Bobby was not having a good day. He had started the morning by oversleeping and had clocked in 15 minutes late. Rushing through the mailroom doors, Bobby splashed coffee from his cup into a full cart of mail someone had left standing close by the door. Only heroic blotting kept him from ruining a couple of dozen incoming envelopes. It looked like important stuff, too. As he hurriedly gathered the mail and scooped it out of the cart, one of the thick yellow envelopes slipped from his hand and fell to the floor, exploding into a cloud of white powder over the mail cart. “Ooof” was the noise Bobby made as he puffed all the air out of his lungs, mouth, and nose while backing away from the cart and out the mailroom door. Having just gone through the refresher training for emergency procedures in the mailroom, he knew to exhale quickly and get out as rapidly as possible. Everyone else in the mail- room did the same; this was the exact maneuver the team had rehearsed just a week before. Exhale, exit, and hit the big red button that turns off the ventilators to the room and sets off the emergency alarm. Bobby stopped once he got out in the hallway and waited, with the rest of the mailroom team, for the turmoil he knew would follow. Two hours later, Alan Hake, CEO of HAL, sat with his incident team at the coffee shop across the street. As outlined in the incident response (IR) plan, the team con- sisted of COO Richard Xavier, CFO Rachel Xieng, CIO Amanda Wilson, plus Roberta Briscoe, manager of corporate security, and Pantoja Martina, supervisor of the administrative staff and the mailroom. They were reviewing the response plan in place for contaminated mail, along with the supporting DR and BC plans, when a man in a fireman’s dress uniform walked up to their table and said, “Hi. I am Deputy Fire Chief Corbett. Are you the folks from HAL?” “Yes,” said Alan. “Please, have a seat.” He gestured to an empty chair at their impromptu conference table. Deputy Chief Corbett sat down and said, “The field test, within its limited test range, shows that the white powder in the mailroom is not a pathogen or a contaminant. We sent a sample to the forensics lab, and they are expediting processing. We should have an answer back by 2:00 p.m.” Alan and the team had watched the deputy chief carefully as he spoke. Now, they relaxed a little. “What about the mailroom staff?” Alan asked. “What’s their status?” “They seem none the worse for wear,” Deputy Chief Corbett replied. “We isolated them and ran them through the standard biochemical decontamination protocol. Not very pleasant, nor a very modest activity, but the team is clean and dry and standing by in isolation suits waiting for the final lab results. If they were contaminated, we can’t do any more until we know what the contaminant is.” He smiled and then added, “I suggest a long lunch while you to make your plans. If the test comes back with a contaminant, your office space will probably be off- limits for three to four weeks—maybe longer.” Deputy Chief Corbett stood up and returned to the command vehicle that was parked in the street outside the office building. Alan breathed a sigh of relief, then flipped open his master contingency planning binder. “At least we don’t have to make up a plan,” he said. “Let’s review our next steps in case our offices are closed for the next month.” in case our offices are closed for the next month.” Discussion Questions 1. What other crises or catastrophes can happen in a mailroom that could prompt an emergency procedure like the one illustrated here? 2. What goals should be included when planning for the resumption of critical busi- ness functions at an alternate site for four weeks? What would be different if the planning horizon were 30 weeks instead? 3. When the organization makes a plan like the one described here, what parts of the plan should be from the contingency planning management team (CPMT) and what parts should come from the subject area experts?