b'Jeffery Dashner joined the senior leadership team at Mel Trotter Ministries in 2018. With experience in both corporate retail and nonprofit sectors, his leadership bridges diverse disciplines. He holds a Bachelor of Science in business with concentration in international business. Jeffery participates in his communitys emergency and disaster responds team and holds the following FEMA certifications: ICS100, ICS200, IS700, IS800, O305, IS2200, IACET CEU Grand Rapids MI 3.2.That is precisely what we want to do: test our emergency response plans to the point that they break.consultant for this section, as laws, corpo- and update our plans with our new knowledge. rate bylaws, or other regulations governingWe begin reading a situational story with stop-continuity of management need to beping points. At each stopping point, the leaders understood and identified in this step.respond to the information they have heard using Insurance coverage discussion form: Useour emergency response plans. As we continue to this form to discuss your insurance cover- read the story, the disaster increases in complexity. age with your agent. Having adequateAt each stopping point, our leaders use our plans coverage now helps you recover moreand think strategically about a disaster response.rapidly from a catastrophe.Our leaders take notes on where and when their plans broke, and they spend the next couple of months working together, making Break It (tabletop exercise)adjustments, and updating the plans. This O rdinary language is tabletop exercise,happens before the next Break It session, which but we break this rule with the wordsallows the plan to be retested and improved Break It because that is precisely whatfour times per year. A successful Break It session we want to do: test our emergency response plansis stressful, creates emotions, identifies vulnera-to the point that they break. At Mel Trotter Min- bilities, and empowers leaders to grow.istries, we hold a quarterly Break It session with allThe time is now for moving forward in devel-our leaders. We bring a disaster scenario/role-playoping and improving our disaster response plans. that takes place one season ahead. For example,We have an abundance of resources available to us our Q1 Break It scenario portrays a situation thatalong with document templates to guide our steps. takes place in the spring. In this example, ourThe best path forward is to invite your community strategy allows the leaders to proactively identifypartners into the process. Trust me, you will make vulnerabilities and improve our emergencya positive impression on emergency managers, response plans before spring arrives.police, and fire departments by inviting them The Break It sessions are scheduled to last oneinto this process. \x03hour. Before the session starts, we pray and then review the rules of Break It. The rules includeWe are happy to share the templates we use that nobody will get in trouble for wrong answers,here at Mel Trotter Ministries, and you can nobody will be in trouble for not knowingfind additional resources at: answers, and everyone is expected to participate.www.citygatenetwork.org/fema_plan We remind ourselves that the goal is to find our areas of vulnerability, note them, work to improve,www.citygatenetwork.org/fema_continuity14 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025'