Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

DOI

10.1515/jhsem-2014-0005

Publication Title

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Volume

12

Issue

1

Pages

169-191

Abstract

Preparation for a disaster is not something that can be done by a single organization thus there is a need for coordination between them. Meetings and joint exercises are one means of coordination used by the emergency management community. Meetings and exercises take time, including transportation of personnel and arrangements, and time is money. With limited budgets, emergency managers need to make hard decisions about how their time is allocated. This paper describes a cost model for meeting analysis and discusses a case study that looks at the holistic time spent on meetings and exercises, by personnel, for the Hampton Roads Region of Virginia. A novel way is used to display this expenditure, e.g., it is shown in terms of monetary cost instead of temporal cost. This analysis highlighted some unexpected results, i.e., the small number of personnel involved in multiple working group meetings and high level of travel costs between the HR and the state capital, Richmond. This cost model approach may provide emergency managers with better mechanisms to show their meetings costs to senior leadership.

Original Publication Citation

Collins, A. J., Flanagan, D. W., & Ezell, B. (2015). Analysis of the cost of emergency managers' meeting load: A Hampton Road case-study. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 12(1), 169-191. doi:10.1515/jhsem-2014-0005

ORCID

0000-0003-4274-908X (Ezell)

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