Colorado Division of Emergency Management Weekly Information Report

Job Announcement!!! -- Director of Critical Incident Theater

The Community College of Aurora (CCA) is accepting applications for the position of "Director of Critical Incident Theater." The Critical Incident Theater is a great new CCA initiative to develop a robust simulation and training capability to support the educational needs of students and the Homeland Security and Emergency Management community. The position is posted at http://www.ccaurora.edu/college/jobs/.

TRAINING DATE CHANGE -- Pandemic Influenza Planning and Preparedness (PIPP) Training - Jul 09

The Pandemic Influenza Planning and Preparedness (PIPP) course is designed to train planning and management level personnel who are faced with challenges posed by the threat of pandemic influenza. This training allows responders to better understand the threat of pandemic influenza. The course is was scheduled for July 14-16, 2009, but has been moved to July 13-15.

The class will be held at the South Metro Fire Headquarters in Centennial, CO, and you can register online for the class or, if you have any questions, contact Robyn Knappe at (720) 852-6617 or robyn.knappe@state.co.us

NEW -- DEM Training Opportunities

There is still time and spaces available to take advantage of some of the upcoming DEM training opportunities throughout Colorado. Although the latest training info and registrations can always be found on the DEM web site, some new classes scheduled include:

Finance and Recovery Workshop - La Plata County- August 10, 2009

Preparing Emergency Operations Plans: Current Trends - Alamosa County- July 23, 2009

Embracing the Unexpected

One of the things we are all struggling with is social media. There are a massive number of articles available to make you aware of the tools. There are precious few that actually address how you might use them effectively. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of zero that discuss the policy considerations of using them in government work environment.... until now.

There is no way around it. Developing policies on how to reconcile allowing access at govt work sites for a tool that - simultaneously - can inform you of breaking news direct from the Centers for Disease Control on how to employ H1N1 protective measures at summer day camps and that your best friend from high school has just polished off a 3:00 pm breakfast of Captain Crunch swimming in water-diluted vanilla yogurt because they forgot to buy milk... is challenging. Anyways, I thought I would pass an article I read on -- interesting read at Federal Computer Week (June 2009 edition) tacking the subject. DON'T PANIC- it is written in language easily understood by those of us confused by anything that has an on/off button.

http://fcw.com/Articles/2009/06/08/feature-social-media-government.aspx

.. and just to remind you, if you haven't had the chance to take a look or 'follow' @COEmergency yet, take a peek at http://www.twitter.com/COEmergency. Special thanks to all of you I have had the opportunity to talk about the site and its' philosophy with - your inputs have been great and I am really happy to get to work with such an insightful, creative group - all comments welcome!

Any comments, additions, or other suggestions you have for this report or on the DEM site? Don't hesitate to contact me at (303) 472-4087 or at brandon.williams@state.co.us