Anna Bathon NationsBank

Nancy Belew Data Safe Storage, Inc.

Jim Bosse JPAR Enterprises

Ann Ficken Edward Jones

Herman Kriegshauser Kriegshauser Mortuaries

Tamra O’Brien Data Safe Storage, Inc.

Timothy Proost A. G. Edwards & Sons

Tom Roeseler NationsBank

Joan Speaker Data Safe Storage, Inc.

Tim Woerther NationsBank

The regular general business meeting of the Mid-America Contingency Planning Forum was held at NationsBank Plaza on Thursday, September 24, 1998, at 3:00 p.m.

President Tom Roeseler welcomed all members and guests and thanked them for attending. The minutes of the August 20 meeting were not available for review.

An update on the 1998 Program took place. The October meeting will be held on October 15 at A. G. Edwards EOC in Creve Coeur and the November meeting will be on the 19^th at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. The December meeting will be held the first T hursday (December 3) due to the holidays. Mr. Woerther indicated that the Board was compiling a list of topics for 1999 meetings; and anyone with suggested topics or volunteers to host meetings should contact Tim Proost, the group's Program Director, at 3 14/955-5374.

There were no new topics presented for discussion; so Tom Roeseler moved the meeting on to the featured presentation and introduced Tim Woerther to the group. The featured topic was PC Disaster Recovery from the Desktop to the Server.

Tim discussed some of the reasons for and means of backing up your critical data. He answered the critical question: "If your hard disk drive bit the dust, would you panic?" Following are the main points of his presentation:

• Four ways to increase your reliability – backups, electrical protection, hard drive maintenance, and virus protection.
• Backups:
• ALWAYS, ALWAYS back up critical data.
• Use an Operating System Utility.
• Choose a product to assist with backups. Be familiar with features and procedures before deciding which to use.
• Once you decide how, then decide how often and when.
• Always keep at least one generation off site and TEST your backups.

• Electrical Protection:
• How do you protect your PCs – surge protection power strips, battery backup power.
• Don’t let cost deter you from quality equipment – compare!
• If you encounter problems with commercial power in your area, consider a UPS system.
• Static electricity is a little known problem for PC components.
• Hard Drive Maintenance:
• Costs have decreased and reliability has increased.
• A good drive utility can help recover and prevent problems!
• You must install the utility before a problem occurs.
• Regularly scan your hard drive; optimize your hard drive for performance.
• If you experience a file loss or other disk problem – DO NOT PANIC!!
• Virus Protection:
• 3 ways to prevent virus infection – NEVER share files; NEVER connect with other computers; NEVER add new software – OR - don’t expect to do any work!
• Protect your system with anti-virus software.
• Good anti-virus programs provide updates of virus signature files and can be obtained via the Internet or email.
• Be aware of Word Macro and Excel Macro viruses.
• Conclusion:
• Backup all critical data, rotate tapes, and test your backups!
• Electrical protection with quality surge protection components.
• Hard drive maintenance with regular scans and optimization.
• Virus protection – recognize warning signs and have a good anti-virus software.

The next meeting of the MCPF group will be held on Thursday, October 15, 1998, 3:00 p.m., at the A. G. Edwards Emergency Operations Center in Creve Coeur. The featured topic will be Corporate Emergency Operations Centers presented by Tim Proost of A. G. Edwards & Sons.

There being no further business, this meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m.

Recorded by: Anna M. Bathon

Secretary

Office: 314/466-3509

Fax: 314/466-3921