(Chatham County, GA) The Chatham Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) wants to ensure that business owners in Chatham County understand how to create an effective and reliable Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) so to ensure that the capability exists for all businesses to continue essential agency functions across a wide range of hazards. Does your business have a COOP in place? If not, here’s how to get started:
First, all businesses need to understand a COOP’s planning objectives. A COOP:
● Ensures continued performance of essential functions.
● Reduces loss of life and minimizes damage.
● Ensures succession to office of key leaders.
● Reduces or mitigates disruptions to operations.
● Protects essential assets. ● Achieves a timely recovery and reconstitution.
● Maintains a test, training, and exercise program for program validation. Check back next week for more tips from CEMA on COOP planning. For further information about COOP planning, please visit CEMA’s website at http://www.chathamemergency.org/businesses/ or contact Courtney Cunningham at (912) 201-4500. The Chatham Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) wants to ensure that your business has an effective and reliable Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) in place. The first step in COOP planning is to understand the basic COOP planning objectives. Second, there are several critical planning considerations for any COOP plan. COOP’s must:
● Be capable of implementation anytime, with and without warning, during duty and non-duty hours.
● Provide full operational capability for essential functions not later than 12 hours after activation.
● Be capable of sustaining operations for up to 30 days. Agencies must develop operating procedures and acquire resources necessary to sustain operations for up to 30 days.
● Include regularly scheduled Training, Testing & Exercises (TT&E). Agencies must train members of their emergency staff and practice COOP procedures to ensure their skills stay current. Equipment and communications must be tested periodically to ensure that they are operable. Check back next week for more tips from CEMA on COOP planning. For further information about COOP planning, please visit CEMA’s website at http://www.chathamemergency.org/businesses/ or contact Courtney Cunningham at (912) 201-4500.
