Deane Adam American Red Cross

Frank Arnoldy, Jr. City of Crestwood

Anna Bathon NationsBank

Theresa Beldner Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Tim Bonno Southwestern Bell

Wendy Borowsky Emerg. Animal Rescue Svc.

Christy Conrad Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Gayla Daugherty BJC Health System

Valerie DeMesa-Bruemmer United Animal Nations EARS

Dean Donley Guardsmark, Inc.

John Doyle Mobile Systems, Inc.

Patsy Duncan Steamatic Catastrophe Svcs.

Carolyn Gonzalez MasterCard International James Stearns Magna Group, Inc.

Nick Gragnani St. Louis County EOC

Dara Hoffman United Animal Nations EARS

David Hughes Graybar Electric

Dan Huser McBaine Cont.

Linda Jensen Southwestern Bell

Catherine Kimball MasterCard International

The regular general business meeting of the Mid-America Contingency Planning Forum was held at the St. Louis County Emergency Operations Center on Thursday, May 21, 1998, at 3:00 p.m.

President Tom Roeseler welcomed all members and guests and thanked them for attending. The next order of business was a review of the April meeting minutes. Tom mentioned the June meeting scheduled at Steamatic Catastrophe Services and commented that anyone wishing to add topics to the list should let him know. There being no additional discussion, the April minutes were accepted as approved.

An update on the 1998 Program took place, and Tom commented that copies of the schedule were available at the sign-in table. The June 9 Crisis Management seminar has been postponed at this time. We are looking to reschedule, possibly in early October. Information will be available once this has been scheduled.

Mr. Roeseler reminded all present of the membership raffle -- If you (a current member) bring a guest and the guest becomes a member, your name will go into a drawing held quarterly. The prize will be a $50 gift certificate to St. Louis Galleria.

Public/Private Partnerships was the next order of business. Tim Bonno provided the group with an update on the progress of this program. A draft of a plan for the business/industry seat in the Missouri State Emergency Operations Center was distributed. The core team from the MCPF consists of Tim Bonno, Tom Roeseler, and Angie Swartz. In moving ahead with this project, future meeting sign-in sheets will list fax numbers and electronic mail addresses so members can verify the accuracy. These two means of communication will be utilized to communicate emergency status to our membership if the need should arise. Direct telephone calls will not be an option for this communication. Quarterly meetings with the State are moving ahead. Cape Girardeau is becoming involved due to their Disaster Resistant Community status; and Sikeston is beginning to be involved as well.

Mike Smiley of the County EOC invited all attendees to tour their facilities following the meeting. This included a tour of the Mobile Operations Unit vehicle.

New Business included mention of terrorism training by the Department of Defense. 120 communities have been designated to receive this training, which is a week-long class. If you receive this training, the DOD would look to you to go into your community and train others.

The featured presentation was the next agenda item. Theresa Yohn, Special Projects Manager of KMOV Channel 4, discussed Media Management. Handouts were provided to attendees. Theresa showed a brief video of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital fire and discussed things that went right and what could have been done differently to put the hospital in a better light following the situation. Highlights of her presentation included:

• Be assured the media will be on site when something happens at your facilities.
• Think about where your employees will evacuate to – will they encounter the media?
• Who has been designated as media spokesperson? Do they know what their role entails? Are the located locally?
• To the media, the size of the event determines their response – A minor event would require a single reporter; a local event would entail live coverage; and an event of major proportion would bring a satellite truck to the scene. This would give you some idea of the coverage being given to the event.
• Spokespersons would get minimal airtime and the company does not get prior approval before airtime.
• Preventing the media access to information could work against the company. Reasonable access is necessary.
• Provide timely updates and identify where these updates will be given. Ensure the media representatives are aware of the update schedule.
• Only tell the media what they are asking for; don’t offer additional information.
• If problems with the media arise, report problems to the station. The hierarchy at the station begins with the Executive Producer to the Assistant News Director to the News Director and finally to the General Manager. Follow this flow when reporting issues.
• If media tapes about 40 minutes of an interview, only approximately 1.20 minutes appears on air. What will be said during that clip?
• Keep in mind that the media needs you more than you need them. Make company records accessible to them. If not, they will ask "What are you hiding?"
• Ensure your public relations representative is in touch with law enforcement officials throughout the emergency process. Communicate any public relations messages to your associates as well.
• Get to know your law enforcement and media representatives.

The next meeting of the MCPF group will be held on Thursday, June 18, 1998, 3:00 p.m., at Steamatic Catastrophe Services in Bridgeton. The featured topic will be Business Facility Restoration Topics presented by Mark Rocco of Steamatic.

This meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

Recorded by: Anna M. Bathon

Secretary

Office: 314/466-3509

Fax: 314/466-3921