Getting started
View video: getting started in Seattle
Suggested strategies to get started with scenario development in your community
-
- Identify stakeholders (consider using focus groups)
- These will typically be community, business, academic leaders
-
- Form action groups/task forces
- These groups can be given specific issues, problems or areas to research and develop alternatives for
-
- Use existing earthquake safety groups where possible
- Some communities already have such groups and they are a logical core to manage the scenario development process
-
- Have professional PR or media person on team
- Such a person can provide invaluable advice in terms of communicating goals of the scenario, engaging prospective participants, explaining results of the scenario to community decisionmakers
-
- Have scenario led by people whose job it is to outreach
- Communicating technical information is a complex skill, and it is helpful to engage people with experience in outreaching to community and business leaders
-
- Need overall leader/manager
- While it is important to have representation in the scenario development from a diverse, large cross section of the community, it is also important that there be one designated strong leader who can guide the overall effort
-
- Discipline leaders
- To help manage the work load and assure coverage of the many complex community issues addressed by a scenario, it is helpful to designate leaders for various disciplinary areas, such as structural engineering, earth sciences, health sciences, emergency management, lifelines
-
- Need clearly stated objectives
- Every community or organization considering a scenario needs a clear objective, which can of course vary, depending on the complexity or purpose of the scenario
Decide whom to involve when you know what decisions you want the scenario to result in