Time for a little Y2K community service By William Ulrich 06/14/99

Friends, colleagues and the media want to know what I am doing to prepare for year 2000. I tell them that I am preparing Santa Cruz County, Calif., to meet the challenge ahead. This reply disappoints many people. Because I am part of the minority that believes in taking personal responsibility on this issue, people assume that I have a bunker stocked with weapons ready for Armageddon.

Unfortunately, the Y2K community movement is losing steam and needs your support. It's driven by citizens working with local governments to help a community achieve a basic level of Y2K readiness. In other words, if your community is prepared for Y2K, it benefits the individuals in that community and goes a long way toward dissipating the panic that can strike the uninformed citizen.

Let me tell you how this has worked in Santa Cruz. A group of citizens formed a task force to inform people about Y2K and encourage them to take action. Our research team queried water districts; initiated a health care committee comprised of hospitals, long-term facilities and home-care facilities; spoke with financial institutions; called food markets; assessed communication and power continuity; and teamed up with the office of emergency services.

We posted any positive news we found on our Web site. We didn't post negative findings for legal reasons but made it clear that no news is not good news. People can now make more informed decisions on how to prepare.

Our awareness team informs citizens of global and local Y2K progress and how they can prepare for possible disruptions. The state, for example, issued warnings about drinking water. The task force passes that type of information along through a series of town hall meetings -- speakers include the Red Cross, state and county officials, leading citizens and year 2000 experts.

The task force also sponsors neighborhood workshops.

The good news is that this task force model has been replicated hundreds of times nationwide. The bad news, according to one survey, is that the community movement is losing momentum. One reason for this may be the media, which have numbed people to the reality of the problem by playing up extremist views on both sides of the issue.

In the midst of these divergent views is a Y2K community movement that needs to be revived. I am asking anyone reading this to help. If you aren't afraid of being labeled by those who shun personal responsibility for the well-being of their communities, then start a group to inform and empower your neighbors. Y2K concerns will grow in late 1999. Setting up a task force now will position communities to come together around this challenge when they need help most.

-- Jean Wasp (jean@sonic.net), June 19, 1999