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--></style></head><body bgcolor="white" lang="EN-AU" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">I couldn't agree more with this point that Matt has made.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">When I think back to January 2011 and the Brisbane floods I know of a number of staff from some organisations helped others from their competition whom were in strife in some way or another. Most technical staff do drop the competition boundaries a bit faster but we also had staff from all other parts of the businesses helping too. This was a heartening sign to see and made me a little bit proud of the Brisbane community. There were also staff providing communication on behalf of other organisations outside the official channels which allowed many people to pre-empt problematic power/buildings/connectivity etc.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">If people are informed they are far more understanding (and in many cases willing to help) especially in the event of natural disasters.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">I know we had to take a couple of steps to entirely re-route/reconfigure customer connectivity given the circumstances and those customer's end up being the most loyal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">All DR/contingency planning aside, It's really all just about communication and making the best decisions possible in the heat of the moment given the circumstances.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"> </span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Ryan</span></p>
</div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"> </span></p>
<div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #b5c4df 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext"> <a href="mailto:ausnog-bounces@lists.ausnog.net">ausnog-bounces@lists.ausnog.net</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:ausnog-bounces@lists.ausnog.net">ausnog-bounces@lists.ausnog.net</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Matt Perkins<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, 2 November 2012 1:38 PM<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:ausnog@lists.ausnog.net">ausnog@lists.ausnog.net</a><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [AusNOG] After Sandy Knocks Out Power, ... (<a href="http://huffingtonpost.com">huffingtonpost.com</a>)</span></p>
</div></div><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><div><p class="MsoNormal">To my mind the win by these guys is not that they were or were prepared for every occurrence or that they did what needed to be done to keep it on line. All admirable. But the real win here was that they keep the communication lines open with their customers.<br>
<br> There was no ducking and weaving the problem. The end result was they communicated the situation and that allowed some customers to help (in the way of providing the bucket brigade). The lesson we can all learn here and i have said it before. Communicate with your customers. Dont Lie. Dont cover up. Unless you have been grossly negligent being transparent and giving the customers good timely information they will normaly forgive you. <br>
<br>Matt.<br><br><br><br></p></div></div></body></html>