MINUTES
MID-AMERICA CONTINGENCY PLANNING FORUM
GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING
April 16, 1998 2:00 PM
Southwestern Bell Telephone
Present (
according to sign in sheet):Deane Adam American Red Cross
Melvyn Musson Musson Consulting
Frank Arnoldy, Jr. City of Crestwood
Ron Presson EPI, Inc.
Anna Bathon NationsBank
Timothy Proost A. G. Edwards & Sons
Theresa Beldner Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Joe Rachel FEMA
Jay Bender DRI International
Tom Roeseler NationsBank
Tim Bonno Southwestern Bell Marsha
Shannon Missouri SEMA
Scott Christensen Disaster Recovery Journal
Sue Schooler The Home Depot
Valerie DeMesa-Bruemmer United Animal Nations EARS
Lisa Smallwood NationsBank
John Doyle Mobile Systems, Inc.
Mike Smiley St. Louis County EOC
Jerry Goff Franklin County EMA
Joan Speaker Data Safe Storage
Nick Gragnani St. Louis County EOC
Dirk Stringer Jefferson County EMA
David G’Sell Express Scripts, Inc.
Mike Sullivan St. Louis City EMA
Dara Hoffman United Animal Nations EARS
Angela Swartz Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Linda Jensen Southwestern Bell
Paul Thomas City of Kirkwood
Judy Kocinski NationsBank
Randy Till MasterCard International
Herman Kriegshauser Kriegshauser Mortuaries
Russ Todd Maryland Heights EMA
Leo Lukowski Citicorp
Jerry Uhlmann Missouri SEMA
John Mangiameli DRI International
Linda Vandas Mobile Systems, Inc.
Patrick McCarthy Special Services
Ken Walk St. Louis City EMA
David McHenry United Parcel Service
Tim Woerther NationsBank
John Miller FEMA
Robert Young St. Louis County EOC
The regular general business meeting of the Mid-America Contingency Planning Forum was held at the Southwestern Bell Telephone offices on Thursday, April 16, 1998, and began at 2:00 p.m.
President Tom Roeseler welcomed everyone, members and guests, and thanked them for attending. The next order of business was a review of the previous meeting minutes; and Tom explained that due to conflicting schedules, the March meeting minutes had not yet been completed and would be distributed along with the April meeting minutes.
An update on the 1998 Program took place, and Tom commented that copies of the schedule were available at the sign-in table. On June 9, MCPF is sponsoring a half-day seminar regarding "Crisis Management" focusing on the command control structure that should be in place during a disaster. In line with upcoming activities, John Miller of FEMA informed the group that a public and private sector partnership workshop will be held on June 4-5 in Des Moines, Iowa; and in Wichita, Kansas, a session regarding emergency preparedness will be held during SBA week.
Membership status was the next item of business. Ms Bathon informed the group that we have increased our numbers by approximately 20 new members joining since the first of the year. Tom Roeseler then reminded everyone about the quarterly raffle and indicated that the prize would be a $50 St. Louis Galleria gift certificate. Copies of the membership brochure were also made available to everyone present.
The June regular meeting will be held at and presented by Steamatic of St. Louis. To make this a beneficial presentation for all, suggested topics included:
Water damage reparation
Dry ice pellet usage
Water damage
Smoke Cleanup
Paper documents – smoke/water damage
Electronics – restoration
First response
FM2000 effects
Procedures needed for access
Hazmat issues
New business was a discussion on the annual SEMA conference that was held earlier in the week. Marsha Shannon informed everyone that the event is held every year and begins on Easter Sunday at Tan-Tar-A Resort. The workshops begin on Monday and continue through Wednesday at noon. There were close to 500 attendees at this year’s conference, and the numbers were increasing in the private sector. Everyone that had attended felt that this was a very worthwhile get-together. Marsha commented that there were a lot of activities affecting business going on in SEMA. MoSEMA’s website is
WWW.STATE.MO.US\SEMA\SEMA.PAGE.HTML, and you can e-mail Marsha at MSHANNON@MAIL.STATE.MO.US or call her at 314/260-8751.The meeting then moved into the presentation – "Events in the Public Sector". Everyone in attendance introduced themselves and stated what their jobs were and what they expected to gain from this meeting. The purpose of the roundtable discussion was to present our thoughts to the emergency management agency representatives and get their feedback as well as providing them an opportunity to take the information back for consideration and research. Comments received included:
WWW.FEMA.COM.Ø What do I need to provide to these agencies and what can I expect in return?
Ø Concerns regarding weather and emergency communication means were expressed.
Ø How can we implement a program including animal rescue services and work together in emergency situations?
Ø Involvement in the private sector needs to be increased.
Ø Missouri is the second state to put a business seat in the EOC in Emergency Management.
Ø Budget cuts are facing all areas, both state and federal, and how can we work together to work around these cuts.
Ø Project Impact is geared to bring partnerships into the community. Information on this project is available on the FEMA website at
Ø A disaster resistant community has several benefits – more attractive for economic development, lower insurance rates, higher bond ratings, vested interests in recovery if there is involvement.
Ø Differences in training offered in the public and private sectors were discussed:
w DRI training was based on the building blocks to recovery plan development.
w County EMA offered sessions on management to disaster response and how to operate the EOC.
w ICS – Incident Command System training is geared toward local needs.
Ø Some areas of training could be coordinated or joined, namely communication, media, public response, coordination of public agencies.
Ø Red Cross training is primarily family-oriented.
Ø Disaster response/emergency management training is an important issue in private business.
Ø Forming partnerships can help make for a smoother recovery.
Ø Who and how can access be gained. Tim Bonno commented on a white paper article appearing in the Winter 1998 issue of the Disaster Recovery Journal – "Accelerated Access to Disaster Zones By Private Sector Business". He indicated that this would be a good item to glean some information from.
Ø Who has control in an emergency situation? What is the chain of command. The local authorities are in control. Once these sources are exhausted, then things will move up the line through city, state, and then federal.
Ø We need to discuss recovery issues as well as response issues.
Ø How can preferential treatment be avoided?
Ø Who would facilitate local awareness?
Ø Work with the authorities beforehand to understand the process, know what is what and where things will be.
Ø Establish in-house criticality and then present this criticality list to local groups for response requirements.
Ø Color-coding Ids for criticality is an option. If used, provide this information to your local authorities.
Ø Generate a list of what the private sector needs to provide to public agencies and what will the public sector provide.
Ø How do we make businesses aware of contacts to use in emergency situations? Some of the training sessions help with this, as well as networking through various groups in the area.
Ø What role does or could the local Chamber of Commerce play?
Ø When conducting training for internal management, invite public sector representatives to participate or to lead the training.
Ø What is the role of insurance agents?
Ø Set realistic recovery plans – particularly if access to your building is not possible.
Ø Future workshops or presentation meetings of this sort could be beneficial.
Everyone felt the discussion was very beneficial and would like to see another session scheduled to receive feedback on the topics raised. More information will be forthcoming as it is obtained.
The next meeting of the MCPF group will be held on Thursday, May 21, 1998, 3:00 p.m., at St. Louis County EOC in Crestwood. The featured topic will be Media Management presented by Ken Heinz of Boone County Fire Department and John McDonald of Fleishman-Hillard.
This meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m.
Recorded by: Anna M. Bathon
MCPF Secretary