In the absence of Diane Squire (people have been paging you, Diane) I am offering up the contents of an email received from Dr. Harrison Fox, a staffer for Rep. Stephen Horn, about upcoming Y2K workshops in D.C. Everything is open to the public, so we'll likely be seeing reports on what transpires. Apologies in advance for the sloppy formatting, but here goes:

Emergency Management Hearing and Workshop

Introduction Emergencies can range from a car accident to a nuclear world war. On the attached chart, Emergency Management: The Progression from Spot Emergencies to World Conflict, displays a range of domestic and national security emergencies. The Government Management, Information, and Technology subcommittee of the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee is currently giving special attention to Y2K compliance activities. These activities are approaching the above the line cataclysmic emergencies such as regional and world wars. The Gartner Group has projected that Y2K spending will surpass $600 billion, while total outlays for the 1960s and 1970s Southeast Asia regional conflict -- Vietnam War -- were $500 billion.

Preparation for emergencies is notoriously inadequate. This results in substantial citizen pain, suffering, and economic loss. Damage incurred by both man-caused and natural disasters, gives cause for re-examination of government and the private management of these emergencies. Lessons learned from emergency management will be instructive for citizen, private sector, and government preparation for Year 2000 problems.

Hearing and Workshop A two-day hearing and workshop is scheduled for March 22 and 23, 1999. Expert witnesses will testify on the first morning on general emergency management issues with special reference to the Year 2000 problem. The workshop will begin on the first afternoon and continue through late morning of the second day. Four workshop groups, with 10 to 20 members each, will generate products that they will share with all groups. During the noon hour on March 23, each workshop group will present its products. This wrap-up presentation will end the two-day session. The workshop will modeled along the lines of a 1983 House Committee on Science and Technology workshop, The Role of Information Technology in Emergency Management. On that occasion, more than 120 professionals from all sectors of government and society met in small discussion groups, each with a special focus (contingency capabilities, simulating situations, etc.).

The workshop groups will be:

7 Role of Technology in Emergency Management; 7 Citizen Needs and Emergency Management Response: a Y2K Tool Kit; 7 Strategic Emergency Management Plan: Key Emergency Management Policy Issues involving the public and private sectors; and 7 Disaster Information: Identification, Sharing, and Use in Domestic and International Decisions. Workshop Descriptions and Products

Role of Technology in Emergency Management

This work group will focus on the challenges posed by the 21st Century advances in science, communications, and other technologies for emergency management with a focus on:

7 Interjurisdictional cooperation, in terms of both planning and response; 7 Identification of static and dynamic user requirements; 7 Information collection, sharing, and analysis with special attention to privacy issues; and 7 Melding advanced technology with established manual procedures.

Products of this work group would include:

7 Projection of major concerns, with a strategy, mission, goals, and objectives, and benchmarks for resolving these concerns; and 7 Action plan that identifies tactics for reaching benchmarks, posed in project manager format that in turn identifies individuals, tasks, and time table.

Citizen Needs and Emergency Management Response:

The Y2K Tool Kit

This work group will look at the citizens needs within a variety of Y2K scenarios,with emphasis on:

7 Identification of key personal and family desired responses to emergencies, with a focus on the challenges specifically posed by the Year 2000 computer problem;

7 Mitigating the Y2K panic factor and minimizing the disruptive socio-economic outcomes and geo-political problems; and

7 Review of Y2K preparatory materials produced by government and private organizations.

Products of this work group would include: 7 Major emphasis will be on the production of a Year 2000 computer problem tool kit for individuals and families; and

7 Other materials that the work group may find useful for individuals, families, governments, and private organizations in responding to the Year 2000 computer problem.

Strategic Emergency Management Plan: Key Emergency Management Policy Issues involving the Public and Private Sectors

This work group will look at the changing world with emphasis on:

7 Emerging threats, especially nuclear-chemical-biological-internet, requiring retrofitting of our emergency management apparatus;

7 The projected impact of the Y2K problem on critical functioning within the public and private sectors, both on the domestic and international scenes;

7 The need to better educate and involve the citizenry regarding actions they can take to prepare for, or survive, disasters in their increasingly complex, congested living environment; and

7 Looking at global events, their potential impact on the United States, and the mechanisms, which could be used to monitor and respond to these events.

Products of this work group would include:

7 Draft Emergency Management Strategic Plan with emphasis on Y2K contingencies; and

7 Working documents that support the Draft Emergency Management Strategic Plan.

Disaster Information:

Identification, Sharing, and Use in Domestic and International Decisions

This workgroup will review:

7 Categories of disaster management information that may be limited by liability concerns;

7 Plans for the nationwide COMEX/MOBEX National Guard communications drill on May 1 and 2, 1999, and lessons that can be learned; and

7 Proposals for developing an interactive knowledge base of disaster-related information accessible to disaster managers.

Products of this work group would include:

7 Recommendations for how data limitations can be reduced in the future through legislative change in administrative rules, improving working relationships, enhanced trust among parties, and changes in the way that the data are handled;

7 Evaluation of operational evaluations, exercises, and simulations as valid techniques for modeling disaster information identification, sharing, and use; and

7 Recommendations regarding the creation of national and global disaster information networks.

The products of the work groups will be used by both the private and public sectors in their tactical decisions such as definition of actions to be taken, checklists, contingency planning, and alternative game plans as well as in the development of emergency management performance measures for outcomes and results. The subcommittee will publish and place on its web site --  the hearing record and workshop products.

Schedule

Monday, March 22, 1999 Hearing 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Lunch Break 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Workshop 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, 1999 Workshop 9 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. Workshop Group Presentations 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Witness List

1. 18 Federal Agency  James Lee Witt, Director, Federal Emergency Management Agency (invited)

2. 18 State and local emergency management office  Michael Humphrey, Business Director for Telecommunications and Information, Public Technology, Inc.

3. 18 Private sector emergency management expert  Dr. James Morentz,President, Essential Technologies, Inc.

4. 18 Emergency management association or research group  Phyllis Mann,President, International Association of Emergency Managers (invited)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), March 20, 1999

Answers

Thanks FM, this little ditty kind of tweaked my mind:

"The Government Management, Information, and Technology subcommittee of the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee is currently giving special attention to Y2K compliance activities. These activities are approaching the above the line cataclysmic emergencies such as regional and world wars."

Sounds like they may be getting serious.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), March 20, 1999.

Thanks FM,

Seems slightly extreme for a "bump in the road".

It's big pieces of the Y2K puzzle like this that don't seem to fit in Koskinen's "bump in the road" picture.

-- Getting (ready@bumpintheroadahead.com), March 20, 1999.