DRAFT/PRELIMINARY/CONFIDENTIAL Crisis Communications Plan for: Prepared by: Myelle Marley, Austin Helms, Hannah Styles, Abbey Ball, & Dexter Phuong Date October 24, 2019 Purpose: A crisis communications plan provides organizational leaders with a framework for understanding and making decisions about how to communicate with those impacted during a crisis. The elements outlined in the plan should be considered for both strategic planning and implementation purposes. I. Background information about the organization including past crises or negative publicity ● Folkmoot is a nonprofit organization started by Waynesville surgeon, Dr. Clinton Border . His dream was to bring bring diversity and advocates for understanding of international traditions through a festival demonstration. Folkmoot works to educate Western North Carolina about different cultures, and customs practiced around the world. ● The folkmoot festival season occurs yearly. It begins on the third Thursday of each July and continues until the last Sunday of the month. Each year, 7-9 international performing groups along with local Cherokee and Appalachian performers are invited to perform at various western North Carolina venues between the Cherokee Qualla boundary to Hickory, North Carolina. Audiences can expect approximately 200+ musicians and dancers throughout the various events. Weekend events are usually, but not always, scheduled in the towns of Waynesville, Canton, Maggie Valley, Clyde and Lake ​ Junaluska. ○ Crises situations or negative publicity: language barriers, tension between acting groups, misunderstandings between performers and public. ○ Past crises: ■ A terror threat from an individual on Facebook which lead to a police investigation ■ A performer stole clothing from a mall and a security guard did not want to let the performer leave which caused legal issues since they were not a citizen ■ A performer had a panic attack and was unable to function at certain events ■ An entire event was rained on which made vendors, attendees, and performers angry. Thus, an event coordinator had to reschedule the entire event. ■ Two different performance groups did not get along due to cultural beliefs, and at one point a fight broke out. ■ Performers were harassed at the local Walmart with racial slurs and a guide tried fighting back. ■ Crisis where a performer had a bad reaction to a medication and an individual said that the performer overdosed which lead to panic. II. Prodromes: Prodromes are warning signs and can be determined by reviewing and learning ​ from organizations or individuals in similar industries or situations. ● We are going to discuss past crises in order to highlight prodomes in case an active shooter event were to happen at Folkmoot ● The Gilroy Garlic Festival is a food festival held in Gilroy, California in July. In July of 2019 19-year-old Santino William Legan opened fire at the festival killing three individuals and injuring 12. Legan was an angry and unstable man who acted out violently and used racial and ethnic anger to justify the shooting. ○ On the final day of the festival, Legan entered the festival by cutting a hole in a fence ○ Police at the festival reacted to this situation within a minute ○ The heavy presence of security and police at the festival resulted in a quick end to his violence ○ Although the Garlic Festival crisis could not be averted the police presence and security helped while the crisis was occuring. ○ However, Legan bypassed security screenings by cutting his way into the fence, thus there needed to be more security at the fences surrounding the festival. ● The Route 91 Harvest music festival was a festival held on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. 58 people were killed and 413 were injured. The shooter, Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada, fired more than 1,100 rounds of ammunition from his suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel. His motive is unknown. This is the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the history of the United States. ○ Paddock was able to smuggle a stockpile of weapons into rooms without getting questioned. Bellhops even helped him carry many bags. ○ Because of his status as a high roller nobody questioned why he was bringing so many bags into separate rooms. ○ This festival is a perfect example of why security is a must ○ This crisis could have been averted if the security presence was much stronger within the Mandalay Bay ○ The placement of this festival also made it a high risk zone since it was a highly populated area ○ There were two main prodromes during this situation such as the main big one being the lack of security presence throughout the Mandalay Bay Hotel, and Paddock’s multiple heavy bags. III. List of Potential Risks/Crises ranked by likelihood and impact ● Active Shooter ● Internal crises (Performer/ staff issues or building issues) ● Weather related issues ● Medical emergencies ● Bomb threat ● Fatality/ Fatalities ● Hostage situations IV. Identification of Crisis Scenario/Objectives for which plan is being developed ● For the crisis scenario we will be focusing on an active shooter attacking Folkmoot headquarters in Waynesville, North Carolina. The objectives for this particular scenario will be to inform people on the grounds of Folkmoot first and foremost, contact the families of those affected, have as little injured/casualties as possible, and to stay in contact with WLOS, radio stations, and newspapers in the area. We want to keep people informed on what has happened with sincerity and empathy. V. Identification of Crisis Team and contact info 24-7 The Folkmoot Crisis Team is responsible for communicating with their key publics as well as the media. ● David Francis - Board President - [email protected] - ​ ​ (828)-400-0212 ● Angie Schwab - Executive Director/ Key spokesperson - [email protected] - ​ ​ (828)-550-9336 ● Marion Ferguson - Transportation coordinator ● Bill Graham - Programming Coordinator - [email protected] ● Elizabeth Burson - Operations and Administrative Coordinator - [email protected] ● Laura Shepherd - Ticket and Events Coordinator - [email protected] ● Lisa Wilnoty - Cherokee Coordinator - [email protected] ● Vivian Popas - Operations Assistant - [email protected] ● Interns (Group Guides) VI. Identification of other organizations/individuals with which organization may need to coordinate: ● Waynesville Police Department ● Haywood County Emergency Services ● Waynesville Fire Department ● Haywood Regional Medical Center ● Mission Health ● Counseling/Grief services VII. List of Key Publics (Prioritized) ● Event Attendees ● Performers ● Staff ● Citizens of Western North Carolina (Waynesville, Asheville, Sylva, Cullowhee, Franklin, Bryson City, Cherokee, etc.) ● Citizens from around the world ● Media outlets: ○ WLOS TV ○ The Mountaineer ○ WNCW FM (public radio station) ○ WCQS FM (Blue Ridge Public Radio) VIII. Identification of Channels/Methods for reaching publics Role of website? To tell about Folkmoot, location, contact information, past festivals, inform the public about events, and post updates about crises Key bloggers? Interns manage blogs Social Media? Twitter, facebook, instagram Who will monitor? Bill Graham Key media outlets? WLOS, The Mountaineer, Asheville Citizen Times, possibly Asheville radio stations. IX. Identification of Key Questions/Media Preparation: Sample questions: What happened? (facts only; no speculation) ● A man with a firearm entered Folkmoot headquarters in Waynesville, North Carolina around 11:07 a.m. Saturday morning. Multiple shots were fired and injuries were reported. What do we know? What do we NOT know? ● We know that police reached the scene approximately 10 minutes later and were able to apprehend the suspect. We do not know exactly how many were injured or the extent of their injuries, but all victims were transported to Haywood County Hospital. The reasoning behind this horrible attack is still under investigation. We will reach out again when we have more details. Thank you. What are we doing to address the situation? ● We are working closely with the Haywood County Police Department and the Waynesville Police Department to better understand this horrible situation. We are also answering questions from media outlets and consoling everyone who was affected by this tragedy. There are grief services and translators at headquarters to help those who were impacted. Victims families are being contacted as we work to console both staff and performers. Why did this happen? ● We are unsure what gunman’s motives were at this time. Did organization do everything it could to prevent this from happening? What policies or training programs do we have in place? ● Folkmoot has active shooter training once a year, although we can never be fully prepared for a situation like this one. Most individuals inside were able to get to the safe areas we practiced in the drill which resulted in less injuries. Our policy is a gun-free zone, but in this situation, the policy was not applicable. What can or will be done to prevent this from happening again? ● We will be working carefully with the Haywood County Police Department and Waynesville Police Department to further our preparation for the future and we are considering administering armed guards at entrances during events as well as multiple active shooter trainings a year. When will more information be available? ● We will issue another statement in the next few hours as more information arises. When will the