Model Agency 411

As victims of Hurricane Katrina and other recent disasters have found, when you have to function after a major disaster, not having your emergency contact or medical information with you and accessible can have disastrous results.

Step one is to fill out an emergency contact form for every member of your family. Be sure to include any relatives who are dependent upon you for their safety — parents, grandparents or those who are physically or mentally challenged. Even if you have a family member under care in a nursing home or a child away at school, this doesn’t mean their emergency information will be readily available.

If you don’t have one, an adult and children’s version can be downloaded free from our web site. Once you fill out an emergency contact form for each member of your immediate family, the next question is where to put it.

Make a few copies of each form and place a set in a few easy to reach places. First, place one set in a plastic zipper bag, to keep them dry and dust free and put it in a location near your home phone, either in a drawer under the phone, in a kitchen drawer, or a writing desk in the vicinity. Another idea is to put the information into a water tight container, like a plastic bottle and put it in your freezer. Even after the force of Hurricane Katrina, many times the only thing still in tact in a badly damaged home, is the refrigerator!

If the contact information is not easy to find, put a note where ever your emergency numbers are located (by the phone or on the refrigerator) where the information can be located.

Place a copy of your children’s form in their school record, day care record or with your child’s caregiver.

The tiny emergency forms sent out to parent’s at the beginning of the school year are rarely returned and even if they are, have so little information on them, they can be useless. Make sure the information you want the school to have is at their fingertips.

Place a set with your main emergency contact - a nearby relative or close friend. That way, if they are called in an emergency, they will be able to give a hospital the information they need to save your and your families lives.

You can also place an electronic copy of these forms in your and your spouses personnel record or file drawer in case of emergency on the job. Also place a copy in your computer or PDA, in case you need the information while you’re away from the house. Emergencies can rattle the best of us, and the phone number or facts you know by heart are the very ones that will elude you when you need them most!

As the “Make Your Family Safer in 15 Minutes or Less Action Plan” says, always make one of your emergency contacts an out of state relative or friend. In case of a regional emergency, you can often call long distance, even though you can’t call locally. A distant friend can be a touch point for the entire family until communication is restored. Don’t forget to ask the people you want to use as contacts, for their permission to use them. Some people might not feel comfortable having to be relied upon in an emergency and it’s better to know that now!

For a free downloadable copy of the MFS Action Plan and for free emergency contact forms, and other disaster information, go to our web site www.nokep.org.

Laura and Janet Greenwald, are the founders of The Next of Kin Education Project. To download a free copy of these Emergency Tips or for more information go to: http://www.nokep.org

No matter what kind of neighborhood you call home, it is important to evaluate your home with security in mind, and to determine just how attractive your home would be to a thief. It is important to evaluate the following aspects of your home when gauging the need for a home security or home alarm system.

Could a thief get close to your home without being seen?

This is perhaps the most important thing to evaluate when looking at home security. In the home security world, this is sometimes called the “sneak factor”. Could a thief quietly approach your home in the dark of night, without drawing the attention of the neighbors, your dog, or passing motorists? If the answer to this question is yes, it is important to take steps to correct the situation.

Often the simplest and most cost effective solution is to install bright lighting around the exterior of the home in order to eliminate those dark areas where criminals could hide. The addition of a simple dusk to dawn lighting system can do wonders to improve the security of any home.

It is also important to evaluate other exterior aspects of the home, such as shrubs, trees and bushes. It is important to look critically at all elements of the exterior landscape, paying careful attention to anything that could provide a hiding place for a burglar or other criminal.

Get to know the neighbors

One of the easiest and most often overlooked parts of home security has to do with the role of neighbors. Home security can be as simple as an agreement between next door neighbors to keep an eye on one another’s home while they are away. If you do not already know your neighbors, now might be a good time to introduce yourself. You do not have to form a full fledged neighborhood watch in order to have a safe neighborhood. A community full of neighbors watching out for one another can be one of the most effective crime deterrents of all.

Doors and windows

The two primary access points into any home, of course, are the doors and windows. There are many ways to secure windows, from simple locking shutters to full fledged bars on the windows. The type of window defense you employ will depend on the crime rate of your neighborhood and on the specific threats you face, but securing the windows is one of the most important aspects of home security. No matter what window security system you choose, however, it is important that it be easy to unlock by the homeowner in the event of fire or other emergency.

The doors are another important part of home security, and the most important thing, of course, is to keep them locked at all times. A surprising number of people fail to take this simple step, but it is important to install a good strong lock, like a deadbolt, and to use that lock consistently.

Brooke Sikula is a freelance writer based in Ventura, CA and writes on a wide range of topics from home improvement to credit repair and everything in between. She is a regular contributor to http://www.home-improvement4u.com and http://www.get-home-improvement.com For more information and advice on home security, check out http://www.home-security4u.com

What do the following industries have in common?

Law enforcement

Legal industries

Government

Banking

Health care

Financial service (brokerage)

Entertainment

Technology

Manufacturing industries

The answer: the above-mentioned industries regard information as a very important aspect of their operations. They are information-sensitive - they have a need to ensure that important and confidential data are secured and protected at all times.

What data are considered classified? Some are listed below:

Disbursement records (Wages, etc.)

Accounts records (financial statements such as the balance sheet, etc.)

Sales receipts

Bank records

Social Security records

Business letters

Customer information

Personnel records

Computer printouts

Computer discs or tapes

Why is there a need to protect such data? Industries are in constant danger of having such sensitive information to ‘fall into the wrong hands’ - people that are out to inflict damage, such as a discontented employee or a competitor, which could result to either of the following:

Bad publicity

Humiliation

Loss of staff or key personnel (probably to a competitor)

Loss of customers

Loss of job or running out of business

A possible indictment

This is why every information-sensitive industry needs a proper and secure records storage and management. However, such course of action usually requires much room (think of all those years’ worth of papers and electronic tapes piling up); it also incurs high costs. In addition, there will also come a time when the company will need to purge itself of the age-old materials. But these outdated materials will still be sensitive, and throwing away classified documents in a wastebasket will not do the trick - they can still be collected and sorted out, the information still made available to whoever would want them.

There is a truly a great need for a secure disposal of sensitive data, and an effective solution to this crucial aspect of an industry is document shredding.

Document shredding is a safe and secure option for discarding restricted documents and materials. In document shredding, sensitive files and records are destroyed, turning them into bits that can no longer be recognized; thereby ensuring that confidentiality is maintained.

The document shredding process is entirely flexible that it can adapt to any industry’s distinct requirements in destroying sensitive records. Depending on what would suit it’s needs, a company can either purchase it’s own document shredder or employ outsourced document shredding services, who can then perform the document shredding process on-site or off-site.

On-site document shredding provides industries with the opportunity to observe the actual shredding of their materials ‘on site’, right at their doorsteps. The use of mobile shredding vehicles and equipment will especially fit those who do not want their records to leave their site intact.

In an off-site document shredding, the document-shredding company collects the materials in security containers and hauls them in a safe location that may be monitored by security cameras where they are destroyed into little pieces. Aside from the surveillance cameras, industries can also send representatives to personally observe the actual document shredding process.

Once the classified records are destroyed in a proper and secure manner, the document shredding company will then provide its client with a “Certificate of Destruction,” which notes the date and time as well as the accounting of the materials shredded. This not only serves as a proof that the documents were destroyed properly; it also gives the client the necessary data for an audit trail.

There are many advantages in making use of the services of an outside document shredding company:

A document shredding service enables the company to save thousands of dollars by not having to buy a document shredding equipment and not having to worry of the depreciation as well as the maintenance costs.

A document shredding service also enables the company to save in terms of labor. Employees would not need to spend hours to do the document shredding. Employees can spend the time more effectively by doing their own jobs.

A document shredding company also helps the environment by recycling. Recycling is the final step in almost all the document shredding process. The shredded materials are collected and, through baling and/or pulping, can be used again to form other items such as boxes and copier papers, among others.

We cannot deny that protecting the interests of a company remains a crucial phase of every business, especially in this age of information. And with document shredding, we are not only securing an industry’s information, we are also helping the environment - a win-win solution.

For more great document shredding info and advice check out: http://www.shreddingstop.com

Home security is more important today than ever. You may have even considered Kevlar Sheets for your home or car. They are available and there are some companies who specialize in these things. The military uses them in Humvees and other vehicles. In the Vietnam War the spotter planes and helicopter pilots would put bullet-proof vests on the floor boards since the AK-47 rounds would come up thru the aluminum and kill pilots. Without getting too dramatic you might wish to employ the same strategy in your home.

Carbon Kevlar sheeting can be placed in walls in certain safe rooms to protect you and your family. You can put them in the ceiling so when Cinco de Mayo comes around and everyone is firing guns into the air no stray bullets will come thru your roof and kill you while you sleep; like you can sleep anyway with a bunch of drunken, mariachi playing, pinata cracking, loud yelling folks are having an all-night party anyway? Don’t laugh you know what I am saying here. If you have a two-story you might wish to put them in the floor boards in kids rooms; perhaps in the walls of the master bedroom. You can purchase these sheets on the Internet; here is one company we found:

http://www.geminicomposites.com/products/kevlarsheet.html

Another major important thing to have is a good alarm system, one which you can rely on to give you those precious moments you need to get the family into a safe protected room and for you to lock and load and go hunt yourself down some soon to be dead burglars. Think about home safety, alarms, Kevlar and a good weapon to take out the evil do’ers who have invaded your family’s domain.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/