Voting Closes Monday, 4/15! Cast Yours NOW!
Voting for the DRI International Awards of Excellence ends on Monday, April 15. Cast your vote while you still have a chance!
To vote, simply log into your MyDRI account and click on the Awards of Excellence Voting Booth. If you need a hand with MyDRI, call us at (866) 542-3744. You must be certified and in good standing to vote. The awards will be presented at the Awards of Excellence Gala to be held June 6, during the DRI2013 conference in Philadelphia, PA.
Lifetime Achievement Award
This honor goes to a person who has demonstrated exceptional achievement within business continuity, and professional excellence over the course of a significant career in the industry. Nominees must have demonstrated professional credibility, a substantial public relations profile, and respect within the industry in general. The nominees are: Thomas Carroll, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC); Richard Fairlamb, Fairlamb Int'l LLC; Sue Hornstra, GE Capital; Frank Perlmutter, Strategic BCP; and Jeffrey Yu, DRI China.
Service Provider of the Year
Designed to recognize the very best in service delivery amongst full service business continuity providers, this award recognizes a company's commitment in promoting business continuity to its customer base and the wider audience, which may include staff awareness, training and user-group activity, amongst other efforts. The nominees are: Ernie Bryan, Engineering Solutions, Inc.; Bruce Gillespie, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC); and David Mahoney, Northrop Grumman.
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DRI Foundation
Charity Auction
Bidding Underway:
Get in on The Action, Support a Good Cause!
Want a Samsung Galaxy Tablet? How about a football signed by Joe Montana? Tickets to a show or ball game? All that and more is up for grabs in the Disaster Recovery International Foundation online charity auction. Bidding is open now! Click here to view items and bid. The annual online auction is being held as a fundraiser to support the DRI Foundation. Bidding runs through May 15. There are many great items, ranging from restaurant gift cards, to sports memorabilia, to electronics, to spas, to vacation packages, to theater and philharmonic tickets, and much more. Some items will continue past the online auction and be present at our silent auction at DRI2013 on June 6. Don't worry if you can't be present, as absentee bidding will be in place for these items. Items include: Cocktail Cruise, Mets Tickets, Legoland, Spa Package, NY Skyride, Ritz Carlton, STOMP Tickets, Rock of Ages Tickets, Yankees Tickets, Disney.
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Survey Results: Is Avian Flu Worrying You?
How worried are you about the new strain of avian flu? We asked, and you answered. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being extremely concerned), 29 percent of respondents fell in the 1-3 range. The majority, 54 percent, were moderately concerned and in the 4-7 range. And 13 percent were quite concerned, answering in the 8-10 range.
Said one respondent, "I'm continuing to watch this outbreak and monitoring WHO reports." Another is "located within the APAC region, [with] mission critical sites located in the affected area."
"It's a new virus more deadly than H1N1," said one survey taker. "Maybe it's time to get ready for a pandemic disease such as we lived through in 2009." Said another: "The mortality rate amongst those infected [is] of concern, as is the lack of information available from the authorities regarding whether there has been any human to human transference of the virus. But, I am readying my pandemic plan at this point, should the "P" word begin being used again."
"From risk perspective the impact will be medium to high but the probability is very low. Therefore I am not concerned," reported one respondent. Another said that it is "too early to tell whether it's a problem or not, or whether it might become a problem. Worth keeping an eye on though."
This survey taker felt authorities had the situation well in hand and said, "based on the rapid response of the various authorities overseeing this situation, I feel that the proper mitigating strategies are being utilized."
We'll open the topic up for discussion on our LinkedIn; so be sure you're connected!
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Greetings!
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Bill and Ted react to the big news!
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A free lifetime DRI International membership! "No way?!" you say. Well, in the words of George Carlin (see video clip), I say, "Yes way!" Yes, really, a FREE LIFETIME DRI MEMBERSHIP is up for grabs right now!!! And it could be yours. Sounds too good to be true? Well, it is true! I would never lie to you! What's the deal? One lucky person will never again have to pay DRI membership fees....ever! Of course, the winner will have to continue to earn CEAPs to keep current, but the annual fee will be history! Free lifetime membership follows you, too -- from ABCP to MBCP and every acronym in between. How to? All you have to do is register for DRI2013 by Friday, May 3, 2013. We'll choose one lucky winner and make the announcement on our Facebook page on Monday, May 6. Click here for more information about DRI2013, and click here to go straight to the registration form. If you need help or are wondering if you qualify for a discount (there are a bunch of them, so you probably do!), call our customer care center at (866) 542-3744. And just in case you don't already know, DRI2013 will be held June 4-7 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. The conference program rocks. Opportunities for meaningful exchanges abound. And the event is simply like no other. It's bound to be an "excellent adventure"!
Buffy Rojas
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Majority of Americans Hit by Weather Disasters
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Nearly four out of five Americans (some 243 million people) have lived in a county hit by at least one federally declared weather-related disaster since 2007, according to a report released this week by the Environment America Research and Policy Center.
The report is based on FEMA disaster declaration data, and the types of weather events include: drought, tropical cyclones, flooding, tornadoes, wildfires and snow and ice storms.
Highlights of the study, as reported in this Climate Progress piece, include:
*Every U.S. state besides South Carolina has experienced a weather-related disaster since 2007, and in 18 states and the District of Columbia, weather-related disasters have affected every county.
*More than 19 million Americans live in counties that have averaged one or more weather disaster per year since 2007.
*In 2012 alone, there were at least 11 disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damage, including Hurricane Sandy, which, with a price tag as high as $70 billion, was the costliest weather-related disaster in the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina.
*Eight U.S. counties in South Dakota, Oklahoma and Nebraska have been hit by ten or more weather disasters since the beginning of 2007.
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DRI Announces ANSI-Accredited Audit Course!
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 This is cool! DRI International's Business Continuity Planning for Auditors course (BCLE-AUD) is now accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). This award from the premier accreditation body in the United States underscores DRI International's mission to promote the credibility and professionalism in the business continuity profession. Why does it matter? ANSI accreditation promotes DRI's ability to further impact international standardization and policy. Becoming ANSI-accredited is evidence that DRI is in compliance with ANSI's standards of consensus, openness, and due process. This accreditation is widely recognized by public and private sector entities. "DRI International is already a recognized ANSI Standards Developing Organization," says DRI International President Alan Berman, "Pursuing ANSI accreditation for the BCLE-AUD course was a natural extension of that relationship." "ANSI accreditation demonstrates that DRI has been recognized by the most-respected accreditation body as complying with industry standards of openness and consensus," says DRI International Director of Education Gary Villeneuve, "DRI has always been committed to building best practice by reaching out to leaders in the industry. Gaining ANSI accreditation further demonstrates this commitment to the community." Want to know more about the course? The BCLE-AUD is a four-day, interactive program that provides training, tools, and hands-on experience to audit disaster/emergency management and business continuity programs. This course provides an overview of the audit process and teaches the student to audit a Business Continuity Management program for conformity to the chosen standard. Conformity includes the areas of program management, risk assessment, business impact analysis, loss prevention, risk mitigation, emergency operations, business continuity strategies, crisis communications, incident management, training and education, testing and exercises, and program improvement. The course also defines the evidence that should be gathered by auditors to determine conformity to audit criteria. |
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Chief Risk Officers on the Rise: Is Your Program Aligned with Risk Management?
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 "The rising prominence" of chief risk officers (CROs) is the big news out of a recent Ernst & Young survey of CROs. The annual survey this year showed that "The difficult economic environment and ongoing regulatory shifts have provided CROs a unique opportunity to demonstrate their value. They are engaging more directly with business-unit leaders and working more broadly across the enterprise than ever before. For example, a few insurance CROs are working with operational functions (including new product development and Information Technology (IT)) in which they were rarely involved in the past. Others are taking on responsibility for new risk areas (such as IT risk, reputational risk and emerging risk)...There is every reason to believe these trends will continue in future survey results. It is clear that deep and broad risk management capabilities are needed across the insurance enterprise, and CROs have the experience, knowledge and toolsets to deliver them." Click here for complete survey results, which also include discussions about regulatory issues and the need to better quantify risk. And click here for this week's one-question survey on risk. |
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Five Steps to Success in IT Vendor Management
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It is possible to harness the power of "disruptive and new technologies to deliver sustained value advantage" while "understanding and anticipating downstream consequences" of these emerging technologies, according to a recent piece by CFO magazine.
CFO offers five tips for IT vendor management - the vendors whose new technology is keeping your IT operations up and running. Ignoring IT vendor management results in a "high risk of losing control."
The five tips are: 1) Understand what forces are at play in your vendor's environment. 2) Link your risk appetite to the capability of the vendor. 3) Be wary of vendors that may be too big to fail and too big to negotiate. 4) Be certain what your vendor contract is really worth. 5) Agree on your divorce terms at the start.
To read about any and all of these essential ideas, click here for the complete article. |
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