Business and Organization Preparedness

Visit the Red Cross ReadyRating.org site for a self-evaluation of your business planBusiness (and organizational) Preparedness - also known as Business Continuity - is fairly simple on the face of it according to Wendy Freitag, the Washington State Emergency Management Division's Business Liaison:

Develop plans to handle these four circumstances:

  • Fire or other building failure forcing evacuation
  • Inability of staff to get to work (whether due to sickness or transportation reasons)
  • Technology failure
  • Failure of any unique supplies or resources your organization needs to work

Having basic plans and backup resources identified and possibly under contract can help businesses handle a wide range of routine and exceptional incidents including fire, pandemic or earthquake. Accomplishing this requires a plan and there are commonly a number of templates, useful guidence and pitfalls that VashonBePrepared hopes to explain in this section of our web site.

For more details, see this step by step guide to developing your business' preparedness plan.

If your business has a critical reliance access to off-island supplies, be sure you or your shipper has applied for access to the Washington State Business Re-Entry Registration at https://mil.wa.gov/uploads/pdf/PLANS/business-re-entry-bre-registration-program-document.pdf

Also see this professionally accepted guidance to create a Business Continuity Plan:
http://disastersafety.org/ibhs-business-protection/ofb-ez-business-continuity

Business & Organization Preparedness Links

Key Online Resources 

As you can see, there are PLENTY of resources out there already. The issue is finding current, state-of-the-art guidence and information that applies to the scale of business you are running.

Business NERO (BNERO)

Vashon Chamber of Commerce's Executive Director Debi Richards addresses an initial meeting of Vashon's Business NERO groupDebi Richards at the Vashon Chamber of Commerce is spearheading Vashon's Business Preparedness efforts, under the BNERO moniker. Contact the Chamber to be included in future mailings and meeting notices. Also check the NERO organizational page in our partners section.

Read about the initial BNERO meetings here and stop back for updates in this spot.

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