September is National Preparedness Month!

Click here to access our National Preparedness Month Flyer!

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FAQs from June 7, 2022 Chapter Meeting:

With many businesses requiring face masks before entering; how do we plan for those that don't have them...they are hard to find and should we as a business provide these to those who don't come prepared?

• Airport is going through City contracting sources, Open contracts, and Issuing BID announcements for any vendors able to supply - COVID-19 PPE and cleaning supplies. We are also working with PORT OF LA - POLA is accessing overseas sources in Asia for some supplies. It is a constant effort - many purchasing leads do not result in products. Recently - City of LA is receiving supplies from FEMA - strategic national stockpile.
• Crowdsourced Spreadsheet For Vendors: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nW570kMal-OMvQq6xqrUilzU0Tqw9zye5MbaWIhyfdA/edit?ts=5eab241a#gid=0
• Of note, these items are beginning to become more accessible/available as we continue to manage through the supply/demand fight. Even though there are supply chain issues, find a reputable company and stick with them where possible! Remember, if a banana is .25 - .85 each, and someone is offering to sell one to you for $8, you might be able to find some better banana sources...
• Where possible, lean on the ‘requirements’ of local authorities. If you’re making decisions that are different from those in your community health guidelines, then you should run these decisions through your legal counsel.
• Finally, one of our Board Members, Jeff Edelstein is the owner of SOS Survival Products. He’s offered a discount to ACP LA Members. You can learn more at https://www.sosproducts.com/. ACP Los Angeles (10%) Discount Coupon Code: HC2656ACP.
• If you’re a public entity, you might be able to establish a public private partnership that offers a higher level of service from Amazon or a similar organization. You can learn more: https://business.amazon.com/en/work-with-us/government

What / Where is the best latest and greatest source of the latest safety guidelines? Any changes in law?

• LAWA staff has been wonderful. City workers sign Designated Disaster Service Worker (DSW) agreements - as part of Civil Service employment. The LAWA staff has pitched in to do many non-airport related jobs - Citywide. The call to serve LA is strong.
• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
• https://covid19.lacounty.gov/
• https://www.uschamber.com/article/state-by-state-business-reopening-guidance
• https://caresiliency.org/
• https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Who inspects / audits / enforces code compliance? We're on top of PPE after I pounded my team on it for weeks.

• LAWA first responders - Police and Fire personnel do get tested. Our Federal Agency Partners also do testing. Prior to ending Telecommuting - testing will probably be phased in. Definitely - those with symptoms are referred for testing and quarantine.
• From what we can gather, this really is about making an individual company decision on how you’ll choose to align with the city, state and county guidelines/rules that are put in place. Put differently, in some cases there may not be someone looking, but you still have an opportunity to do the right thing.

How are we going to manage the risks involved with the massive exposures at peaceful protests or anywhere else for that matter? Can we only expect employees to voluntarily disclose their participation at such "seeding" events?

• Bottom line: Your Human Resources Team probably has a very firm perspective on what information you can ask of your employees; issues of where they were/are; what activities they’re participating in; etc. Your responsibility becomes: “How can we strengthen the social distancing and other compliance requirements to ensure that people are as safe as they can be?”

What are the trends that you’re observing throughout the industries you’re engaged in?

• LAX has adopted many self-service KIOSKS for baggage check in and boarding passes. TSA is also limiting touching paper and ID cards - passports. All efforts are being explored to limit contact with paper and paper money.
• Other organizations have considered switching to cashless operations and prioritizing digital payments (Apple Pay and similar).
• Organizations that have the capacity to do this are exploring minimizing or even eliminating touch-screens, elevator buttons, etc. If there were a way to prevent the need to touch hi-touch surfaces, suddenly the environment is safer.
• Some contemplation of changing escalator handles/handrails, a lot of discussion around and about utilizing touchless handles, etc.

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Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) Guide to
Planning For Business Operations After Earthquakes

Here's a link to a very useful article targeted to businesses who need to plan for recovery operations after an earthquake: https://laedc.org/EQ/

3/14/2023: Chapter Event with special guest Joshua Bashioum from Early Warning Labs (EWL)

Joshua will walk us through a brief history of Earthquake Early Warning in the US, how it works, and who is using it to save lives. 

12/13/2022: Chapter Holiday Event with special guest Larry Sigler - Waffle House Index

Larry will present the background and show some examples of the various storms Waffle House has encountered recently. In addition, he will cover Waffle House's plan of action before and after the storm. Larry Sigler is the Director of Food Safety for Waffle House. His duties entail developing food safety policies for the company and coordinating these policies with the Operations Team. A 22-year Associate, Larry has been involved in designing training for the Waffle House Team and working with numerous departments in the ongoing food safety initiatives. Click here to view the recording!

10/11/2022 Chapter Event: Emergency Management in a Cultural Property Setting with Les Borsay

While we all have unique challenges in preparing for disasters the role of Emergency Preparedness in a cultural property such as a museum has the added responsibility of our shared cultural heritage. Les Borsay will discuss how his role at the J. Paul Getty Trust focuses not only on the safety of visitors and staff, but also paintings, sculptures, antiquities, photographs etc.  Click here to view the recording!

6/7/2022 Chapter Event: Moniotring Eathquakes in SoCal with Margaret Vinci

During this engaging conversation Monitoring Earthquakes in SoCal , Margaret will lead us through: The earthquake threat/risk in SoCal; History (then and now) with the 100th anniversary of the Caltech Seismology Lab; Earthquake tools for quick response decisions; Earthquake early warning implementation case studies; Keeping staff safe at work and home resources. View the recording here! 

4/5/2022 Chapter Event: Behind the scenes of a University Business Continuity Program with Steve Goldfarb and Narine Amroyan

Universities are cities within cities with large populations of students, staff and faculty. As a residential university, University of Southern California (USC) houses over 12,000 students and has extensive research and patient care operations at multiple campus locations in Southern California and across the globe. At its April 5th meeting, the Association of Continuity Professionals Los Angeles will host special presenters Narine Amroyan and Steven Goldfarb who will be sharing how USC ensures continuity of operations including the planning process, use of technology for business continuity planning (BCP), testing and response. View the recording here 

3/8/2022 Chapter Event: Continuity Talent Hiring & Retention

An engaging roundtable with Alicia Stevens, an accomplished staffing professional and member of the National Board for the Association of Contingency Planners, on how to effectively recruit stand-out candidates in the Business Continuity field. If you're looking to hire professionals who can take your organization's business continuity or disaster preparedness program to the next level, this is the event for you! View the slide deck here. View the recording here.

12/14/2021 Chapter Holiday Event

The 2021 Holiday Event featured, Garrett Pollard, Senior Disaster Recovery Sales Specialist with Amazon Web Services. Garrett has spent nearly a decade supporting organizations to develop and implement disaster recovery strategies to build resilience and business continuity in information technology sectors.

10/5/2021 Chapter Event: RoundTable Resume Workshop with Alicia Stevens

An engaging roundtable with Alicia Stevens, the Director of Program Development and Membership for the ACP Orange County Chapter, on how to build a stand-out resume, what BC job recruiters are looking for, how to best manage your Linkedin profile, and so much more! Alicia is an accomplished staffing professional with over 20 years of combined HR and Staffing experience in the public and private sectors. Alicia is responsible for implementing strategies that enable BC Management to recruit a high performing and motivated workforce for her clients. Alicia specializes in talent management, staffing, executive search, employment development, compensation analysis and coaching and career development. Bottom line: if you want to know what recruiters and managers are looking for, you want to know what Alicia's thinking! View the recording HERE. View the presentation HERE.

8/19/2021 Chapter Event: COVID Trends & Experiences Discussion (ACP LA Members Only)

At a special August 19th meeting, the Association of Continuity Professionals will host a discussion for ACP members only on COVID-19 trends and experiences in the field of business continuity and emergency management.

6/8/2021 Chapter Event: Preparing for the New Era of Civil Unrest with Special Guest Steven Crimando

Business continuity, security and emergency management professionals can benefit from a knowledge and understanding of the causes, warning signs and behavioral dynamics of groups, crowds and mobs that are associated with violent and destructive behavior. Such an understanding better prepares professionals for the new challenges associated with the use of social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and globalization as they relate to the development of civil unrest and the potential of dangerous and violent collective behavior. This updated 60-minute program provides timely, actionable information to better protect their organizations’ personnel and assets in response to potential group, crowd or mob situations. Here is a link to the current issue of Crowd magazine, a UK-based international publication. Steve's article re: armed protests begins on page 44. Click here to access the recording. Click here to access the slide deck

3/9/2021 Chapter Event: Adaptive: A More Challenging View of Business Continuity and Resilience

Led by Mark Amour - Business Continuity is far more difficult than we are ever prepared for. When we first enter the profession this appears to be the case but then we are given a clear roadmap with the assurance that, if we stick to prescribed path, we will achieve our objective of properly preparing our organizations to respond and recover effectively should a disaster occur. The truth is the task of organizational preparedness is far more multidimensional than the linear approach associated with our profession’s standards. And it requires far more of the practitioner – in terms of skills, experience and expertise – than simply learning a methodology. In this session learn just how different the Adaptive approach is to traditional business continuity and why it requires that you get out of your comfort zone in order to practice it effectively. Click here to access the recording! (PW: iU^1cpfk)