This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
That’s an excellent point and a great idea to post that info. I wonder if we could get a CPR certification class taught in our space.
I found out the hard way that if your water filter explodes and floods the place, it’s a good idea to have emergency owner numbers posted, but for medical stuff we’re basically relying on ambulances and a first aid kit!
···
On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 4:13 PM, Tony Bacigalupo [email protected] wrote:
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
Know the laws for such situations for your area ( good samaritan laws, responsibilities as a business owner, etc. )
···
–
We have contact phone numbers posted in the large open space for anything anyone might need (like the aforementioned water line break).
We also keep a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher where they are easily gotten should something come up. Anything beyond that is a 911 call, as, I think, it should be.
That said, there is no finish line with preparedness. We should regularly assess what we do to see where we’re coming up short or if we need to change our procedures.
Cheers!
Pat
On Dec 8, 2011, at 4:13 PM, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
It’s law here that at least one person in a company of 2 or more needs to have basic first aid and CPR training.
···
On 2011-12-08, at 5:19 PM, Sarah Cox wrote:
That’s an excellent point and a great idea to post that info. I wonder if we could get a CPR certification class taught in our space.
I found out the hard way that if your water filter explodes and floods the place, it’s a good idea to have emergency owner numbers posted, but for medical stuff we’re basically relying on ambulances and a first aid kit!
On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 4:13 PM, Tony Bacigalupo [email protected] wrote:
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
it’s a question we ask when new members sign up - “do you have first aid training” That way, if something does happen, we at least know who in the community can help while we wait for emergency services.
···
On 2011-12-08, at 5:19 PM, Sarah Cox wrote:
That’s an excellent point and a great idea to post that info. I wonder if we could get a CPR certification class taught in our space.
I found out the hard way that if your water filter explodes and floods the place, it’s a good idea to have emergency owner numbers posted, but for medical stuff we’re basically relying on ambulances and a first aid kit!
On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 4:13 PM, Tony Bacigalupo [email protected] wrote:
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
we also ask for emergency contact info from members at onboarding so that we can be prepared to reach out to loved ones if someone is in an urgent situation (medical or otherwise), and they can know right away and relay pertinent medical details to emergency workers.
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
Have the address of your location posted in a prominent location (or several). With more and more people using cellphones to call 911, the address tracing can be unreliable at best. We had an incident at our gym when the owner was not on the premises, and nobody could remember the street address of the gym (we dug up a business card, but for a minute it was dicey).
On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 5:32 PM, rachel young [email protected] wrote:
we also ask for emergency contact info from members at onboarding so that we can be prepared to reach out to loved ones if someone is in an urgent situation (medical or otherwise), and they can know right away and relay pertinent medical details to emergency workers.
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
I was approached yesterday by one of the board members of the local,
er, First Responders volunteer group. They are much too big to be
able to all meet up in my space, there are like 150 members. But we
are talking about their giving classes and having workgroup and board
meetings here. Sort of a home base idea.
Considering our location it's something of a community service just to
have them here on a regular basis, so I expect to make them a very
sweet deal.
If you have a first aid kit, look through it every now and again, some
of that stuff keeps forever but a lot does not. And keep a bag of
frozen peas or corn in the freezer if you have one, it makes a better
ice pack in a pinch than all the blue ice in the world.
This afternoon, my building's superintendant came in and asked me where the
nearest hospital was. He wasn't feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local
hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a
good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they
advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We're waiting to hear back
on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is
something you might not think much about until you have a really good
reason to.
I'm going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals
and such, but I've also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking
incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good
start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this
vein?
Awesome thread. Thanks for sharing your story Tony!
I’d add a few things to what others have said:
We have a list of emergency contact numbers posted for when in-house emergencies happen and members who are there during non-staffed hours need to reach out to us. In addition, we list out the emergency (911) and non-emergency numbers folks can call if anything happens in the space anytime.
Seattle is a particularly earthquake-prone city, so we also need to think of items to have on hand in case our world begins shaking. This is a great reminder for me to stash bottled water, emergency food kits, and flashlights throughout our space.
I run Industry Lab coworking space in Cambridge, MA and we’re working on our emergency preparedness. Can anyone suggest a solution for group SMS/email blasts to use in the case of an emergency?
Thanks,
Carly
···
On Monday, December 12, 2011 6:09:25 PM UTC-6, Susan Evans wrote:
Awesome thread. Thanks for sharing your story Tony!
I’d add a few things to what others have said:
We have a list of emergency contact numbers posted for when in-house emergencies happen and members who are there during non-staffed hours need to reach out to us. In addition, we list out the emergency (911) and non-emergency numbers folks can call if anything happens in the space anytime.
Seattle is a particularly earthquake-prone city, so we also need to think of items to have on hand in case our world begins shaking. This is a great reminder for me to stash bottled water, emergency food kits, and flashlights throughout our space.
full disclosure I am one of the confounders. I created it with my good friend Sandy Cohen. We were both in NYC during 9/11 and I could not call my grandmother to tell her I was alive as landlines and cell phones were co-opted and overloaded… but we had internet access. So we created a system that takes multiple communication vehicles for outgoing messages and sent to multiple communications vehicles. SendWordNow is one of the largest and most reliable systems on the planet. Try out the free trial at semdwordnow.com
I run Industry Lab coworking space in Cambridge, MA and we’re working on our emergency preparedness. Can anyone suggest a solution for group SMS/email blasts to use in the case of an emergency?
Thanks,
Carly
On Monday, December 12, 2011 6:09:25 PM UTC-6, Susan Evans wrote:
Awesome thread. Thanks for sharing your story Tony!
I’d add a few things to what others have said:
We have a list of emergency contact numbers posted for when in-house emergencies happen and members who are there during non-staffed hours need to reach out to us. In addition, we list out the emergency (911) and non-emergency numbers folks can call if anything happens in the space anytime.
Seattle is a particularly earthquake-prone city, so we also need to think of items to have on hand in case our world begins shaking. This is a great reminder for me to stash bottled water, emergency food kits, and flashlights throughout our space.
Hi!
The topic of emergency preparedness came up again at GCUC Toronto and I wanted to refresh this thread. So far I’m seeing these as useful
Posting the address in obvious places
Emergency contact info for members and staff
Knowing who is CPR or first aid trained
Having a fire extinguisher and first aid kit easily accessible
Has anyone else taken it a step further like posting a safe meeting place (Our safe spot is the oak tree across the street etc), drafting actual steps or plans to take in the event of fire, flood, earthquake, gunman etc?
Angel
···
On Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 3:13:58 PM UTC-7, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
I am thrilled this conversation has started.
Emergency Preparedness is critical as someone who was in NYC at 9/11. Due to my inability to call my grandmother to let her know I was alive on 9/11, I started Send Word Now with a good friend (a emergency notification system). I no longer work for the company but I learned a lot about emergency preparedness during that time (disclosure: still own equity).
**The Importance of CoWorking Spaces for Emergency Management **
A key thing to remember is emergency preparedness is not only what you can do to prevent/mitigate, prepare, respond and help recover for you and your people – it important but there is more. Also know that it is what you can do to prevent/mitigate, prepare, respond and help recover for the people in your community. Coworking places are perfect places to partner with others such as other local businesses, local gov’t, local residents, etc. and plan for these emergency occurrences. FYI: one of the failings of Katrina was a lack of local leadership. In fact, one of the main reasons for loss of life and property is lack of resources (including leadership) directly after a disaster and not immediately during.
I have been to more than 25 coworking spaces in my life and every single one is filled with strong, entrepreneurial leaders – exactly what is needed in all phases of emergency management. If you run a coworking space, please see yourself as a possible solution to assist others when bad sht happens in your community. Yes, you need plans to protect you and your loved ones. And, when you know everyone is ok, you can then assist others (quickly). Knowing how to do so BEFORE sht hits the fan is a really good idea. Trust me.
~ Janice Caillet
···
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 3:43 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski [email protected] wrote:
Hi!
The topic of emergency preparedness came up again at GCUC Toronto and I wanted to refresh this thread. So far I’m seeing these as useful
Posting the address in obvious places
Emergency contact info for members and staff
Knowing who is CPR or first aid trained
Having a fire extinguisher and first aid kit easily accessible
Has anyone else taken it a step further like posting a safe meeting place (Our safe spot is the oak tree across the street etc), drafting actual steps or plans to take in the event of fire, flood, earthquake, gunman etc?
Angel
On Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 3:13:58 PM UTC-7, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
After our space was destroyed by floods in 2008, and then again in 2009, we were asked by our local state EDC to write a book about emergency preparedness for small communities: https://sites.google.com/a/schoolfactory.org/recovery/
We had no idea that we needed an emergency plan for anything, but the experience changed us!
Get all kinds of insurance–flood insurance, if you need it. Have a way to capture all injuries in the space so you can record details. (We made this form for the spaces in our network:
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 11:18 PM, Janice Caillet [email protected] wrote:
I am thrilled this conversation has started.
Emergency Preparedness is critical as someone who was in NYC at 9/11. Due to my inability to call my grandmother to let her know I was alive on 9/11, I started Send Word Now with a good friend (a emergency notification system). I no longer work for the company but I learned a lot about emergency preparedness during that time (disclosure: still own equity).
**The Importance of CoWorking Spaces for Emergency Management **
A key thing to remember is emergency preparedness is not only what you can do to prevent/mitigate, prepare, respond and help recover for you and your people – it important but there is more. Also know that it is what you can do to prevent/mitigate, prepare, respond and help recover for the people in your community. Coworking places are perfect places to partner with others such as other local businesses, local gov’t, local residents, etc. and plan for these emergency occurrences. FYI: one of the failings of Katrina was a lack of local leadership. In fact, one of the main reasons for loss of life and property is lack of resources (including leadership) directly after a disaster and not immediately during.
I have been to more than 25 coworking spaces in my life and every single one is filled with strong, entrepreneurial leaders – exactly what is needed in all phases of emergency management. If you run a coworking space, please see yourself as a possible solution to assist others when bad sht happens in your community. Yes, you need plans to protect you and your loved ones. And, when you know everyone is ok, you can then assist others (quickly). Knowing how to do so BEFORE sht hits the fan is a really good idea. Trust me.
Our Mission
To assist individuals, teams, organizations and communities to turn on and realize their potential.
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 3:43 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski [email protected] wrote:
Hi!
The topic of emergency preparedness came up again at GCUC Toronto and I wanted to refresh this thread. So far I’m seeing these as useful
Posting the address in obvious places
Emergency contact info for members and staff
Knowing who is CPR or first aid trained
Having a fire extinguisher and first aid kit easily accessible
Has anyone else taken it a step further like posting a safe meeting place (Our safe spot is the oak tree across the street etc), drafting actual steps or plans to take in the event of fire, flood, earthquake, gunman etc?
Angel
On Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 3:13:58 PM UTC-7, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
James, the guidebook you created is awesome! But the link to your example boilerplates isn’t working? Is there another place I can read it? I really need to wrap my head around what an emergency plan would look like for our space. For example, what should members do if there’s a natural disaster, fire, shooter, etc.
···
On Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at 6:23:38 PM UTC-4, Bucketworks wrote:
After our space was destroyed by floods in 2008, and then again in 2009, we were asked by our local state EDC to write a book about emergency preparedness for small communities: https://sites.google.com/a/schoolfactory.org/recovery/
We had no idea that we needed an emergency plan for anything, but the experience changed us!
Get all kinds of insurance–flood insurance, if you need it. Have a way to capture all injuries in the space so you can record details. (We made this form for the spaces in our network:
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 11:18 PM, Janice Caillet [email protected] wrote:
I am thrilled this conversation has started.
Emergency Preparedness is critical as someone who was in NYC at 9/11. Due to my inability to call my grandmother to let her know I was alive on 9/11, I started Send Word Now with a good friend (a emergency notification system). I no longer work for the company but I learned a lot about emergency preparedness during that time (disclosure: still own equity).
**The Importance of CoWorking Spaces for Emergency Management **
A key thing to remember is emergency preparedness is not only what you can do to prevent/mitigate, prepare, respond and help recover for you and your people – it important but there is more. Also know that it is what you can do to prevent/mitigate, prepare, respond and help recover for the people in your community. Coworking places are perfect places to partner with others such as other local businesses, local gov’t, local residents, etc. and plan for these emergency occurrences. FYI: one of the failings of Katrina was a lack of local leadership. In fact, one of the main reasons for loss of life and property is lack of resources (including leadership) directly after a disaster and not immediately during.
I have been to more than 25 coworking spaces in my life and every single one is filled with strong, entrepreneurial leaders – exactly what is needed in all phases of emergency management. If you run a coworking space, please see yourself as a possible solution to assist others when bad sht happens in your community. Yes, you need plans to protect you and your loved ones. And, when you know everyone is ok, you can then assist others (quickly). Knowing how to do so BEFORE sht hits the fan is a really good idea. Trust me.
Our Mission
To assist individuals, teams, organizations and communities to turn on and realize their potential.
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 3:43 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski [email protected] wrote:
Hi!
The topic of emergency preparedness came up again at GCUC Toronto and I wanted to refresh this thread. So far I’m seeing these as useful
Posting the address in obvious places
Emergency contact info for members and staff
Knowing who is CPR or first aid trained
Having a fire extinguisher and first aid kit easily accessible
Has anyone else taken it a step further like posting a safe meeting place (Our safe spot is the oak tree across the street etc), drafting actual steps or plans to take in the event of fire, flood, earthquake, gunman etc?
Angel
On Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 3:13:58 PM UTC-7, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:
This afternoon, my building’s superintendant came in and asked me where the nearest hospital was. He wasn’t feeling well and needed help.
I sat him down, got some members to talk to him, and looked up local hospitals. Google Maps proved fruitless, though I did eventually find a good list. After talking to him more, we decided to call 911, where they advised us to wait for an ambulance to arrive. We’re waiting to hear back on his condition.
The incident was a big eye opener for me; emergency preparedness is something you might not think much about until you have a really good reason to.
I’m going to post contact information and the location of local hospitals and such, but I’ve also added a step to our onboarding procedure asking incoming members about their medical training. I figure this is a good start.
Does anyone here have some helpful stories or tips to contribute in this vein?
