Just recently, I had the honor of presenting at the EduComm 2010 conference in Las Vegas. The title of my presentation was ‘Connecting the Dots to Improve Campus Safety’ and was selected as a featured presentation.
Presenting at conferences is definitely one of my favorite things to do. I get to share ideas, successes and lessons learned with other people who are coming from many different locations and I have the unique opportunity to ask questions and learn what challenges other people face.
During my presentation I asked the following questions:
How many of your organizations have a Crisis Management Plan?
(Everyone raised their hand)
How many of your organization have an Emergency Management Plan?
(Everyone raised their hand)
How many of your organizations have a Prevention/Intervention Plan?
(Only a couple people raised their hand)
WOW! You should have seen the faces of the attendees…and probably mine too.
This quick survey along with hundreds of other lessons learned continue to show that organizations are too focused on ‘reactive response plans’ rather than ‘proactive prevention actions’.
Maybe this explains why so many schools rushed out and purchased mass notification response systems after the Virginia Tech tragedy?
What do you think?
Should more schools invest in tools and systems for prevention and intervention efforts?
Stay tuned for Part 2…
