Project White Horse Forum

  By Captain Charlie Meinema Tacoma Washington Police Department   Disasters may be local, but few are.  Even local disasters are not local, as Yogi Berra might say.   This is often because criminals, explosions, terrorists and fires fail to respect jurisdictional borders, and / or because the crisis – even if inside one geographical or […]

The goal of emergency and crisis response is to reduce output variability in a context in which inputs are highly variable; to that end, crisis response is, in part, about creating an orderly arena within a chaotic environment. … research on High Reliability Organizations (HROs) has suggested that some complex, hazard-managing organizations, for which failure is […]

Culture:  The sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. Culture is transmitted, through language, material objects, ritual, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next. In our case groups of people who defy being victims, those who realize survival is an ongoing team process, an ongoing learning […]

I’m very pleased to announce that Project White Horse 084640 Edition #8 – A Culture of Preparedness and Intersectional Ideas  – is now on line. The last two editions have provided perspective on “resilient communities” and leadership required. In Edition #8 we shift from providing “perspective” to creating actionable understanding and answers. The first part […]

Invest in preparedness, not prediction…I will never get to know the unknown since, by definition, it is unknown. However, I can always guess how it might affect me, and I should base my decisions around that.”     The Black Swan, Nassem Nicholas Taleb   In  2001, the Defense Science Board investigated what they termed  “a revolution in […]

New York Times, 16 February, 2009—  The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is re-evaluating the largest federal program for testing the country’s ability to respond to terrorist attacks, one of several Bush administration initiatives she has ordered to come under review. PWH Chapter 1 (Part 1 of 2) The Constant Gardner http://www.projectwhitehorse.com/pdfs/B[1].%20PWH_Chapter1(1of2).pdf (From Page 11) … […]

After more than 37 years of uniform service to the U.S. army and our nation, I will spend the second half of my life committed to a new mission: Creating a “Culture of Preparedness’’ in America. Every effort I take, whether it is this new Web site, public speaking/lectures, fund-raisers, or the books I have […]

We now move to Discussion Thread 3. >> Intelligence implications for a resilient community response force team in a low probability/high impact  worst case disaster environment:   critical information – what, where and how education aimed at preventing “victimhood” planning on multiple levels being a responder not a victim building leaders AND followers – who, […]

>>  Thread #2 Intelligence meaning and usage in natural disasters with Katrina as an event example As we move further down the time line from September 11, 2001, multiple issues and events tend to push professional response organizations toward an “all hazards” approach. Those focused by agency or function speciffically on intelligence, anti-terrorism, counter-terrorism, gang […]

Original Post: 22 Feb, 2007, Updated 11 Jan, 2009 After introducing Project White Horse 084640 in October 2006 as an electronic magazine focused on decision making in unconventional-hyper complex-worst case disasters, the next step for this website was the opening of a forum for exchange of ideas. Not intended as a day-day blog, the idea […]