5.1. Communications During a Crisis

The WG2015 as a ma­jor event  is at risk  by fac­tors as­so­ci­ated with large crowds (eg. lo­gis­tics, tech­nol­ogy fail­ure / net­work con­ges­tion, safety, ac­ci­dents, weather). Pre­par­ing be­fore­hand and find­ing out in ad­vance of pos­si­ble risk fac­tors is im­por­tant. There are many po­ten­tial cri­sis sit­u­a­tions that can be avoided. If a crises hap­pens, a cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­tion plan has been cre­ated, which pro­vides guide­lines to be able to op­er­ate in a con­sis­tent man­ner.

In­struc­tions for vol­un­teers to al­ways fol­low – even not dur­ing a cri­sis:

• Be­fore the start of your work-shift, learn the cri­sis pro­ce­dures in or­der to be pre­pared.
• In­form your team leader when a cri­sis sit­u­a­tion nearly hap­pened. The team leader will as­sess the sit­u­a­tion and plan pos­si­ble so­lu­tions to be used. And if nec­es­sary, trans­mit these to the ones or­gan­is­ing the event, in or­der for the sit­u­a­tions not to hap­pen and elim­i­nate the risks.
• In a cri­sis, it is vi­tal that the ac­cu­rate facts about the in­ci­dent reach the fes­ti­val or­gan­i­sa­tion.

In­struc­tions for vol­un­teers dur­ing an cri­sis:

• If a cri­sis has oc­curred, it’s im­por­tant to ad­here to the agreed chains of com­mand for cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­tion: The com­mu­ni­ca­tion is done ac­cord­ing to the vol­un­tary com­mand di­a­gram, in ad­di­tion to an ac­ci­dent scene the pro­fes­sional help shall be alerted as soon as pos­si­ble.

For more in­for­ma­tion and in­struc­tions:

• Your team leader is the pri­mary source of in­for­ma­tion dur­ing a cri­sis sit­u­a­tion.
• Fur­ther­more, vol­un­teers will re­ceive in­for­ma­tion about the sit­u­a­tion by text mes­sage, e-mail, on the event’s screens or at the WG2015’s web­page.
• The vol­un­teers Face­book group – Gym­naestrada 2015 Vol­un­teers – Vol­un­teers – will be used dur­ing a cri­sis, to com­mu­ni­cate be­tween vol­un­teers and staff.
• All com­mu­ni­ca­tions dur­ing a cri­sis the Sec­re­tary Gen­eral Maria Laakso shall be in charge. No other than the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Re­spon­si­ble can com­ment on what has caused the cri­sis.
• Fol­low this in­struc­tions and try to calm-down from the sit­u­a­tion, to calm those around you by for ex­am­ple find­ing out more in­for­ma­tion and in­struc­tions from the fes­ti­val or­gan­is­ers.

So­cial me­dia is also uti­lized in cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­tions sup­port:

#iamOK_WG2015 and #kaik­ki­kun­nos­sa_WG2015