CONTINUITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL OPERATIONS PLAN

CONTINUITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL OPERATIONS PLAN

ag8300Adopted August 8, 2017

8300 - CONTINUITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL OPERATIONS PLAN

Continuity planning is based on the assumption that the Cooperative will not necessarily receive warning of an impending emergency. As a result, a risk assessment is essential to continuity planning and is conducted to identify potential areas of risk and vulnerability and to put plans in place to mitigate by eliminating or reducing the potential impact of an event. Continuity management consists of the organizational decisions, processes, and tools that are put in place in advance to handle the aftermath of a disaster that impacts the Cooperative.

A crisis or emergency might affect the Cooperative only, or be part of a local, regional, or national event. This guideline provides structure to the continuity management strategy, but the overall plan should be much more comprehensive and include the following elements:

Plan Outline

  1. Delineation of those functions that are essential for the Cooperative to perform critical operational, management, and administrative functions and that enable staff to provide access to curricular materials and other online resources for their students.

  2. Assumptions and constraints from the planning process.

  3. Communications plan both internal to Cooperative and with external agencies and constituents.

  4. Decision process and authority for activation.

  5. Staff roster.

  6. Procedures to enable readiness – risk assessment, location of all critical documents, data and infrastructure resources.

  7. Development and implementation of procedures and plans to mitigate risks.

  8. Provisions for personnel training and accountability.

  9. Reliable processes to acquire additional resources to sustain operations for thirty (30) days.

  10. Plan Contents

    1. Include purpose, objectives, applicability and scope and authorities and references.

    2. Describe the concept of operations and contain:

      1. key staff: incident management team, assessment teams

      2. mission essential functions: communications, vital records, technology hardware/network connectivity/data, facilities/relocation sites

      3. direction and control

      4. alert and notification

      5. procedures for documentation of impact for recovery of cost

    3. List personnel responsibilities and procedures, team assignments.

    4. Outline phases (activation, alternate operations, reconstitution and termination).

    5. Provide detailed information on each of the essential elements.

    6. Implementation mechanisms, depending upon the magnitude of the incident.

Plan Execution

Activation (zero (0) - twenty-four (24) hours)

  1. Alert and notification procedures, call trees.

  2. Initial actions.

  3. Evacuation, shelter, lockdown procedures.

  4. Activation procedures – during duty hours and during non-duty hours.

  5. Deployment and department procedures for damage assessment - time- phased operations.

  6. Transition to alternate operational sites and systems.

  7. Site support responsibilities.

Alternate Operations Sites (twenty-four (24) hours to Termination – up to thirty (30) days)

  1. Execution of mission essential functions.

  2. Establishment of communications.

  3. Contingency staff responsibilities.

  4. Augmentation of staff.

  5. Provision of guidance to essential and non-essential personnel.

  6. Development of plans and schedules for reconstitution and termination (and return to normal operations).

  7. Offsite recovery mechanisms for essential operational functions and Cooperative mission.

Reconstitution and Termination (Cessation of Disaster Recovery Alternative Site/Return to Normal Operations)

  1. Overview.

  2. Procedures.

  3. After action review and remedial action plans.

Management and maintenance of the Cooperative’s Continuity of Organizational Operations Plan (COOP) is a comprehensive task that depends on a multi-disciplinary team. The Cooperative’s Continuity Management Team should be composed of upper-level managers in the Cooperative administration that represent all key functional areas and representatives from key departmental and school site faculty and staff. These areas may include but not be limited to the following departments/divisions:

  1. Safety and Security

  2. Technology

  3. Maintenance/Construction

  4. Personnel/Human Resources

  5. Finance/Payroll

  6. Transportation

  7. Food Service

  8. School Administration

© Neola 2017