Facilitator Guide

• 145 pages
• For Official Use Only
• August 2008

1. INTRODUCTION

The Situation Manual (SITMAN) with Facilitator notes provides guidance in conducting the Determined Accord influenza pandemic tabletop exercise (TTX). This guide is for “Facilitator Use Only” and provides more detailed information on the guidelines for conduct of the TTX, as well as the exercise objectives, scenario, and discussion topics.

2. EXERCISE GOAL

The goal of Exercise Determined Accord is to increase Federal Executive Branch Department and Agency, State, territorial, tribal, and local jurisdictional continuity readiness for a pandemic event; to mitigate vulnerabilities during an influenza pandemic outbreak; and to identify gaps or weaknesses in pandemic planning and in organization Continuity plans, policies, and procedures.

3. OBJECTIVES

The following TTX objectives support the overall exercise goal:

4. EXERCISE STRUCTURE

Exercise Determined Accord will be moderated by trained facilitators. Group discussion will be focused on an influenza pandemic scenario that continues to unfold over the course of the exercise. To begin the exercise, the Facilitator will present the initial welcome and introductory remarks followed by a brief overview of the tabletop exercise format and a lead-in to the exercise scenario. This will be followed by a facilitated discussion of issues resulting from the events presented in the scenario. Following the exercise, a hot wash is conducted to capture key observations and issues raised during the discussions. The TTX discussions allow the participants to address continuity planning and program requirements with other government agencies, and will help develop organization and interagency continuity lines of communication. Events will take place during all six Federal Government Response Stages, as defined in the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan, May 2006 (see table 2). Facilitators will focus player discussions on sets of issues relevant to the organizational challenges that would be encountered during each phase. A separate Train-the-Trainer module is added at the conclusion of the TTX to help guide participants in their follow-on presentations to other groups.

Share this: