April 26, 2018

BARC Planning gets easier while attracting special attention

The Business, Academic, and Research Continuity (BARC) program at the University of Washington is not new. Some of the tools available to help UW departments complete this (sometimes overwhelming) task are!

Megan Levy of Emergency Management continues to create a monthly task for departments and schools working to complete their BARC plan – often referred to as their “Husky Ready” plan, referencing the online tool used to document it. These step-by-step directions can be found in a previous blog post, Build Your Plan in A Year, which will be continually updated when each step is published.

Something else quite “new” for the BARC program is the opportunity to engage senior leadership in recovery-focused discussion. This first-of-its-kind tabletop exercise was facilitated by UWEM earlier this month: UW Senior Leadership Test Recover Plans.

Our records show that at the end of January, 2018 only 21% of UW departments had begun their BARC plan in Husky Ready. Moreover, only 32% of those plans had been updated within the past year! While this paints an ugly compliance picture, UWEM is confident that with the support of senior leadership, and additional “how-to” resources, these numbers will increase in no time.

As always, if you need support during your continuity planning process, please reach out to BARC Program Manager, Megan Levy (levym2@uw.edu).