"There are just a few of us, but we are all important": responses to a disaster preparedness survey in Interior Alaska river villages

Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015This survey explores individual perspectives about disaster preparedness in Interior Alaska villages. The results will be used to create a new, locally relevant preparedness outreach flyer for distribution across the Interior Alaska region. Modern Red Cross preparedness fliers use the "Be Red Cross Ready: Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Informed," flyer to educate people on useful preparedness behavior. This is also the standard across the United States used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government agencies. But is the information contained within the "Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Informed" flyer really applicable to life in small, remote, Alaskan communities? Many of these communities are highly isolated according to the standards applied to the rest of the country: they experience often-extreme environmental conditions, and are composed of indigenous people who have their own worldview and concept of risk and community values. In order to effectively prepare people in villages for disasters, everything must be reconsidered to fit this Alaskan setting. Key findings from this survey project include: the importance of outdoor survival gear and cold-weather gear in emergency kits; the need for more written small community emergency plans; and the need for cultural competency training for disaster response professionals and volunteers

Coopetition (Contemporaneous Cooperation and Competition) Among Nonprofit Arts Organizations: The Case of Symphony Orchestras

Coopetition was formalized as a strategic management concept in the early 1990s by Ray Noorda, CEO of Novell, who coined the term and proposed that often, in order to achieve growth in an organization or industry, You have to cooperate and compete at the same time (Davis 1993). Although the individual ideas of cooperation and competition in the business environment have been well-established for some time, the formal idea of contemporaneous cooperation and competition, or cooperation among competitors, is relatively new in business and academic literature. Why is this hybrid concept important? The literature to date on coopetition and its antecedents suggests that they constitute a phenomenon that extends beyond the individual paradoxical constructs of competition and cooperation (Chen 2002). In a business environment that has historically stressed competitive advantage, the assertion that the best strategy often has multiple winners is a powerful one (Brandenburger and Nalebuff 1996). This research expands the concept of coopetition to an area in which it has not yet been studied: the nonprofit arts sector. It provides a comprehensive literature review, a posited model of coopetition and related hypotheses, and two proposed studies: a qualitative exploratory study to examine coopetition in the nonprofit arts setting, and a quantitative study to empirically assess the model and hypotheses. Contributions of this research include: (1) an in-depth literature review of the first ten years of theoretical and empirical research on the concept of coopetition, (2) a literature review of the concepts of competition and cooperation in the context of the nonprofit arts environment, (3) presentation of a conceptual framework of coopetition in the nonprofit arts environment and related hypotheses based on the literature, and (4) qualitative and quantitative studies of the concept of coopetition in a nonprofit arts setting and a resulting understanding of how nonprofit arts coopetition in artistic, operational, marketing, and fund development contexts has the potential to impact organizational improvement in terms of participant organizational financial performance and organizational effectiveness. From an academic standpoint, this research adds to the literature in the areas of nonprofit marketing/management and coopetition/strategic management. From a nonprofit arts management and marketing standpoint, the qualitative and quantitative studies indicate that the range of potential strategic and tactical options for achieving organizational improvement is broader than traditionally contemplated, with opportunities that can be envisioned and leveraged through coopetition

Emergency Preparedness: Knowledge and Perceptions of Latin American Immigrants

This paper describes the level of public emergency knowledge and perceptions of risks among Latin American immigrants, and their preferred and actual sources of emergency preparedness information (including warning signals). Five Latino community member focus groups, and one focus group of community health workers, were conducted in a suburban county of Washington D.C. (N51). Participants came from 13 Latin American countries, and 64.7% immigrated during the previous five years. Participants had difficulty defining emergency and reported a wide range of perceived personal emergency risks: immigration problems; crime, personal insecurity, gangs; home/traffic accidents; home fires; environmental problems; and snipers. As in previous studies, few participants had received information on emergency preparedness, and most did not have an emergency plan. Findings regarding key messages and motivating factors can be used to develop clear, prioritized messages for communication regarding emergencies and emergency preparedness for Latin American immigrant communities in the U.S

Daily Eastern News: October 23, 1989

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/den_1989_oct/1015/thumbnail.jp