It’s like not wanting to start journaling because you have missed too much to know where to even begin.

#WarLift, #WarTaxi LongTabs and The Short Bus, Sirens and Tea… These are some of the sayings that illustrate that past few weeks.

A few border crossings ago I drove back into Ukraine behind the wheel of a 7 passenger van. Onboard was a Civil Affairs veteran and someone who I attended Eagle Hill with (a special education school) when we were younger, a Navy Corpsman and another veteran who went by “Glitch.” En route we stopped in the Poland countryside to pick up two additional talented individuals who brought a very specialized set of skills with them to the effort and hence my nickname “WarTaxi” was hatched as well as the Moniker Long Tabs and short bus.

*Long tabs refer to the insignia worn by Special Forces and Short Bus is a term used in jest by us special education folks to joke about the small vans and buses we use to take to school.

Thus Long Tabs and Short Bus was an apt discretion of our merry band headed back to Ukraine.

Its not about running away from things or recklessly running towards trouble. Its understanding you have a set of skills, a desire to be useful and a calling to not sit idly by. Is it selfish to want to be useful? Maybe, as sometimes the avenues required inconvenience or trouble the ones you love.

Just to drive through the countryside down amazingly well kept and clean streets was enough to wash away the tension from the US, despite heading towards a conflict zone for the fifth or sixth time in the past few weeks.

Our cup of tea is mapping the realities on the ground, coming to understand who the players are, who is trustworthy, who is tied in and has the most capability and then reaching back to the various resource communities to plug people, organizations and resources into the newly established network. This role, or function is akin to something called Civil Affairs in the armed forces and a friend, unbenounced to us, described our efforts as such in Ukraine towards the end of this brief segment: News4Jax

Other brief news segments — despite an effort to avoid publicity for the time being: Business Insider, Morning America

There is a new breed of humanitarian… A #waritarian. The same informal networks I have only seen activated in large scale humanitarian crises have now come to life in this gray area that is both very much a humanitarian emergency and an armed conflict. While those two elements often coincide, this situation is unique. The geography, social media, proximity to NATO and the phenomena of the full force of the global “we stand with” movement make this…. Different.

There are novels, and many movies to come about the dogoeders that became sudo war merchants overnight. ITAR, ballistic ratings, thermals vs. night vision… war time logistics became common vernacular remarkably quickly amongst informal working groups from the Jewish community, YPO, to hackers, hippies and humanitarians. I was both impressed and skeptical. What could go wrong? Oh the stories I may never tell.

“Who has contacts in Eastern Europe with Level IV plates?….. When is the next shipment of IFAKs arriving and do they have hemostatic gauze and adjunct airways?…. Iridium or Thuraya sat phones? Hearing these requests echoed from housewives to grizzled veterans solidified the very real waking reality of how perversely thin the line is between violence and the status quo. The veneer of perceived stability, safety and “normalcy” is wearing thin around the world. The perception of strength in societal mechanisms that prevent abhorrent behavior has been annihilated and exposed bare in Ukraine. I wonder how many people realize, while in very different ways, how fragile their surroundings are even back home?

I am almost as shocked by the types of conversations I am having with people in these adhoc working groups as I am by the Ukraine situation in general. The fact that everyday working moms with zero prior experience can turn into war logistician pros in 24 hours just blows my mind and puts a huge smile on my face. We are one adaptable breed are we not? “Honey put that toy down, mommy is on the phone..…Okay Jesse, there is a National Guard flight with space for 50 tons of palletized NFI out of Virginia tomorrow ….” — Mind blown.

I often caught myself subconsciously about to say out loud “I am sorry with whom am I speaking, I thought this was Shlomo the caterer from Temple Shalom in Milwaukee” not the Defense Logistics Agency — A joke, but such was / is the reality.

In real time the charade plays out. Steak dinners in proximity to missile strikes. Rapid desensitization to air raid sirens… Such amazing food… How is there conflict in such proximity to relative normalcy?

Unfathomable resources, brainpower, financial firepower and connections spun up to meet acute needs….The Signal, WhatsApp, Threema threads are endless and run 24/7…People doing amazing things, together, from all over the world, both with no resources on a grass roots level and with private planes and billion dollar family foundation support… It’s a familiar scene.

Profiteering in the most bizarre ways…$20k x head extracted… “They should have purchased our ammo, the quality is far superior…” WHAT?! I get it, war is very human, and like everything else, it is very much an economy unto itself but what an interesting dinner and dance partner conflict is… The stories she tells and the company she keeps…fascinating. Comparing ammo like milk brands… Humans are fucking crazy.

I had this feeling very early on. It has now been a little over three weeks since we have been involved here and it was roughly around day three where I realized all of the med kits, bullets and body armor in the world were not the fix here… Are they ever? There is very much an acute need to save lives. Medical kits, body armor, helmets etc. do that and I suppose buy critical time. Efforts have to be conducted on multiple fronts to address both real time critical needs and longer term objectives like de-escalation. But my gut and heart said the effort in Ukraine should be focussed in the information space. The narrative… The People of both Russia and Ukraine… Those are the weapons for peace….Aren’t they always?

Yet the cool thing to do, the quick fix, the rewarding action…. RUN GEAR. More IFAKs, more helmets…. And to be clear these things are all still needed but in a week or so there is going to be such an influx of supply it’s going to be unmanageable… Who is training all of the people to use the IFAK medical kits anyway?…Details. There are training efforts under way, but the capabilities gap between skills training and incoming supply is significant.

Strong one sided narratives give me pause. Any time there is NO room for conversation and civil discourse should give anyone pause. That is the environment here — in the Ukraine and around the world pertaining to this crisis. What is happening is unjust and horrible… What war or conflict is not? What is happening here is incredibly unilateral and a black and white aggressor vs. defender…But is that the whole truth? What were the series of events leading up to the flash point? Which nations played a role? The truth is never simple nor is the solution and the danger of thin, one sided brutally flamboyant narratives is that they jeopardize empathy. If the people are our greatest tool for peace….and I personally believe the Russian people are just that, vilifying a nation in totality is ensuring protracted conflict and further destruction.

What is happening is terrible, and in some areas is far more brutal than you may realize on the more kinetic front. The whole truth, the nuances, the visuals, the intricacies do not meet the psyche publicly — the media is not capable of capturing that — that is not a slight. It must be lived and experienced… felt in close proximity — at which point it still remains baffling.

It needs to stop and conventional political mechanisms are not in place to facilitate de-escalation. It is up to the people, the informal doers, the activists, those brave enough to stand up… The Ukranian’s that are fighting not fleeing, the Russians that are protesting, the hackers that are plying their trade… the diaspora… How do we unify and amplify unconventional resources while bringing the empathetic / sympathetic parties from both countries together? It’s a long shot. Lest we forget the deeply ingrained existing hatred that wildly predated this conflict on both sides.

With every passing day the bloodlust and hatred that was / is already deeply ingrained in the Ukrainian people for the Russians grows. Everyday the mis and dis information within Russia impacts the susceptible population. It’s like a crockpot clusterfuck.

Watching those skilled in the art of insurgency and counterinsurgency work with the Ukrainian people….Those who have made war their profession are some of the most peaceful, composed and diplomatic people I know….Until they accidentally speak Russian in a Ukrainian medial training outpost…Thats not so graceful ;-) The respect I have for that community is…. total. Watching them work to respectfully acknowledge and honor the deep seated anger, respectful of all of the cultural nuances, with a firm grasp of the historicals and yet…They tactfully posit fragments of alternative perspectives geared more toward not hating the people in general but those who might be perpetrating the atrocities, fueling the indoctrination…… It is the kind of diplomacy that should be taught in school and a marvel to watch.

How much attention is being paid to the historicals? How informed is the global community? What context do they have for this situation other than the all encompassing global societal rally call for the preservation of Democracy? We are not a very inquisitive bunch are we? In this day and age is it mature to fist pump and rally in the face of injustice when we do not fully grasp the contextual nature of the situation. Is action in the form of speaking out and up and posing a form of inaction? How might we refine this informal machine of well intentioned doers striking out with the tools and in the ways current day society lays out for such action? We are at 1.0 for leveraging the masses. We can and must do better. The impact potential is material.

What is happening is terrible. But I am not entirely sold on the reality as it is put forth. One month… an entire month in closer proximity to the issue than many and I still cant put a finger on it. Too many things here feel off. I am not a Russian foriegn affairs expert. Nor am I a Ukrainian specialist. My read is from the perspective of a Cultural mediation, humanitarian and disaster response / economic stability practitioner. I believe the story and details will be very different once the situation falls out of the mainstream news cycle in a few weeks or less. I believe there are a lot more things at play here than are being discussed…..

As for details. I dont make a practice of writing about things I have not witnessed first hand or that are not recounted to me by those I trust who are not far removed from it.

There is brutal WWII style trench warfare here. There is a chaotic Foreign Legion that is in large part unsupported. Casualties on both sides are being left to suffer and die, exposed with no medical treatment or frontline casualty evacuation.

There are places like Lviv that are still entirely safe…. I suppose that is relevant — relatively speaking despite a few targeted missile strikes where Cafes, hotels are rocking and rolling… until the curfew… and technically its a dry country at the moment.

It is prudent to pay attention to the full spectrum of information being shared. I do not watch a lot of news at all, but I make it a point to try to review the left, right, middle, extremes and perceived conspiracies to see what data points might accurately reflect what I am seeing on the ground.

I often find more nuggets of truth in the perceived fringes than I do in the mainstream — but as with all forms of information there are nuances no one would catch unless they were here. I believe details and optics matter and are critical. Visual framing and narrative liberties taken are often harmful.

What concerns me is how starkly polarized people are on this matter… intelligent people. It is amazing to see how influenced people can be, the power of mis and disinformation and the incredible difficulty of parsing truth from fiction unless on the ground. And even then…There is no articulating this one yet… We live in times where previously relied upon means for forming judgment and public opinion are simply irresponsible to rely upon.

Take this piece for example:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/C1iPwR44LnLI/

I am not at all suggesting I support this take — I do find facets of the commentary are not inaccurate.

The videographer is not wrong that the scenes in places like Lviv and the immigrant collection points were (theater). They are very real and they exist but when the lens is so myopically focussed it does not paint a holistic truthful picture of the normalcy that coexists with the pockets of conflict related impact. In places like Lviv these worlds do sort of live side by side…. The city population has almost doubled in size due to migration from E to W.

This piece is misleading in that the actual fighting, especially when this was filmed in Kyiv, was not in the city limits but well outside, which remains true, in large part to this day.

From CNN on fake footage if that’s your jam:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/26/politics/fake-ukraine-videos-fact-check/index.html

I appreciated this recount as I have been getting notes from various friends ranging from its all fake and Putin is taking out the deep state and there is no real war / Ukrainins are bombing their own buildings to Russians are forcefully liberating Ukranians and moving them to remote towns in Russia and blowing up elderly homes…

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/conspiracy-theory-qanon-ukraine-russia-1313656/

There is false information on all sides — it is rampant, nauseating and terrifying to watch as it impacts everything from public perception back home to in-country operations.

It is true that a tremendous amount of arms have been handed out to Ukrainian people. One of the more problematic issues when traversing the country, especially the farther east you go are all of the younger kids who have just had assault rifles given to them who are manning what amount to souped up neighborhood watch checkpoints. Can you imagine anything going wrong there?

The realities are far more nuanced. There are of course facets to this situation that are not making prime time.

The question is how can we collectively help. It feels good to run around and drum up support. To fundraise to get satellite phones for those working front line issues. It is important to have supply chains to bring in items like IFAKs, protective equipment and medications etc.

But, to me, despite it being clearly impactful and necessary, if I am being honest, it feels like peeing into the wind a bit. All of the medical kits and vests are not going to stop this, but every life saved matters.

What I have been talking about for a long time now… three weeks or so is a desire to focus on the narrative. I have violated my own rule, I have talked and not acted as our focus was solidifying more immediate, real time needs.

I am now working to figure out what that might look like, the feasibility of it, the cultural reality of a campaign taking root on both sides — how safe it is to have an alternative conversation here (it’s not) currently.

I am far more comfortable running around Ukraine then I am desperately trying to conjure a sense of purpose Stateside. I understand why so many look to outlets like the military. The US is an INCREDIBLE place, and yet, right now there is a palpable sense of a general lack of purpose, cohesion, community…

Poland is amazing. The people are incredibly friendly. The infrastructure is impeccable and far better than most places in the States. There is a general sense of calm, levity, and community… That is very absent Stateside at the moment.

Its funny how Ukraine is cleaner than most places in the States even during war. The bathrooms in gas stations… There is less trash on the roads… People just seem to collectively care more. Its funny to think about how the rugged individualism in the US has impugned the integrity and importance of the collective community. I wonder how we will re-instill a sense of shared responsibility vs a ferocious race for self wealth accumulation and personal gain.

The longer I stay here the more I believe in the work we are doing back in the States. It is so remarkably easy to divide people, to spark conflict… People are exhausted, have compassion exhaustion.. We have become remarkably desensitized. The sense of national pride and patriotism in the Ukraine is, in and of itself, refreshing to see.

It is more important than ever that we find a way to present a more modernized mechanism to unite people in service. There is a safety net in being united around a purpose and far too few back in the US have been exposed to the fundamentally critical human element of living a life for others, even if only briefly.

I believe human capital networks and a new breed of education / training around modernized service is critical to stability in our nation. I am seeing in real time how a country is rising to the occasion, and how valuable informal networks like PLAST (boy scouts) was / is.

I trust some people I have met working in Ukraine will be able to draw the parallels between what is happening here to potential eventualities in the States and will see the importance of supporting creative efforts around modernizing ways to serve. A new breed of impact doer is required and there are few relevant educational pipelines preparing the next generation for the real eventualities they are going to face both at home and abroad.

I wish I could push out short live recordings on Instagram stories while we are doing the work — to save the time and to provide real time feedback and insight but I already have been scolded by my team for having sloppy Opsec and now I have to “loose” my Iphone and computer before I return to the States, so as not to bring anything unwanted back with me.

The question now — dig in for the long haul or return to the States to continue to chip away and figure out how to create stronger, more cohesive communities one more capable individual at a time so the capacity exists to help with situations like this in the future both domestically and abroad. No I do not expect Russia to invade the US, but I do see many signs pointing to general instability which saddens me.

From Somewhere in Poland or maybe Ukraine,

Jesse aka Chuck Chuck aka WarTaxi

Access is everything and any form of credential / affiliation often helps. Found a print shop and made windshield placards for the car to assist with checkpoints and printed letters with the seal of an organization we are working with to assist with border crossing and any other checkpoints.

Went to the Polish border town of Korczowa from Rzeszow to figure out how to cross. Rental cars are disabled if they cross the border. It took three tries — first with a German / Turkish aid group loading up with supplies including 1,000 loafs of homemade Turkish bread which they were kind enough to share.

Spoke with a 22 year old of Turkish descent, living in Poland who volunteered to fight in Ukraine, recount the dynamics and tell us about all of the veterans and individuals from around the world coming in to help on the front lines. Interesting to hear his thoughts on how the country would be different after the fighting in it with all of these types of “crazy people.”

Found a group of Estonian “aid workers” who said they could take us in until the “boss” showed up and said no go.

Ended up driving to the border crossing parking in the lot and hitching over with a Ukrainian. He did not speak a word of English but was one jovial human.

We hit the other side late — not the best idea to drive at night and there is a curfew in Ukraine. Our guy, who we had never met had been waiting for a few hours. We got out of the car we hitched a ride in about 1 km from the border entrance where the pin was dropped — no one was there. We started walking back towards the border to find our ride and a Tesla model X pulls up and the gull wing doors opened — and so began a surreal experience in Ukraine — it makes perfect sense to have your first ride in a Tesla in Ukraine during a war. Enter one of our main contacts, an incredible individual who has been very involved in the creative support of various efforts on the fronts.

Racing the clock and counting down the kilometers we had to shave off 10 minutes of our ETA to beat the curfew and the fact that according to our new friend “theoretically we could get shot at after 10:00 pm by the various guards and checkpoints… but we should be ok.” Nothing like racing through Ukraine and checkpoints in a freezing Tesla (so driver does not fall asleep) working to beat a curfew enforced by a newly armed population, many of whom were reportedly 15 year olds with new found power in being armed and a habit of making trouble. There was no such trouble on the route.

Wild to see teenagers building tank traps and sandbag bunkers hidden with sticks and debris along highways. Its WWII style ground tactics / infrastructure and seems like such an anachronism in this day and age it’s hard to contextualize.

Two hours or so later we arrived and were served world class Chicken noodle soup, salad, Cusucos, Chicken and bread from a family that had fled Eastern Ukraine.

Walking down the streets with no one else out through soviet block construction lining each side, with most lights out due to air raid concerns — being questioned by the local territorial defense forces was almost as otherworldly as walking into a hotel with dark green wallpaper, Slovik art, red velvet drapes and bed covers and evidence that no Americans had likely been through the tiny town in a very long time.

Early am meeting with a local NGO doing supply runs in the region and forward. Got told to move away from the windows due to the air raid siren. Soviet era system alarms over the entire country when an aircraft enters the airspace so it’s impossible to know where exactly the threat is.

Walk outside to see some standing there smoking cigarettes sort of looking up dazedly. As the alarm stops, a group of old school Ukrainians come out of a shelter across the street — interesting to see the conditioning of the older population vs. younger in their actions / reactions. Kids running out of hotel in soccer gear during air raid alarm, some very nervous others not bothered.

Discussed specific needs, goals and agenda over breakfast in a bizarre large white marble room with sporadic tables and a serving bar deep down a dark hallway flanked by large gray flower vases — the flowers color in stark contrast to the drab construction. Slab bacon and eggs as the Tesla charged. Departed back for Lviv to meet with our other contact.

Coffee and a crash course in the realities of the situation. Our second contact owns a logistics company, warehousing, trucking etc. After a quick chat laying the ground rules we went to look at warehousing and within 24 hours we had our local operations guys and logistics channels, warehousing, customs clearing, drivers, translators etc. established.

At night its logistics and catchup. Fielding calls for evacuation assistance, connecting with other teams and resources in the country or coming in and troubleshooting issues and gaps as they arise with the various lines of effort we are working.

$53M worth of body armor vests and helmets sourced from an incredible group in the States who I will leave out from a failed deal during the Iraq war — worked to source funding for said needs

Started to work communications gear sourcing as radios and satellite phones are in major demand.

Connected with the CEO of a communications company that donated encrypted satellite comms gear to discuss specifics and worked to arrange delivery logistics of a sourced Starlink Terminal for us.

Various veteran groups coming into the country — working to connect them and to source specific requests they have.

Every disaster zone / crisis has that one bar where everyone gathers. Where we were staying the restaurant was exceptionally wookiee spy vs. spy — the cast of characters in this sort of situation are far more elegant / crisp and purposeful / tighter than those you might find in a natural disaster response. I have always considered soldiers to be the ultimate humanitarians — willing to place it all on the line for something they believe in — it clearly does something to the bearing and presence of the individual. Nothing like sitting in the restaurant with Ukrainian opera blasting in the background, eating Borsch and playing a mental game of who is who…. Lovely incredible folks at work here.

Connected with Russian buddy from college about the importance of the narrative and reaching the populations of both countries in a way to deescalate. Got the rundown on the Russian position, different types of forces in the country, the cultural makeup of the Ukraine / Russian population and the different realities on the border town’s vs areas farther from the Russian border, how mixed families perceptions are shifting from pro Russia to against the war after families and homes destroyed and the perceptions of the Russian people, Their governments long term view and agenda and what the States is thinking. No bueno. To gain an understanding for how serious Russians are taking the “peace talks” one should google the history and standing of their representative delegate. It was news to me.

Securing dedicated driver, vehicle and housing around a town for logistics and teams.

The team house in Poland is up and running

The working foundation is laid for medical relief, training etc. The information domain is where the key lies in any hope of neutralizing this situation. All of the lifesaving equipment / comms gear etc. is necessary and critical but we can not overlook and underestimate the power of ingrained cultural biases, patriotism and history. While the world is dead set on saving Ukraine through immediate aid, vilifying the other-side will not help to gain the favor and perspective shift required of the population of Russia — which is what I am convinced is the ultimate tool in this equation. We have to be careful to not vilify those indoctrinated or misled living in an information vacuum.

More than ever, it is imperative to stress impartiality — which is nearly impossible in a situation like this. It is hard for the global populace to grasp the fact that an entire populations realities can be starkly different than theirs based on exposure to limited and or controlled narratives. This, in this day and age should come as no surprise to us. But, it is hard to come to grips with disassociating a population from the politics of their nation. In this case, the Russian people are our greatest hope in “winning” through deescalation. If the nation and all of its people in their entirety are vilified, we decrease the probability and hope for objective, creative and unconventional methods to share perspective the Russian people may vary well be sheltered from.

Standing up a fiscal sponsorship so we can work to help cover the costs of the operation, medical supplies over a coffee

Going back to the airport to try to find the bag that was lost on a simple two leg 11 hour flight that turned into a 24 hour four flight affair — no bag.

Driving 160km to the border while writing a sample MOU for the Jesuits

Organizing the previous day’s slack, WhatsApp and Signal Channels threads to bucket and categorize contacts

Dreading the idea of trying to create a social media post to keep people back home informed / engaged

The twenty something trilingual tall kid with Jordan sneakers who was a professional Polish basketball player and model of Ukrainian descent introduced through a friend of a friend of a friend now volunteering with a crack Cannonball Run sort of effort to get sick people from Ukraine across the border in an Audi damaged by a close call with a shelling attack

The two men from The Territorial Defense of Kyiv, with glassed over eyes, thousand yard stares, shell shocked behavior and trembling hands that drove over the border to meet us in Korczowa to pick up the first batch of emergency medical supplies we brought in. Just over 35 hours door to door

Julian the Ukrainian a friend from my local fire department connected us with to help arrange logistics

A lost airline bag — buying shoes, boxers and a t-shirt in a mall 20 kms from the border of Ukraine where the 72 year old parents of the Jesuit of Ukrainian descent tasked with running the overall Crisis Response for the Jesuit community conscripted to fight in the Ukraine Civil Defense Forces. Indiscriminate shelling next door and people shopping and scrolling

Sharing a beer and a cigar with an old friend from Haiti and Jose Andres just outside a beautiful European square in Srodmiecsie that survived the World War

The updates from the invaluable support team sourcing life saving equipment as the C-130’s and Antonov’s come in for landings.

Driving with Will discussing the merits and importance of changing the playbook, focussing on de-escalation and information campaigns, humor and humanization vs. delivering medical kits and a more conventional logistics and supply operation

Visiting the border processing point where Ukrainian Refugees were being dropped, watching all of the media outlets from CNN to BBC shoot the same innocuous bit of footage of refugees exiting a bus wondering why on god’s earth this would be what they chose to document and seeing in real time how skewed and myopic the world’s perspective is through the lens of media.

Contemplating the best approach to deal with the oil company back home that failed to turn on the boiler leaving my partner the kid and two dogs freezing for the 14th night in a row due to an infuriating, unimaginable level of negligence

The dissonance is material. How humans can permit such activity is a fascinating enigma. What I am certain of after only a day and a half on the ground is that this is the most significant shift in geopolitical power in my lifetime and the conventional playbook is irrelevant here.

From the gut:

Its easy to go into autopilot response mode and to do what you have done before. Rapidly establish operational capabilities, logistic, manpower management, supply sourcing, in country networks, translators… (in a day) to build the base for a rapidly scalable effort that leverages the skills of veterans from around the world to address suffering in horrible situations…

I dont feel the traditional response of bringing in medical supplies and running logistics is what’s truly needed here. I am helping with this in the immediate term because it is an acute need — but the bigger picture is not triaging the current situation but working to, in some way, creatively help to de-escalate.

While it will help, and there is without a doubt a significant need — what can only truly stem the impending significant loss of life and further atrocities is de-escalation. It feels like that is the arena where energy should be directed. The political mechanisms are not in place to make that a reality, it is up to the people. As such, it feels like thinking very outside of the box around the human element, and narrative is important — What the world is seeing is a small part of this situation and the human component, historicals etc have been largely removed. Bringing Ukrainian and Russian soldiers together and capturing that sort of interaction would have the potential for a large ripple effect.

If you want to support the effort you can contribute here

The National Disaster Emergency Management Expo (NDEM) was an interesting beast. It was the first official trade show for The Readiness Collective and for any Tactivate project. Witt Reece and his entire team did a phenomenal job bringing some incredibly interesting folks together from the Security and Emergency Management realm. We had one heck of an adventure even getting to the expo with our WWII Land Rover and setting up our podcast studio on site. Thank you to our partners at Fairfield Land Rover for outfitting us with our mobile podcast studio.

Our entire ethos behind The Readiness Collective is that “Readiness is a team sport” and that there is no competition in the realm of working to create community capacity because the need and opportunity is so staggering. We believe it will take a “collective” effort to work to reimagine societies relationship with proactive readiness — so we were thrilled to get to reconnect with old friends and to meet and make new ones who are all working to challenge the status quo.

One of the greatest opportunities and challenges in the realm of “preparedness” and emergency management is getting society to think about readiness differently. The current paradigm is very much reactionary and recovery in nature in that the entire emergency response ecosystem and resource infrastructure is predicated on reactive measures. This reality is fragile, taxed and not “resilient in nature.” If we want to build true resilience in society we must cultivate proactive readiness at the local level and that starts with the individual and small local businesses. It may be a hard reality for some to fathom but to facilitate systemic readiness we must take self responsibility and cultivate the capacity and capability to be of service to ourselves, our families and our communities in uncommon times if we want to decrease our fragility. To accomplish this readiness needs a major rebrand and reimagining around how folks interact with it. The common approaches are typically more tactical or fear based in nature. That must change if we are going to make readiness a community practice. We have to broaden the aperture and make readiness skills, the mindset and tools more approachable and accessible.

Our first responders, emergency managers and the entire professional response community including the organizations that support them and help to fill in the gaps are world class and critical. However, given the nature of the day and the increasing frequency and severity of events our current approach is inadequate and must be augmented. Contrary to public opinion we feel the onus is on the everyday individual, community member and local business vs solely the government.

Here are some of the highlights of the folks and organizations we ran into at NDEM that are working to rethink how society interacts with and perceives readiness. While the whole show was great we thought these individuals and efforts were amazing and we look forward to collaborating with them in the near term.

Rooftop Liferaft Systems:

Those who buck the trend are often misunderstood. Admittedly at first blush I thought what these guys were up to seemed a little silly. After speaking with them in a quick podcast we hosted and hanging out with them at the show, what they were up to became clear and sort of blew our minds from the scope of the challenge they were taking on. Automatically deployable rooftop life-rafts may seem silly — unless anyone has been watching the news lately and has seen what has been happening in Vancouver and in Washington State. From who they have partnered with to develop their solution (Zodiac) which are best in class life raft builders to their philosophical approach — we loved these guys because they are the underdogs. While the vast majority of the preparedness industry, insurance products etc. are focussed on diverting water, installing pumps, creating high tech sandbag systems etc. these guys are venturing into uncharted territory in simply focusing on saving the lives of those impacted by flooding. Surprisingly there are not a lot of businesses or individuals innovating at the last mile around the end user. We love these guys because their product saves lives and they are challenging the status quo.

Heather Beal:

Founder of Train 4 Safety Press and Blocks USA.org Heather has multiple masters, is a linguist and is a former Naval Officer….Heather for President. She pens children’s cartoon books to better prepare our youth in emergency management and to impart critical leadership skills. Bar none one of the most impressive humans we have met in a long time she blew us away with what she has accomplished and her unique approach re-thinking how we train and prepare our next generation of up and coming leaders. Start’em young.

Instinct Ready:

These guys are AWESOME. We got to spend some time with Jason Perez and Wesley Long of the Instinct Ready team. Like us they are far more focussed on education versus selling gear, but they do have some great kits they have put together. Instead of arbitrarily throwing in a protein bar into a “go bag” they have drilled down into the science and have built their kits around needs as experienced in their profession as emergency responders and as dictated by cold hard facts. What is exciting about this crew is their demeanor, approachable manner and diehard dedication to education over gear sales. We are going to gun to get these guys into the club for some training in the near term. Arguably Instinct Ready is in a very similar line of business than we are but instead of competition we view them as force multipliers. What’s better, Wesley is local to where The Readiness Collective training club is. Stay tuned.

Merits Credentialing:

AMAZING on all fronts. The energy and passion of this crew on the expo floor was refreshing to say the least. Founded by professional skydivers and scuba divers these guys have created an electronic credential tracking platform that is second to none. For any of us with numerous certifications or that operate in less than conventional environments, having the capability to verify individuals and their credentials when traditional means may-not be an option is incredibly important. We are really excited to explore utilizing this platform to track our certifications in the club as our community members progress through our Readiness curriculum.

United Claim Specialists:

We don’t typically get excited about anything insurance related but when we met and had a chance to hang with Sim Fern — that changed. This guy and their outfit goes to work for the end user so when the large insurers try everything they can to reduce what they payout in flood and other damage claims the insured now has more of a fighting chance. They prefer to work with folks proactively to educate them on flood policies (which are NOT nearly as simple as they appear) rather than retroactively to help serve as a claim steward to shift the odds to the insured’s side. Why we loved them: They are going against the grain and working to really educate folks about smart coverage and how to package themselves most effectively to secure the coverage and claim payments they deserve. Business continuity is a big deal in helping to restore equilibrium and in the aftermath of a large-scale disaster not getting the coverage you thought you had and trying to take on the big insurance providers is a hassle equivalent to WWIII. For this reason we were stoked to meet these guys and think what they do is simply rad.

FRSix & Jedburgh Podcast:

Francis Racioppi recently popped onto our radar thanks to our Podcast Partners Factory Underground. Francis is living proof behind why we launched Tactivate in 2013, an effort to more effectively mesh the SOF veteran, entrepreneurial and disaster response communities. From his time in Special Forces to his tenure as a proven entrepreneur he and his team are doing incredible work shedding light on leadership tactics at the intersection of the military and entrepreneurial communities. The combination of their start-up security and disaster management skills and perspective are unique and we look forward to developing collaborative efforts with them.

J.B Cuertas:

JB is an enigma. He is a rare and invaluable asset to the emergency management community. He is a conventional subject matter expert that works on the inside within exciting systems but is unique in that he understands, values and goes out of his way to leverage informal capacity and unconventional resources in critical times. That aspect may seem trivial but he represents a unique key and pathway for how formal and informal resource ecosystems can effectively collaborate in emergencies. In addition to his previous work heading FEMA Region II, he is a professor of Emergency Management related topics at Georgetown and currently serves as the Director of reliability and Security at The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. This dude is just a gem and should have a Harvard Case Study done on him and how he works.

Clash of the Titans:

Tod De Voe of Emergency Management Weekly hosted a great fireside chat with two Prior FEMA Administrators, Peter Gaynor and Criag Fugate. Hearing the vastly different perspectives of the previous Administrators was both entertaining and illuminating.

The Readiness Lab:

John Scardena of The Doberman Emergency Management Group has done a killer job of creating a podcast network of some of the best in the realm of Emergency Management. It was great to put a face with this entrepreneur stirring things up in the space. These guys are doing great work and could someday be partners in crime for a Readiness Collective West Coast.

Overland Experts:

We all spend a lot of time behind the wheel, but few of us ever truly learn how to drive. Overland Experts are some of the best in the industry and focus their training on government, DoD and humanitarian clients. They simply help those heading into harm’s way to be helpful to get there and get out safely. We think driving is an incredibly important skill and has many positive impacts from increasing situational awareness to making individuals holistically more capable.

We are excited to work with these guys as our driving training partners. It was great to spend the day with Erik Eisensmith at the expo.

We look forward to concocting creative partnerships with all of these folks as we continue to build out The Readiness Collective. Its going to take unconventional collaborations, transparency and re-thought out business models to work to implement readiness as a daily discipline and practice. The folks on this list are doing the good work.

This was an interview conducted by the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum well over a year ago that was just published that holds insight on creative approaches to emergency economic stability through empowerment of hyper local capacity that is relevant given the challenges we face today as a nation.

“How do we do what CrossFit has done for fitness in making it communal and tribal for readiness, making it an everyday part of culture. How do we do that for things like situational awareness, keeping calm under duress, medical skills and the like. How do we teach communities to be more self-reliant and less dependent in times that fall outside the status quo?

Full article Here

Current state:

Covid-19 is bringing out the best in our country. The level of innovation transpiring right now, despite the circumstances, represents our innate capacity as a nation to face any challenge and to do what needs doing without exception.

Emergency response, recovery and economic stability all at once;

This is both a slow and incredibly fast moving emergency event. Slow in that the onset is not acute like an earthquake or hurricane but insidious — manifesting fear, that has been its own paralyzing disaster, apart from the actual physical danger in our midst.

There are many secondary and tertiary challenges we are already combating as a result, that typically don’t occur until after the significant event — like a real spike in unemployment, an economy with double black eyes and a lack of production capacity for critical supplies. This is even further exacerbated by over dependence on international supply chains and Covid-19 hasn’t even hit yet in earnest.

It is moving fast in that this beast is very much amongst us and already stressing front line critical human capital resources, fundamental emergency medical supplies and systems far ahead of our measures and propensity to compensate.

We are tackling an immediate response, recovery and economic stability all simultaneously. These are phases and disciplines that are usually spread out by as much as weeks if not months.

We have been caught in a reactionary posturing versus proactive and ready, but that’s when we thrive as a Nation. The opportunity has presented itself to codify a capacity to make ready to tackle Covid-19 and to set the model for proactively being prepared for future emergencies at the community level. This is an imperative cultural shift we must make and infrastructure we must lay.

What is needed:

• Acute solutions for procurement and production of critical medical items
• Creative strategies for engaging and activating the sidelined workforce as part of the solution to address the immediate acute challenges on hand to provide purpose, unity, a call to action and supplemental income from earned activity is imperative. A disengaged, unemployed non-wage earning population with little savings is both a stability threat and asset.
• A banner and a leader for informal community level and private sector response capacity to rally behind and follow. This is going to be as much a bottom up grassroots response as a top-down effort. The two approaches must play nicely and operate in chorus. Even adhoc entrepreneurial approaches need to be coordinated.

It’s time for a civilian response corps at scale

Positives:

• The National Security innovation community is ramped up and firing on all cylinders. The amount of email traffic with incredibly smart, capable, well resourced and experienced leaders is overwhelming and something for an HBR case study of the decade.
• The private sector tech community is slamming out application solutions to perceived challenges and working to match production, material sourcing and DIY prowess with support from academia and collaborators within the national security innovation arena.
• Government emergency stimulus spending and ultra-high-net-worth philanthropy and family foundation funds are supposedly flowing and are actively looking to support solutions

There is encouraging amounts of collective execution capacity at work ideating and already creatively rolling into production of critical needs. The funding around, if marshaled effectively could offer a fighting chance to regain a foothold. But the capacity at work is unconventional and outside of organized systems and the funding channels unique and unfamiliar, posing an added challenge.

Challenges:

Despite this surge in entrepreneurial solution focussed efforts, there is little collaboration due to a lack of visibility of what is transpiring on a macro level. Further exacerbating the challenge is that this is not a regional disaster but geographically all encompassing.

This state of chaos and dynamic is not at all uncommon in disasters, both domestic and especially in the international arena. Any Emergency Manager, or responder worth their salt, in private over drinks, will rant and rave about the gross inefficiencies, lack of coordination, lethality of bureaucracy, disrespect of one resource community, overstepping the bounds of another — its part of the reality.

This has been a persistent systemic challenge for a long-time in the emergency response arena that must be fixed NOW. This is a laughable notion in its scope, but a very real imperative. Here is why and how I think it is achievable given the circumstances.

• This is the first time since World War II and arguably the Civil War that an occurrence has had everyone across the country concerned for their safety in their homes. This impacts everyone. As a result, it’s all hands on deck and there is potential for a national rallying cry for unity of effort.
• The DoD and private sector have learned to play well together in excitingly dynamic ways over the past decade through efforts like The Defense Innovation Unit, NSIN, AFWERX, BMNT Partners etc. which has created powerful informal networks that are now spun-up and functioning at speed. These hybrid, informal efforts have the private sector expertise and energy coupled with government and DoD institutional permeability needed to maximize utility and execution from all parties.
• Federal agencies like FEMA have switched vernacular from Public Private partnerships to Private Public to emphasize the critical function the private sector plays as emergency infrastructure. The more recently formed Emergency Support Function (ESF-14) is dedicated specifically to nurture these working relationships.
• We have intrapreneurs fighting the good fight within the bureaucracies like the Defense Innovation Board constantly working to mesh and amplify private sector and national security capabilities
• The philanthropic community has begun to shift away from the notion that NGOs are the save all, pushing more resources toward impact driven, triple bottom line businesses as viable candidates for funding.

These collective attributes have laid the foundation for an ecosystem and working dynamics between industry, defense and government agencies. The collaboration is happening, what’s missing is unification of effort. The threat is not isolated in scope or geography, but systemically pervasive and omnipresent. As a result there are no territorial squabbles of who handles what facet of the response as there is too much to do for every agency, resource and creative function we can muster collectively.

What’s missing is a new type of leadership. A maestro of chaos coordination that speaks DoD, NGO, private sector, supply chain and production. A leader that understands and celebrates the importance of informal capacity with the ability to leverage institutional capabilities. A leader that can creatively ignite and engage the private sector through a national call to arms while ensuring effective connectivity with the institutional systems. We need an operationally minded entrepreneurial and tactical conductor to unify efforts and to marshal our nation’s informal response efforts in a manner that celebrates and leverages institutional resources as well.

Much of the current effort is being directed towards solving for immediate acute challenges. We have severe shortages of medical equipment including N95 masks, respirators and personal protection equipment for health workers. The DIY community, private sector, DoD and hybrid efforts are hyper focussed on alleviating these lack of resources. If we fail to produce or procure this equipment, our health workers may stop showing up for fear of safety, get sick and quarantined. Our medical system is already thin, even in these early innings and will rapidly fail. Not to mention we will not be able to care for patients adequately or on the scale needed. And this reality is imminent. So the efforts are warranted and understandable. But these initiatives are being tackled in ways, that in large part, are not considering a critical element that is equally, if not more dangerous than the lack of medical equipment — a largely unemployed and disengaged population.

The multitude of efforts underway to produce, source and repurpose medical equipment should take advantage of both our current greatest asset and potential liability, this latent impact potential of the human capital sitting idle not earning. We have the workforce — lets re-tool, activate and produce. We need a Minuteman entrepreneurial DIY production militia and we have the resources sitting at home. They just need to be mustered, exposed to the open source plans and supplied, as they are already organized through respective employers.

We have the proven working models and huge private sector resource communities waiting to be activated. We have military veteran entrepreneurs that thrive in war time conditions and a war at our door. We have the entrepreneurial national security types to connect and coordinate with. If we consider models like Sword & Plough where veterans upcycle and repurpose military surplus (creative production), Combat Flip Flops that has retooled combat boot factories to make flip flops (retooling production), Rosie the Riveter, Spartan Race that has a standing army of potential volunteers and the MIT Media Lab, that house a diverse cross section of scientists entrepreneurs, we have a blueprint, infrastructure and existing capacity to activate. We do not have to recreate the wheel, we just have to unite and ignite in unison and in coordination.

Imagine, all of the ad hoc efforts coordinated and playing in sync with the national security community and government agencies in an orchestra in rhythm. Strings: tackling logistics, supply chain and sourcing; Woodwinds: handling labor and training; Percussion: leading innovation producing open source plans; and Brass: leading funding and providing a common operating picture to CEOs; Federal agencies; DoD and philanthropists.

What that roster might look like in abbreviated real terms:

A Conductor:

A Maestro like Jay Long or Tommy Hendrix

Strings:

Kathy Fulton —American Logistics Aid Network

Philip J Palin — CNA Principal Supply Chain Investigator

Defense Logistics Agency

Woodwinds:

Joe De Sena & Frank Grippie of Spartan Race

Jason Mccarthy — GoRuck

Percussion:

JJ — AFWERX

William Treseder — BMNT Partners

Deb Roy — MIT Media Lab

Brass:

Mark Rockefeller — Street Shares

Vilas Dhar- Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

The best way to quell fear is to ensure people are engaged, active and earning with purpose. There has not been a better time to act and a more important way to incentivize the out of work population than a call to arms to rapidly re-tool and roll out legions of support staff from everyday communities to combat Covid-19. For example the new pervasive utilization of video conferencing can be used to train up workers in basic donning and removal of personal protective gear and they could be deployed to do critical deliveries, help erect testing sites, and backfill strained medical facilities etc.

The informal doers, hackers, entrepreneurs and national security disrupters need a brand, a rally cry, a movement and a unit flag to unite behind. There is no better time to be an American. We will come through this stronger, leaner, meaner and more untied.

This is the high school dance when the DoD finally allows the private sector to lead, when the philanthropist sneaks behind the stage with the entrepreneur for a torrid makeout session and when the government decides to nix the sobriety test at the door in favor of spiked punch and great tunes. Lets rock.

This militia is being stood up and given a name and a home. Standby for The Readiness Collective.

The next article will be a road map to action.

In the aftermath of large-scale disasters there is a mass mobilization of good will, resources and energy. These emergencies offer a clear path to “be of service” which strikes at the fundamental hardwired core of humanity. There are few tangible opportunities as seemingly straight forward to truly help others in a time of need than in the immediate aftermath of significant large scale emergencies. However, as the frequency and severity of these incidences continue to increase we have to examine whether or not well intentioned efforts are actually helpful or if they are in fact detrimental in the longterm.

There is a glib definition of insanity which states “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. This very much applies to the current state of the humanitarian assistance and disaster response community (HADR) and donor culture. Its time to spark a paradigm shift from individual donors, NGOs, entrepreneurs, government agencies, the private sector to vulnerable municipalities. The vast majority of efforts and resource allocations are reactionary in nature not proactive. We must inverse this reality.

If the “best defense is good offense” then we are far behind the eight ball in regards to dealing with current realties in the most effective manner.

The cost of natural disasters in the US alone in the past two yeas sheds light on the magnitude of the losses sustained with 2017 yielding $306.2B and 2018: $91B. What these numbers don’t cover is the amount of charitable dollars spent on disaster related aid. The point of this piece is not to dig into the statistics. Instead, the intent is to point out a macro cultural trend that is fueling future vulnerability and perpetuating dependency.

Given the changing dynamics we face as a collective global community in light of the severity of events we are encountering, an evolved approach to how we deal with them must be considered. We must re-examine how resources are marshaled and deployed and the efficacy current humanitarian and donor culture has on future-proofing communities against inevitable repeat events. We must make the shift from reactionary to proactive.

As the old adage from Lao Tsu goes “if you give a hungry man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime”. The capabilities and capacity of the private sector and donor communities that activate post disaster are incomprehensible. This is not in reference to those in the business of contracting and the disaster capitalist ecosystem (which, while perverse in many ways and in need of massive overhauling) is of paramount importance. This is about local companies in impacted areas, large corporations, informal networks and the donor population that activates to provide aid.

I have observed the same dynamic at play since 2010 when I was involved with my first major response effort in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. Hundreds of millions of dollars of supplies were shipped through logistically complex and costly means to a major airport. These supplies were in large part irrelevant, a threat to local supply and commerce and at best palliative instead of strategic. They also often failed to reach last mile needs and sat and went to waste in central staging areas. This dynamic has been repeated over and over from Texas, the Philippines to Puerto Rico.

Trying to solve challenges from top down and from an outside — in approach instead of looking for local capacity within impacted areas and amplifying it to solve from the bottom up will is unsustainable.

This is not to imply that there is not an acute response phase when lives simply need to be saved, shelter, and medical supplies and food and water are needed. However, there are often better ways to address these needs, even in most cases in the direct aftermath of occurrences than shipping in metric tons of meals ready to eat (MREs), pallets of water and warehouses full of clothing and toys.

Often a large generator, welder, hydrologic engineer and steel worker is all that is needed (as was the case in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria) to repair an aquifer that could deliver water to ten thousand people. However the requests of the local Mayor were ignored for the few strategic assets he needed in leu of large shipments of wasteful bottles of water from external resources via broken supply chains which was a short term and costly solve at best. But this is not how our aid community or donors are trained or equipped to think and act. The capacity to source and empower local last mile capacity is not yet an inherent part of the cultural DNA of the disaster preparedness and response community or NGOs active in the space.

In every disaster there are three distinct phases to include response, recovery and stability. What is missing from this equation, in large part, is mitigation and proactive readiness. While on the minds of most, there are negligible resources and funds allocated to proactive preparedness measures.

If we do not do a better job of “making ready” to better withstand these events at the local community level we are going to perpetuate the dynamic of dependence on inefficient and resource intensive reactionary responses and external aid that often further impugns the integrity of the local economic ecosystem and slows longterm sustainable recovery.

Donor psyche is not yet equipped to steward dollars proactively to mitigation efforts when in fact this would be the most effective form of charity. For every $1 spent on proactive emergency mitigation and readiness efforts $6 are saved in recovery spend (NIBS report). Until the footage rolls in of destroyed houses, flooding and absolute destruction — the relief machine sits largely dormant.

The reality is the severity and frequency of these events, are in large part to much for government to handle on their own. We can either continue to attack a perceived lack of response capacity or we can shift aid, donor and community efforts to be more proactive to meet conventional resources half way in tackling our new found reality. Its time local communities and individuals took more responsibility for themselves.

We must foster a “proactive whole of community” approach to readiness instead of perpetuating resource posturing and allocation on a reactionary basis. We must recognize each stakeholder for the skills and resources they bring to the table from the government, military to individual donors and impacted populations and we must go to work to shift resources from reactionary support to proactive training and readiness measures.

The NGO Mamma Hope that tackles poverty in Africa did a lot to change donor culture when they attacked “aid porn” and instead of showing children with distended bellies surrounded by flies to raise funds, they exhibited how incredibly bright and dynamic the youth was they set out to help. The video “Alex Presents Commando” produced by Joe Sabia that Mamma Hope put out helped to change the narrative and donor behavior.

This same type of shift needs to occur in the disaster space. How do we re-brand giving and resource allocation to shift efforts from reactionary to proactive?

What if the incredible resources and response efforts mustered by the Nexus Global Community in support of local recovery in response to Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas were in part directed to meeting the needs of Bahamians in a way that would stem the need for external aid in future occurrences? What if the same social entrepreneurial prowess and networked potential that was able to source aircraft, ships and millions of dollars in support was activated prior to hurricane season to proactively prepare the vulnerable region long before Hurricane Dorian popped onto the radar?

These response efforts exhibit the incredible capability, capacity and willingness of the private sector to step in and to have serious humanitarian impact. That is to be celebrated, but the approach also must be adapted as reactionary adhoc efforts are no longer sufficient no matter how well intentioned and impressive. They reflect a working really hard, not really smart approach to aid. There is a better way we all must work to adapt to and that is directing resources to making ready instead of focusing on reactionary response efforts.

Every major disaster presents the opportunity to entrepreneurially address how communities recover in ways that position them to better withstand future events. If response efforts do not take this into consideration and only focus on addressing short term acute issues than than a detrimental dynamic is perpetuated. The opportunity exists in leveraging the mass attention and resources dedicated to disaster response in the early stages to both assist with solving the immediate life saving needs, but also to put infrastructure in place to stem future loss of life.

Around 30% of households made disaster related donations in 2017 alone according to a Center for disaster philanthropy report. The capital and resources exist to affect serious sea-change in how we deal with disasters. Its a matter of reeducating and stewarding these resources in more effective ways than on reactionary palliative responses.

Examples of approaches that shift the dynamic:

Manolo Lopez: There was a significant shortage of food in the early after math of the storm as grocery stores had no power and there was no electricity. Chef Manolo Lopez took a very innovative approach to addressing this challenge. He amassed a network of local restaurant owners across the island and worked to pay them what he and his supporters could to cook mass meals for the community. This employed local resources and stimulated the local economy to address the local needs on hand using existing resources. One of the most valuable bi-products of this effort was establishing the behavior of uniting networks of suppliers and resturant owners that now have an experience with a model that can be rapidly re-activated in future occurrences.

Joint Foundation For Puerto Rico, Focussed Mission, Tactivate and Government effort: In 2017 in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria a multi-agency working group of local entrepreneurs, foundations, government, Federal and DoD resources were marshaled in an adhoc fashion to tackle a connectivity issue that took the food stamp (EBT) system off line. With a large percentage of the island dependent on electronic benefits to buy food and water — there was no longer any selling and or purchasing power rendering the local supply chain impotent to meet the needs of the community. A small $33k investment to install small, cheap satellite terminals on remote food markets led to $3m + in local food and water sales — addressing food security issues while implementing systems that future proofed these stores against going off line in future storms(CNA case study page 13).

These efforts decreased the need for external aid water and food supplies that were failing to reach remote regions due to broken supply chains and instead empowered the local commerce ecosystem to begin to heal itself through empowerment of capital flow. The crux was identifying the food and water shortage was not a supply issue, but a connectivity challenge — something the aid community failed to do.

Mariana and Chrsitine Nieves: The town of Mariana was one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Maria — yet received little to no aid in the initial response phase. Instead of suffering the community united and activated and found that they were best equipped to handle their own recovery. With minor support from strategic outside resources like Chris Kluckhuhn and the Avwatch team who brought early communications capacity to the local village, a grass root local foundation lead by Chrsitine Nieves and team, Proyecto Apoyo Mutuo Mariana led recovery efforts in a way that prepared the town to thrive in future impacts. From water purification systems to solar generators and group kitchens, the model exemplified how locally led and externally supported efforts can both address acute immediate challenges while serving to prepare for future emergencies.

As times change models must adapt. the global community is starting to wake up to the need to reimagine how we address disasters. New, innovative models are starting to emerge and the reality is starting to shift from unprepared to proactively ready.

We will see an increased interest in skills acquisition in the realm of emergency medical and general preparedness skills. We will see a major spike in small scale alternative energy solutions and an entirely new micro economy and ecosystem develop around all things proactive readiness. The most exciting part of this movement is that it is predicated on collective community capacity, in that it requires people to come together to train and to collaborate. This physical interaction, working toward preparing oneself as an individual and as a collective community presents a very interesting approach to combating the pervasive sense of isolation and lack of purpose felt by so many today.

It is folly to underestimate the power of informal networks.

The Defense Entrepreneurs Forum (DEF), also referred to as the Virtuous Insurgency, is an organization that was started to disrupt the status quo within DoD. Over the years it has grown into an amorphous, broad reaching network that has drawn members from sectors as diverse as AI, green tech, policy, DoD, NGOs to the start-up ecosystem. The common uniting factor and rallying cry of this seemingly disparate cohort — serving side by side to positively impact a more innovative culture within the National Security landscape.

There was a time around 2009 when organizations like The Sandbox Network, The Nexus Global community and Summit Series began to reshape the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The idea was simple and very much like YPO - bring incredibly creative humans physically together to generate unique collective community capacity. Being affiliated with these sorts of networks provided a level of vetting, afforded exposure to unique collaborations and opportunities and provided a sense of belonging and identity. These efforts tended to draw optimistic individuals and organizations that were interested in serving the community vs. simply extracting value from the network. These efforts, in large part, helped to reshape norms around collaboration and transaction behavior. The Defense Entrepreneurs Forum is doing the same in the National Security arena.

National Security elicits a sense of closed door secretive military activities and stodgy, impossibly bureaucratic conversations in DC. This could not be any further from the truth. The breadth of relevant and critical disciplines inherent to this sector are broad ranging and ever increasing. As the nature of threats from climate change to shifting geopolitical power and increases in asymmetric cyber attacks continue to evolve so to must the brain trust we have to adapt and thrive. To effectively reshape how the US engages with and handles these emerging realties requires a reimagined approach. From how DoD works with the private sector to acquire rapidly advancing technology to the mechanisms by which subject matter experts can parlay their expertise into the conversation all has to evolve from conventionally more static to lean, dynamic and rapid.

Most of societies’s current hot topics are inherently very much encompassed within National Security. The AI debate, energy policy, cyber security, to the more nebulous topics of design thinking, work force culture, social movement theory and retention all fall squarely within primary areas of focus. DEF has organically emerged as a sort of guild and informal trades-network that has come to serve a number of critical functions that even those within its ranks may not fully appreciate.

As an individual or organization outside of the traditional working environs of NatSec, access to participate and contribute within the arena has traditionally been elusive and difficult to figure out at best. How would an entrepreneur in college working on low bandwidth communication solutions, solar engineers with new high efficient panels, or an NGO focussed on water purification technology interact with the NatSec community? Traditionally and historically they probably wouldn't have, at-least until their products reached a technical readiness level (TRL) that triggered commercial interest. DEF has changed that dynamic.

Given the rapidly evolving environment, shifting nature of conflict and emerging threats, any latency in tech adoption, top talent acquisition and retention and an ability for the National Security apparatus to function as dynamically as a start-up to meet these shifting challenges head on represent significant vulnerabilities.

Here is how the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum is intentionally and unintentionally serving to address these realities:

The cultures of the DoD, NGOs, academia, the start-up ecosystem and tech spheres are vastly different, yet collaboration and cross pollination are critical. DEF has created an environment and set of shared norms that demand mutual respect for all despite rank, sector or affiliation. In this way, events have become safe spaces that have facilitated significant collisions between critical resource groups that would not otherwise have connected

There is a large population in the country that harbors a strong desire to serve. For whatever reason putting on the uniform was not the avenue chosen. DEF offers this demographic a palpable and meaningful way to contribute to material efforts that reach from the front lines to policy. Expertise that would not otherwise be brought to bear no longer lays dormant

Informal relationships fuel rapid execution. DEF is one of very few platforms that has touched such a vast set of stakeholders and convened them through activities ranging from informal meet-ups to monthly working sessions, annual conferences and a hyper active Slack channel. Through these efforts, DEF serves as a sort of a skeleton key for those looking to make a foray into National Security from outside the traditional walls of the community — an action that serves all parties and that is critical.

Mapping the organizational and human terrain of those active with modernizing and advancing our approach to NatSec yields an ever evolving network. NSIN, DIU, Army Futures Command, SOFWERX, AFWERX and the list goes on for efforts being stood-up to bridge the gap between old world methods and new world realities. All of these initiatives play a role and represent a palpable trend in the urgent need for change and are evidence of the resources behind fueling that objective. Where DEF plays a role in this arena is providing common ground.

While far more informal, and without as clear of an agenda as some of the above efforts, there are members of the DEF community that are involved with all of the initiatives listed. Members of the Virtuous Insurgency have permeated throughout and are embedded in every corner from academia to defense research labs and innovation hubs domestically and abroad. In this way, DEF helps to provide a common operating picture of the evolving National Security landscape through information sharing amongst the informal network. Through the creation of a convening platform myriad efforts are organically de-siloed and amplified. There are few challenges that can’t be addressed by reaching back to subject matter expertise within DEF’s human capital networks.

In addition to being an incredibly powerful and positive informal instigation force within the realm of defense, DEF also offers a surprisingly robust solution to a current sociocultural malady that seems to be plaguing the general population.

There is a pervasive sense of lack of purpose, direction and a yearning for community and a palpable way to serve. To serve in a capacity that contributes to National Security, one no longer has to put on a uniform. While those involved with DEF may grumble of a lack of clarity, direct execution etc. there is no questioning the success the org has had in connecting perviously isolated resource communities around the common goal of positively impacting National Security. In and of itself, this is a significant contribution to the movement to modernize, and if DEF does nothing else in the future but continues to provide an accessible platform for those not conventionally involved with NatSec to have a voice, opportunities for collaboration and impact it will be a significant value add to the ecosystem.

It is purported that natural disasters cost the US, alone, $306 billion in 2017. There is no denying the fact that humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) is an industry. Few understand the full scope of this, or like to associate the word “business” with humanitarian operations, but whether an NGO, a Federal agency, or a contractor, disaster response is big time business.

The response ecosystem, as it stands today, is predominantly predicated on a reactionary recovery model where resources, infrastructure and funds are allocated to “response” efforts. The approach, in addition to being reactionary based instead of proactive, is also very top-down vs. bottom up. While the conversation, and focus is shifting to place more emphasis on proactive readiness and local capacity building, it will be years before bureaucracies, ingrained institutional culture and operating norms allows the HADR community to adapt, modernize and meet current demands effectively.

With the widely touted statistic that for every $1 spent on proactive emergency readiness measures $6 are saved on relief and recovery spend, it is clear that a new market opportunity is presenting itself. Disaster prevention and proactive readiness should pique the interest of the entire ecosystem. From insurance companies to local municipalities, small businesses, NGOs and entrepreneurs, making communities “ready” is now a quantifiable proposition.

There is no question that “disaster capitalism” is a reality that is often exploitative and inequitable in nature. But, it is not as black and white and or as linear as seminal authors in the space like Naomi Klein make it out to be in works including The Shock Doctrine and The Battle for Paradise.

It should be noted I am a fan of the author and her perspective. I use her work as an example because the recent title is relevant to Puerto Rico where we have been active for over eight months. Her thesis focuses on the exploitative nature of “disaster capitalists” in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria on the island, but offers little insight into the underlying nuances inherent to Puerto Rico and the current situation. Her general accusation against the private sector, while well intentioned and accurate, in many ways, leaves large gaps and exemplifies some of the challenges and dangers of over simplifying a reality when trying to convey very complex subjects.

In disaster response, there are multiple angles, nuanced narratives, and truths, that must all be factored to realize a clear and accurate picture. It is hard, and often inaccurate to make anything, whether perceived to be right, wrong, positive or negative fit into a perfectly defined absolute box. While systems are broken and tremendous inefficiencies exist, there is no room for blame and accusation in humanitarian work, only positive action, constant improvement and creative solution oriented work.

Disaster capitalism exists because communities are vulnerable, traditional resource infrastructure and systems are failing, and large vacuums of need, not able to be filled by government or conventional resources, present in large-scale disasters. As in any other “market” environment where there is a need service providers materialize, and this is where the negative aspects of disaster capitalism commence.

What if we, as a collective HADR and business community were to change the playbook? What if we were to understand the shortcomings of conventional systems and instead of blaming were to celebrate them as current realities and work with the various resource communities for the good that they bring? What if we shifted focus from reactionary top down approaches to response and recovery to proactive whole community emergency readiness efforts? What if we shifted the market opportunity from disaster capitalism in the aftermath of a storm to “disaster Preventionism”? There is money to be made, tax dollars saved, lives to be protected and detrimental economic impact to stave off — it’s a win win on all fronts.

To accomplish this, a good starting point would be focusing on identifying, supporting and amplifying local capacity proactively to position providers in local vulnerable areas to be ready, outfitted and trained to serve in times of emergency. In this way, local market operators could become the service providers in times of need and could become the economic beneficiaries of recovery spend, staving off the dynamic of opening impaired areas to outside, exploitive and predatory services and operators by negating the need.

If major resources were put behind local projects and actors like The Foundation for Puerto Rico, proyecto mutuo apoyo mariana puerto rico, or the work of people like Manolo Lopez in the aftermath of Maria in Puerto Rico, things would have gone differently. But the mechanisms and systems are not yet in place with larger resource communities to enable them to rapidly identify and support these types of informal, organic community centric efforts.

This is not at all to imply outside services, subject matter expertise and resources are not imperative and needed, especially in the acute response stage of large-scale disasters to assist local populations, government and municipalities. This is also not to imply that all contractors, services or large international or non-impact region specific NGOs operating in response are predatory, in fact it’s the opposite. But the questions in regard to the current dynamic need to be posed: Does it make sense for the majority of recovery dollars and spend, despite funding origin to go to service providers, NGO’s and contractors from outside the impaired area? How does that help to re-invigorate and establish economic stability in a ravaged environment? How does that change the dynamic in an impaired region that will undoubtedly face more occurrences from one of dependence on these types of services to a state of proactive readiness and self-sufficiency?

The notion of giving and donating in time of a disaster is an intrinsic instinct. But society needs to come to realize that sometimes sending tons of external supplies and manpower from outside an impacted area often does anything but help recovery. When you give things for free, in a non-strategic manner, despite great intention, dependency is created and local capacity is undercut. This hampers and slows overall economic recovery. It has been our organization’s experience that the most viable, well equipped and sustainable responders are local businesses, entrepreneurs, and small local NGOs and Foundations. These are also often the groups conventional aid is not designed to support and that find themselves in competition with better funded outside resources.

The new “disaster capitalists” should be local businesses and NGO’s in vulnerable areas. If local companies, organizations, foundations and entrepreneurs focused on readying themselves to be capable of providing continuity of service despite severity of impact, they would inherently become their own response infrastructure. If prevention of disruption of service and continuity of operations can be achieved than these organization stand to directly benefit financially in the aftermath of a disaster. That is not a bad thing when you consider the implications of having existing local businesses and organizations able to provide the emergency services needed and forgoing the need to ramp up such significant and costly large scale relief efforts that would see other external organizations reap the financial benefits.

Simply by ensuring an ability to deliver existing services to the customer community despite impact to traditional infrastructure, local businesses could remove the need gaps that afford predatory external “disaster capitalist” opportunities. By reducing dependence on external relief, be it from government, larger foreign NGOs etc. and proactive efforts to put redundant and hardened systems in place ahead of disasters would change the HADAR ecosystem. This approach is new, and requires a real cultural shift from one of dependence to proactive preparedness, but the outcomes should outweigh the challenges inherent to making any such societal and business culture shift. The funding for this would require that current funding sources from Federal to NGO reimagine how dollars are allocated.

Shifting of buzzword terminology from “resiliency” to “readiness”

Resiliency has been the buzzword in the HADR community for years. From the Rockefeller 100 resilient cities initiative to many of the major actors in the space, “community “resiliency” has been the goal. However, little work, resources or tactical, tangible action has been directed to actual cultivation of proactive whole community readiness. Its hard to be “resilient” if your not “ready.” We have always viewed resiliency as an end state that could only be achieved through proactive readiness measures. Communities that don’t prepare are inherently not resilient, and it is the vast majority of communities today that are still in a very vulnerable dependent state that rely on external resources in the aftermath of occurrences.

We are excited to see efforts in Puerto Rico shifting to proactive readiness. While small local actors are the ones making the biggest moves, the rhetoric from institutions like FEMA as evidenced by their 2018 Strategic plan is shifting to be more proactive in nature. When conventional and institutional resources establish the mechanisms to operate dynamically to identify true local operators and to put real resources behind them, the outcome of severe storm impacts will be greatly different than what we experience today. Here is to the shift from reactionary and dependent to proactive and ready!

This is a heavily nuanced topic and no black and white statements were meant to be made here. Every disaster, from Haiti to the Philippines and Puerto Rico to Texas is different and requires a different kind of response, resources and approach. The only objective here is to stress the power of local capacity and the importance to support it in conducting response and relief operations.

Photo Credit: Mike Atwood

It’s no secret that our informal, personal relationships are among the most valuable resources in life and business. The same applies true in the realm of disaster response and readiness. The aid machine is a behemoth. It is an incredibly complex, nuanced, politicized ecosystem that requires expertise to navigate. The resources brought to bear in large scale disaster response operations, whether being administered by FEMA, the UN etc are exceptional. However, those resources are not always effectively stewarded, deployed and or utilized in a way that serves the impacted population in the most advantageous manner. They are often brought to play in a top-down manner that sometimes works to undercut local, more sustainable restoration efforts. That’s not to say they are not critical players, but it’s to suggest there may be better ways to utilize such agencies in support of local solutions.

In Puerto Rico, we have found, like we did in Haiti, the Philippines and everywhere else we have responded, that the informal networks and relationships we had and formed resulted in the most expeditious of efforts.

To highlight this in Puerto Rico:

We are long past the response and initial phase of the recovery stage after Maria. The long-term players here have started to establish themselves and an informal network of doers has started to emerge. One of these actors is Christine Nieves who is the Co-Director of the Proyecto de apoyo Mutuo Mariana. This initiative exemplifies the power and capability of the community itself to adequately handle response needs without relying on external aid. Their efforts are now directed to setting an example that can be emulated around Puerto Rico and abroad for how to future proof and make a community ready.

We received a text from Christine shown below this past Tuesday May 22nd:

The container ended up weighing around 20,000 lbs and was a Box Power solar system that puts out 17K, to power the community center the initiative is standing up in Mariana. How the solution ended up being sourced and funded by a relationship between Christine’s project and Mutual Aid Disaster Response is another example of the power of informal relationships that form between groups taking action on the ground outside the purview of the traditional aid ecosystem.

When we received the text we made a phone call to Luis Arocho, the serving CIO for Puerto Rico who had become an instrumental collaborator in our response efforts on the island. Within short order, Luis had placed a call to the fire chief in the region and a solution had been sourced to handle the unloading and positioning of the container in the mountain village.

There is not a lot of equipment on the island capable of lifting and moving such a heavy container in an expeditionary / remote environment. As the story was recounted to us by Christine and her team, the fire fighters, local tractor operators and the community worked for countless hours to build a makeshift road and to unload the beast of a system in an incredibly precarious, muddy and hilly area that resulted in almost losing the crane truck over the edge of the hill.

Thus, with a quick phone call and the willingness of friends and the community to simply help one another out, a complex logistical tasking that would normally cost a good deal of money was sourced and executed at no cost and in quick fashion. Every step of the way, from how Christine, her Co- Director and the local community worked together, to Mutual Aid Disaster Response sourcing and helping to raise funds for the system in conjunction with Box Power’s own fundraising efforts, Luis’s time, and the incredible efforts on behalf of the fire department perfectly exemplify the harmonious capacity of whole community response and readiness. It is a model worth looking at and emulating. Aid does not need to be remarkably expensive, complicated and or reactionary. If proactive measures are taken, like what is happening in Mariana and communities step up and realize the capabilities and capacity they have without being dependent, the aid paradigm can be shifted from reactionary to proactive.