Bobby was not having a good day. He had started the morning by oversleeping and had clocked in 15 minutes late. Rushing through the mailroom doors, Bobby splashed his coffee into a full cart of mail someone had left near the door. Only heroic blotting kept him from ruining dozens of envelopes. It looked like important stuff, too. As he hurriedly restacked the still damp mail into the cart, a thick yellow envelope slipped from his hand and fell to the floor, exploding into a cloud of white powder that spread over the carpet, the mail cart, all of the mail, and Bobby himself.

"Ooof" was the noise Bobby made as he puffed all the air out of his lungs, mouth, and nose while backing away from the cart and out the mailroom door. Having just gone through the refresher training for emergency procedures in the mailroom, he knew to exhale quickly and get out as rapidly as possible. Everyone else in the mailroom did the same. This was the exact maneuver the team had rehearsed just a week before: Exhale, exit, and hit the big red button that turns off the room's ventilators and sets off the emergency alarm. Bobby stopped after he got out in the hallway and waited with the rest of the mailroom team for the organized chaos he knew would follow.

An hour later, Alan Hake, CEO of HAL, sat with his incident team at the coffee shop across the street. As outlined in their plan, the team consisted of COO Richard Xavier, CFO Rachel Hernandez, and CIO Amanda Wilson. Also present were Roberta Briscoe, manager of corporate security, and Pantoja Martina, supervisor of the administrative staff and the mailroom. They were reviewing the response plan in place for contaminated mail, along with the supporting DR and BC plans, when a man in a fireman's dress uniform walked up to their table and said, "Hi. I'm Deputy Fire Chief Corbett. Are you the folks from HAL?"

"Yes," said Alan. "Please, have a seat." He gestured to an empty chair at their impromptu conference table. Deputy Chief Corbett sat down and said, "The field test, within its limited test range, shows that the white powder in the mailroom is not a pathogen or a contaminant. Normally, at this point, we would send a sample to the forensics lab and ask them to expedite processing. That would give us an answer within six hours."

Alan and the team listened to the deputy chief carefully as he spoke. Now, they smiled as they looked at each other.

"What about the mailroom staff?" Alan asked. "What's your opinion of their reaction?"

"As far as I can tell, they seem to have performed quite well, exactly as your plan specified," Deputy Chief Corbett replied, as he smiled in return. "We isolated them and were preparing them to go through the standard biochemical decontamination protocol. Not very pleasant, nor a very modest activity, but the team was informed that they had just been involved in an unannounced test, right before they had to strip. They're not too happy, but they were greatly relieved. They are currently standing by in isolation suits waiting for the 'final lab results.' As soon as you're ready, we'll release them for your debrief."

He smiled again and then added, "I suggest a long lunch while you let them cool off a bit. And just FYI, if that test was for a real event, and it did come back as contaminated, your office space would probably be off limits for three to four weeksmaybe longer."

Corbett grinned even more as he said, "The fire department thanks you and your staff for your assistance in our Hazmat training program."

Alan shook the chief's hand and turned to his executives. "OK, before we conduct our after-action review with the team, what did we learn other than unannounced tests make our mailroom unhappy?"

answer the following questions:

1-What aspects of the emergency plan would change if the closure lasted 30 weeks instead of 4 weeks?

2-What other crises or catastrophes can happen in a mailroom that could prompt an emergency procedure like the one illustrated here?

3-What goals should be included when planning for the resumption of critical business functions at an alternate site for four weeks? What would be different if the planning horizon were 30 weeks instead?

4-When the organization makes a plan like the one described here, what parts of the plan should be from the contingency planning management team (CPMT) and what parts should come from the subject area experts?