Kittitas County.BASIC PLAN 2024final (2)

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KITTITAS COUNTY CEMP Page 61 of 63 November 2024 | BASIC PLAN Common Methodology – enables organizations of divergent sizes, geographies, and capabilities to have a shared understanding of exercise program management, design and development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning; and fosters exercise- related interoperability and collaboration. Exercises are conducted to determine if plans and procedures are operationally sound and to meet mandated requirements. Thorough critiques by participants, controllers, and evaluators identify strengths and weaknesses encountered during the exercise. Changes to plans and procedures are incorporated immediately, if necessary, or in the next review cycle. If an exercise reveals a proficiency problem, training is enhanced to address that need. Exercise types may include: ▪ Walkthroughs, workshops and seminars are basic training for team members. They are designed to familiarize team members with emergency response, business continuity and crisis communications plans and their roles and responsibilities as defined in the plans. ▪ Tabletop exercises are discussion-based sessions where team members meet in an informal classroom setting to discuss their roles during an emergency and their responses to a particular emergency situation. A facilitator guides participants through a discussion of one or more scenarios. The duration of a tabletop exercise depends on the audience, the topic being exercised and the exercise objectives. Many tabletop exercises can be conducted in a few hours, so they are cost-effective tools to validate plans and capabilities. ▪ Functional exercises allow personnel to validate plans and readiness by performing their duties in a simulated operational environment. Activities for a functional exercise are scenario-driven, such as the failure of a critical business function or a specific hazard scenario. Functional exercises are designed to exercise specific team members, procedures and resources (e.g. communications, warning, notifications and equipment set-up). ▪ A full-scale exercise is as close to the real thing as possible. It is a lengthy exercise which takes place on location using, as much as possible, the equipment and personnel that would be called upon in a real event. Full-scale exercises are conducted by public agencies. They often include participation from local businesses. A3. After-Action Reporting Process Kittitas County Emergency Management will use the current Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) methodology to conduct and evaluate exercises and real-world events, including the After-Action Report and Improvement Plan process. An after-action report (AAR) summarizes key exercise-related evaluation information, including the exercise overview and analysis of the performance related to each exercise objective and the core capabilities. They are used to highlight strengths, as well as areas for improvement, so that corrective actions can be implemented to resolve capability gaps and shortcomings identified in exercises or real-world events. KCEM also conducts after action reports on local emergencies and exercises to evaluate the effectiveness of the communication of life safety information per RCW 38.52.070(4).