Unit 3: Town Hall Meeting

In this final unit of the Major Storm Module, you will continue to apply and evaluate the concepts you have learned in the preceding units to your own community, culminating in the development and evaluation of hazard mitigation plan recommendations. Your recommendations will be specific to an assigned stakeholder position - meaning, you will be role playing as a particular community group with interest in the development of your local hazard mitigation plan. Using all that you have learned over the course of the module, you will formulate recommendations for how to prepare for and respond to major storms. You will present this position, using scientific evidence and data to support your points, in a town hall-style meeting.

Homework from Unit 2.2 (to be done before starting Unit 3)

Follow up work from last class:

Press Release 2nd Draft

• Press Release Revision Assignment (Microsoft Word 21kB Nov4 16); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 87kB Nov4 16).
• Press Release Rubric - 2nd Draft (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 21kB Jul20 24); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 84kB Nov4 16).

Preparation work for Unit 3

Readings

• Chapter 7 of the CDC's Crisis, Emergency, Risk Communication 2014 Edition
• The Geological Society of America's Position Statement: Geoscience and Natural Hazards Policy
• Local HMP (ask your instructor)

Unit 3.1

In this class, you will briefly review your press release revisions before you begin preparation for the final project of the module: the Town Hall Meeting. To do so, the class will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your own community's current hazard mitigation plan. Questions to consider with specific attention to the assigned hazard:

1. How is the hazard presented in the HMP currently: vulnerability, frequency, probability, severity, impacts, etc.?
2. What are other risks or hazards associated with your assigned hazard?
3. How is your hazard prioritized (high, low) in the HMP? What information helped you determine its prioritization?
4. What are the strengths of the existing HMP's treatment of your hazard? What are the weaknesses? How might your community improve its HMP for your assigned hazard?
5. What stakeholders have been involved in developing your community's HMP? What stakeholders would likely be involved in revisions to your community's HMP?

Homework Unit 3.1

For homework, you will craft recommendations for a revised, local hazard mitigation plan to address perceived weaknesses based on your assigned stakeholder position. In order to prepare for the Town Hall Meeting, you will create a Talking Points Memo (see Talking Points and Policy Paper Guidelines (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 29kB Aug14 24); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 133kB Nov4 16) for the final policy paper guidelines, which includes the instructions for the Memo) to be shared with the rest of the class by the deadline set by the instructor. The Talking Points Memo will help you prepare to discuss and defend your recommendations to the other stakeholders at the meeting (see Town Hall Guidelines (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 18kB Aug14 24); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 67kB Nov4 16) for the town hall meeting presentation guidelines), and get you started on the final paper. In addition, you will read the other stakeholders' memos so that you are ready to ask them questions about their proposed recommendations. Look for potential allies and adversaries for your own recommendations!

Unit 3.2

In the final class of the module, you have the chance to show off all of your hard work! In this class, you will present and debate recommendations to revise your local hazard mitigation plan. A prepared stakeholder is a powerful stakeholder! Make sure that you have scientific evidence and data to back up your position. Be prepared to ask questions of other stakeholders: ask for clarification on their talking points; look for potential allies by finding places where you can agree; respond to adversaries who challenge your points. The Town Hall Meeting gives you the opportunity to discover any weaknesses in your own recommendations and to connect with other stakeholders and their points of view.

Final Policy Paper

The last part of the module is submitting your policy paper. Review Talking Points and Policy Paper Guidelines (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 29kB Aug14 24); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 133kB Nov4 16) and make sure you have completed all requirements and followed the instructions. Review the Policy Paper and Debate Rubrics (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 27kB Aug14 24); also available as a PDF (Acrobat (PDF) 99kB Aug14 24) before turning in your work; use it to find any problems and correct them before submitting your assignment.

Additional Resources for Unit 3

• Eiser et al., "Risk Interpretation and Action: A Conceptual Framework for Responses to Natural Hazards," International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction Vol. 1 (Oct. 2012): pp. 5-16. Download available under Creative Commons License.
• You may want to review additional chapters in the CDC's Crisis, Emergency, Risk Communication 2014.