MINUTES
General Membership Meeting
February 21, 2002 3:00 p.m.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Attendees:
Arnold, Richard....................
Disaster Recovery Journal
Mitchell, John.................
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Bathon, Anna....................... Bank of America
Musson, Melvyn............. Edward Jones
Battig, Kim.......................... Firstar Corporation
Paddock, Milan.............. First Services, L.P.
Bausch, Fred....................... Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. Pearce, Edward..............
First Services, L.P.
Bender, Jay......................... J. G. Bender & Associates Pessin, Sam.................. American
Red Cross
Bozada, Rick....................... Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Prater, John................... Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Daniel, Tim ......................... State of MO Homeland Security Price, Kent....................
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
Davenport, Dennis................
Clayton Police Department
Seals, Jon..................... Disaster Recovery Journal
Davies, Tad.......................... The Bick Group
Shorkey, Sheila..............
American Red Cross
Davis, Steven....................... The Bick Group
Smiley, Michael.............
St. Louis County Police Dept.
Dolgin, Harlan...................... Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri Spears, Keith.................
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Donley, Dean....................... Guardsmark, Inc.
Stephenson, R.
Duenke, Ken........................ Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri Swartz, Angie................
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Faintich, David.....................
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. Thomas, Jr., Paul ..........
DRI International
G’Sell, David........................ Deutsche Financial Services
Venturella, Jr.,
Ben......... FEMA Region V Info & Planning
Gliane, Al............................ Chubb Group
Wallace, Douglas........... American Red Cross
Harper, Brad........................ Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Whitworth, Gary.............
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri
Hill, Pete............................. Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Wiesmann, J.
R. ........... Inflow
Hoffmann, III,
James............. Recall Total Information Mgt. Wietrup, Deb.................. Blue
Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri
Kriegshauser,
Herman ............. Salvation Army Will, Scott..................... Maryland Heights Police Dept.
Laney, Merlin....................... A. G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. Woerther, Tim................ SBC
Services
Lowell, J. A.......................... St. Louis Mayor’s Office
Woodcock, Gary............ Inflow, Inc.
Mays, Debbie....................... BJC
The regular General Membership Meeting of the MidAmerica Contingency Planning Forum was held on Thursday, February 21, 2002, at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, beginning at 3:00 p.m.
President Angie Swartz welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions around the floor were made by all.
The minutes of the January Meeting were reviewed and approved. President Swartz indicated the minutes would be distributed to the overall membership the next week.
Program Director Harlan Dolgin reviewed the 2002 Program and commented that a current list of the meeting dates and planned topics was available at the sign-in table.
Treasurer David G'Sell commented that the annual membership materials had been distributed and encouraged everyone to submit their renewals.
New business was the next topic. Fred Bausch
of Anheuser-Busch Companies mentioned that the former Comdisco Users Group was
still in existence and he would like to work toward keeping it going in light
of their purchase by Sungard. Anyone interested in participating in this group
should contact Fred at Fred.Bausch@anheuser-busch.com or 314-577-4908.
President Angie proceeded to review upcoming activities in the business continuity
world. These included:
· DRJ Spring Conference - March 10-13
· CPM 2002 - April 15-17
· SEMA MEPA Conference - April 1-3
· DRI Course for certification - Angie is gathering names for participants
to potentially scheduling a class
President Swartz then moved to the featured presentation - State of Missouri's Homeland Security Efforts. Our featured speaker was Tim Daniel, Special Advisor for Homeland Security for the State of Missouri, appointed by Governor Holden.
¨ Mr. Daniel commented he felt this
meeting would be an opportunity for him to learn concerns and suggestions from
the group. Since 9/26/01 in his Homeland Security role, he has spoken to numerous
individual from local representatives to President Bush and driven over 14,000
miles gathering information.
¨ The sense of urgency following the 9/11 attacks prompted a panel study
of homeland security and the results will be published on their website ---
www.homelandsecurity.state.mo.us.
¨ Terrorists have no legitimacy. Osama bin Laden and his followers are trying
to destroy confidence in America. He is considered the most dangerous enemy
we've ever faced.
¨ He is charismatic.
¨ His followers are "hidden" in our society.
¨ They are apocalyptic; following a dark mission and living in 14th century
style.
¨ They know American culture is "insidious; do not like Western culture.
¨ Osama bin Laden is considered a cult leader.
¨ They have a tremendous source of cash resources.
¨ He is an engineer.
¨ Since bin Laden knows they cannot take down the military, they must strike
at our global economy. The 9/11 attacks are considered the worst attack ever.
¨ American people need to demand change to be protected against terrorism.
¨ The American military will dominate well into the future.
¨ People need to understand that you may take out a terrorist, but will
not eliminate the "ism".
¨ Osama wants America out of the Mideast so he can handle local dictators
and keep America at arm's length.
¨ Our security environment has fundamentally changed. We are all soldiers
now and each must do our part to protect the global economy.
¨ A few threats we face include:
¨ Nuclear detonation anywhere would cause us to change how we look at things
and could cause our economy to crash.
¨ Bio-terrorism - a very real threat. It's been demonstrated to our enemies
that if we don't do something to better prepare ourselves, this weapon could
have a tremendous devastating impact.
¨ Smallpox - we currently are not protected against a smallpox outbreak.
¨ Anthrax - showed our enemies how unprepared we are and what insufficiencies
we have. Our emergency medical health system and public health infrastructure
needs to be reviewed and revamped.
¨ America needs to do syndromics surveillance and better organize our public
services groups.
¨ Cyber-terrorism - the danger is not immediate, but very real.
¨ Aviation security.
¨ Chemical threats - very difficult to use outside of explosives. The risk
is not worth the reward.
¨ Conventional attacks - Al Queda's method is to use suicide bomb belts.
Normally, this type of activity does not tear an economy apart.
¨ Missouri's Security Panel has divided
the state into nine regions in line with the Missouri State Patrol. The panel
is identifying shortfalls and allocating funds. They cannot ignore the needs
of the rural community within the State.
¨ America feels it is entitled to absolute security. To ensure this, we
must reduce our vulnerability and increase our preparedness. We also need to
adapt a new security environment and put things in proper perspective.
¨ Contingency planners should use caution about what they recommend to management
relative to changes resulting from the 9/11 attacks.
¨ Currently, the terrorists have been interrupted. We now have a window
of opportunity to do something about increasing our preparedness.
Mr. Daniel then fielded questions from
the audience highlighting the following points:
¨ Companies need to review how their business is distributed.
¨ We all need to come together in public/private partnerships.
¨ The State is developing a critical asset plan, using the British model.
Their reaction is not to go into panic mode that then gives legitimacy to terrorism.
The Israeli model is high tension and unsafe atmosphere, lending legitimacy
to terrorism.
The next General Meeting will be held on Thursday, March 21, 2002, beginning at 3:00 p.m. The topic will be Terrorism in Missouri - Can it Happen Here? Special Agent Alan Luvin of the FBI will be the featured speaker.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:35 p.m.
Recorded by: Anna M. Bathon, CBCP
MCPF Secretary
Office: 314-466-3509
Fax: 314-466-3939
Email: anna.bathon@bankofamerica.com