Having a resilient, documented, shared and practiced Business Continuity Plan is key to your unit’s ability to effectively survive an unexpected catastrophic event. Being able to respond and adapt quickly, with little or no impact to normal business operations requires planning and regular testing to ensure that everyone prepared and ready to act. The brown bag lunch sessions and the table top training exercises listed below, will help further develop and mature your unit’s business continuity plan while further establishing a built in cultural awareness of the need to be prepared.
Brown Bag Lunch Sessions
Additional topics have been added for the spring semester. Please read below and RSVP to wyatt@ohio.edu for any session that you would like to attend. Space is limited in most instances.
Information Security Laws and Policies related to Business Continuity Planning
Tuesday, Jan. 16
Noon – 1 p.m.
Baker University Center Room 235
Offices have a variety of legal and policy responsibilities to securely handle and store sensitive information before, during and after disasters. Bruce Tong, senior auditor, will discuss a number of these responsibilities.
How to Create a Departmental Evacuation Plan (and How They Help Emergency Responders) + Bonus Fire Extinguisher Training
Monday, Feb. 12
Noon - 1 p.m.
Baker University Center Room 237
Does your office staff have an assembly point when a building evacuation is ordered? What if you have visitors or guests? Someone with a broken leg? Ohio University Fire Safety Manager Aaron Stanford will present on the importance of all employees knowing their role during a building evacuation. BONUS: After the presentation, fire extinguisher training will be offered.
Planning AS a Team, not FOR a Team!
Monday, March 26
Noon - 1 p.m.
Baker University Center Room 237
Brenda Phillips, professor of sociology and associate dean of Chillicothe Campus, will present on the importance of developing a business continuity plan with the input and expertise of those who will be asked to respond.
IT Security Tips for Your Home
Tuesday, April 17
Noon - 1 p.m.
Baker University Center Room 235
Mike Elliott, information security analyst, will provide valuable information on the unprecedented amount of risks and threats that are present in our everyday lives. Calls for fundamental changes to existing IT security strategies are being developed. Topics will include online banking, protecting children online, protecting your identity, securing your computer and home network, spam, viruses and more.
ALiCE (Active Shooter) Training
Tuesday, May 15
10 am – noon
Baker University Center Room 240-242
Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter & Evacuate (ALiCE). One goal of this training is to encourage and promote this discussion but to also help you to be more prepared should an active should an active shooter incident occur. Test your readiness, learn about options and gain confidence in your abilities to react by attending this session. This session will be live streamed so that regional campuses and centers may participate.
Table Top Exercises for Offices
The Office of Emergency Programs will begin to initiate 1-2 hour department-specific table top exercises in the coming year. This training will simulate an emergency situation that will have a direct impact on the standard business operations of the campus community. This hypothetical situation might involve a cyber-attack (lack of internet for weeks or months), active shooter, pandemic flu outbreak, explosion, terrorism, tornado, or other unexpected event. The emergency programs manager will facilitate a conversation between participants throughout the exercise, pausing at various staged points in the program to review and discuss actions that the unit would undertake to mitigate loss and/or continue operations. This exercise is designed to test individual unit preparedness in an informal, low stress environment and the goal is for participants to use the experience as an opportunity to better understand and acknowledge risk potential and to clarify roles and responsibilities. The exercise will hopefully result in a clearer vision and understanding of how the unit will/can function post-crisis, as well as to develop a series of “action steps” to further build resiliency into the unit’s business continuity plan.
Email wyatt@ohio.edu if you are interested in scheduling a table top exercise for your team. Please include the office name and anticipated date/time and location for the exercise and the point person’s contact information.
This information was provided by the Office of Emergency Programs.