Disaster Preparedness Roles

Disaster Planning Roles and Responsibilities

Contributors: Nancy McGovern, Lance Stuchell

Last updated:  January 2014 for the DPM workshops

Disaster Planning Team: The planning team should include representatives from departments that will be most heavily involved in policy development and the planning process. These include representatives from:

  • Administration: policies, procedures, resources
  • IT: business continuity, connectivity, information security issues
  • Human Resources: staff contacts, training,
  • Communication: internal and external, immediate and over time response
  • Facilities: anything to do with the building and services to it
  • Content Managers: print and digital, depending on the organization’s records/assets
  • Other: any additional mission critical units within organization

Key Resources:

Cisco Systems: Disaster Recovery Best Practices White Paper

NIST:  Contingency Planning Guide for Information Technology Systems

Disaster Response Team: The response team will conduct the initial evaluation of facilities and systems following a disaster. When a disaster is identified, an appropriate team will be formed to assess and respond to the situation.  

For any emergency situation, the response team should consist of representatives from:

  • Administration (or designated Disaster Assessment Team Leader): to make decisions involving required personnel and closure of facilities (once notification occurs)
  • Human Resources (and/or designated Crisis Communication Coordinator): to initiate call trees or other communication procedures to general staff and contact staff necessary to fully evaluate disaster, to frame necessary internal and external communications

For emergency situations that affect the organization’s facilities (e.g., people, space, institutional records, work schedules):

  • Facilities: to  help ensure building is safe and aid in any required work to building and to help coordinate a sustained recovery effort (e.g., Perry, ISR, University, Ann Arbor)

For emergency situations that affect the organization’s technology and/or online presence (e.g., work stations, servers, telecommunications, services provided over the internet, digital content), the ICPSR Response Team might include staff from the following departments:

  • IT:  if the servers or computer equipment are affected
  • Web support: if external Web content and services are affected
  • Content Managers: if the servers or offline media of the organization and storage partners are affected (e.g., curators, organizational records creators)

Key Resources

NIST:  Contingency Planning Guide for Information Technology Systems

Minnesota State Archives: Disaster Preparedness

CalPreservation.org: Disaster Plan Exercise