Activation Instructions
[Describe the conditions under which this plan would be activated and who would be responsible and have the authority for the activation]
Introduction
[Give the mission of the organization; describe the purpose for the plan; explain under what circumstances it would be activated; explain how the plan will be used by the organization; depict the expected outcome of the plan activation; give the assumptions used in the development of the plan; and give an overview of the structure that will implement it.
NOTE: If the mission of your organization is emergency response, conducting your routine mission is not a crisis. A crisis is a situation in which you cannot conduct your routine mission. In other words, if the fire department responds to a fire, that may be a crisis to the customer, but not to the fire department. If the fire department hooks up their hose to a hydrant and nothing comes out, that’s a crisis to the fire department and is the type of crisis that a plan needs to be written for. Don’t write a plan for accomplishment of your routine mission.]
Critical Organizational Functions
[Give the critical processes and products that must be maintained when operating in crisis mode. Describe what would cause the organization to fail that must be avoided.]
Threat Forecast
(Give an overview of the likely and not-so-likely threats that the organization could face. Include those from natural disasters; man-made disasters; global warming; and any that were generated from the threat forecasting exercise in the forums. You MUST acknowledge and accommodate those threats identified by your instructor and classmates in the forums. Be VERY specific and detailed. ‘My organizations faces a myriad of threats’ is not a threat forecast.
NOTE: A fictitious disaster is defined as something that someone else did or something that did not happen at all that your organization is blamed for. Examples include false newspaper stories. Fictitious disasters are typically handled by the Public Relations function.
ALSO NOTE: Use of the word ‘Zombie’ in this exercise will cause your plan to be returned for resubmission.)
Pre-Crisis Mitigation Actions
(Based upon the threat forecast, describe how your organization will plan to mitigate threats so they will never evolve into crises. Write a mitigation action for each identified threat.)
Planning Scenarios
[Describe how the organization would respond to different scenarios: natural and man-made disasters not of its making; product and process disasters of its own making; scenarios in which blame is leveled on the organization for issues it had nothing to do with. Be specific to every identified threat.]
Teams and Authorities
[List the contingency teams that will organize to respond to the crisis and the authority it will operate under. Many organizations form special teams to deal with special situations. If your organization is small and uses its routine organization for threat response, that’s fine.]
Recovery and Restoration
(Describe how your organization will recover once the crisis has past. Give a recovery plan for each threat, plus talk about how the organization as a whole will recover.)
Appendices
Appendix A
[Give specific contact information of the individuals on your crisis action teams]
Appendix B
[Give detailed processes for implementing this plan – who, what, when, where, how]
Appendix C
[Give team taskings]
Appendix D
[Describe who and under what circumstances this plan will be maintained]
Appendix E
[Create an approval page for leadership to use in approving this plan]
