Disaster Recovery Journal

A lesson we can take away from the recent severe weather and fires across the country is disasters can happen anytime, anywhere. No one can control where or when emergencies may happen but we can take steps in advance to prepare. Today, I am excited to announce a step towards better preparing local communities before disaster strikes – the 2012 Community Resilience Innovation Challenge.

This new opportunity is designed to assist local areas in building and revitalizing community-based partnerships through innovative initiatives and programs designed to advance the nation’s resilience to disasters. Funding levels range with a maximum of $35,000 and applications are open to all local, state, and tribal agencies and governments, business entities, associations, organizations and groups.

Life as a BCM practitioner in any organisation can sometimes feel like you have been sentenced to solitary confinement. Often working in isolation and surrounded by your ‘adversaries’, it can be a lonely role as you struggle to embed BCM into your organisation and to win over some of your strongest critics. Coupled with the need to be a ‘jack of all trades’ that requires you to be knowledgeable, persuasive, inspirational, and highly-organised as well as a skilled facilitator, being a BCM practitioner can be a really tough job.

Just when you feel your energy levels dwindling and see your enthusiasm ebbing into the distance, along comes the BCM World Conference and Exhibition – the one that reaches the parts other conferences cannot reach, filling you with renewed energy and rekindling your passion for the discipline that is the love of your life.