Hundreds of business continuity professionals have already signed up for our upcoming webinar, Business Continuity Meets Risk Management: Building Bridges and Adding Value. But there's still space for you to register!

The free, one-hour discussion, held on July 10 from 2-3 p.m. EDT, will cover the intersection between the two disciplines, how BC pros can add value to risk programs, how best to interact with the organization's risk counterparts, and more.

Risk management is a major issue many organizations are planning to devote more attention to in the next two years, according to a recent Accenture study. 76% describe supply chain risk management as important or very important, while 25% plan to increase investments in the area.

Three practices distinguished those companies that received a 100% return on investment:

• Prioritizing risk management -- 61% of leaders in the field make risk management a strategic imperative
• Centralizing responsibility -- 43% of leaders had a central risk management function led by an executive
• Investing aggressively -- Leaders were nearly three times as likely to say they planned to boost their investment in RM by 20% or more.

Click here to register for our webinar and find out how you can bring strong risk management to your organization!

What you do is important. But how do you convey that to stakeholders, including upper management? One of the best ways to communicate the value of your program -- as well as the exposures your organization faces -- is a sound metrics program.

Let DRI help you implement or update a metrics program by providing a thorough overview of best practices and solid examples that you can adapt to your organization. Our one-day web-based course -- BCP-MET: Business Continuity Metrics Overview -- will put you one giant step ahead when it comes to reporting on things like program status, exposures, successes, and deficits.

• Guidelines for defining program milestones, relevant output, and expected results.
• A thorough presentation of metrics in general: common metric tracking processes, how they are tracked, how often, and what they represent.
• Strategies for understanding your audience: who they are, why should they care and creating metrics that resonate with them.
• Understanding how deficiencies can be used to your advantage, how they lead to success of the program by providing energy for change, and how to avoid becoming "Red Averse."

When it comes to potential supply chain disruption, it pays to know where in the world your organization is most vulnerable. Now you can find out, with FM Global's Resilience Index. 

Scored on three factors -- economic, risk management, and supply chain -- the index is designed to help executives evaluate and manage risk. In general, countries with strong economies, high-quality infrastructures, and high levels of risk quality scored best. 

The top 10 countries: 

1. Norway
2. Switzerland
3. Canada
4. Australia
5. Ireland
6. Germany
7. Luxembourg
8. Netherlands
9. Belgium
10. United States Region 3 (non-coastal states)

On the other end of the spectrum, here are the bottom five countries, where you may want to think twice about doing business:

1. Dominican Republic
2. Venezuela
3. Kyrgyz Republic
4. Mauritania
5. Bolivia

As we work to create the best possible program for the DRI2015 Conference (mark your calendar for March 1-4, 2015!), we're also learning more about our fantastic host city, San Antonio, TX. And the most surprising thing we've learned so far: singer-songwriter Phil Collins is also an expert on the Alamo, and he's donating his collection to San Antonio for the world to appreciate!

Apparently, the award-winning recording artist is also a lifelong Texas Revolution fan and collector, stemming from his childhood love of the Disney Davey Crockett series. Here are some of the most surprising facts gleaned from this article:

• Collins decided to donate his collection after cleaning out his house in Switzerland -- so yes, it would seem he was keeping his Alamo collection in Switzerland.
• He is said to have the world's largest private collection of Alamo artifacts.
• He owns "hundreds" of cannonballs, documents and other paraphernalia.
• His "most prized possession"? A receipt for 32 head of cattle, signed by Alamo commander William Barrett Harris.

You might even say that Phil Collins and San Antonio have a groovy kind of love. (Sorry, sorry!)

Phil Collins - A Groovy Kind Of Love

It came as no surprise to me that our annual DRI Foundation Volunteer Day in Atlanta was a successful and rewarding day for both me and our 50+ volunteers. This year, our certified professionals teamed with a local a real estate company and a church group (more on them later). In total, there were nearly 80 people working at three distinctly different volunteer work opportunities.

Our people working at Truly Living Well (a community organic vegetable garden) pulled weeds, cultivated, cleared debris, raked and learned the secrets of a successful inner city garden. Those signing up to work at the Atlanta Community Food Bank worked in two shifts in the morning and afternoon, (though one of our members worked a double shift -- thank you, Cathi Martin!), sorting food products to be distributed throughout the Atlanta area to those in need. With other volunteers at the food bank, we helped sort of 9,950 pounds of products in the a.m. shift and 10,913 pounds in the p.m. shift. This translates into 17,295 meals!

Our other major effort included working with Rebuilding Together Atlanta, where our group joined forces with a real estate company to work collaboratively on the painting and yard cleanup/bush trimming for two homes in a non-affluent community. The home owners, both elderly women, were incredibly appreciative of the work and commotion around their homes. Along with the real estate team, we also had volunteers from the church of one of our Atlanta-based DRI instructors, James Price, who recruited his friends and fellow parishioners to come work on the home
projects (thank you, James!). Judging by the smiles on the faces of our volunteers and home owners -- and the paint-splattered DRIF T-shirts and jeans -- this was a successful day!

So this year saw much spirit of cooperation and giving. This was the first time I took the leap to spread our scope a bit to three different activities and to reach out to local groups for support as part of our team contribution to the community where our conference was based. I was very gratified by the outcome, the camaraderie, the enthusiasm and the energy that was contagious at each activity. As part of our thanks to the volunteers, we held our traditional "pep rally" on Friday night where dinner, T-shirts, and goody 

Sometimes things happen around the very inspiring day of caring and giving. This year was no exception. As is our tradition, lunches are provided to our hard-working volunteers. When the group at the house painting project was having lunch, many local children were riding their bikes nearby watching our teams eating. Clearly hungry, and some vocalizing such, we quickly decided to pack up the extra sandwiches and snacks and walk it down the block to a large family (and extended family) who might appreciate it.

We stopped at the porch of one of homes and announced that we had brought food to them. With James Price in the lead, we formed an impromptu hand-holding circle as James said a quick blessing for the food and the families. It was a special moment for us all. And the happy children were simply icing on the cake.

As is our tradition, we make sure that the groups we work with are provided lunch, and this year we also made a special donation of sandwiches, water, and snacks to a local shelter for victims of domestic violence. As we seek ways to expand our circle of giving from the DRI Foundation, we take special pride in doing the little things at conference time to make the lives of a few just a little better. 

My most sincere thanks and heartfelt appreciation to all who volunteered this year, who are all so kind as to make donations to the Foundation, and all who have reached out to me to be involved in the Volunteerism Committee; and efforts to share both our BCP knowledge for the betterment of those impacted by disasters and those clearly in need.   We can and will continue to grow our mission to have our certified professionals around the globe be ambassadors for caring and giving. 

At the Gala this year, I went off-script a bit from the prepared comments at the podium and asked those who volunteered this year and previous years to stand and remain standing. I then asked those who volunteer in their communities to do the same. Almost the entire ballroom was then on their feet. I remarked that if we could just apply that same percentage to our globally certified 11,000 professionals and have them all volunteer via the Foundation's efforts it would be an amazing and impactful thing. Isn't that the goal?

Please reach out to me with your suggestions, thoughts, or simply a note of support, and have a great summer!

All the best,

Clyde Berger

Chair of the Volunteerism Committee and Vice President of the DRI Foundation