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for the general public or even most
businesses to plug in, people get
frustrated and do their own thing.
We really see a need for distribut-
ed coordination of activities. That’s
the focus of our cross-sector disaster
simulation programs. Each sector
may still work independently, but if
we can share information, there is
a much greater chance that disaster
needs will not be duplicated or over-
looked. There are lots of great ideas
out there—we want to help bring
together the people with those ideas
and get the best ideas moved from
theory to practice.
ARebuilding efforts continue slowly due to a myriad of reasons, and
logistics support remains a critical need.
Nonprofit groups that provide donated
labor for home rebuilding need to move
and store materials and tools. Sandy
taught us many things, but most importantly, it reminded us that relationships
that are in place prior to a disaster are
going to be the ones that get used.
Q You take over a well-established organization. What is your strategic
vision for ALAN?
A One of the first things ALAN’s board id after Jock’s passing was to review
the vision and mission statements and to
ask ourselves—who are we, who should
we be, and how do we get there? Jock
started a great deal of this work in 2012
and 2013, so it was really just pulling
together all of the pieces. Our vision is
to change the way people prepare for,
respond to, and recover from disasters.
We want to help reduce not just the
time it takes to get supplies to people
who need them after a disaster, but to,
as Jock often said, “wire the networks”
so that the impact of the disaster itself
is reduced. The more that we prepare
together, the more that we understand
each other’s capabilities, and the more
that we build the trust needed to work
together, the more resistant we’ll be to
the effects of a disaster. I’d love to have
an ALAN liaison volunteer in every state
and an expert across every supply chain
discipline. We’ve got some rebuilding to
do, but we have committed volunteers,
association partners, sponsors, and advisers to help us along the way.
Q Give us a sense of the state of logistics relief aid today. Where have you seen
the most progress? And where does more
work need to be done?
ADisaster relief in general is still a system of fragmented, independent
responses. There is increased recognition that “together we can do more,”
but the mechanisms for communicating and coordinating the roles of each
group are not yet well developed. People
want to help—independently, corporately. However, because there isn’t a way
