Are you ready?

Happy National Preparedness Month!

This month's motto: Prepare for Disaster...Recover Faster! As many of you may know, September is National Preparedness month - an opportunity to focus on preparing your family and business to survive and withstand a natural or man-made disaster. There are so many free resources out there I won't try to direct you to all of them - just two! First, www.ready.gov, FEMA's official outreach for the month, has numerous resources for your family and business. The American Red Cross also has the Ready Rating program, which will walk you through an assessment of your readiness and steps to be more prepared. While we're busy fighting the cyber and physical attackers...let's not forget the flood outside!! You may also have heard through our Facebook page or our newsletter that the Office of Infrastructure Protection, within the Department of Homeland Security's National Protection and Programs Directorate, is partnering with InfraGard National Capital Region (InfraGardNCR) to promote National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month NCISRM). A number of you have been involved in the planning for our activities in November (we always need more folks), and we have already started our outreach with our sector chiefs, a Facebook page we encourage you to "like," and a new website that we will be launching soon. In November, we will be highlighting four themes related to critical infrastructure security and resilience:

Week 1: Our connected infrastructure - Cyber and physical interdependence
Week 2: Hometown Security - "Connect, Plan, Train, Report"
Week 3: Partnering with the public and private sectors to build resilience
Week 4: Fostering innovation and investment in resilient infrastructure

If you'd like to engage with us to bring these topics to life, please reach out. We are on track to host one of the meaningful exchanges of information on critical infrastructure in the nation. We want you there, and we want your leadership. Learn more about NCISRM here. Finally, I ask you to mark your calendars for the evening of October 20th for a President's Reception to thank you for your service, provide an opportunity for you to hear about what we discussed at InfraGard's National Congress, and network with others who have made our chapter one of the best in the nation. Make it a spectacular week. Kristina Tanasichuk President, InfraGardNCR