Anatomy of a Meeting During an Emergency

Introduction

Managing a public meeting during an emergency can be a very different experience from managing other types of public meetings.  For one thing, participants are usually fearful about an incident that threatens them, or they think might threaten them.  

One of the distinguishing features of a public meeting during an emergency is the immediacy of the threat. Most public meetings I manage in my everyday job deal with some future event: a plan that needs to be discussed, ideas that need to be generated, feedback that needs to be heard, and decisions that need to be made. Emergency public meetings are often different; they are designed to replace fear and confusion with knowledge; to empower people,   either by sharing knowledge about what is going on now or establishing ways for people to learn accurate information about the emergency as it continues to develop. 

This all sounds pretty straight forward. People have a need for information and the people managing the incident provide it.  A simple sounding process of providing what people need and want; and, sometimes this is all there is to it.  This paper was developed because that simple straight line process doesn’t always happen.  People always have a need for accurate up-to-date information and that part of the meeting usually goes pretty well. I’ve found that it’s in the question and answer period that things can go haywire. It’s then that you discover that some people came to the meeting with agendas that are very different from yours.

This paper was written is to help public information officers (PIOs) better prepare for a successful meeting by thinking about what might happen before, during, and after the meeting.  The following worksheets are designed to aid incident commanders, agency administrators, and other meeting planners, set-up and conduct a successful public meeting.  The worksheets include ideas that were distilled from comments provided by PIOs from across the country who have managed both large and small emergency public meetings.  

Included with this write-up is a sample of PIO public meeting experiences I call “Tales from Meetings Past” that are written in the PIOs own words. They will take you to a sample of their meetings and you’ll feel the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned. The sample provided is of the ugly and bad with a few good mixed in. Most meetings turn out fine, and some are more challenging. 

Good luck with your meetings and keep refining the anatomy of meetings during an emergency.

Anatomy of a Public Meeting During An Emergency

Planning Worksheet

Did the agency administrator or unit PAO give you any direction about public meetings during the in-briefing or delegation of authority? 

Why are you having the meeting?

How urgent is the need to meet?    Today   Tonight   Tomorrow   __________

	Communities in imminent danger 

	Rumors

	Agency administrator’s  desire

	Elected officials desire

	Community leaders desire

Who is the responsible official?

How do you they want to be involved in the meeting?

	Open meeting

	Close meeting

	Answer questions

What are their objectives?

Who do they want involved? 

	Specialists

	Agencies

	Elected officials

	Affected communities

	Others

Who will invite agencies, elected officials, etc. to participate?

	PIO

	Liaison officer

	Agency Rep

	Unified commander

	IC

When will you brief the participants on the agenda and meeting expectations?

Agenda

	Order of presentation speakers

	Time estimates

		One hour is often optimum

			Presenters are involved in managing the emergency and need to return

	Will there be other meetings?  When? 

		Keep track of promises.

	Who opens and closes the meeting?

	Acknowledge interagency cooperation but try not to make this a dominate part of the public meeting

Who are the opinion leaders?

	Elected officials

	Community leaders

How will you notify the public?

	Word of mouth - key community contacts 	

	Phone trees

	Social media

	Media release

Inciweb

Handouts

Posters

Other agencies

Media contacts

Other

Who is the anticipated audience?

	Locals

	Media

	Elected officials

	Agency personnel 

	Community leaders

What are the objectives of the meeting?

	Provide access to the responsible agency official or their representative

Introduce agency people involved in the incident

	Update on the situation 

	Evacuation information 

 Road closure information 

Answer questions

Inform how they can obtain additional information

What issues do you anticipate from the audience?

	Incident related

		Burnout

		Evacuation

		Initial attack

		Aircraft availability

		Use of local resources – equipment, personnel

		Road closures

		Emergency assistance – Food, clothing, shelter, loans, 

		Public information

		Other?

	Agency related

		Previous incidents – loss of homes, fire fighting techniques, unresolved issues

		Policy issues – clearances, use of aircraft, 

What issues will be addressed at the meeting?

	Who will address?

	When will they be addressed?

		During the meeting?

		After the meeting?

		At another time?

Ground rules

	Audience generated – facilitator suggests

		Advantage – better buy in by audience

	Facilitator generated 

		Advantage – preprinted, takes less time

	Sample ground rules

		One person speaks at a time

		Raise hand

		Hold questions until the end of the presentations

Assume everyone will want to ask a question – be concise – no statements and questions, if possible. Assume each question will take two minutes. One hundred people times two minutes equals 200 minutes of time; can’t stay that long.

No rebuttals to audience generated statements.

Speak respectfully

Some questions can’t be answered by the presenters 

Some questions will be answered after the meeting one on one.

Do you anticipate drunken people will be in the audience?  - bar near the meeting room, tailgating before the meeting? 

How will you manage the audience?

	Announce during ground rules?

	Have law enforcement in the audience?

How many people are expected?

What meeting facilities are available?

		Community center

		Schools

		Churches

		Amphitheaters

		Arenas

		Incident base

Overflow contingency

		PA system extensions

		TV monitors

		Chairs

Meeting place agreement needed?

		Yes – 

			Finance section chief

		No

			Double check – 

			Thank yous

Parking?

		Safe – 

		On street

		Off street

		Parking lots

Parking signing

		Adequate

		Inadequate

		Are parking attendants needed?

		Do you need ground support to help?

Disabled people

		Seating

		Parking

		Signing

Non-English speaking?

		Interpreter?

		Sign language?

PA system

		Who will provide?

		Back up necessary?

		Batteries?

Laser pointer?

		Batteries?

Visuals

		Sized for the room?

			Rule of thumb – 1/4  inch letters for each three feet of viewing distance

		Projected? Need supporting equipment

			Computer

			Projector

			Extension cords

			Computer table

			Thumb drive

			Screen

			Extra plugs

Facilitator  

	Team provided?

	Skill level – 	Is this a complex meeting? 

			Do you need to bring in a neutral agency facilitator?			

	Neutrality 

			Attire – uniform, no uniform, fire shirt

			Manage the process not the content

PIO other than the facilitator available to answer questions about incident information activities.

IC or IC Representative

	Approve the agenda

	Attire – Agency uniform?  Fire shirt? Team wear?

Paramedic?

	Heat exhaustion

	Pre-existing conditions

Logistics

	Key staff briefed on how to get to the location

		Travel maps  – driving time estimates

		Safety issues – driving times, weather, road conditions

	Vehicles 

		Who’s driving?

		How many vehicles?

		Who’s hauling the equipment?

		Does ground support need to help?

	Meeting materials  

		GIS maps   Size and number each

			Main display

			Google earth 

			Smaller display maps for close viewing

Community map – shows community landmarks, topo features, containment areas 

			Operations map

Videos

			Infrared?

			Other

		Handouts

			Maps

			Agendas

			Daily updates

			Other

		Agenda poster?

Signing

		Meeting

		Parking

		Community message boards

Water, Cups,

	Greeters

People to welcome audience and hand out materials and clean up the meeting area afterwards.