Readiness and the Red Cross
For a couple of years now, I’ve been looking at and talking about things that technical communicators need to do to protect themselves and their work. I’ve even got a couple of papers in the IEEE Xplore database on the subject. There are lots of keywords in this arena - security, emergency preparedness, disaster recovery, business continuity, and more. My two favorite security blogs are NoticeBored and Bruce Schneier’s Schneier on Security . There’s also a ton of free information out there - for example, U.S. government is publishing lots of advice for people and businesses through Homeland Security , FEMA, and OSHA .
But an occasional technical conference presentation doesn’t really seem to be enough, I want to talk about this more, to feel like I’m DOING more. Recently, I signed up as a volunteer for the American Red Cross here in Tucson to bring emergency preparedness talks to the local community. Actually, that’s not quite accurate - I applied to be a Red Cross volunteer. They’ve got a rigorous application process, involving a background check, references, two interviews, and a very nicely done online training course.
This is something new and exiting for me, I’m looking forward to it!
Hi Brenda.
Glad you like my blog! Good luck with the Red Cross volunteer work. We’ll be doing a NoticeBored module on contingency planning, disaster recovery and emergency incident management in the new year, so I’d be interested in good links to related resources for our readers and customers.
Cheers,
Gary
Comment by Gary Hinson — November 18, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
Hi Brenda -
This is Wendy from the American Red Cross. Thanks for volunteering! I would love to hear some of your ideas about emergency preparedness and technical communication.
Comment by Wendy Harman — November 19, 2007 @ 8:51 am