June 4, 2007
Memo for: Business Continuity Planning Committee
Subject: Minutes of the May 25, 2007 Meeting
A meeting of the Business Continuity Plan Management Committee was held on
Friday, May 25, 2007, in Room 111 Cone Center.
1.
Attendance:
a.
Present: Kathi Baucom, Gary Caton, Rob Covert,
b.
Absent:
Dixie Airey, John Bland, Susan Brooks, Ray Galleno, John Gandar, Lee
Gray, Marlene Hall, Bill Harper, Jon Hawn, Carter Heath, Bill Hill, Michele
Howard, Phil Jones, Tom Lamb, Norm Lefebvre, John Mack, Gina Smith, Darin
Spease
2.
Main
topics / issues:
a.
Welcome: Morgan welcomed
the group and provided a partial list of disasters that had occurred
(nationwide) since the last meeting.
b.
PIER. Morgan reported on the progress being made
toward implementing PIER on or about July 1, 2007. At this time, UNC Charlotte is ahead of most
of the other schools in the UNC System and is the only one to have conducted an
exercise incorporating PIER. A significant
issue is still pending resolution – migration of the Banner data (phone
numbers, email addresses) into PIER.
Audience Central, the vendor for PIER, is making necessary revisions to
their API code to allow this to work. In
the meantime, UNC Charlotte PIER administrators and users (60 trained to date)
will continue preparation of Documents, Templates, and background information
to populate the PIER site.
c.
Chancellor’s Advisory Council, 5/14/2007. Morgan
reported to the Council on several issues stemming from the VA Tech shooting
incident that UNC Charlotte needs to address.
The Chancellor directed that Morgan establish/appoint task groups to
work on each issue and to report back to the Council at a later date. Morgan alerted the committee that some of
them would be assigned to one or more of the task groups.
a.
Emergency Exercise, 5/17/2007. Morgan
reviewed the exercise scenario (a live shooter on campus) and comments and
observations for the After Action Report.
This exercise was conducted in the
(1)
Additional
training on PIER is necessary to keep skills up to par. Morgan will work on modules to allow training
for PIER users at the Division, College, or Work Unit level without disrupting
normal job requirements to any significant degree.
(2)
The Campus
Warning Team was partially effective in getting the initial alert message
posted. There was no Broadcast Voicemail
Message posted, and the Email message was received approximately 1 hour after
the initial alert from the Police Dispatcher.
We need to conduct additional drills and training for CWT members. We also did not activate the Classroom
Intercom system, since we have not had an opportunity to conduct training with
Classroom Support.
(3)
The PIER system
has some advantages and disadvantages compared to MissionMode. PIER allows us to send messages to a much
larger audience, but there is a delay of 5 to 15 minutes between message launch
and receipt of phone alerts. PIER also
does not have the “virtual situation room” display that MissionMode
featured. Instead, we projected the PIER
external emergency web site so Crisis Management Team members could see what
information we were sending to parents, students, faculty and staff. Dashboard indicators of University
operational status must be developed and incorporated into the visual display
available in the EOC.
(4)
There should be
proficient PIER users present in the EOC to assist the Chancellor and Vice
Chancellors. They were spending too much
time trying to navigate PIER when they should have been applying themselves to managing
the situation.
(5)
The
(6)
The lack of a
campus emergency evacuation plan was obvious.
The Chancellor directed that this be added to the list of issues to be
addressed by a task group (
b.
BCP Update Status. Morgan displayed the current
status of contact information and recovery items (COOPs and other documents)
managed by CPO Tracker. Our percentages
of current contact information and current COOPs have dropped off at the end of
the semester. Morgan explained that Cathy
Bolen will be sending monthly reminders to individuals and units who need to
update contact information and/or COOPs.
c.
Pandemic Flu Update. Morgan reviewed the current
WHO phase level (3) and the documented human cases around the world. A new, less harmful strain of bird flu (H7N2)
recently appeared on a poultry farm in north
d.
Emergency Scenario. Morgan led the group in a
tabletop exercise that involved evacuation of the campus. Since this is a high
priority issue, the exercise served to generate ideas, suggestions and
potential obstacles that the task group may be able to use in developing the
plan. [Subsequent to this meeting, the
Chancellor announced that Dr. Edd Hauser, from the
(1)
On a normal work day,
or when a large number of people is present on campus (e.g., Commencement,
basketball game, etc.), the primary means of evacuation should be by foot. Roadways should be kept open for emergency
vehicles and for evacuation of persons with disabilities.
(2)
Several rally
points should be located on the perimeter of campus, where people can get
public transportation (CATS) to take them to shelters and/or safe assembly
areas.
(3)
Consideration
should be given to designating campus zones that would be served by designated
rally points. The counter point was that
it may be too difficult for individuals to remember the zone they are in; they
should just go to one of the rally points (preferably, the nearest one).
(4)
The plan should
address how persons with disabilities will be evacuated (first, from buildings,
and then from campus).
e.
Proposed date for the next meeting: The next
meeting of the committee is scheduled for 10:00 AM on Friday, July 27, 2007, in
Room 208 Cone Center.
3. The meeting
adjourned at 11:05 AM.
Morgan Roseborough
Director, Business Continuity
Planning
UNC