Tulsa Partners March Newsletter

Spring is nearly here and Oklahoma is fast-approaching Tornado season. Please remember to have a Family Preparedness Kit ready in case Mother Nature strikes.We look forward to seeing YOU at one of our upcoming events we have planned this Spring!

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Tulsa Partners Needs Volunteers for Upcoming Home and Garden Show

Tulsa Partners has a booth at the Home and Garden Show. The show is this week, March 11-14. Please go to Tulsa Partner's website to sign up for a shift this weekend!

For more information on the 2010 Home and Garden Show at the QuikTrip Center please click here.

If you want to volunteer to be at the booth or to get VIP tickets for Thursday's opening night, please contact Penni on her cell at 810-1662.

Last month Tulsa Partners had a booth at the Tulsa Landscape and Remodel Show at the Tulsa Convention Center. It was a great success and let people know more about our Green Building Resource Library! (Pictured above is Carissa Lovell, daughter of Executive Director, Tim Lovell.)

Fourth Friday Green Bag Lunch Series Update

On February 26th, the Vice President of Tulsa HBA Green Building Council, John Madden of ICF Construction spoke about insulated concrete forms for home safety and energy savings. A great crowd was there and many questions were answered on this new building technique. (John Madden presenting in picture.)

On March 26th,Bill and Mary Jo Rowe of Integrity Pest Control will be speaking on 'green' pest control for your home and business and specifically about the EPA's Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP), which is a voluntary program that forms partnerships with pesticide users to reduce the potential health and environmental risks associated with pesticide use and implement pollution prevention stategies.

On April 23rd, Earl Burden with Riverbend Timber Framing, a member of the Tulsa HBA Green Building Council and a founding exhibitor of Tulsa Partners' Green Building Resource Library, will talk about timber framing and the use of structural insulated panels (SIPS): "The Best Kept Green Secret."

Presentations are eligible for self-report to AIA CES for continuing education learning units.

These lunches will be held at Kendall-Whittier Public Library (21 South Lewis Avenue) from 11:30am to 1pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

The Green Bag Lunch series is a part of the Green Building Resource Library and Millennium Center project. Please visit TulsaPartners.org for updates on all these projects!

Resilient and Ready and REMS Grant Update

The Resilient and Ready program at Tulsa Public Schools is now in full-swing and the program has begun throughout the school district this new year. Tulsa Partners, Inc. is excited to help and be a part of the REMS grant that made this available to all the 4th graders in Tulsa Public Schools.
In the month of February, Tulsa Partners assisted Tulsa Public Schools in teaching forty forth-graders at Lanier Elementary. It was a great experience to work hand-in-hand with the children and we look forward to many more workshops with them!

Tulsa Partners also participated in REMS grant committee meetings that began in February. Executive Director, Tim Lovell, Chair of the Language and Culture Bank Sheryl Siddiqui and Language and Culture Bank member Glenna Cooper went to the Special Needs committee meetings and are helping in the process of incorporating new ideas for these students into the plan.

DRBC Planning Helps Organizations During Emergencies

The Tulsa Community Foundation recently used their emergency plan when an armed man was in the lobby of a radio station in their multi-story building. Their security procedure was developed as part of a planning process on creating business continuity and emergency plans facilitated by Tulsa Partners' Disaster Resistant Business Council (DRBC).

Photo: Jeff Stava and Mike McCool (facing camera) and others at emergency planning meeting for Tulsa Community Foundation.

On January 13, Barry Stiles entered KBEZ Radio with a rifle wanting to speak with one of the on air radio personalities. The police shot Mr. Stiles and took him into custody after he refused to put down the gun.

Jeff Stava with the Tulsa Community Foundation says that they followed their plan. " We alerted our employees over the loud speaker and asked them to stay on our floor and to not leave the building. We now have our magnetic door lock system and have activated it during office hours to prevent someone from getting in our offices."

Bob Roberts, Tulsa Partners Vice President and one of the facilitators with the DRBC, said " Although most of the material we discuss with agencies focus on disaster response and continuity of operations, we encourage businesses and nonprofits to also have security procedures in place. We are happy that the Tulsa Community Foundation had a plan in place to deal with this issue of workplace violence."

Mr. Roberts has also contacted the communities of Altus and Bartlesville to find if business continuity trainings offered there have led to plans used by businesses during the recent snow and ice storms.

Partnerships for Disaster Resistance
by David Hall, DRBC Chair

Excerpt from an article Tulsa Partners Board Member, David Hall, wrote for the State Farm Loss Mitigation Newsletter:

In 2010 the Disaster Resistant Business Council has developed a "keystone" strategy. We've decided to partner with local Chambers of Commerce and United Ways to deliver Disaster Resistance information and Business Continuity tools to both the public and private sector. This program was developed and tested in partnership with the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce, and Tulsa Area United Way. Our strategy includes:

· Partnering with the "Keystones" to develop their own Business Continuity Plan using Open for Business®.

· Marketing this process as a "Value added service" for the Keystones

· Add Open for Business® from IBHS to all new member packets along with a letter from the local Chamber President on the importance of Business Continuity Planning

· Providing training and expertise for members utilizing the on-line training available at www.disastersafety.org

· Establish an annual campaign in the spring highlighting the importance of Business Continuity planning as the spring wind/hail/tornado season approaches including an offer to supply the material and/or additional training

· Support the development of regular contact and updating

We're hoping to develop some permanence around this process to make substantial in-roads with the Small Business Community in Oklahoma. We know that the more success we can have on a local level the more likely it would be that we could roll this program out to disaster-prone areas around the country. We appreciate the help and support we get from all of our partners in the Disaster Resistant Business Council.

Brett Fidler appointed to new position in Sustainability Department at the City of Tulsa

As reported in the Tulsa World on March 4, 2010, Mayor Dewey Bartlett signed an executive order to create a Sustainability Department to oversee the $3.8 million in new energy and sustainability initiatives funded with federal stimulus grant money. Brett Fidler, who served Mayors Taylor and Bartlett as a special sustainability adviser, will be the director of the new Sustainability Department.

Click Tulsa World photo of Mayor Bartlett and Brett Fidler for link to Tulsa World article.

Brett Fidler is a member of Tulsa Partners' Millennium Center Steering Committee. Tulsa Partners congratulates Mr. Fidler on his new position!

Regional Collaboration and Tribal Partnerships Workshop

Regional Collaboration & Tribal Partnerships Workshop is the second in a two part series of courses designed to establish and expand homeland security regionalization through the building of both non-tribal and tribal partnerships and collaboration in regions across the United States. It was held in February at the Tulsa Community College West Campus. Local sponsors for the event were the Region 7 Terrorism Early Warning Group and Tulsa Partners, Inc.

During this workshop, participants thoroughly investigated a successful regionalization case study, learned and practiced team building and collaborative problem solving, and worked collaboratively with other emergency management, public safety, and community leaders. We thank those partners who participated in this pilot workshop developed by the Western Community Policing Institute and the National Native American Law Enforcement Association.

We also appreciate the donation of pastries by QuikTrip for this workshop. Thank you!

Tulsa Community College Honors Class Helping with Green Building Resource Library

Professor Judyth Gulden's Honors Biology class is helping populate the Green Building Resource Library database, as well as helping with indoor and outdoor exhibits at the library. Tulsa Partners is excited for the work that these students are helping with and are grateful to the dedication they have to this project!

Local and National Recovery Plans Under Development

Tulsa Partners volunteer, Judyth Gulden, has been working on a Tulsa community recovery plan begun as a post-graduate degree project last year under the auspices of Tulsa Partners. She met with Tulsa Area Emergency Management Director Mike McCool in February to review a draft, and is now incorporating input she has received from Mike and other experts.

Ms. Gulden says,"After sending out a call for information on recovery plans through the Natural Hazards Observer and reviewing the available literature, I think this may be the first written recovery plan developed for local jurisdictional use."

From short term debris management to long term recovery activities, this plan is intended to provide a guided framework for sustainable recovery after a disaster or event. See photo above of debris from December 2007 Ice Storm.

http://disasterrecoveryworkinggroup.gov/ndrf.pdf

Tulsa Partners' Language and Culture Bank Participate in
Tulsa Global Festival

Tulsa Partners' Language and Culture Bank volunteers set up and staffed a booth at the 2010 Global Festival at the Tulsa Community College Metro Campus. Special thanks to Tina Peña for arranging the L&C Bank's participation in this event.

We are excited about the work that L&C Bank is providing to the culturally diverse populations around Tulsa!

Woody's Web March 2010

What's that saying? In like a lamb...out like a lion? So....what do you think our March is going to look like? Dare I mention that our weather's been rather "mild" right now? I know....shuushhh! No jinxing allowed, right? Well, I say we just all gather together and tell Mother Nature we're tired of her weather hijinx, and are ready for a nice calm Spring! I think that would work...don't you? Not so sure? Well, ok - I guess we should just move on to some sort of informational thread here.

I'm thinking that for this month, I'll pay tribute to that sports tradition....March Madness. No, I will not be providing links to riveting sports sites with all the statistics you could possibly want. My March Madness will be a wild, random, all-over-the-place selection of informational websites and tidbits to motivate, mobilize, and move you to action! Here we go!

Refresh and Fine-Tune

How long ago did you take your ICS 300 and/or ICS 400 Course? Think you could use a refresher? (Me too!) The Fire Administration has a nice selection of online courses that includes refreshers for these two, in addition to some pretty interesting looking subjects. They offer several "simulation" courses (dorm fire, mansion fire, nursing home fire, etc.) that should prove interesting if you're looking to hone your decision making skills. http://www.nfaonline.dhs.gov/browse/index.shtm

Understanding the Effects of Disaster

An interesting paper has been released pertaining to Disaster Psychology - utilizing the analysis and comparison of the sinking of two luxury liners of the past: The Titanic and The Lusitania. Thought provoking...check it out at http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1969142,00.html?xid=rss-topst "Titanic vs Lusitania: How People Behave in Disaster".

Interesting website I chanced upon -The Gender and Disaster Network @ http://www.gdnonline.org/. "The Gender and Disaster Network started as an educational project initiated by women and men interested in geder relations in disaster contexts...". A founding member of GDN, Dr Elaine Enarson, is scheduled to be the guest speaker on a web forum hosted by EMForum.org (www.emforum.org) on March 10^th. Dr Enarson has done extensive work on gender related disaster case studies, and published several papers. If you miss the online discussion, you can still receive the transcript by visiting the site later.

Travel Bulletins

Is Mexico part of your Spring-Break travel plans? Then be sure to visit http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=488&z=43 for an update on the State Departments latest recommendations for travel to Mexico.

Earthquake Updates

For those looking for additional information related to the recent earthquake in Chile, here are a few websites of interest:

USGS Earthquake Info: http://earthquake. usgs.gov/ earthquakes/ recenteqsww/ Quakes/us2010tfa n.php
State Dept Info on Chile Earthquake: http://www.state. gov/p/wha/ ci/ci/earthquake /index.htm
CNN News Coverage: http://www.cnn. com/ (lots of coverage of Offshore Chile Earthquake)
Chile Earthquake Photos: http://www.flixya. com/photo/ 1213073/Chile_ Earthquake_ 2010_Damage_ Pictures
International Relief Efforts: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/ dbc.nsf/doc115? OpenForm& rc=2

Confused by some of the terms used in discussing the size/magnitude of some of these events? Some explanation can be found at http://www.earthquake.usgs.gov/aboutus/docs/020204mag_policy.php.

Revisiting Previous Events

For those interested in additional material on Hurricane Katrina, Popular Mechanics' website offers a rather extensive collection of stories. http://www.origin.popularmechanics.com/hurricanekatrina/.

Preparedness Tips

From LifeTouch Studios (the ever-present school photo source), "SmileSafe Kids" ID Cards. VERY nice! The program is free for students attending any of the participating schools. Check out the info at http://schoolportraits.lifetouch.com/justForSchools/smilesafe/index.aspx?id=198, and then check with your school to see if LifeTouch handles their student photos.

Storm season is just around the corner - have you reviewed your Family Disaster Plan? Check out the interactive planning tool at http://ready.adcouncil.org/beprepared/index.html. Lots of good information to go along with it!

Some other great sites with Preparedness Tips/Tidbits:

www.ready.gov Family Plans, Business Plans, School Plans....get the picture?

http://www.dhs.gov/xcitizens/editorial_0711.shtm 30 Preparedness Tips

Throes of Winter

Throughout December and a good portion of January, many areas of the country were plagued with record-breaking snows. Many people were trapped in their homes (some at their jobs) by treacherous roads, blinding snow and/or dangerous wind-chills. Work schedules for many were altered - some able to work at home, many not. So what happens when you just can't get to your job? There's been lots of discussion about Business Continuity Plans and the need for communication of those plans to employees. But how did all that "discussion" play out? Here's just one story shared on the dangers of not reporting to work...even if it's too dangerous to try. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/27/AR2010022703793.html.

Miscellaneous

For our partners in Medical Services: A recently released report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality explains how to select and operate alternate care facilities -- locations that can easily and quickly be equipped to augment or replace health care services when hospitals and other traditional care sites are inoperable or overwhelmed. http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/acfselection/dacfrep.htm

I recently came across a notice that, in a vote of 53 to 44, members approved the FS for Oklahoma HB 2835, by Rep. Pat Ownbey, R-Ardmore, and Sen. Johnnie Crutchfield, D-Ardmore. The bill requires owners of manufactured mobile home parks renting or leasing 10 or more mobile homes or lots or owners of recreational vehicle parks renting or leasing 10 or more lots to provide tenants a plan for sheltering or evacuation to a shelter in times of severe weather to the tenants. The bill requires the plan to be approved by the municipality, county or state office by March 1, 2011, and re-evaluated every five to seven years thereafter. While more details are not yet available, this is most promising. I found a link to California's Emergency Plan for Mobile Home Parks - just one of those "tools" to put in our Planning Toolchest. http://www.oes.ca.gov/Operational/OESHome.nsf/PDF/Emergency%20Plans%20for%20Mobilehome%20Parks/$file/Feat5.pdf

Inspirational Video

A few days ago, I received an email sharing one of those videos that renders you speechless, and brings tears to your eyes. Not tears of sadness or despair, but tears of appreciation for the dedication of a young man, his family, and his deeply ingrained devotion to the service of his country. So deep, in fact, that it brought him back from the brink of darkness. After watching - please share - and remember to thank those who risk everything for our country, and the loved ones that wait for their return. http://www.greatamericans.com/video/123-Curahee.

And In Closing

AT&T has announced the launch of a national campaign to fight Texting & Driving. The new campaign is called "Txtng & Drivng ... It can Wait", and features parents of young texting-and-driving victims and the final text messages the young drivers received just before they died. The campaign's theme: "No text is worth dying over." In 2008, nearly 5,900 people died and more than 500,000 (that's right...half a million) were hurt in crashes involving a distrated or inattentive driver (National Hwy Traffic Safety Admin). Educators, parents and teens can download info about texting while driving and sign a pledge to do it at www.att.com/txtngcanwait.

How 'bout a new quick message template? "txt u l8r"?

Until next time....

Be Aware ~ Be Informed ~ Be Safe

Woody

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