GES Simulation Guide v3.pdf - Avian Influenza and the Pandemic ...

EXERCISE OVERVIEW | Pg 27 EXERCISE OVERVIEW | Pg 28
EXERCISE OVERVIEW
The agenda of the Opening Meeting is generally as follows:
Time Session Responsibility
Activity / Task
Weeks before GES event
0800 – 0815
Emergency Declaration and Review
of “Current Situation”
Representative of the National
Authority, Ministry or Agency or
Delegate with Facilitator support.
Conduct Opening Meeting 3 08:00 – 09:00
0815 – 0845 Participant Instructions Facilitator
Conduct GES Exercise 09:00 – 17:00
0855 – 0900 Wrap-up
Representative of the National
Authority, Ministry or Agency or
Delegate with Facilitator support.
End GES Exercise 17:00
Review Quality of Expected Outputs 17:00 – 18:00
Hold “End of Exercise” Meeting with the inviting
National Authority Representative
18:00 – 18:30
Prepare Debriefing Sessions 18:30 – ??
CONDUCT
THE
OPENING MEETING
The purpose of the hour-long Opening Meeting is threefold:
• To have the principal Authority or his/her delegate declares the emergency.
In some cases part of the exercise may be to examine the decision-making
capacity leading up to a disaster. In this case the declaration of an emergency
will only take place once the appropriate participants declare as such.
• To have a member of the facilitation team present the GES exercise instructions
to the various participants.
Refer to Annex B.01. on Page 75 for detailed guidance on running the
Opening Meeting.
3 There may be some GES events where the Hosting Department wishes to hold the Opening Meeting in the afternoon or evening before the day of the exercise
because of scheduling issues or simply to give the participants more time to reflect on the scenario and prepare their emergency responses. This is an option
that can and should be discussed with the Hosting Department.
CONDUCT GES EXERCISE
BEST PRACTICES
During the simulation exercise, move around as much as possible and try to
observe participants in action: Be sure to:
• Note any meetings called by participants and dispatch a facilitation team
member to attend them.
• Record participant responses to information requests or other assigned tasks.
• Print copies of “expected output” documents submitted by participants.
Refer to the Annexes B.02 - Annex B.04 on Page 79 - 86 for detailed
guidance on conducting the GES Exercise.
To keep the GES event interesting for all facilitation team members, you should probably rotate some of the more
interesting tasks during the exercise day (such as attending participant coordination meetings or visiting participating
authority offices to observe participant actions), and share the various session facilitation duties during
the debriefing workshop.
Bear in mind that there are some “less interesting” GES tasks which must be carried out at specific times of the
day: in particular, the job of sending e-mails from the SAC office at specific times and logging participant responses
to assigned tasks. Ideally one facilitator, seated at the SAC computer, would bear responsibility for these
tasks to ensure one person has a clear view of the general progress of the exercise.
In reality, this may be quite a burden for one facilitator to sit at the computer the whole day.. If you decide to
share these tasks, then it would be advisable to decide in advance and assign to each facilitator is a specific period
of time (e.g. 1 ½ to 2 hour periods) to be covered. In this way, each facilitator knows when s/he should be at the
SAC computer with responsibility for message traffic.