It is the beginning of March and so far this year we have seen flooding in Queensland, Brazil and India, social unrest in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Libya and an earthquake in New Zealand.

Isaac Asimov was quoted as saying: "It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be". Whilst Greek philosopher Heraclitus, in 500BC, was attributed with saying "The only constant is change"

In our world of Business Continuity this remains as true today as it was 2500 years ago. We plan for things that we think will happen, we plan for things that we think may happen and we even plan for things that we hope will never happen, sometimes everyone is caught out, as with the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in Iceland last year. Hopefully if the Bárdarbunga volcano in Iceland follows suite this year we will be better prepared.

Each time we plan for a different scenario we are giving ourselves the best possible opportunity of successfully dealing with a situation should it arise. At the centre of everything we plan for is the safety and welfare of our people, but we also have a requirement to keep our organisations running, so (and here's the plug part), what can Scottish Continuity do that assist you in that.

We have revised our membership structure this year to include Charities, Local Authorities and other Public Sector memberships. We will be running special interest sub-Groups, general interest meetings and discussions at regular intervals throughout the year as well as our Annual Resilience Conference (jointly with the Business Continuity Institute), all of which are free to members. We are your organisation, so if there is something you would like us to do, or something you would like to be involved in let us know and we will do what we can, but in the meantime, keep planning!

NB Last month I took over the role of Chairperson to Scottish Continuity, so it is very much in my interest to make this an interesting and informative year as it can be and help ensure that we are all as prepared as we can be.

Most people (or is it just me...?) think of Twitter as way for people to let you know they're having a muffin at the airport, or that Facebook is for showing off your holiday photos from the Maldives (or Peebles, in my case!), but recently a couple of very serious events have shown the true power of Social Networking.

The first was the civil unrest currently taking place in Egypt. How were the vast crowds getting so organised? Twitter and other social networking apps seem to have played a major role. Even when the main internet feeds were cut imaginative ways were sought and achieved to keep the information flow going.

On an equally serious footing was the 21st Century thinking of the Queensland Police department in Australia. Faced with devastation and disruption due to the exceptional weather they put Facebook to good use, as I discovered reading this blog Five things we can already learn from Queensland Police use of social media by Ben Proctor. It captures the extent of the use that the Police were able to put their Facebook page to, as well as highlighting that many people automatically went looking on the internet for information, and found it! And with 600,000,000 registered users of Facebook (almost 10% of the worlds population!) it's a trend we'll see more of.

Maybe it's time you considered your organisations Facebook page in a new light.

What, you don't have one?! I'm sure you will after reading the above blog!!

And it certainly has been snowing! I'll need to be careful what I write today, as it seems my last post was on the money in predicting the wintery weather conditions! Plus it has come to pass that the authorities have again been pilloried for not being prepared, in spite of a record investment in grit and planning for these very conditions. Personally I think that the severity of the conditions has made the criticisms a little unfair and I think that overall the response has been reasonable (or not? Leave a comment to let me know if you agree!).

In the meantime we have hosted the Resilient Scotland Conference, and all of the sponsoring companies did us proud with the support and facilities they provided. In addition I must thank all of the presentors for doing a fantastic job in delivering their messages in an entertaining but informative way. I learned a few things along the way, so it just shows that old dogs can learn new tricks! Of course, behind the scenes there was a lot of work carried out by a lot of people to ensure the success of the day, so thanks to all of them, too. Most importantly, a big thank you to all of you who attended on the day - it would not have been the success it was if you had not taken the time to attend, and I know that some of you had some way to travel. There are some photographs of the day on the 'News and Events' page (follow the link at the top right hand side of the page) so why not refresh your memories of the day by taking a look?

I hope the weather relaxes its grip by the time I next write in this blog (or perhaps one of my colleagues has something to say?), but in the meantime why not drop me a comment with a question or observation, and we'll do our best to get a discussion going?

Anyone that has been involved with Scottish Continuity for any length of time will know that we are not just interested in creating resilient businesses in isolation, but that we are trying to establish "Resilient Communities". Indeed, it was the realisation that a business was only as strong as the supply chain that keeps it going that led to the founder members starting Scottish Continuity back in 1995 - in anticipation  of the Millennium Bug biting!

It was reading a report earlier today about the readiness of councils in England and Wales to weather the winter (pun intended, I'm afraid!) that prompted this blog. It seems that a number of councils were caught out by the severity of the weather last winter, and ran out of salt for the roads as a result. Commendably 78% of those surveyed therefore planned to increase their stocks for this winter and placed orders with suppliers accordingly.

Unfortunately 18% of those had still not received all of the ordered supplies by the 1st of October. Luckily we've had a mild start to the winter so far, but for how long? They've been let down by their suppliers, and their plans are now compromised if the winter weather closes in. Could your suppliers be your "weakest link"?

I'm sure that most of you reading this will have a Business Continuity Plan, and I'm sure that due diligence was carried out on your suppliers to ensure that they all had one too (didn't you?). But remember - a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Your plans should include options to help you ride out any failures in your business community.

Easy to say, but where do you start? That's why we're here - to help you become aware of the issues and plan accordingly. A good starting point would be attending the Resilient Scotland event we are hosting on the 23rd November (see event page). I hope I'll see you there!

Feel free to comment by following the 'Comment' link below 

What is 'By The Board'? It's primarily a blog for members of the Board to post comments, insights and observations on current or past events - anything that might be used to make a point or start a discussion about Business Continuity issues or practices. Don't get me wrong, it wont be a soap box to preach from, and we will probably raise as many questions as answers. Hopefully we will be informative, interesting and, at times amusing. After all, we want you to come and visit us again! If there is a topic you would like addressed, or a question answered - or even if you just want to make a point yourself, please feel free to leave a comment. We're more than happy to make this an area where you feel happy to join in!

Just before I go, a quick reminder about the Resilient Scotland event on 22nd November at the Royal Bank of Scotland Global Headquarters - this is an event that should be of interest to anyone involved in planning how to keep a business going when the unexpected happens. There are some great speakers lined up, and an interesting afternoon guaranteed, so I look forward to meeting you there!