Grant Makers Council of Rhode Island

John Holt-American Red Cross CEO- John Holt was the first speaker and he shared his three priority needs from the funding community should a disaster strike. The first need is funding for blankets; comfort kits; food; and cots for the existing shelters. With 150,000 people living in the flood plane, if a hurricane would strike these items would be critical given the fact that a percentage of individuals would be living temporarily in the shelter, not all 150,000. There are currently twenty-four shelters along with CCRI and URI which would be set up in an emergency situation. Total accommodation in all facilities would be 20,000. The second need John expressed went out to all corporations in attendance. He asked that ACR have the opportunity to come out and meet with and train employees on disaster preparedness. ACS has a pamphlet which can be given to each employee that will help prepare them and their families for an emergency. It lists the three most important ways we each can prepare for an emergency. ACS is asking all corporations to call him directly to set up a 30-45 minute presentation. His phone at work is 831-7700 x105. His cell number 439-6552. His email is holtj@riredcross.org and website www.riredcross.org

Or you can contact Angie at 413-5640. He is particularly interested in reaching out to the minority community with this information. The third need John asked for was a designated point of contact within GCRI in order to set up a good communication system in order to put protocol in place. Susan Neupauer, GCRI’s Executive Director will act as the point person to the American Red Cross.

Bob Warren- Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency Executive Director- Bob spoke about the need to have all corporations within the communication loop in advance of any disaster. He suggested that all corporations and GCRI get into RIEMA’s system which is NIMS- National Incident Management System . He suggested that key people within all corporations should be trained on NIMS. Basic Training can be achieved by going on line to www.fema.gov. The best person to take this training or at least become knowledgeable about the terminology would be the person within the corporation whose charge it would be to reach out and offer help during an emergency.

GCRI will hold a follow up meeting at RIEMA’s headquarters and all attendees will receive a brief training on the system. More details to follow. Bob also talked about another way for us to become part of the communication loop and that is to become a part of NEDRIX.

New England Disaster Recovery Information X-Change (NEDRIX) is a non-profit organization with more than 1200 active members throughout the six New England States. NEDRIX was formed as an organization in August 1991, to provide a low cost venue for disaster recovery and business continuity planning professionals from the six New England states to meet and share effective disaster recovery and business continuity ideas and experiences.

NEDRIX offers two 1 day conferences (February and June) and a 2 ½ day annual conference (October). One of NEDRIX signature events is the Simulation Exercise that has been conducted on the last day of the annual conference since inception. This event over the years has grown in popularity and notoriety. Symposiums are held to address special interest topics. For example, in April, 2004 NEDRIX had a symposium to prepare for the Democratic National Convention held in August, 2004 in Boston, MA. We attract leading business continuity vendors to our conferences and symposiums. The vendor area is open at various times so vendors are able showcase industry products, services and technologies to assist our continuity professionals in their planning, testing and maintenance of their continuity plans.

We are also committed to promoting a working relationship between the private and public sectors to ensure a more effective, collective response to events that cause or threaten to cause wide spread disruption to mission critical industrial, economic and government functions. We currently have Public / Private Sector Regional Committees in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Maine and Connecticut committees are in the process of being formed.

As an FYI-below is the listing of NEDRIX private sector team members here in RI-

Rhode Island Public/Private Sector Regional Team Leader	Lori Adamo - Code Red Business Continuity Services	Phone: (401) 785-4911
Rhode Island Public/Private Sector Regional Team Members
	Bill DeFeo - Code Red Business Continuity Services, LLC
	David Coccia - Mastors and Servant
	Peter Davey - American Window Film/3M
	Jean Malafronte - Blue Cross Blue Shield of RI
	Mary Ladouceur - Textron Financial
	George Salter - Insurance Reconstruction Services
	Fred Wilson - Beacon Mutual Insurance Co.

Finally, Bob talked about another group of disaster support that we should join and that is the COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM- This is a group comprised of volunteers throughout each state who will play a support role in the community when a disaster strikes. GCRI’s Executive Director Susan Neupauer and Board President Karen Davis will represent our organization on this committee.

GCRI will be hosting another follow up meeting at RIEMA’s headquarters in December. More information will follow.