Marion County, Oregon, a long-time customer of BOLDplanning, is located south of the bustling Portland Metropolitan area. The County spans nearly 1,200 miles and serves a population of approximately 315,900 people. As evidenced by its past work to develop and maintain a comprehensive Continuity of Operations (COOP) plan, the County is clearly committed to serving the needs of the community-at-large, especially in times of crisis. That’s why they continue to make every effort to enhance their COOP plans, as well as prepare for a tabletop exercise in September 2019.
COOP tabletop exercises, which are facilitated and discussion-based, allow COOP planners and their team members to validate roles and responsibilities and processes during a continuity activation, enabling organizational recovery from any given all-hazards disruption. Such discussions are highly beneficial to BOLDplanning customers like Marion County, Oregon, as they can:
- Evaluate their plans, policies and procedures that make up their critical programs;
- Identify strengths, gaps and areas for improvements;
- Validate recently changed or existing procedures or plans;
- Clarify roles and responsibilities;
- Obtain participant feedback and recommendations for program improvement;
- Measure improvement in past areas of deficiency;
- Improve coordination and collaboration between internal and external teams, organizations and entities, and;