Facilitator's Guide

A Facilitator’s Guide to the Planning Process and Workshops 2016 – 2017

INTRODUCTION

Many government organizations are developing plans that will insure continuity of their most valuable and time-critical operations. These efforts are motivated by an increased awareness and perceptions of higher risks to a variety of hazards. They also reflect a growing recognition that the public expects key government operations they depend on to be available regardless of the disruptive threats, be they natural disasters, such as flooding or earthquakes, or internal crises caused by communication or computer systems failures.

In response to these needs, the County of Santa Clara’s Office of Emergency Management has created a program to support each agency in the development, implementation, and maintenance of continuity plans. The program offers a set of materials to guide and assist a project team with the activities involved in developing a Continuity of Operations/Government plan. These materials provide both background guidance, as well as “hands-on” worksheets for collecting and assembling the information, and a plan template for a continuity plan.

The purpose of this Facilitator’s Guide is to provide technical assistance to the project managers who will oversee the planning activities and facilitate the development of the plan. At the conclusion of this overview, the expected results of the planning process are addressed. But what are the beginning conditions? This material pre-supposes that the County is initiating planning process that includes a greater level of coverage throughout the organization and that some operating units any already have their own plans.

The following are the subjects covered in this 35 page document (see Attachments section for a full version).

 

Attachments:

• Continuity of Operations (COOP) and Continuity of Government (COG) – Planning (PDF)

  A Facilitator’s Guide to the Planning Process and Workshops 2016 – 2017