BRMA: Embracing Connection and Growth – Join Our Engaging Summer Camp Series

 

On June 27th, we set the stage for an unforgettable summer with the launch of our Summer Camp Series at Milagros Latin Kitchen in Redwood City. The event was a resounding success, bringing together our esteemed members and guests in a delightful atmosphere of networking, storytelling, and culinary enjoyment.

 

As we move forward, we invite you to mark your calendars for our upcoming highlight event on July 27th – an exclusive in-person metrics workshop led by renowned expert Dr. Bernard Jones. This workshop promises to deepen your understanding of metrics and provide valuable insights for optimizing your strategies. Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your knowledge and refine your professional skill set.

 

At BRMA, we believe in the power of collaboration and personal connections. Our summer camp series continues to unfold with a lineup of dynamic events, webinars, and workshops designed to inspire, educate, and connect our members. Regardless of whether you are a longstanding member or a fresh face, we extend a warm invitation to you to join us!

 

As we adapt to the current economic landscape, BRMA remains committed to delivering exceptional value to our members. Our thriving global community offers a haven for industry professionals seeking meaningful connections, knowledge sharing, and collaborative endeavors. Through our in-person events and webinars, you can stay at the forefront of the ever-evolving trends and best practices in your field, even in the absence of physical conferences. Together, we can navigate these challenging times and emerge stronger than ever before.

 

Join us in embracing the spirit of summer and building lasting relationships within the BRMA community. Together, let’s harness our collective strength to achieve remarkable things. We look forward to welcoming you to our upcoming events!

 

– Renuka Darbha, BRMA President

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Welcome to the BRMA website. I am glad you are interested in learning more about our organization. This group of professionals provides us the opportunity to both learn from one another and promote the resiliency profession.

September is one of my favorite times of year. I read recently that psychologists site several reasons why people love September:

1. It feels like a fresh start
2. We tend to feel more motivated in the fall
3. We like the comfort and predictability of fall holidays and traditions
4. Cooler temperatures help us think more clearly
5. Many people feel more comfortable in cozy, comfy fall clothes than in summer clothes
6. Gloomier conditions like rain make us feel nostalgic

This is certainly true for the BRMA Board as well. Our organization is working on new initiatives and programs like the upcoming Climate Change Summit to focus on uniting communities and organizations to tackle the impacts of climate change. And as part of BRMA Gives Back, our philanthropy, BRMA has entered into a partnership with Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) to assist small businesses with developing business continuity plans. Our organization wants to show up differently for both our members, and our communities. If this resonates with you, we would welcome the opportunity to talk with you about the value of BRMA membership.

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Welcome to the BRMA website. I am glad you are interested in learning more about our organization. This group of professionals provides us the opportunity to both learn from one another and promote the resiliency profession.

As a resiliency professional, it seems as though the challenges we face continue to grow. The conflict in Ukraine, has brought yet another level of threat that we need to prepare for our organizations to respond if necessary. The war in Ukraine certainly puts things in perspective, as did the pandemic. It seems as through we have more and more risks for us to mitigate with their unique characteristics. I am grateful to have BRMA as a resource, to hear what my colleagues are doing in their organizations, to challenge the status quo, to innovate, and even to commiserate. I look forward to connecting with you via Zoom, or perhaps even an in person event during this quarter or next. Be well.

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Welcome to the BRMA website. I am glad you are interested in learning more about our organization. This group of professionals provides us the opportunity to both learn from one another and promote the resiliency profession.

Two years ago on January 16, 2019, BRMA held our last in person meeting at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco. It was a cold and rainy day. We had lunch in the lobby at the Market Street location, we caught up on what everyone did over the holidays, laughed, and reconnected with old friends. This meeting was the first program of the year, with a presentation from Regina Phelps. BRMA is fortunate as it is usually the trial audience for the presentation that Regina will deliver at DRJ later in the year. This was my first meeting as the incoming President. My employer at the time, Lam Research, was responding to Covid-19, we had offices in Wuhan. But little did I know that this would be our last in person BRMA meeting for awhile. For our members, and people in the resilience and continuity profession, this would be the challenge of our careers, sort of the Olympics in our profession. On our second anniversary of the COVID pandemic, how are you doing? What did your learn? We’d love to hear your story in the BRMA Brief. In the meantime, we will continue with our webinar meeting format. Please check out the Events section of the website for a calendar of activities. Looking forward to seeing you via Zoom!

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Welcome to the BRMA website. I am glad you are interested in learning more about our organization. This group of professionals provides us the opportunity to both learn from one another and promote the resiliency profession.

As December 2021 comes to a close, we are faced with a new variant of Covid 19. It seems impossible that this is the second holiday season where we are still managing a pandemic. The big difference is that this December we are able to enjoy some of the traditional aspects of the holidays thanks to being fully vaccinated and boosted. BRMA even held its Annual Holiday Luncheon in person, the first time since 2019. Approximately 25 people attended the outdoor event. It was so wonderful to see members in person, share a laugh, an excellent meal, and drink.  We are going to continue to try to have outdoor in person events in 2022. In September we did the first of many BRMA Gives Back beach cleanup activities with Recycle for Veterans at Baker Beach. This provided a great way to connect with one another while keeping with Covid protocols to keep everyone safe. Please check out the Events section of the website for a calendar of activities. Looking forward to seeing you via Zoom!

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Welcome to the BRMA website. I am glad you are interested in learning more about our organization. This group of professionals provides us the opportunity to both learn from one another and promote the resiliency profession.

April signals the start of spring and new beginnings. And that seems appropriate given the all the hope, optimism, and positivity around the vaccination efforts for Covid-19 now. Over 3 millions shots are being given daily. As we move forward with getting the pandemic in control, the sense of “what is possible” seems to be all around us. It is a welcome change following such a difficult and dark time over the past year. While many of you were eating Easter dinner, I was at CVS with my husband getting my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. There is so much to look forward to, seeing family and friends, traveling, and perhaps even going back to the office. And for BRMA that means we have an opportunity to change things up a bit after a year of virtual membership meetings only. The prospect of meeting with you all in person in the future is very exciting. The new board members bring with them a lot of wonderful ideas, energy, and creativity. And as you will see in coming months. they have developed programs that promise to be out of the ordinary. I invite you all to attend our future meetings, both members and guests. Please check out the Events section of the website for a calendar of activities. Looking forward to seeing you soon.

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Welcome!  I am glad you are interested in knowing more about BRMA. Our organization affords us the privilege of working together to share subject matter expertise and increase awareness of our resiliency profession.

Our commitment to learning helps our members develop their professional skills. To name a few key items, in 2019 we had 15 events – a record! – (9 in-person meetings, 5 webinars, 1 special outing), held our first tech talk, rolled out a mentoring program, launched BRMA Gives Back, …..and our membership grew by 25%! As we grow, we continue to encourage members to write articles, post about conferences, share insights, and provide feedback to improve the program.

To modernize BRMA, we worked diligently to refresh our logo, website, and communication strategies to revolutionize our outreach efforts. As part of this important initiative, we would also like to thank Box Inc., the winner of the 2019 BRMA Award of Excellence, for helping us digitize our internal processes and collaboration efforts.

Now in 2020, you can be sure we’re planning another exciting year! We hope you join us.

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• In July, we conducted a webinar and held a well-attended special South Bay event with speakers on the topic of cyber risk.
• At the California Academy of Sciences in August, members and guests had a truly unique opportunity to learn about the business continuity, resiliency and risk measures being taken to protect the incredible living collection as well as non-living specimens.
• In September, we were taken on a behind-the-scenes tour of a state-of-the-art LEED Silver Certified data center in Silicon Valley and then held a TechTalk to learn about technology and other tools to help us be better Crisis Managers and to improve our practice.

Coming up…..

• In October, two UC Berkeley professors will shed light on how the Bay Area and California are being impacted now and how climate disruption across the U.S. and around the globe will affect California business supply chains, food availability and prices, immigration and other important issues. Our speakers plan to review measures being taken by the State of California, local governments and private sector innovators to both prepare for climate impacts and also cut carbon pollution to slow the affects.
• November’s webinar will reveal how East Bay Municipal Utility Department’s business continuity program has grown and adapted over the years based on lessons learned.
• We’ll round out the year with our popular members-only annual luncheon; an opportunity to learn about the state of our association and to socialize with our peers over a delicious lunch at historic John’s Grill!

And as 2020 is fast approaching, you can be sure we’re planning another exciting year.

What are you waiting for? Become a member today!!

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We were very busy from April – June!!

After a 6-month pilot, we launched the BRMA Mentoring Program, and organized an action-packed program.

We designed a three-part program specifically to address workplace violence: BRMA is grateful to the Redwood City Police Department and SWAT team for creating an interactive training exercise specially for our members. Part 2 was a webinar followed with an ex-Secret Service agent who focused on the latest concepts across prevention, response and crisis management. The series concluded with a panel discussion, where our speakers shared their experiences of preparing for and/or actually responding to workplace violence situations within their own organizations and tied those back into lessons learned in the prior two sessions.

• We welcomed a business continuity expert from Australia who addressed the theory and reality of a Business Impact Analysis and the necessity for elastic plans.
• We organized a special event with the ACP Bay Area Chapter, spending a Saturday afternoon out on the Bay aboard a SF fireboat which included a tour. We followed this up with a joint networking happy hour.
• We hosted two presenters who came into town specifically to talk to our members about how to build business continuity management (BCM) into an organization’s culture, and address other key BCM trends.

We’ve just kicked off what will be an equally active Q3. We just conducted a well-attended special South Bay event scheduled for July 18 with not one but two speakers who addressed cyber risk. In August, our meeting will be hosted by the California Academy of Sciences (thank you CalAcademy!). Late September, we’re planning a tour at one of the most globally recognized colocation data center facilities and a tech talk. Finally, in October, we’ll be discussing climate risk.

Additionally, this quarter the Nominating Committee will start their outreach efforts to find members who are willing to step up to assume a Board position for 2020-2021. This is an opportunity for members to shape the organization, and develop their own skills in a leadership role.

Be sure to check back often. Better still, become a member if you’re not already and join our growing community.

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We kicked off the year with the launch of our new brand (see separate post), and a website refresh team has spent many an hour behind the scenes to bring a completely new site to fruition with additional bells and whistles for those visiting our site, and most importantly for our members.

We hosted one in-person meeting and two webinars, and are lining up an exciting program of events for 2019. Topics will include a 3-part program on workplace violence: (1) interactive training session with the Redwood City Police Department, (2) webinar on latest concepts across prevention, response and crisis management (both April), and (3) workplace violence panel discussion (May). This will be followed by a presentation on elastic plans (May), driving cultural buy-in for business continuity management (June), and cyber risk & the dark web (July). Later this summer/fall, we’re planning a tour at one of the most globally recognized colo’s (data center facility) and will be hosting an in-person meeting at California Academy of Sciences!

Be sure to check back often. Better still, become a member and join our growing community.

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