President's Message Archives - BRMA

April 2020 President’s Message

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 22:02:19 +0000

We are in an unprecedented time in our country, and in the world. Although we have all planned for a pandemic, now that we are here, there are definitely gaps between our plans and the reality of responding to, and living in a pandemic. As we all try to navigate this situation in our work and home life, I think we have an opportunity, an obligation, to lead. Certainly all of you are the experts in your organizations, family, and circle of friends. I challenge you to help educate others on the importance of social distancing, flattening the curve, and the dire consequences if we don’t.

Given our situation, it’s important that the BRMA Board consider how we can best support our members during this pandemic. It is a challenging situation due to the fact that the Board Members are in the midst of responding to COVID-19’s impact to their companies and families just like our membership. How can we show up for you? Right now, we are doing weekly COVID-19 webinars on Wednesdays (one Thursday, April 16) from 12:00PM-1:00PM. The webinars, led by Fiona Raymond-Cox, are an opportunity for us to share and learn from one another. If you have any ideas how we can support the membership during this time of social distancing, I want to hear your suggestions. Please reach out to me at President@BRMA.com.

Wishing you and your families good health.

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March 2020 President’s Message

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 18:57:20 +0000

Spring is here, almost. March 8th is spring forward. The trees are blooming, the days are sunny, the nights still chilly. I do love it. However, the lack of rain is a bit concerning. I read recently that it is the all time driest February in the Bay Area since 1864. What does this mean for our fire season and Public Safety Power Shutdown? Perhaps March will bring much needed rain? In the meantime, we are all trying to manage our response to COVID-19. BRMA is striving to bring you the information you need to respond to the resiliency challenges we are facing. If you have not had an opportunity to join our Pop Up Webinars on COVID-19, please join us. We will continue to have them to assist our members in managing through this health crisis, leveraging the knowledge base of our experienced membership. As we move forward, we are also looking at ways for members to share their best known methods in responding business interruptions, while keeping their organizations identity confidential, to encourage more candid discussion. Stay tuned…

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February 2020 President’s Message

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 18:43:14 +0000

What a way to start 2020, the Coronavirus? Time to dust off the Pandemic Plan(s) if you hadn’t kept them up to date. I recall the last time having to respond to a pandemic threat was 2009, H1N1. I had a few flashbacks, or was “triggered” as they say. But it seems as though I learned from the last experience, and I am sure you did too. And I take comfort in the fact that we have the BRMA membership community to lean on for support and guidance as we respond to this health crisis. Having employees stuck in China makes this situation all the more difficult. Especially since our Congress isn’t really focused on getting US citizens out of China right now. Hopefully by the time the Brief is distributed, the situation will change. I am thinking for the future, perhaps we need to have a BRMA response team, where we could activate a group of members not significantly impacted by an event, dial in a conference bridge, and get assistance and expertise where needed. If anyone has a jet…

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January 2020 President’s Message

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 20:44:11 +0000

I was so pleased to see so many of you (our members) at the annual meeting and luncheon in December, at historic John’s Grill, the first restaurant to re-open after the 1906 earthquake! That’s resilience!! It was a great venue, and much merriment was had by all. My speech, along with event photos, can be read and seen HERE.

BRMA has been going strong through the decades …..90’s…00….10…and now 20’s!!

What better time to set your New Year’s resolutions?! I’m proposing a few below (primarily BRMA-focused) to consider, in addition to any of your own. And be sure to revisit the list to see what you’ve accomplished at the end of the year:

Update your BRMA profile to make sure it’s current (we know a few members have outdated employers); it’s best to make changes now by logging into the website HERE so we can stay in touch with you
Create / replenish your emergency Go Kit
Attend 4+ BRMA events
Write an article to share with BRMA members
Host a BRMA in-person meeting or special event
Attend a resiliency-oriented conference
Shadow a BRMA Board member
Appoint an individual or organization for BRMA’s Award of Excellence

As my tenure draws to a close and I formally hand over the reins to Tonya York (your new President in 2020), I’d like to say a special thank you to Tracy Knippenburg Gillis who, over coffee and cake, agreed to throw her name in the hat to become BRMA’s first Communications Director (2018-2019). It’s under her guidance that we have the new logo, branded collateral, and have been focusing on establishing BRMA’s voice on the website and social media. It’s great news that Anya Fleischer, having been Social Media Coordinator, is taking on the Comms Director role.

It’s been my honor to serve you these past three years. I look forward to seeing you at many of the BRMA events being planned in 2020.

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2019 Annual Luncheon President’s Message

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:04:22 +0000

All things come in 3s, good or bad. In my years with BRMA, I’ve found this to be the case, more or less. This year alone, we’ve had 3 workplace violence events, 3 South Bay meetings, 3 members receiving conference passes, and filled 3 open Board positions for the upcoming year. Even our mission statement “to educate, inform and inspire people working in disciplines related to business continuity, organizational resiliency, and risk” -comes in threes! But today I’d love to talk to you about our one vital organization, and what it does to connect with so many more.

In education, we’ve exceeded our record of 14 events, with an extra special outing with ACP on the San Francisco Fire Department’s Fire Boat, a networking happy hour, and our first tech talk. On top of this, we welcomed 35new members and are working on introducing corporate memberships in 2020 so we can educate more members and their guests. A truly prolific output this year! Thank you to Renuka Darbha, and Robert Jones. We never stop learning as the challenges we face evolve; BRMA’s commitment to continuous learning has helped our members develop their skills to rise to those challenges.

They say that knowledge is power, and we get the privilege of empowering our members to share access to subject matter knowledge and increase awareness. We’ve introduced a summary of in-person meetings by members, and revamped our BRMA Brief. We’re all super proud of Tracy Knippenburg Gillis’ work on our fresh new logo and branded collateral. Our new and very elegant website makes us far easier to contact, and I have to thank Victor Vela for all his help! I am excited to see members making use of the website’s members-only offerings, writing articles and posting about conferences they’ve attended. We’ve also introduced Speaker Spotlights, so members can learn more about our presenters. All this in addition to our newsletter! By committing to “informing” as a main motivation, hopefully BRMA’s mission is spread beyond these walls.

Finally, “inspire”. I thought I’d talk about how you all have inspired me -with some more threes! Over my past 13 years with BRMA, and 3 years as President, I’ve learnt and grown so much and want to thank each and every Board member and Appointee for their support and dedication to making BRMA better for all members. We’ve rolled out our mentoring program after a successful pilot, helping inform and grow our community. We also launched BRMA Gives Back -a huge thank you to the several volunteers who spent a weekend on the ground in Paradisesupporting Butte County wildfire recovery efforts. It’s so important to build these connections both within and outside our community, networking to solve the problems of tomorrow.

As the fires rage across California and our climate crisis becomes ever more urgent, I’ve seen how we’ve all stepped up to make sure we can best support the companies and communities around us. I am confident, as my tenure draws to a close, that our new President will be excellent at picking up the mantle to continue to inspire change for the better. It’s been my honor to serve. Thank you again!

Fiona Raymond-Cox
BRMA President (2017-2019)

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December 2019 President’s Message

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 16:50:35 +0000

Educating and informing are two key tenets of BRMA’s mission statement. BRMA member, Julia Halsne, delivered a most informative presentation on November 21 about the journey East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) has taken since the late 1990s to implement its Business Continuity Management program. She discussed how the BCM program has evolved over the years, and where there is still work to do. The agency was a worthy recipient of the 2016 BRMA Award of Excellence! As with all webinars, her recent webinar is available to you (our members) in our members-only section at BRMA.com. To replay Julia’s presentation, click HERE.

We are delighted to welcome back Regina Phelps (another BRMA member) for her traditional January meeting spot. This time she’ll discuss ways to continue your business, even if you lost all your systems for days or weeks…or longer. A sobering topic indeed but one we should all be thinking about and addressing! Please mark your calendar for January 21 and sign up HERE.

Members value learning from other members. If you are able and willing to share information about your program, a technology you use in an innovative way, and/or lessons learned following an incident, please email program@brma.com. We’re always looking for great program content for our members.

Our upcoming annual 2020 strategic planning meeting is being scheduled for January, and will be geared to even further enhancing our programming and marketing initiatives to best meet our member needs and reach a widening audience.

As we have all just celebrated Thanksgiving, it is an important time for reflection. I am grateful to all our members and the contributions each of you bring to make BRMA the organization we are.

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November 2019 President’s Message

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 00:41:28 +0000

With the confluence of the Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) impacting hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, and the Kincade, Getty and other fires raging up and down California, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those impacted. Among us there are BRMA members who are displaced from their homes, and many others supporting their colleagues and their organizations, friends, and loved ones. I cannot stress enough the importance of being prepared for an evacuation at short notice. Please take a moment to check your go-kit is packed, key documents are at the ready, the car is fueled up, and you have some cash on hand. You never know when you might have to leave in a hurry.

It’s widely acknowledged that climate change is behind these current events but rising sea level is also of great concern. Global mean sea level rose 11–16 cm in the twentieth century, and is likely to rise by 20-30 cm by 2050. This according to a new report by Climate Central (a US-based non-profit news organization) published in October, which estimates 200 million people will be living in areas that are projected to be below high-tide lines come 2100. Our October Meeting highlighted what the Bay Area can expect with coming climate changes and sea rise, and what is being done to combat the impacts. If you missed it, you can read a meeting summary HERE and view the slides in the members-only area of the website. Also check our resources section for some great reports and valuable information.

San Francisco’s Embarcadero Seawall was built over one hundred years ago. Nowadays it protects the Embarcadero Historic District and underpins the Embarcadero Promenade. The seawall supports many of the city’s iconic destinations, parks, and local businesses. Furthermore, it supports key utility and transportation infrastructure including BART, Muni, and ferry networks, and serves as a critical emergency response and recovery area. But, from time to time the Embarcadero floods. In November 2018 San Franciscans voted to fund the Embarcadero Seawall Program with the goal of improving seismic performance and providing near-term flood protection, with the longer-term goal of planning for sea level rise of 6 feet by 2100.

San Francisco International Airport was originally built in 1927 in a cow pasture at the end of the San Francisco Bay! It’s runways sit approximately 10 feet above sea level. They, the terminals and other buildings are currently protected by a series of earthen berms and smaller sea walls built mainly in the 1980s. Today they provide about 3 feet of protection from flooding. Amid concerns that rising sea levels will flood runways and buildings in the coming years, the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors approved a fiscal plan in September to build a major new sea wall around the entire airport to guard against 3 feet of sea level rise, plus another two feet for big waves during storms to protect the airport through 2085!

We are already planning a meeting to address the PSPS shut-offs and new lessons learned from the fires in 2020.

Before then be sure to join us for our upcoming webinar on 11/21 and annual meeting and luncheon on 12/05 (see details below). I sincerely hope you’ll take advantage of both!!

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October 2019 President’s Message

Mon, 04 Nov 2019 18:53:02 +0000

During the week of September 20th, in 150 countries social activists participated in protests to demand action to address climate change. The same week, a funeral was held in Switzerland to mourn the loss of the Pizol glacier due to global warming, and the United Nations held their Climate Action Summit.

As business continuity practitioners we need to pay greater attention to the effects of global warming, from hurricanes and wildfires. Business disruptions can occur as a result of what is becoming an increasing number of catastrophic events caused by climate change. Changes in weather patterns are leading to higher temperatures, rising sea levels, and increasingly heavy rains and winds.

At our October BRMA Meeting, two professors from UC Berkeley will present on this very topic and shed light on how the Bay Area and California is being impacted. They will also address how disruptions across the U.S. and around the globe will affect California business supply chains, food availability and prices, immigration and other important issues. It won’t be all doom and gloom. They plan to review measures being taken by the State of California, local governments, and private sector innovators to both prepare for climate impacts and cut carbon pollution to slow the affects.

Come and join us for the first BRMA meeting to tackle this important topic on October 30.

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September 2019 President’s Message

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 14:29:51 +0000

We’re working to make your Board better! One of the important changes that we’ll be rolling out this fall includes adjustments to the timing of which Board positions are up for election, to ensure smooth and effective transitions of roles over time. In support of this effort, our upcoming open Board positions and terms will include: President (for 2020 term); Secretary and Communications Director (for 2020-2021 terms).

Later this month the Nominating Committee will commence its outreach to identify members willing to put themselves forward for open Board positions.

We’re looking for members who are ready to step into a Leadership role. Do you have ideas to make BRMA stronger, bigger, better? Are you someone with Vision? Are you Motivated? Do you like Serving and want to Give Back to the BRMA community? Are you Empathetic, Creative and like Team Building?

It’s an honor to serve, and hugely rewarding. Is it time for YOU to seize this opportunity, to grow personally and professionally? I encourage you to throw your name in the hat when approached! And if you want to know more about a particular role, don’t hesitate to reach out to the current Board member (or me) for more information.

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August 2019 President’s Message

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 16:51:37 +0000

The Ridgecrest earthquakes in Southern California on July 4 (6.4) and July 5 (5.4, and 7.1) were a wake-up call that these temblors occur at any time and along known AND unknown fault-lines. The effects were felt as far north as the Bay Area and Sacramento. We experienced our own smaller 4.3 earthquake here in the Bay Area on July 16 in Blackhawk just east of Danville. Attending a Public Safety Power Shutoff workshop in San Francisco on July 31, I was dismayed at the widespread lack of personal preparedness among our community to manage a prolonged utility shutoff. Just think how our area will manage when the “Big One” hits. I encourage you to pull out your Go-Bags (or make one if you don’t have one already!) to make sure you’ll have what you need during an extended power outage, or worse. To help, I have dusted off an article I wrote for BRMA back in 2011, entitled “Are You Prepared?” Go HERE and scroll to the March 2011 Newsletter.

In the meantime, learn how the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco handles business continuity and their recovery challenges and strategies at our August 22 meeting. This is truly a unique opportunity. Be sure to sign up for the meeting, stay for the afternoon and explore on your own, and even take advantage of their “Night Life” (registration is required). Can’t wait to see you there!

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