Planning For Mission Continuity Can Diminish Disaster

An effort is underway at UC to help critical university units in preparing for the unforeseen. It's the kind of situation run into by UC departments more often than you might think.

For the past couple of years, the university has exceeded the amount of money budgeted to help departments with their insurance claims, according to Charlie Anderkin, Senior Coordinator for Mission Continuity and Recovery in UC's Internal Audit/Management Services department.

His message is simple: Disruptions to normal business operations can happen all the time, so you'll be best served in dealing with them if you develop a contingency plan and make necessary preparations in advance.

To help highlight how important this process can be, Anderkin's unit -- along with the Associate Provost for Academic Facility Planning, Tom Cruse -- brought to campus for a presentation last week Kelley Goggins, the Director of Risk Management for Fidelity Investments.

Goggins' experience with unforeseen trouble is significant. She spent nine weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks in New Jersey, leading Fidelity's New York operations back onto their feet after their offices at One World Trade Center Plaza were damaged by the falling towers. Fidelity was out of its facility for 15 months.

"It was an education to hear how Fidelity went through this process and kept their business going," says Anderkin. "What we want to do is help UC personnel prepare for a disastrous incident that may affect their office."

Disasters can be large or small, and are a lot more common than people realize. Anderkin distributed at the presentation a list of 19 incidents at UC since July of 2000 alone that caused operational interruptions - some major in scope. They ranged from power outages to fires to flooding.

Jay Yocis, production manager of UC's Photographic Services, told the gathering about a fire that pushed his department out of its offices for six months. The fire itself was small, but smoke damage pushed costs for the fire past $100,000.

First response for most emergencies will be UC's Department of Public Safety, which maintains an excellent Web site listing appropriate procedures for dealing with all kinds of emergency situations.

But long-term recovery can be greatly assisted by even a small effort in advance planning.

"People are listening more when I bring this subject up with them," says Anderkin, "but in this environment, when we're all taking (budget) cuts, it makes it more difficult to get them to prepare as well as they should."

To that end, UC has developed mission continuity planning guidelines and a template as a starting point for units to develop their own plans. The template is available for download on the Mission Continuity Planning Web site.

"We need to get people to identify risk and make necessary preparations so they can avoid disaster," says Anderkin. "People need to know they can help themselves mitigate the disruptions and loss that comes from these kinds of things."

For more information on the presentation or to set up a consultation with Anderkin, contact him at 556-4305 or at Charlie.anderkin@uc.edu.