"Everything's up to date in Kansas City" -- OR -- "We're Y2k-OK!"

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Last night I attended the first of several "Y2k Community Conversations" held in the Kansas City metro area, at Johnson County Community College. There were 14 panel members and two persons who introduced the panel/kept the 'show' moving along, plus a handful of video production people. At the start of the program, the people involved with the production of the event outnumbered the attendees by 5 or 6; there were 15 people in the audience when it started and 3 or 4 more arrived late. JCCC is a large, highly rated cc in the heart of the largest, most affluent suburb in the Metro KC area. I'm not sure why, but I honestly thought there might be more people attend - not a crowd, but more than 15 or 20.

Panel members were representative of various utiities, police departments, emergency preparedness offices, KS Bankers Association,a local hospital, Red Cross, and a grocery store.

The program was hosted in cooperation/coordination with the Mid-America Regional Council, who produced a video similar to the boilerplate video that is being shown nationwide. (The MARC video made reference to "doomsayers" and "alarmists", and used a digitized female voice and image for the first segment). After the two videos were shown, the moderator then introduced the panelists, and each panelist gave a brief overview of what their organization had done, was doing, and what sort of progress they were making in their contingency plans.

Panelists remarks:

SOCIAL SECURITY The Social Security lady assured us that SS was indeed "Y2K - OK!" and that they would certainly be able to write checks manually. "First of the year is always one of our busiest times"...."Each SS office will have a manager to go their respective SS office and check to make sure lights, water, etc., are all functioning"....

HY-VEE (Grocery store) The manager said they begin in 1995....they also own a bank....they will not have any service disruptions...mentioned that 01-01-0000 is an inventory date for them. (?)...

HOSPITAL Mouthpiece for large local hospital said they will start training staff members (including direct care staff) in late November and December on manual procedures (?JIT training??) They *are* doing drills on paperwork procedures now, however.....they are concerned about phone jams...

RED CROSS Encouraged at *least* 3 days of water....said "If there is a need for sheltering, they are working with local emergency management people".

KS BNKERS ASSOCIATION "Do not withdraw unusually large amts of cash"...."IT'S SAFE!!!"...."No one has ever lost money in an FDIC bank"....."Don't put your $$ in a safe deposit box"....word to seniors: "Beware of SCAMS"..

CITY GOVERNMENTS Officials from 2 local suburbs attended. Both said similar things. Both said they are through testing. One person said possible 'short term' power outages and communication failures. The other guy said (direct quote)"Everything will work!"

CHIEF OF POLICE "a non-event'....urged people not to stock-up on December 31, 1999....they will have an "unusual" number of officers on duty that night...

JO CO EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS OFFICE "offensive/defensive" strategy..."squashing every Y2k bug that comes along"....they are "90% ready now"...."EXPECT to be 100% ready 01-01-2000....their final draft of their contingency plans are due for review November 15, 1999...

UTILITIES I am grouping Water District #1, KPL, Kansas Gas Service, SWB, and KCP&L together, as their individual messages were very similar: 'We're ready, we've worked VERY hard, no problems we can foresee'...

It took the panelists about an hour to go through their individual presentations. After they were through, the audience was invited to ask questions of the panel members directly. A few questions were asked, ie., "Can SS write checks manually?" Answer: "Yes, by golly, we can!" (barf!)....For the city representatives: "Are you going to be prepared to have the snowplows out on 12-31-1999 if we are hit with a big snowstorm?" [Folks, I am NOT making that up; someone really did ask that question...sigh...] Answer: "Yes, we will!"...Another asked the SS lady if they had tested wire transfers, and she said they had.

The questions kind of tapered off, so the moderator 'signed-off' and closed the program, thanked everyone for coming, etc. As soon as the cameras stopped rolling, people began asking questions, IN EARNEST. Asking the 'real questions' everyone wanted answers to. For example: Q: "I'd like to know what preparations, specifically, each panel member is making for their own families for Y2k". (A LOT of squirming and uncomfortable looking faces, for sure!) Answers did NOT address preps, only what they themselves would be doing on NYE, ie., working, etc. The only two people who spoke directly to answering the question were the woman from the Red Cross (who said that she has 7 days of water stored, but that's just because "I'm weird like that".) One of the men from one of the utilities said his wife probably has 3 months worth of food on hand at all times, but that's because that's the way she likes to shop...lots of laughter after his remark.

Alot of nervous laughter when discussing personal preps...throughout the program, "doomsayer", "alarmists", and "panic" were liberally used...

It was quite gratifying to hear a woman stand up and tell the panelists that she was dismayed by their attitude toward those who had concerns. Another older, disabled gentleman asked about increased police 'action' and the possibility of martial law...he was summarily dismissed.

Ridicule it and they'll ignore it. Ignore it and it'll go away...

My take on the whole thing? Well, I sat in the front row -- gotta see their faces, don'tcha know? And had my trusty reporter's notebook with me, furiously taking lots and lots of notes. Got quite a few looks... : )

It was *very* slick. These folks were WELL REHEARSED. No new 'news', good or bad. Since they plan on having 6 more of these meetings over the next few weeks, I'll go to another one and see if it's any different. Next time, I'll have Stan's "14 Days of Preps" printed and ready to distribute... FWIW, I did not see either one of the Kansas City Star's "Y2k Watch" reporters in attendance....maybe this was not a high priority??

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), October 08, 1999

Answers

Sounds like the Morgan-Stanley (investment brokerage) Y2K, BIR and Feel-Good-About-Y2K-Thru-Blatant-Lying session I was at a few days ago. They were totally controlled/choreographed, and totally ridiculed private preps. I will post at length about this soon, but from what I saw, bail out of any connection with these clowns ASAP.

www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), October 08, 1999.


Irreverent, but appropos, sing along friends,...

"Everything's up-to-date in Kansas City/They've gone about as fer as they can go./They went and built a skyscraper seven stories high,/about as high as a building oughta go...../They've gone about as fer as they can go/(chorus)That's about as fer as they can go!"

Humbly thanking Rodgers and Hammerstein,...(thunderous applause)

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), October 08, 1999.


Minnesota, are you having a meltdown? :D

Addendum: The woman from the hospital (Shawnee Mission Medical Center) responded to a question from the audience (after the taping was completed) on whether or not the area hospitals are coordinating efforts/working together....the answer was NO.

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), October 08, 1999.


Naw, he accidently hit SHIFT-, (which gets you a html character, go ahead and look which one) but we fixed it.

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), October 08, 1999.


Thanks Wilferd for the low down (really loooow down). I wish I could attend the next one with you. You could take notes and I could take fruits and vegetables.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), October 08, 1999.


Wilferd, I LIVE in Johnson County and I never heard about this meeting. I would like to go to one, but am afraid I won't hear about them. I'll keep my eye on the paper, but if you find out when they schedule another one could you e-mail me? The address is real. As an odd little footnote - I took a phone call about 8:00 last night from a company doing a survey about our favorite utility: KCP&L. Wanted to know if; we were happy with the service we recieve-happy dealing with their reps-are billing statements accurate-etc., etc., etc. I was almost rolling when they asked if KCP&L had my loyalty and were they competitive enough for me. WE HAVE NO CHOICE! They are the only electric co. in town. Is this strange, or am I?

-- lvz (lvzinser@hotmail.com), October 09, 1999.

Sounds like the Morgan-Stanley(investment brokerage) Y2K www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), October 09, 1999.

Sounds like the Morgan-Stanley(investment brokerage)Y2K www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), October 09, 1999.

Sounds like the Morgan-Stanley(investment brokerage) Y2K www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), October 09, 1999.

Sounds like the Morgan-Stanley(investment brokerage) Y2K www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), October 09, 1999.


Sounds like the Morgan-Stanley(investment brokerage) Y2K www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), October 09, 1999.

I must be going crazy!

-- Minnesota Smith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), October 09, 1999.

Hey, Minnesota Smith, do you mud wrestle?

-- King of Spain (Madrid@aol.com), October 09, 1999.

Hey, Minnesota Smith, do you mud wrestle?

-- King of Spain (Madrid@aol.com), October 09, 1999.

Hey, Minnesota Smith, do you mud wrestle?

-- King of Spain (Madrid@aol.com), October 09, 1999.


Hey, Minnesota Smith, do you mud wrestle?

-- King of Spain (Madrid@aol.com), October 09, 1999.

Hey, Minnesota Smith, do you mud wrestle?

-- King of Spain (Madrid@aol.com), October 09, 1999.

Good work, Chuck.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), October 09, 1999.

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