Communication is Central

During the month of September, the federal government encourages all families and businesses to review their disaster plans. What will do in case of an emergency?

The site, www.ready.gov, has lots of helpful information that will help you prepare for unexpected events. It has sections for kids, businesses, and America's families in general. We encourage you to visit the site for helpful print outs and worksheets that you can use to organize information and plan to keep your family safe.

Under the business section, owners and managers will find lots of information to help their employees prepare and know what to do. The first advice on the Web site – Communication is central! Here’s what it says:

Two-way communication is central before, during and after a disaster.

• Include emergency preparedness information in newsletters, on company intranet, periodic employee emails and other internal communications tools.
• Consider setting up a telephone calling tree, a password-protected page on the company Web site, an email alert or a call-in voice recording to communicate with employees in an emergency.

(from http://www.ready.gov/business/plan/emerplanning.html)

Communications Made Easy is the perfect solution for following this advice!! We serve as the crucial link between owners and managers and employees in emergency and disaster situations. We will be your calling tree, set up your e-mail alert, and display important information on specially-designed and secure webpage for your convenience.

We know employers aren’t thinking about how to carry out these important tasks during an emergency – but we are. Call us today and we can help you implement an emergency communication plan for your business!

Communications Made Easy Just Right For Schools

Elementary, middle school, and high school teachers and administrators know that parents trust their kids to them every school day. So, a significant part their responsibilities involves communicating with parents, keeping them informed of school activities, student performance, safety issues, school closings, and a variety of other issues.

Schools frequently use newsletters or send notes home, and many have Web sites to provide parents with another resource for keeping up-to-date on school activities. Those are great tools, but they mostly require the parent to take the initiative to read them. When schools have important information that they need to distribute quickly and make sure parents read, they need a more proactive, dynamic form of communication.

School officials can really benefit from having the ability to send e-mails, text messages, phone calls, and keep a Web site updated simultaneously with one simple action. With the services provided by Communications Made Easy, schools can really enhance the way they communication with parents.

• Teachers can inform parents of upcoming tests or projects so parents can ensure their students are ready.
• Administrators can remind parents of upcoming school board meetings, PTA events, curriculum nights, parent/teacher’s conferences, and other activities that will encourage parents to get involved in education
• Teachers can send notes about items that should be brought to school for a special event or project.
• Administrators can send an instant message about school closings and early dismissals due to weather or other unexpected events.
• Bus services can send out an immediate announcement about a possible delay in picking up or dropping off children.
• School nurses can advise parents about health and immunization records that need to be kept current.

One of the greatest things about using Communications Made Easy is its easy and flexible application. It was designed to fit a variety of needs and to grow with users as they find more ways to implement it. With scalable features and affordable pricing, teachers and school administrators can use it when instant communication is critical, or when it’s simply a convenience that will save them time and effort.

Implementing An Emergency Broadcast System On College Campuses

We’ve all been touched by several school shootings in recent years, and safety college and university campuses is always on the minds of administrators, educators, parents, and students. With today’s technology, it’s possible to get emergency information out to students and faculty within minutes of a threatening event. Officials can give life-saving instructions to thousands on campus with one simple phone call or e-mail.

The Jeanne Clery Act is federal legislation that requires college and universities to disclose information about crime on campus and the surrounding neighborhoods. It is named for university freshman student, Jeanne Clery, who was sexually assaulted and murdered in her residence hall room in 1986.

The legislation was amended this year to require all college and university campuses in the U.S. to have in their written safety plan, a description of their emergency broadcast communication system and specific procedures. Administrators and security staff must specifically explain how they plan to communicate with their students in the event of an emergency.

A calling tree by phone is not efficient and will not be timely.

E-mail may be an option, but it won’t effectively reach enough people by itself.

Text messaging may be possible, but distributing it to thousands in a timely manner is challenging.

Posting an announcement on your Web site will take time that you don’t have and only inform people who log on to your site at that particular moment.

But put all four of these together simultaneously, and you have one powerful emergency broadcast system. You will reach as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.

By making Communications Made Easy an integral part of your campus safety plan, you will have a reliable emergency broadcast system that is accessible 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. Our services make it easy to comply with the new amendments to the Clery Law and give students and faculty the peace of mind to know that they will have the information they need to protect themselves a campus emergency.

We urge you to contact us today to find out more about our services and affordable plans.

Deliver Your Message with Communications Made EasyTM

Communication is the one thing you do every day that connects you to your environment and the people around you. It impacts your routine, your relationships, and your activities. You rely on communication for almost everything.

The ability to communicate with others is a basic element of life, so it’s no surprise that civilizations have, over the years, developed a number of different ways to deliver their messages to the people who needed to hear them. Just look at how message delivery has evolved in the United States alone:

• Telegraph & Morse code – first used in the United States in 1837
• Pony Express - from April 3, 1860 until October, 1861
• Telephone – the first successful use is commonly attributed to Alexander Graham Bell in July 1875 (although this has been disputed)
• Fax machines – the forerunner of today’s fax machine was introduced in 1924, although machines that used a computer fax board weren’t developed until 1985
• E-mail – the concept was first demonstrated at MIT in 1961; it was between users of a mainframe computer in 1965; and the “@” symbol was introduced in 1971
• Cell phones – in the United States, the FCC approved the first mobile phone in 1983
• Text messaging - The first commercial SMS message was sent in the United Kingdom on December 3, 1992. Today, about 40% of the United States’ 220 million mobile phone users send text messages regularly, according to research from NPD Group.

Technology has definitely evolved to help us keep pace with the fast moving world around us. And with this fast pace comes the need to get your message out quickly and easily so it reaches your audience in a convenient, timely manner. You certainly don’t have time to tap out dots and dashes anymore!

Communications Made Easy^TM is a communications firm that combines technology with expediency. We understand that many people hold positions or have responsibilities that require them to have a quick and easy way get their message to a large number of people at any given time. So, we’ve developed an easy-to-use and dependable method to help you do just that.

Schools, universities, organizations, employers, clubs, coaches, event organizers – whoever is in charge of communicating with a group of people – can partner with Communications Made Easy^TM to get their message out. Simply go to one Web site, or make one phone call, and you’re message will be distributed as soon as you need it.

Leverage the power and wide-reaching scope of today’s technology! Visit us at www.communicationsmadeeasy.com.

*Note: Dates listed above are from Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.com.