Reminders

PTSC-Online Blogs

Blogs are one of the most important feature of PTSC-Online because they provide a means of communicating with and facilitating discussion among our members and sharing information with the public. Please read the blogs, rate the articles using the 5 star rating system and add your comments to contribute to the discussion (AND REMEMBER TO HIT THE GREEN BUTTON TO SAVE YOUR COMMENTS). When you select the Blogs tab on the main menu bar, blog entries from all blog channels are displayed. To view a particular blog channel select it from the channel list on the right. To return to viewing all blogs, select the Blogs tab on the main menu bar.

As most of PTSC-Online can be viewed by the public, caution should be exercised when adding or responding to blog articles or discussion forums, so as not to post items which might increase security risks. If needed, a private blog or discussion forum with restricted access can be set up to facilitate discussion. 

Your Organization could sponsor this section of PTSC-Online, click here to learn how.

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December 13, 2014

PTSC-Online to Cease Operation on January 9, 2015

William MacKay – Developing PTSC-Online & Continuous Improvement

Unless something changes PTSC-Online will cease operation on January 9, 2015. I want to thank all who contributed to PTSC-Online over the years. Those who contributed and used it benefited most, but unfortunately there were not enough of you.

The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs sponsored the creation of PTSC-Online to help members of the fire service who were responsible for community emergency management and other emergency managers network more effectively to improve their community emergency management programs. Membership was open to anyone involved in or with an interest in emergency management. Public Safety Canada funded the development of PTSC-Online and Canadian representative of the National Fire Protection Association …
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6 Comments
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December 9, 2014

The Future of PTSC-Online Will Likely Be Decided Tomorrow

William MacKay – Developing PTSC-Online & Continuous Improvement

A web conference scheduled for 9:00 am tomorrow (December 10th) will likely decide if PTSC-Online will continue operation beyond 2014. As a member or viewer of PTSC-Online I would appreciate your taking a minute or two to provide input to that decision and your preferences regarding networking on line. Your input to this decision making process will be greatly appreciated. Some background information and a few questions to help guide your input are included below.

PTSC-Online is a Canadian virtual on line community, founded to encourage improvements to emergency management, business continuity and critical infrastructure protection programs. It is a central hub, integrated with other traditional and on line networks, that provides tools for sharing information and collaboration about these programs among stakeholders. It's creation was sponsored by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs with financial support from Public Safety Canada. It is hosted by IG…
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November 27, 2014

IGLOO Software Update and DOWNTIME

William MacKay – Developing PTSC-Online & Continuous Improvement

This is to advise you that between 9:00pm and 1:00am tomorrow (November 28th) there will be a short time during which PTSC-Online is not available to accommodate a system update.

Igloo is conducting a planned system update. During the upgrade window, there will be a short period of downtime where your users will receive a message stating that the Igloo service is unavailable.

Date: Friday, November 28, 2014

Planned Downtime: 15 minutes

Approximate Time: Between 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. ET 

Your Igloo community will only be offline for approximately 15 minutes during the above window.

For more information about this scheduled update, please…

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September 29, 2014

The Ferguson collection: a series of posts and stories on crisis communicat…

Patrice Cloutier – Crisis & Emergency Communications

The events following the death of a teenager at the hand of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri provided a deluge of lessons learned in terms of incident communications.

The events in Ferguson proved a continuing lesson in how NOT to handle crisis or incident communications. Week after the shooting that sparked the protests and police reactions, communications are still being mishandled.

Here's a collection of blog posts and media stories on this issue: 

Deafening silence in Ferguson ... author: Bill Boyd on his "It's Not My Emergency" blog ... focus: what happens when agencies don't occupy the public space in an incident ... August 13

A shooting in…

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August 15, 2014

An Opportunity to Learn About a New IGLOO / PTSC-Online Feature

William MacKay – Developing PTSC-Online & Continuous Improvement

The last IGLOO Software update which will be available to PTSC-Online users is the introduction of TASKS. This feature may be of particular interest to organizations like GTIME and CanVOST and other organizations who are using their spaces to help manage their organizations and projects. Join the webinar described below to learn more.

È

  
             
 
Webinar: Introducing Tasks

Tuesday, August 19, 2014
12:00-1:00 PM ET

Thursday, August 21, 2014
12:00-1:00 PM ET

Igloo is excited to announce our latest release, Unicorn.

With this release, tasks are now fully integrated with the Igloo platform, enabling you to manage projects, as well as your day-to-day tasks. Igloo tasks allows you to create tasks for yourself and for others, keep track of your work with task…
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August 11, 2014

What is Next for Canadian Emergency and Continuity Management Standards?

William MacKay – Standards

To remain relevant, standards need to be continually reviewed and updated as we learn from using the standards and from reviews of incidents. It is also important to be aware of what is happening with other related standards internationally and learn from them. Here are a few things that are happening in Canada to ensure our emergency and continuity management standards remain up to date.

Although the Canadian Standards Association Z 1600 - 14 emergency and continuity management standard was just recently issued, planning is already underway to begin work on the next edition. A few of the things which are happening are noted below.

  • The Canadian Standards Association is in the initial planning stages to form a technical committee which will review and recommend changes to the Z 1600 - 14 standard.
  • The work of the International Standards Organization (ISO) in restructuring…
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August 25, 2014

Next Steps - Canadian Emergency & Continuity Management Program Standards

William MacKay – Standards

Just a quick update to share the latest news regarding the Canadian Z 1600 emergency and continuity management program standard.

This is a follow up to my last article on Z 1600. I asked for some feedback from readers regarding use of the standard and have not received any to date but it is not too late. It is important to know how the current standard is perceived and being used before one begins to improve it. A survey regarding its use will likely be issued in the near future by CSA but commenting here gives you the opportunity to share your thoughts and suggestions with other viewers. 

Now for a few highlights. 

  • T…
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August 8, 2014

PTSC-Online Community Downtime & Upgrade

William MacKay – Developing PTSC-Online & Continuous Improvement

PTSC-Online will be off line for approximately four hours beginning 9:00 PM on Tuesday August 12th for a major upgrade.

One of the advantages of PTSC-Online being hosted as an IGLOO community is that IGLOO Software are continually upgrading their product and adding new features. Click here for more information on the Unicorn update. 

Our challenge as members of this community is to become aware of these new tools as they are made available so we may use them to work more effectively within our community. 

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August 11, 2014

Obtaining Z1600-14 - Emergency and Continuity Management Program Standard

William MacKay – Standards

Sorry for the delay in posting the availability of CSA Z1600 - 14 Emergency and Continuity Management Standard. The link below will take you to where you can learn more about or purchase the standard.

Click here to purchase CSA Z 1600 - 14.

If you hve questions or comments about the standard you can post them following this article and we can hopefully get an answer for you.

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0 Comments
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August 8, 2014

What is the Future of PTSC-Online # 2

William MacKay – Developing PTSC-Online & Continuous Improvement

Over the past couple of days I have been very encouraged by information I have received regarding future support for PTSC-Online. I can't share any of the details right now, but I wanted to share at least a little of my enthusiasm with you.

On June 5th. I published the article "What is the Future of PTSC-Online" to bring our community members up to date on the status of our community and its prospects for the future. 

I was pleased with some of the discussion that took place in response to that article and even more pleased with some input I received directly. The news I can share with you is that more than one organization has expressed interest in the future of PTSC-Online. This is positive because not only does it potentially…

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Recent Comments

OfflinePTSC-Online to Cease Oper…
William MacKay
7 weeks ago
Thank you Denis and Patrice for your comments. You were two members who made effective use of PTSC-Online and your contributions were appreciated. If there were more like you we would not be having this conversation.
Patrice, I still have not given…
OfflinePTSC-Online to Cease Oper…
Patrice Cloutier
7 weeks ago
I couldn't agree more with Christel ... Bill MacKay deserves a lot of credit for innovating in the field of EM and BCP networking in Canada. PTSC-online has been a key platform to me for professional development. I'm sorry to be witnessing its…
OfflinePTSC-Online to Cease Oper…
Denis M. Pilon, CD, CFO
7 weeks ago
Bill, thank you for all you have done to keep this site going.  It has been a good site but in the end, I believe it was a victim of information overload.  I personally get hundreds of emails every week from organizations such as this to which I…
OfflinePTSC-Online to Cease Oper…
William MacKay
7 weeks ago
Unfortunately Heather there is no easy way to save and transfer the data within PTSC-Online without paying for technical support time and we unfortunately have not had any operating funds for the past year. Please feel free to copy any of the blog…
OfflinePTSC-Online to Cease Oper…
Christel Ivanyshyn, ABCP CMMII (EMP) DiplMM
7 weeks ago
Bill,
It is sad to see PTSC-Online come to a close.  However there is a forth person that needs to be thanked and congratulated on the time and effort needed to maintain and grow this community....and that's Mr. Bill MacKay.  I know how much energy…
OfflinePTSC-Online to Cease Oper…
Heather Leson
7 weeks ago
HI Bill, I am sorry to see this. Is there any way you could migrate the content to a tumblr or wordpress account?
The CanVOST community will find a way to exist. You and the team gave it a start.
All the best,

Heather
OfflineThe Future of PTSC-Online…
Jack Pagotto
7 weeks ago
(1) Should PTSC-Online continue operation?  Why or why not? 
Jack ---> Yes but maybe consider merging with the soon to be stood up "Canadian Operations" not for profit that the Canadian Council of Fire Marshals and Fire Commissioners have…
OfflineThe Future of PTSC-Online…
William MacKay
7 weeks ago
I received an e-mail asking about using PTSC-Online to support training. I replied privately to the e-mail but thought I should include some of my response here for the benefit of all.
Re your question regarding use of PTSC-Online as an on line…
OfflinePhoto of John-Paul Cody-CoxWhat is the Future of PTS…
John-Paul Cody-Cox
5 months ago
CAFC is keen to look at next steps and how we can grow PTSC-Online.
Hopefully we can get together after our conference later in September to discuss.
 
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