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Region 6 participates in annual COOP exercise

Four people working around a table
Ken Griechen, deputy regional director, Western Regions Office of Mission Assurance, Kevin Rothmier, regional commissioner, Region 6 Public Buildings Service, Angela Taylor, deputy director, Southeast & Midwest Service Center Division, Office of Human Resources Management, and Acklyn Rhodes, supervisory workplace specialist, Region 6 Office of Administrative Services, work from an alternate location June 4 to exercise the region's continuity of operations plans. Photograph by Alison Kohler

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — To test GSA’s readiness capabilities and operating procedures in the event of an emergency or natural disaster, Region 6’s Office of Mission Assurance conducted its annual continuity of operations exercise June 4.

Teams from Region 6’s workforce responsible for response and recovery missions gathered at an alternate work site to practice emergency response operations. This year’s exercise centered around an earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. The simulated scenario included power outages, facility damage, employee needs, and requests from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fulfill GSA’s Emergency Support Function 7 responsibilities.

“The exercise was successfully executed and demonstrated all phases of continuity: readiness and preparedness, activation and relocation, operations and reconstitution,” said Division Director Bobby Deitch, Western Regions Office of Mission Assurance.

Heartland Regional Administrator Michael Copeland lead the regional Senior Emergency Response Team through decision-making to solve scenario issues, with a goal of becoming more proficient when similar issues arise in real-world disasters.

“There was a lot of recognition and prime decision-making. If you've seen the problem before, you can react faster, because you've done it before,” said Deputy Regional Emergency Coordinator Zane Steves, Region 6 Office of Mission Assurance.  

The exercise injects first focused on following up on employee accountability and determining the region’s operating status, followed by injects on facility status and acquisition requests.

“Overall, I think it went really well this year. We definitely improved compared with last year. There is always a struggle with employee accountability. Once things got rolling, there were some definite improvements and really good discussion regarding policy and strategies to direct how things should proceed,” said Deputy Regional Director Ken Griechen, Western Regions Office of Mission Assurance.

GSA Region 6 participated in the exercise the same day as GSA Region 5, and participation of other partners was nixed because of real-world ongoing recovery from spring flooding and tornadoes throughout the Midwest. The Regional OMA staff planned and prepared for the New Madrid COOP exercise for several months. The OMA team also guided the practice to make it more effective.

“Zane and Ken's guidance was a strength to make sure we didn't miss anything,” said PBS Regional Commissioner Kevin Rothmier.

"GSA's Heartland Region is better prepared in the event of a real disaster or incident, and this is a credit to the efforts and leadership of RA Michael Copeland, the entire leadership team and all of the region's employees who are COOP aware,” Deitch said.

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Last updated: Mar 19, 2021
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