preparedness to the forefront of employee and management awareness in ways that are practical, efficient, and non-intrusive and that sustain their planning accomplishments. Learn ways to keep your disaster preparedness plan up to date, raise staff awareness around disaster planning issues, and design and implement training options and drills to enable your agency to respond with confidence during a time of crisis.

• Strategic Communications in a Disaster: Developing Your Voice and Crafting Your Message – Sara Ying Rounsaville, Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications, The San Francisco Foundation

Download her presentation [PDF]

When a disaster hits, what you say, how you say it, and to whom you communicate your message will be critical. Learn how to identify your key audiences, write your key messages, and get the word out when it counts the most through this conversation and tips on communicating effectively when the stakes are high.

• Engaging Volunteers for Effective Response and Recovery – John Power, Executive Director, and Jill Blackburn, Consulting and Training Manager, The Volunteer Center Serving San Francisco and San Mateo Counties

Download their presentation [PDF]

Download their handout [PDF]

After a disaster, thousands of people will drop everything to help those affected and offer their time and energy to assist local agencies. When a large number of them show up at the door of your organization, what will you do? Your existing volunteers will also be valuable assets. How will you use them at that time? Learn what you can do now to be ready when that time comes through this interactive session to help you understand how to maximize the help you already have and engage the help you need.

Simultaneous Sessions: Targeted Conversations with the Experts

• Generators – To Buy or Not to Buy? – Javier Moreno, Project Coordinator, Orfalea Fund’s Aware & Prepare Initiative, and John Boro, Power Generation Sales Engineer, and Alex Cruz, Onan Generator Sales, Cummins West, Inc.  
  

Download their handout [PDF]

Determining whether or not to purchase a generator to power your organizations in a disaster has many dimensions – specific purpose, cost, nuts and bolts issues of installation, permitting, maintenance, and training. Delve into these issues with our experts and learn what other nonprofits have done.

• Creative Approaches to Reaching Your Audiences through Social Media – Âna-Marie Jones, Executive Director, CARD – Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters

Download her presentation [note: 2 MB PDF]

Social media is transforming the way people across the world connect. Nonprofit organizations are successfully using social media to raise awareness, advocate for change, fundraise, and communicate directly with internal and external audiences. This session will explore ways to use social media for emergency management, community preparedness, and building resilience. Learn how social media platforms – including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter – provide fast, fun, free ways to engage in emergency preparedness and disaster response.

• Human Resources in Disaster: Compensation and Other Issues – Andrew Sommer, Senior Attorney, Labor and Employment Practice, Epstein, Becker and Green, P.C. 
  

Download his handout [PDF]

Managers and human resources professionals may encounter a range of unique employment issues in case of disaster. These issues include compensation practices relating to employees who due to emergency are unable to report to work, must work longer hours than usual, or must carry out tasks that are different from their regular work. Explore these topics as well as leave of absence laws and other workplace issues that may arise in this situation.

• Communicating in Times of Disaster: Tools of the Trade – Dena Gunning, Emergency Services Manager, Thrive – The Alliance of Nonprofits for San Mateo County
  

The ability to communicate with your staff, nonprofit partners, and government will be critical to your operations in a disaster. Learn about ham radios and other two-way communication devices and how you can use them to connect within your organization to implement your plans, request and offer services and resources, and coordinate with others.

Lunch with Government Representatives from Your County

Meet with representatives of your local office of emergency services, health department, human services agency and others to discuss your disaster plans and areas for collaboration and coordination. Network and share ideas with other nonprofits working in your county.

Table-top Exercise to Practice Disaster Response and Coordination

Test your own planning assumptions and practice disaster response and coordination with others in your sector (food, shelter, health, mental health, information and referral) through this engaging simulation exercise. Share ideas with colleagues, and gather lessons to improve your own organization’s disaster plan.

Download the following PDF materials:

• Table-top presentation
• Table-top scenario
• Table-top ICS chart
  
• Shelter sector table-top materials
• Food sector table-top materials
• Health sector table-top materials
• Mental health sector table-top materials
  
• I&R sector table-top materials

Closing Remarks

Sandra R. Hernández, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, The San Francisco Foundation

Reception

Continue networking with colleagues over food and drink in the conference center lobby.