Hurricane Helene and the recent Los Angeles wildfires have impacted hundreds of thousands of Americans. Because such natural disasters are part of life, associations should be prepared to respond to them.

In a recent post on LinkedIn, Vista Cova founder Lowell Aplebaum, FASAE, CAE, laid out a variety of disaster-response steps that organizations can take, from granting a year of membership to members directly affected by a crisis to direct engagement with area components to provide assistance.

“If an organization doesn’t have a component, they are still able to look through their database of their community members and see who’s within that community,” Aplebaum said. “Even if there’s no formal structure there, they can still target the geographic location.”

The nature of an association’s disaster response has varied depending on their focus. The American Humane Society, for instance, has helped transport pets away from the LA wildfires. Associations in the hospitality industry have set up fundraisers and directed evacuees to hotels. 

Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists created a disaster-response plan designed to support its members. It’s put that plan to use in the wake of the LA wildfires, allowing registered technologists and candidates to extend their deadlines. Because all of ARRT’s testing is administered in-person, such extensions are necessary in areas affected by the fires.

AAGLA was able to establish the site in less than a week by reaching out to members quickly.

ARRT’s approach is the same for any event formally declared a disaster by FEMA, said CEO Liana Watson, DM, R.T.(R)(M)(S)(BS)(ARRT), RDMS, RVT, FASRT, PMP, ICE-CCP, CAE. “Anytime there’s a natural disaster declaration, we put flags on our registrants’ individual accounts with us, and based on that we look at the deadlines for them having to renew their certification or submit their continuing education or any other deadline they have with us. Then we determine if we need to extend those deadlines for those people specifically.” 

At the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, staff quickly leveraged its database of members to create a website offering listings of available rental housing in the affected region. AAGLA, which is federated with the national Apartment Association, was able to establish the site in less than a week by reaching out to members quickly.

“We started conversations about this on a Wednesday, started building a survey Thursday and Friday, and then away we went,” said AAGLA CFO and Director of Operations Matthew Farghum. By Saturday it had a beta version up and running, and by Monday had refined it to the point where it could share the site on social media and through a press release. 

Clarity and ease of use were the watchwords for Jeremy Minnick, CEO of Cedar Custom Software Solutions, which helped develop the site for AAGLA. “When you think of a tool you want people to use, it’s got to be as easy as possible,” he said. 

Because a crisis is always a possibility, associations should put themselves in a position to respond before one happens, Farghum said.

“If not for the work that we did in the previous years leading up to this—upgrading our IT, getting our systems and processes in place, having standard operating procedures for our day-to-day stuff—it would have been a lot more challenging,” he said.

[istock/melitas]