Online Preparedness Exercise Databases

Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard “Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council” magazine by CDR Jane Wong, Chief, Exercise Support and Coordination Branch, U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area.


The Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program Lessons Learned Information Sharing database allows users to share important lessons learned with the entire response community—not just the specific participants of the exercise from which the lesson was extracted. The Department of Defense (DoD) maintains a similar database, its Joint Lessons Learned System.

The Coast Guard’s Contingency Preparedness System (CPS) provides the same information sharing capability, capturing elements of the exercises conducted from the original design to the remedial actions required to correct problems identified in exercises.

In the CPS, the CGSAILS database allows Coast Guard personnel to post lessons learned and best practices to enable other units to benefit from their acquired knowledge. Units who observe a partner agency or member of their own command employing a technique or process that allows the response to proceed with greater efficiency and effectiveness can—and should—share that discovery with the rest of the response community.

Also in CPS, the Remedial Action Management Program database allows units to identify planning, funding, personnel, or equipment shortfalls.


For more information:
Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/fall2009.

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