The reason I prefer the term Emergency Coordination Center over Emergency Operations Center is that the word "coordination" describes our function perfectly. We don't control many internal resources ourselves and our ability to get anything done is via the relationships we have established with our many and varied public, private and nonprofit partners.
Our ability to be successful is tied to our ability to work in concert with others. If we try to "go it alone" then that is what we will be, alone!
All of the above came to mind after reading
this article about the outcomes from the latest G7 Meeting in Canada.
I'm also working on a project that is looking for best practices in disaster recovery. I've raised my kids to also look at events that don't go well. Let's call them "worst practices" which can also be instructional for what not to do.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.