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Mass Communication Technology
7 Best Practices for Emergency Notification
8/1/2007
More often than not, I think that is the case." But it shouldn't be. Rely on a single empowered and experienced individual or, at most, a small, fast-moving team, to get the word out, say the pros. Before formulating those messages, says UNCW's Lawson, the questions to ask are these: What happens? Who needs to know? What do they need to know? How often do they need to know it? In what format? What are the best ways to reach them?LAUGHING FROM THE PIER
BOTH CINDY LAWSON at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and John Lawson (no relation) at Western Washington University are fans of the Public Information and Emergency Response (PIER) System, which has only recently entered the higher education arena (the WWU deployment was still being finalized as of this writing). PIER includes a suite of tools for distributing emergency notification via the expected means: website, e-mail, fax, SMS, text-to-voice, even digital display. But at its heart are the planning mechanisms it makes available to users, to pre-write different forms of messages, pre-populate distribution lists, and help manage the emergency or crisis communication process.
"More often than not, a crisis event is going to occur in a location like an administration building, auditorium, or classroom," says UNCW's Lawson."We've uploaded to PIER all of the buildings and their descriptions: what's housed in them, etcetera.We've tried to come up with as much background information as we can, as many different databases as we need, who needs to sign off on what. It really makes you think through that whole process." In fact, UNCW has developed databases for a multitude of groups: students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, members of the media, and the like. When a notification needs to be sent, says Lawson, "We can send messages out to all or some of those constituent groups or just one individual, with the press of one button. Can we do it without PIER? Sure. But it's usually multiple processes that are a lot more cumbersome."
5) One Size Does Not Fit All: Simultaneously Push Alerts in Different Formats
When a fugitive with a gun showed up on the campus of the University of New Mexico, the institution's emergency management committee, chaired by the police chief of the campus, immediately sent out e-mail to everyone on campus, telling them to stay inside their buildings. That message was then followed up with another when the crisis was over, advising the community that the individual had been apprehended. Unfortunately, many recipients, especially students, were unaware of the incident until hours later, simply because they weren't in front of a computer to receive e-mail.
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