Emergency Operations Center Standard Taking Shape
ASTM WK12954 is out for review (ballot) with a closing date of March 10. It will advise jurisdictions on how to develop EOCs.
ASTM WK12954, an in-process standard named "New Guide for the Development of an Emergency Operations Center," is now out for review (ballot) with a closing date of March 10. ASTM Staff Contact Timothy Brooke also said Committee E54 on Homeland Security Applications made some changes in the standard at a meeting in late January. "If there are no disapprovals then the draft will be approved and published (within 4 weeks). However if there are disapprovals the committee will address those issues over the next several months," Brooke said in a Feb. 8 e-mail.
Developed by Subcommittee E54.02 on Emergency Preparedness, Training and Procedures, the standard will help managers in the public sector and the private sector develop and manage Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs). No current standard is specific to the development of EOCs, according to ASTM, which says a "uniform approach to the development and operation of such EOCs will be key to our nation's national response capability."
"If an emergency manager or business continuity planner needs a new emergency operations center or is considering updating an existing EOC, this proposed guide will walk them through the development process," said Glenn Wisbey, logistics operations branch manager for the North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety's Division of Emergency Management and an E54 member.
"It is our hope as a committee that through development of WK12954 and other proposed standards, people recognize that one size does not fit all. It is important that those who will be using this proposed standard upon its approval have choices that are realistic," said Frank Kriz of Indianapolis (phone 602-319-1446, [email protected]), an emergency management consultant and E54 member.