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CONTINUITY
OF OPERATIONS
-COOP-
CONTINUITY
OF GOVERNMENT
-COG-
CURRENT
PLANNING DOCUMENTS:
Draft
Essential Services and Key Personnel Matrix
WHAT
COOP IS:
COOP is
an effort within individual County departments to ensure continuity
of their essential functions across a wide range of emergencies
and events .
Governments
at all levels have a fundamental responsibility to provide uninterrupted
essential services to the public, regardless of circumstances
. COOP is a good business practice and private business
refers to it as Business Continuity Planning
- or BCP.
The
objectives of COOP planning are to:
• Ensure the performance of an agency's essential
functions during a COOP event.
• Reduce loss of life by minimizing damage and
losses.
• Ensure the successful succession to office
in the event a disruption renders agency leadership unavailable
to perform their responsibilities.
• Reduce or mitigate disruptions to operations.
• Ensure that agencies have alternate facilities
from which to operate.
• Protect essential facilities, equipment, vital
records, and other assets.
• Achieve a timely and orderly recovery from
a COOP situation.
• Achieve a timely and orderly reconstitution
from an emergency and resume full service to internal and external
customers.
COOP
plans must:
• Be capable of implementation anytime, with and
without prior warning.
• Provide full operational capability for essential
functions not later than 12 hours after activation and sustainable
for 30 days (Federal
Preparedness Circular (FPC)-65, these standards apply
to Federal Executive Branch departments and agencies).
There
are nine elements of a viable COOP Plan:
• Essential functions
• Delegations of authority
• Alternate facilities
• Interoperable communications
• Vital records and databases
• Human capital management
• Tests, training, and exercises
• Devolution
• Reconstitution
TRAINING,
TESTING, EXERCISES (TTE)
All plan elements are
needed to provide an effective and viable COOP capability. COOP
programs must include regular training, testing, and exercises
(TT&E).
People must be trained
and tested to ensure they know their COOP responsibilities and
duties. Equipment and communications must be tested periodically
to ensure that they operate as expected and required.
COOP
SELF STUDY:
The following are related
FEMA independent study (IS) courses: IS-546, Continuity
of Operations Awareness Course and
IS-547, Introduction to Continuity of Operations
(COOP) available at the FEMA web link:
http://training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.asp
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