As you work to make sense of what is going on in your area, what work needs to be done, and what folks are doing, you’ll need a communications cluster. This group will deal with external communication (social media) as well as how your group talks to itself. If people are talking to each other, you’re involved.
When talking to each other in high-complexity situations, it is important to follow radio etiquette. This will make it clear who is speaking to who, about what, without creating more audio churn. Approaching communication this way allows people to focus on what’s in front of them while also getting situational awareness from other locations.
You’ll also be talking and listening to the rest of the world. Misinformation is a growing problem that you can help combat, in ways that may be a bit surprising to you. It’s not about arguing with people, it’s about representing truth steadily. We try to help you understand how to approach things in this article.
You’ll also want to document as you go, and maintain that documentation for onboarding spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers and others.
You’ll overlap heavily with the technology cluster thinking about data security and tech selection.
The folks who succeed in this cluster tend to be able to distill complexity into easy to understand chunks, focus on what matters, and are good at stakeholder management (who needs to know what when).
We could include more than what we’ve got so far! Reach out if you’d like to help write an article.
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Your Handy Guide on Fighting Misinformation During Disaster Response
We’ve all been there, a disaster hits and suddenly our social media feeds are awash with conflicting information. Some folks claim the water supply is contaminated, others say it’s fine. Someone shares a post about police blocking aid deliveries, but we can’t verify if it’s true. In these critical moments, bad information doesn’t just cloud…
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Documentation in disaster response
There’s so much going on! Surely slowing down to write about it isn’t worth the time and effort. But it is! Promise. Use it for learning, use it for community Celebrate your documentarians! It’s fairly thankless work that helps the whole organization keep going smoothly. Styles There are two main ways to think about documentation…
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What You Need to Know Now about Radio Comms
How to communicate with radios in an emergency by Dan Tennery-Spalding Intro Cell phone and internet service can go down in a disaster – at the exact moment you may need to ask for medical help, shelter or rescue. The best alternative to phone and internet is radio: walkie talkies, FRS, GMRS and Ham radio.…