Hi,

It looks like Yale has its act together and even with problems just outside its doors possibly going on, the disruptions should be at a minimum. Being a team player in all aspects of my life, I am running into a problem that hopefully you can help me put into perspective, based on Yale's committments towards excellence and its vested interest in keeping things in the "work as usual" stage as we move past the Y2K Jan. 1Benchmark.

Upon a complete evaluation of all of the vendors that I work with in my daily life to secure the well being of my family (ie, lifestyle), NOT ONE will give me a written assurance that their corrections for the Y2K problem have been done to the level that indicate that their service will confidently remain uninterrupted at and beyond the Jan 1 2000 date change. This leads me to the conclusion that there might be a distinct possibility that my family's well-being might disrupted in a number of possible ways. And there is no way to know what the severity level of this potential disruption might be ahead of time. Not knowing the severity level, this means I will need to be prudent in my activity and do things to protect my family. The only advice I have seen has been from the Red Cross, and that was to prepare for a 3 day time period of disruption. Well, I have always been ready for that. The question is, What if it several weeks. You almost have to take a middle ground of somewhere between an almost nothing event to catastrophic... Tough prudent decisions need to be made here, cause I love my wife and kids and need to be accountable to them. So taking the middle ground.....wow, that means I have to do a lot of preparing. Things need to be acquired (the food, more warm clothing (winter time), Candles, etc. Now, why would I do this if nothing happens. Well, that's just It, I don't know if problems will occurr. That would be the reason for preparing. Now, as I see it, since the main stream media has not done some REAL investigating of the problem, at least at the basic level of what I even did, no one else in this whole world (at least my co-workers, and close friends) has seen this problem at the level I have, and don't even have the information to even decide if they want to prepare or not. After trying (and I did try, please believe me) to convey my heartfelt feelings on how I have approached this problem....my question to you is, can I expect a reasonable level of support from Yale in either(SP!) in preparing for this potential event (ie, being proactive in making this as much of a non event as possible, even if it does happen), and or anticipating some sort of contingency plan going into effect that will be equivalent of the above mentioned "reasonable level of support from Yale", something that will help mitigate the effects of any disruptions that may occurr. To be perfectly honest, as much as I've been a team player in terms of my working and business life up to this point, my family's immediate welfare will always come first, and if I have to spend time and resouces to take care of my family, it is much easier to come to work knowing that the family is taken care of, and that my employer has been active in being concerned about this issue. I don't want to be among the throngs going out at the last minute preparing for eventualities. How can you best advise me?

Sincerely Yours,

Tom

First answer:

From: steve.casey@po.state.ct.us X-Lotus-FromDomain: CT To: Thomas Saul Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 17:24:03 -0400 Subject: Re: Y2K, the personal side of the equation Content-Disposition: inline

I think it might be impossible to get anybody to guarentee completely uninterupted service today or any day. However, the reports on Y2K that I have seen are positive. Have you seen the DPUC audit of the major utilities? Check http://www.dpuc.state.ct.us/draftdec.nsf/6fe094d5f95a0bad85256448006902a0/db4d2b97fe2f1e378525678b005c12f8?OpenDocument

I encourage you to read it. The stress of this summer's power demand seems to be much greater than ISO-NE's situation on and after New Year's.

You might also be interested in today's Michele Jacklin's Column http://www.courant.com/voices/jacklin/

Computers and other machines break everyday. After New Year's there might even be a higher incidence. From everything that I've seen, read and been told, governments, businesses and institutions are going to be on alert. They will probably be in a better position to correct problems due to testing and re-testing, extra manpower and a concentration of attention by all levels of organizations.

-- thomas saul (thomas.saul@yale.edu), August 11, 1999

Answers

Hi Tom, good for you for asking...remember its not the odds, its the stakes.

-- (y2kfallback@yahoo.com), August 13, 1999.

Nobody knows what's going to happen (bet you never heard that one before). The bottom line in preparation is Faith. If you have Faith in Yale, so be it, that's it, you;re done. If your Faith is in yourself and your family and you are satisfied with where you're at, you're also done. In my family's preparation, we are not putting our Faith in other humans or their promises. Over the past few years, we have been pursuing alternatives to many of the things in question and putting them into our daily lives, which by the way, has led to a simplier, slower and actually a much happier existence. We have stocked enough essentials to allow us to miss the initial chaos if things go sour and get us through until we can fully exercise the alternatives we have been putting in place. As with any endeavor, there has to be a line drawn somewhere saying enough, which is often more difficult the task itself. In our case, we have recently drawn that line. It feels good to now just sit back and watch.

-- BH (silentvoice@pobox.com), August 15, 1999.

I don't get it! Why should Yale take care of you and your family? That is your responsibility, your decision. If the grass looked greener at UCLA and you were offered a position, would your first thoughts be of taking care of Yale?...or of your own career? Like I say, I don't get it. Did I miss something? My feelings are that we are all on our own...and thats the way it should be.

Taz...a great believer in self responsibility.

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), August 18, 1999.

First, let me confine my apoplexy to merely commenting that August of 1999 is a bit late to discover potential problems with Y2K. 'Nuf said.

For over a year, now, folks have been saying things llke, "Prepare for the worst, hope for the best." Few people of common sense pay any attention to assurances from "authority", be it the White House's Koskinen, or anybody around Yale...

The odds are, as to local physical reality, that you had better be able to cope with multi-day power outages. How long is "multi"? Neither you nor I nor the power company knows.

A primary reason for having at least a month's supply of staples on hand is not particularly from the viewpoint that "they won't make any more", nor "there will be distribution foulups". The reason is that you can decide for yourself when it is physically safe to go to the grocery--or do other shopping. It might well be that you can go, casually, everyday. Do you know for sure? I don't.

I have read little if any analyses of our economic future who do not foresee a high potential for a severe recession. With this in mind, you should think for yourself as to whatever steps you might consider. That is, is your own income source secure, regardless of outside factors? Only you can answer--but you need to think about it.

An aspect of education is development of the ability to think for one's self. And, to actively seek whatever information is necessary to make informed decisions. So far, young fella, you're behind the curve. I wish you all the luck in the world. When you discover that you know better than others just what is best for you, you'll have a fighting chance, with no luck needed.

Best regards, Desertrat

-- Desertrat (desertrat@brooksdata.net), August 31, 1999.

Tom I have wonderful news. Although Yale may not be ready to give you their assurances I can. Our farm is 100% Y2k compliant. We have turned the barn calander to the year 200 and the chickens still lay and the couws still give milk. We couldn't count on getting fuel for the generator or having electricty so we have a well bucket and all of the other like equiptment. my daughter always wanted an IVY league education so if you are a prof we have a teaching post open, not much salary but food and housing ain't bad. We are 3 gates past the end of hte dirt road right in the middle of nowhere AR. Mild climate good neighbours and there are at least 100 miles of rough terraine between us and any city over 15,000. so shall I leave the lamp lit fer ya?

-- Sam Hayes (gatheredAR@eritter.net), August 31, 1999.

Love it.....

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 31, 1999.