We call these Pre-commitment Activities and they culminate in a directive by the jurisdiction's government. Chapter Four describes techniques for conducting an exercise for all types In general and specifically for seminars, operations simulations, and field exercises. This chapter also describes ways to collect data during the exercise that will be useful in evaluation and discusses the issue of safety during the exercise. Chapter Five describes evaluation techniques and the importance of feedback to the success of the exercise. Such topics as timing the debriefing, the role of evaluators, and criteria for evaluating are examined here.
Feedback introduces the concept of follow-up which is treated In Chapter Six.
The literature was extremely brief about this important topic which is the key to improving the emergency management system and helping the jurisdiction move toward its next exercise. Two articles constitute this chapter, The first describes the most advanced forms of computerized simulations in which maps and databases are merged in response to player reactions to depict the actual effects of an emergency on the computer screen. The second article examines how computers can be used as tools for local exercise designers and advocates the development of a library of exercises that people could draw upon and tailor to their own exercise needs.