So, Now You Bought Your Mass Emergency Notification System (MENS).

• Who’s authorized to use it?
• What do they say?
• What do they say as the follow up message?
• What do they say as the crisis changes?
• Who’s in charge?

You have bought the “bullhorn” of your new MENS. Now, you have to institute command and control in order to use it.

This requires a comprehensive, site-specific, all-hazards Emergency Response Plan.

Required by law for every employer to have for every site, your ERP should be all-hazards, not just about fire or medical response. All-hazards because you can’t tell a family or a jury, "Gee, we never thought that would happen to us."

Remember our Six Phases of Denial:

THE SIX PHASES
OF
APATHY OR DENIAL
REGARDING
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

1. It won’t happen to me
2. It won’t happen here
3. It won’t happen now
4. If it does happen, it won’t be so bad
5. If it is that bad, my insurance will pay for it
6. Ohmygod, why didn’t I plan for this?

You may have been lucky so far, but luck is not a strategy!