Disaster Recovery Journal, Fall 2009

PPBI

PPBI On The Move!

By DEIDRICH E. TOWNE Jr., CBCP

Another visit with an old axiom: “the more things change the more they stay the same”. Well, I open this column with a hearty “thank you” to the staff and our friends at the Disaster Recovery Journal. While the economy, has stumbled, Bob Arnold with the help of Patti Fitzgerald, Jon Seals, Mercedes and Tom Kneese have picked up their game and produced another excellent conference. Their support for PPBI was and is much appreciated. Great teamwork, the networking and relationships we forged will help us all in uncertain times. Rich and Sharon Arnold were always smiling and with friends like them you can’t help but smile back!

I would appreciate your attention as I tell you a bit about some of the latest activities behind the scenes at PPBI; a brief of who is making these things happen and a request for some feedback from you on a couple of items of importance to all of us in the industry.

One of the most important issues PPBI has tackled is our identity crisis. Who do we want to be when we grow up? As many of you are aware, PPBI has always advocated for a closer relationship between Private and Public entities. The key here is how we can maintain that little advocacy thing. David Ziev, is the Chairman of the Training Committee and a PPBI Board Member. He has taken on the challenge of guiding PPBI through a Strategic Planning Initiative. David is uniquely qualified to lead PPBI though this process. He has the vision and creativity to cultivate those on his team into building a consensus on the PPBI Mission, Objectives, and Activities. David is currently facilitating a phase to link the tactical operations within PPBI with the practical activities to support the defined objectives of the organization. The success of PPBI will be a direct result of David’s tenacity and pragmatic understanding of the factors that drive business. Great work David, for a great cause!

In support of several of these objectives, Ken Schroeder from Secorp has taken on the role as the Publisher of the PPBI Newsletter. Ken has been successful in linking our newsletter to the subscribers and delivering a much needed issue of high quality and overwhelmingly acclaimed by the recipients. The first call I received on the newsletters content came from Rich Arnold. Rich had read the newsletter and he loved the crossword puzzle on the BC/DR lexicon. Rich advised we make this a repeat feature and Ken has acknowledged he will continue the word play in subsequent issues of the newsletter. Thanks Ken! One additional note concerning Ken; he is a member of the PPBI

training Committee and brings a boat load, or should I say a plane load of public service exposure from his two previous careers as a pilot with the U.S Air Force and an agency lead in finance for the State of Florida. And did I mention Ken is also a member of the PPBI Board of Directors. Well done and many thanks, Ken!

Another PPBI Board Member, Jules Edwards works behind the scenes as the webmaster for PPBI. One of the interesting things about Jules is how easily he manages this activity. He casually offers his expertise to others on the Board on how to navigate and manage all of the functions and capabilities on the PPBI website. These include organization, membership, subscriptions, publishing, etcetera that support the objectives of PPBI. I have never known Jules to be stumped by a technical question, (about the web site or other topics in his tool kit.) Jules offers frank advice and also keeps track of the message PPBI delivers at conference time. Check out some of Jules’ work at www.ppbi.org and let us know how what you think. And let us know how the web site works for you; (and if it fails, our Q/A continues), thanks.

Two additional items for this article include the PPBI Best Practices award and feedback from the DRJ Fall World conference. PPBI has commissioned a “Best Practices” award and encourages nominations that fit the Deed of gift as follows: “This award may be given to an Individual, a Corporation, or a Public Entity, for their exemplary planning, practices, or in response to a critical incident. They must have exhibited the positive aspects of partnerships that work.” If you are aware of a candidate that meets these minimum qualifications please send a note to my attention at PPBImail@twcny.rr.com, and the Board of Directors will review the nomination. Thank you for partnering with PPBI.

As we on the Board of Directors and membership at PPBI complete our Strategic Planning Initiative, we would ask you for feedback on the most recent DRJ conference and your interaction with PPBI

whether in the booth or from you attendance at our Sunday workshop on the Incident Management Maturity Model. We look forward to your feedback and take it seriously when assessing our performance and developing content for future venues. Please take a few minutes and let us know what you think, and don’t forget to nominate someone special for the PPBI Best Practices Award. Once again the email address for PPBI is PPBImail@ twcny.rr.com.