Senior Emergency Management, Response and Continuity Leader. Mentor, Public Speaker, Educator and Consultant
Today's ramblings of a mad man: I had a wonderful colleague of mine send me a message asking which of the name options she presented were the better choices for an emergency management role. And there it is folks; the $1000,000,000 question for our profession. What should we call ourselves. We suffer a significant identity crisis where we don't know what to call ourselves and others most definitely don't know what we are. It is clear to all what a police officer is and does, what a paramedic is and does, what a nurse is and does, what an electrician is and does etc., But what is an "Emergency Manager" and what do they do? While other professions, e.g., paramedics, have different levels within their roles their primary job is clear. I recently presented to a EM Conference about EM in Canada and I noted that nationally PSEPC Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness has had 15 name changes in 60 years. Locally, based on the attendees of the conference, there were 18 different role titles present representing 10 differently titled programs/departments. If we as a profession cannot decide on consistent language we cannot expect others to know what to call us or what we do. Too often governments and organizations do not want to focus on EM; it is even harder to have them take it seriously when we cannot define ourselves. #EmergencyPreparednessProgram #EmergencyManagementProgram #EmergencyManagementOffice #EmergencyMeasuresOrganization #EmergencyManagementSection #EmergencyPreparednessandSpecialOperationsDivision #Emergency&SafetyServices #EmergencyManagement #IntegratedProtectionServices #EmergencyProgram #EmergencyandDisasterServices #Manager #SeniorManager #Supervisor #Advisor #Consultant #Coordinator #Officer #Director #Chief #SeniorDirector #AssistantChief #SupportOfficer #Specialist #PlanningOfficer #MitigationOfficer #DisasterRiskReductionCoordinator #RegionalEmergencyManagementCoordinator #RegionalDirectorandChiefEmergencyManagementOfficer
Let's consider the UN concept of Disaster Risk Reduction. We don't really manage much, least of all the emergency itself. At our best, we're focusing left of bang, reducing risk through mitigation and preparedness. I'd happily be called an Disaster Risk Reduction consultant.
After the summer we have had in Calgary the range of skills and qualities our business continuity and emergency management team has demonstrated month after month has been impressive and inspiring. I think part of the reason there is an identity crisis is because we have such a wide range of skills we bring to the job. We can’t be pigeon holed. We do it all. Facilitation. Mitigation. Preparedness. Response. Recovery. Business continuity. Communications. Planning. Training. Exercising. Critical infrastructure. Issues management. You name it. We will be there. Instead of narrowing it down maybe we need to broaden it to something very generic and then we can always append it with what our specialty is. Eg. Police Officer K-9 or Tactical. We could have Emergency Management Coordinator , Risk Specialist or Emergency Management, Critical Infrastructure Specialist
Is there an issue with “emergency manager”?
Regional Program Advisor
2moI was literally just talking about this and your presentation to a colleague today!