Business Continuity Planning (BCP)

General Sites

Contingency Planning & Management - Has a lot of articles and links, and is based on their magazine. Has their Business Continuity for starters: BCP 101, BCP 201 online, etc.

Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) - Has a lot of information, articles, and links with a section for those new to disaster recovery. Their magazines are online, but cost to read.

Career Development in Business Continuity/Emergency Management

International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) - Web postings for Business Continuity jobs, as well as links to Emergency Management positions across the U.S.

BC Management - Postings for Business Continuity jobs and industry salary surveys for the past few years.

FEMA - Federal Emergency Management Agency's main web site

Ready.gov - U.S. Department of Homeland Security's web site of 3-basic steps to prepare for terrorism (also information on radiation, biological, chemical, explosions, nuclear). Now includes Ready Business with the basics for planning.

Institute of Business & Home Safety - (IBHS) Has great mitigation & preparedness publications to cover all natural hazards. Most are downloadable for free.

riskVue - This webzine for Risk Management Professionals has a feature article every month covering a variety of relevant topics, with an insurance spin.

SBA (U.S. Small Business Administration) - In addition to information to get your business starting or managing once it's running, SBA provides disaster assistance to businesses, homeowners and renters after a presidentially declared disaster by offering low-interest loans.

Additional Reading/Reference List:

Emergency Management Guide for Business & Industry - FEMA publication which gives a step-by-step approach to emergency planning, response and recovery for companies. Goes into quite a bit of detail, in its 67 pages, of the emergency management planning cycle.

What Businesses Learned from the Nisqually Quake of February 28, 2001 - Businesses interviewed for this document ranged from one person businesses to large national companies, from SW Washington to British Columbia -- 250 and 300 businesses were invited to participate. They were asked, "Tell me about your experiences, e.g., what worked, what didn't work, what broke or fell over, what surprised you, etc. What stories/anecdotes about the quake would you like others to hear?" Their responses have been organized into categories in this 21pg report funded by CREW.

Nisqually Earthquake Business Impact Scenarios (PDF) - This 6 page memo summarized SBA assistance as of June 2001, then gave 10 specific scenarios of different businesses impacted by the Nisqually quake, and a list of lessons learned.

Future of Disaster Preparedness in America - This interesting article describes a disaster in a community and the kind of difference that can be made to a community & its businesses by preparing ahead of time. Written by John Copenhaver, formerly of FEMA.

Business Continuity Related Conferences/Mtgs:

See the Seattle Emergency Management Event Calendar