Working together - Like Mutual Aid

Why does it seem that we all recruit and train and activate our volunteer forces alone?

Couldn't we work together, you active and I don't so I come help you and you use my volunteers because they are cross registered? Kinda like Mutual aid?

I have been thinking about this a lot, seems simple, so why don't we do it? Not sure, but some of us do a version of this by cross registering with other agencies.  

In my Area, several Emergency Managers have begun to advertise to their Community Emergency Response Team members (CERT) to consider cross registering with my Medical Reserve Corps (MRC).  This gives me a whole new group of highly trained emergency workers who have been registered and back ground checked with my organization. And in a disaster those are important steps.  So that is one of the ELEPHANTS in the ROOM- Back Ground Check.  
Each agency has a need to reach a particular Back Ground check level as you can see there are many different levels, and for my agency our Risk managers have set a level due to our activity in a disaster (Alternate Care Facility- think peoples belongs, people at risk, medication, etc).
So by cross registering with the agency who has the highest need of back ground checks you can fix that problem.  The American Red Cross fixed this problem internally after Katrina by going with one agency for all Red Cross chapters across the country.

So lets look at the other agencies in our area and ask "How can we make this work?"

• Background checks- can we find a common ground?

• Volunteer managers - could we train together and share resources, processes, systems?

• Volunteer manager teams - could we deploy together to help one in a disaster/event if the other members don't stand up?

 What do you think? Want to try? Let me know how it goes

Disaster_Dave

Are you a danger to yourself & others

Thursday I did a presentation to a group of Nurses at one of our local universities and was asked what the best way to help was? I responded "Be part of the solution not part of the problem by registering and getting trained with an organization" (Hopefully mine, but really anywhere).  

Then Friday this article popped up in my reader "Untrained Volunteers May Do Harm as Well as Good During Disasters, Johns Hopkins Study Finds".
This is one of my nightmares in my world (volunteer management for a Public Health organization), dealing with lots of people I do not know or can not validate that they are who they say they are.  The whole idea behind joining an organized group and getting at least a modicum of training in NIMS and ICS goes a long way in organizing from the start.  

Dollars to doughnuts the same people who show up as spontaneous volunteers are the same ones that said they didn't have time to volunteer (but now do)

As Bill Boyd points out in his recent blog post "The Buck Stops With Them" it is his nightmare too.

My point is, if you are not in an organized disaster response organization, you should be!  Here are some benefits:

1. Great training opportunities - you will get to participate in some awesome opportunities and see behind the curtain
2. Fellowship - you will be around other like minded volunteers
3. Able to help in disasters
4. And most of all you will not appear in my nightmares; you might help me solve it by being part of the solution.

Thank you
disaster_dave

A beginning list of organizations to join (there are more)

Medical Reserve Corps - Not just for medical volunteers

Community Emergency Response Teams

American Red Cross 

Volunteer issues or, I really don't need your help

What do you do when a volunteer goes out of bounds; either in representing the organization (where/how you don't want to be represented) or asking for things you do not want (money, help, changes). 

First its good to understand as a citizen the volunteer can do anything they want, ask for things, and talk to government employees as a citizen, what they can not do is speak for your organization (unless you assigned her that task)

Eventually this is going to happen to all of us, no matter how implicit we make our rules.  I do not have all the answers, but this seems like a good path:

1. You treat it like an employee issue, with graduated levels of intervention.

o   You of course want to start at the lowest level, and this typically could be an email, or a sit down chat about the incident and how it is affecting your mission and/or time.  Thank him for caring and maybe help him find other channels. (Make sure you document the conversation in your calendar)

o   If it continues, then you may have to get more stringent and bring in your HR folks (they know the laws) and and/or your supervisor.  Explain again your policies and why they are in place and how the organization operates.  Make sure they understand they are free to represent their opinions and beliefs, but are not free to project them on the organization. (Document)

o   You will want to involve HR if it continues,this is someplace you don’t want to tread alone; but if you have made yourself clear and documented all steps, it may be time for the volunteer to leave the organization. Yes volunteers can be let go.

2.     The second thing you should do is make sure you have been clear and have not in anyway asked her (or made her think you are asking) for help with the matter at hand.

3.     You may also want to reach out to anyone contacted by the volunteer and make sure they understand your policies and what you want to do.

Questions? Comments?

Disaster_Dave

A New Better Volunteer Model

 In time of disaster the volunteers will come, but as we move forward in planning it seems to me that we need to engage the none profit community. And then I saw this - SRC United Way Has New Role in Emergency Response. 

And I thought yes that is the plan.  So what are the benefits?  

• In a disaster the government will be busy and with falling budgets may have to divert human capital to run volunteer centers
• As a non profit, they could do volunteer management for many organizations
• As a central point for the community move volunteer to where they are most needed
• A central point to collect ALL volunteer hours helps the municipality meet its share of the Disaster recovery cost
• Other non profits may be more comfortable working with other non profits
• And finally As the United Way is community focused they make a great partner for preparedness before the disaster 

 Negatives?  I don't really see any, anytime we can involve a non governmental partner in the planning before a disaster is a plus.
 
So who is running volunteer management in your community?

Disaster Dave

Volunteer Management in Disaster- you are behind when you start

Last week I attended a a Volunteer Reception Center exercise by one of my contemporaries who is the EM coordinator for ESCA (a consortium of smaller cities who have come together to hire an Emergency Management group across two counties). A tip of the hat to Dan Good who wrote the plan and conducted the drill.
Our conversation got me thinking about this question:

As we have seen in the last few disasters the Volunteer Reception Centers are set up days after the impact. So what do you do to get all the spontaneous volunteers who are already running shelters, cleaning up and many other important task signed up?

Why bother you might say? Just a couple of good reasons:

1.  The first is command and control! Not doing things twice; knowing the volunteer is who they say they are.
2. The Second reason is that if this disaster becomes a presidential declared disaster you will have a chance for reimbursement from the Federal Government and State.  Typically you (or your county or state)have a percentage of that to share.  Usually 75% Feds + 25% at the state level, and the state often splits the 25% with the municipality. Guess what? Those volunteer hours can help pay down your city/counties portion.  But you have to track them.

Did that help get your attention? 

So now you have your Volunteer center up and are smoothly signing people in and dispatching them to leaders who will use them.  So now to scoop up the un-registered volunteer; you can do several things and these are just suggestions:

1. send a team out in the field to register and brief people where they are (big groups).  take water and snacks to show support and give them a reason to stop working.
2. Put the word out to the leaders of operations at the next meeting that all volunteers must pass through the registration station and you will get them back ASAP.
3. Set up the sign up team at a common point- chow hall/shower area/sleeping area

Other reasons to get the unregistered logged in:

•  Making sure everyone is working off the same page
• Liability protection
• Proper numbers for feeding- nothing like a tired hungry volunteer when you tell him not enough food
• Proper numbers for sleeping places- Except a tired dirty volunteer with no place to sleep
• Enough shower & bathrooms
• Enough medical folks to care for booboo's

disaster_dave