Disaster Preparedness

You've had a disaster at work. Your staff is safe and you have a place for them to work...but if you don't have the information records you need, your staff may not have any work to do.

You need to keep your information safe, too! Do these four things:

• Have copies of all needed electronic documents on a shared drive that resides on a server, not your "H" drive.
• Make sure your paper documents are kept safely inside file drawers when not in use.
• Copy irreplaceable paper documents and keep the copies in a secure place away from your office.
• Rank your office files from most important to least important – when you are given an opportunity to return to your office to rescue your files, you may not have time to get them all.

Next, decide which of your staff will be responsible to do the following:

• Make sure the people in the area are safe. 
• Contact Campus Police if necessary.
• Contact the Vice President of Administration.
• Contact the Public Information office – Do Not Contact the Press Directly!

After the disaster has occurred:

• Contact the Vice President of Administration to arrange for the use of a temporary office space.
• Contact Information Technology to get computers and phones installed in your temporary office space.
• Arrange for signs directing students, staff, and customers to your current location.
• Change your voice mail recording to inform callers that the office is temporarily closed or temporarily relocated. Direct people to contact the Public Information office for more information. Do not include information about the situation in the message.
• Contact the IT Help Desk to have an automated email reply on your staff’s email providing the same information as above.
• Contact the Records Center for boxes to use as temporary file cabinets, if necessary.
• Retrieve paper records from your office as soon as you are allowed in.

For more information, email Records Management or call 937-512-2319.