Join Feb. 22 WERC Hurricane Tabletop Exercise

The Weston Emergency Reserve Corps (WERC) invites anyone interested in emergency preparedness to join us for a "tabletop" exercise taking place on Saturday, February 22nd, from 9a to noon at Weston Town Hall. 

Run by the Disaster Resistant Communities Group, this scenario plays out the impact of a Hurricane. It's called a "tabletop" exercise because we will work together in a single room, discussing the information we are given and playing through the scenarios as a team, as opposed to physically taking action. Throughout the exercise we will be given information and asked questions related to the situation. We will discuss our responses and once we make our "move" we will get the next batch of information. Our experience with previous tabletop exercises like this showed that this is a fantastic opportunity to delve into our community's preparedness plans and identify areas where the WERC can be most effective.

We hope that you will participate, even if you can't make the full 3-hour exercise. If you are interested, please follow these steps:

1. Look at the exercise website to get a sense for what's involved (http://www.drc-group.com/project/footprint.html).

2. Register online at http://www.onxsystem.com/?q=onx/ex/2428 by 9AM on Feb. 21st (registration closes then). Everyone who will be participating in the exercise will need to register, even though we are playing as a team. There are several important reasons for all participants to register:

• Prior to the exercise important situational awareness materials will be e-mailed to all registered participants.
• Each participant in the exercise will be able to submit an evaluation after the exercise has ended.
• Individual exercise Certificates of Participation will only be generated for registered participants.
• We will know how many people to expect so that we set the room accordingly and have enough materials for everyone.

When registering, you can put "Weston Emergency Reserve Corps" as your Organization and select Medical Reserve Corps from the drop-down Location/Group list. You will receive a verification email from the organizers after you fill out your information that will enable you to complete the registration process, so please watch for that.

3. Come to the Weston Town Hall's Lower Level Conference Room on Feb. 22nd. We will start the exercise at 9am and it is expected to take up to 3 hours to complete. If you can't be there the whole time, it's fine to come and go as needed. We'll brief you as best we can when you arrive. Use the right side (glass) door to enter Town Hall. We will leave a sign with a phone number to call if we need to lock the door.

Let us know if you have any questions by emailing rruggles3@me.com. We're looking forward to this event and would love to have you join the fun (and help us eat muffins).