North Shore Rapid Response

During reading break, Laura drafted the outline of the report with divisions of parts for each member to write about. It is outlined similar to the presentation. Laura is writing about the usage of social media, marketing information about other cities and other suggestions. Luke is in charge of writing about the communities who are interested in advertising for Rapid Notify as well as listing their contact information. And Angie is, of course, writing about the legislative requirements. We finished each part individually on Wednesday and sent it to all members via email. Erika and Surabhi are responsible for compiling the document. After they were finished, Laura printed the report and dropped it off at NESMO on Friday.

At that point, we completed the client’s part of our project. All that remains are the deliverables for our 202 class. We decided to see what will happen after reading break.

On Monday, we were reminded in class that there is the documentation assignment and an interview to go through. We emailed each other on Thursday about having a meeting on Friday to discuss about it.

At the meeting, we discuss about the final project deliverables. We quickly divided the tasks as follows: Erika is formatting all the emails for the documentation, Luke is formatting all the minutes, and Laura is compiling the schedules. Surabhi suggested that our final deliverables should include handouts from NESMO. We took that suggestion and also sent some final emails out. Everything is just about finished.

In general, this week is just for us to wrap up our project.

Final note:
I am really happy about the presentation and the final report we written up. Thank you to Laura, Erkia, Angie, Luke, and Surabhi for the awesome group dynamic and I’m really glad I ended up in this group with everyone. Lastly, a thank you to NESMO for all the advice and help. Everyone is so friendly and nice at the office, it is impossible not to feel welcome there. Thank you to the TA and instructors for support as well.

Jennifer

After weeks of researching information and contacting organizations, it was time for our final presentation. Last week we had a generic outline planned as to what to include and also assigned roles to each member. To be prepared by this Friday we have held two meetings, Wednesday and Thursday, during which we ran through the entire presentation once and made changes if necessary.

On Friday, we met up at 12:30 at the Forest Science Center and from there Laura drove all six of us to NSEMO. We were scheduled to present at 2:00, which left plenty of time left over to set up. Since this was only our second meeting with Dorit, we started of by once again introducing ourselves before continuing with our presentation. The order of the presentation is as follows:

• First Laura talked about using social media effectively to market NSEMO’s services and encouraging traffic to their website. She later continued by listing different municipalities and comparing and contrasting them with NSEMO based on self-registrants, advertising methods, preferred notification methods and social media usage.
• Second Luke talked about utilizing community resources as a means of advertisement such as schools, universities, cultural groups, rec centers and so on.
• Third Angie concluded the presentation by talking about some legislative requirements that need to be met both by Rapid Notify and NSEMO.

At the end of the presentation, Dorit and Paulette both thought that the presentation was good and also had some general feedback. They felt that all the presenters made good eye contact however they could have slowed down a couple of times in the middle for them to gather their thoughts and write ideas down. We had originally thought of bringing a wireless mouse as a clicker, but we forgot it in the car and mentioned it to Dorit and Paulette, but they said its best if things like that don’t get mentioned as the client would never have found out and therefore is unnecessary. Also they indicated that during the presentation, only the person speaking needs to be standing up, while the rest could be seated so as to not disturb both the presenter and the client.

Overall, we have finished half of our CSL project and are getting ready to start working on the final report which is due on Friday, February 24^th, 2012. Each member is again responsible for their own sections and final copies will be sent to Erika and Surabhi to compile during reading break.

Final presentation: CIVL 202 presentation

As last week’s blog entry stated, we have distributed between group members and worked on researching and gathering information related to Rapid Notify. This week our main objective was to prepare for our presentation, and have a generic outline planned. We have held two meetings, Monday and Thursday, to give updates and to divide responsibilities for the presentation.

At our Monday meeting, we shared all the information we gathered, and offered general feedback as to what each member could do to further their tasks. Angie had an idea suggesting that NSEMO could give presentations at elementary school assemblies.  This way parents could get information through their kids about Rapid Notify. We also discussed the possibility of contacting the fire department for their input as well.

During our Thursday meeting, we divided each of our tasks for the presentation. The breakdown is as follows, Jennifer is going to be responsible formatting the entire presentation and each of us are responsible for our own sections. In order for us to be ready to present on Friday, we all agreed to send Jennifer our slides by Monday night, so that we could practise at least twice together.

Overall, nothing much happened this week because most of us were already done our research, and had a sense as to what they wanted to include for the presentation. Our next meeting is going to be on Monday, February 13^th, during class, where we’ll hopefully have a rough draft of the presentation prepared and be able to run through it once. Till next week!

Presentation outline: NSEMO presentation outline

While last week involved some planning stages, this week we really got the ball rolling on our project. We met twice this week, Monday and Friday, to give quick progress updates, keep group members informed as to what we will be working on next, and to redistribute tasks as necessary.

Last week, Laura had written a letter of confirmation with a description of the deliverables to email to Dorit, just to ensure we were all on the same page as to what our project would entail. Paulette and Laurie from the NSEMO office responded back requesting some minor changes so we modified the confirmation and resent it to NSEMO, along with a completed project schedule roughly outlining the steps we are taking. (Civil 202- Schedule) As seen in the schedule, our main tasks for this week were mainly researching and contacting organizations. At our Monday meeting, we made further task divisions, especially among those who are contacting organizations. It was decided that Luke is contacting North Shore News and West Vancouver School District, Erika and Surabhi are contacting organizations, community groups, unions and aboriginal communities, and will communicate among themselves to ensure no organization is doubly contacted nor skipped; Angie is responsible for researching FOPIA legislation and making suggestions for modifications to NSEMO’s self-registration page; and Laura and Jennifer are researching the market plans of other cities. Originally, Laura and Jennifer were supposed to review the manual as well, but this task is removed from the deliverables as it is of lower priority to NSEMO.

For the most part, results of our inquiries came back quickly. Laura received some emails back from cities who are also using Rapid Notify, with information about the successes (or lack thereof) of their self-registration plans. Luke contacted the North Shore News regarding the possibility of including a brief article on NSEMO and Rapid Notify, and they were very enthusiastic about the suggestion. The North Shore News published an article on emergency response on their website on Friday, February 3, 2012 (link below), which hopefully encourages citizens to self-register for Rapid Notify. Luke also received very positive responses from the West Vancouver School District, and they would be happy to include a message about NSEMO and Rapid Notify in an upcoming monthly newsletter. Research on FOIPA has also brought about recommendations for the registration form and some insight on NSEMO’s legal responsibilities.

Overall, it has been a very productive week. We are still anxiously awaiting responses from various contacts, and are hoping for information as quickly as possible. Our first journal entry was due today, Friday, February 3, 2012, and has hopefully given each team member a chance to reflect on the experience, especially as we now move forward with our project. Our next meeting will be Monday, February 6, 2012, during class time, when we will discuss progress made over the weekend, and hopefully get a vague idea of the content and style of our presentation. Until next time!

http://www.nsnews.com/technology/call+want/6095952/story.html

NSEMO (North Shore Emergency Management Office) is a tri-municipal agency serving the City of North Vancouver, District of North Vancouver, and District of West Vancouver. They are currently using Rapid Notify, a phone based public alerting system in which people receive a call with an informative message when an emergency occurs in their region. The main goal of our project is to optimize the use of a “self-registration” feature in the Rapid Notify system by exploring ways to better market and manage the product. In addition to the Rapid Notify system, NSEMO is also active on Facebook, and Twitter, and use a door to door system to notify the public when an emergency strikes. They also conduct preparedness workshops for educating the public on how to cope with emergencies.

We went to their office last Friday to get an overview of the organisation and discuss the project in more detail. We received a briefing on NSEMO’s emergency involvements, and a demo of the Rapid Notify system, specifically showing its complications and challenges of use.  Messages via the Rapid Notify phone system needs to be brief and concise, as such messages take time to write up and record, require the addition of geographical information, and often need multiple attempts to contact those in need.

A major challenge for NSEMO with regards to the Rapid Notify systems is the lack of self-registration. While all landline numbers in the Whitepages are automatically registered in the file, cell phone users must self-register. Consequently, the number of cell phone registered is considerably low. Therefore, one of our key tasks is coming up with marketing ideas that are simple and inexpensive to implement, as NSEMO has very limited funds and manpower. We also need to come up with suggestions on how to maximize effectiveness of the Rapid Notify System. One initial idea that came up during the orie­­ntation was emailing registrants yearly to remind them of their enrollment in this system and give them a chance to re-familiarize themselves with the service. We are also planning to research emergency systems in other cities to see what marketing plans they have and if something similar would work for NSEMO. Other tasks include reviewing the Rapid Notify system manual to ensure clarity for first-time users in emergency situations and researching the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to ensure NSEMO is meeting their requirements in terms of storing the personal information of all their registrants.

Everyone at the office was welcoming, informative, and very enthusiastic about this project. After the meeting, we had a tour of the office and discussed about the option of setting up some time to work on the project at their facility.  At the conclusion of our project, we will give a presentation and submit a detailed report on our findings. Below is a picture of the room for answering phone calls during emergencies.

We met our TA, Derek John, at our weekly in-class meeting on Monday. He gave us some suggestions for the project and information about the journal entry.  We agreed to all do some preliminary research and meet again on Thursday, where we held a brainstorming session and discussion, followed by a final division of tasks. Luke is in charge of contacting school districts and the North Shore newspaper, while Erika and Surabhi are searching and contacting unions and organizations that may be able to spread the word about Rapid Notify. Laura and Jennifer are going over the manual and researching the emergency management systems of different cities, and Angie is looking into legal requirements.

The final presentation date is set for February 17^th, with the final report to be submitted in the week following, allowing for time to make modifications based on presentation feedback.  It’s a tight deadline, but with good communication and team work I’m sure we will succeed with our tasks!

Our CSL project involves upgrading NSEMO’s (North Shore Emergency Management Office) emergency public alerting system, Rapid Notify. Our goals that should be met by the end of February are as follows:

• Determine best methods of marketing
• Engage the public to participate and register
• Improve NSEMO’s user manual
• Examine Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act

Our team consists of 6 members:

Laura Bickford is originally from Victoria, BC, but now considers herself a permanent resident of Vancouver. Laura spent the last summer working on the PMH1 Improvement Project and hopes to continue working in construction management or transportation design.

Luke deBruijn completed his first year of engineering studies at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops and is starting his second year here at UBC. He looks forward to working with NSEMO this year.

Jennifer Law is a second year civil engineer student from Vancouver. She and Surabhi is in charge of the blog update for this project.

Surabhi Prasad is a second year civil engineering student at UBC. She plans on applying for an architectural degreee after graduation and hopes to continue in that field.

Angie Smythe grew up in the Okanagan where she played and coached soccer and enjoyed the outdoors. Now living in Vancouver, she likes running along Jericho Beach, taking in the beautiful views of the city. She is interested in both structural and transportation engineering.

Erika Tuomi is a second year civil engineering student at UBC from Smithers, BC. She plays on the UBC women’s rugby team and is the Communications Team Lead for the UBC Engineers Without Borders chapter.