Originally called disaster recovery plans, your continuity of operations plan, (COP)
addresses not just natural disasters and fires but anything that could make your facilities or systems unusable or inoperable. It also includes situations where critical personnel are unavailable due to an emergency.
In a large organization, the national office could suffer extensive damage by fire, flood, or some weather-related catastrophe. There could be an outage of telephone, computer, web-based services, or electrical systems.
In a small organization, for instance, a chapter that does not have an office or staff may face a fate similar to their larger brethren; a sudden unavailability of a meeting place, a website outage, or the death, or resignation of a key officer.
We must also consider foreign and domestic terrorism, biological and public health-related illnesses, and diseases.
Your plan must include communication, finance, and a line of succession to get your operations back on lune as soon as practicable.