My experience has always been that preparedness is a tough sell. The value seems to go up after there has been an event and a bad outcome was a result. The problem with fixing something after a problem occurs is that people have gotten hurt or worse when they didn’t have to. Organizational spending on preparedness because it’s the right thing to do seems to not be working all that well.
I wonder what the result would be if we offered a monetary incentive based upon an organization’s elective participation in a no-notice exercise lottery. Most states have a lottery and each state has its own formula to determine where the money collected from lotteries goes. 
In 2014 Americans spent a total of over $70 billion playing lottery games. States pocketed about 30% of this total, roughly 6% went to the retailers selling tickets and the rest was paid out in prizes.
My idea would be to let organizations (public or private) individually and/or as community coalitions opt-in to the exercise lottery. By doing so they would be eligible to win various prizes based upon the complexity, scope and their performance if they are randomly chosen over the course of the year.
Each year there would be 12 (one per month) organizations chosen from all those that opt-in. Since no organization will know if they might be selected any one year , I expect they will maintain their level of preparedness at a high level just in case. Organizations would not know when the exercise might take place and would be required to submit their existing plans, policies, procedures and past training efforts. Scenarios would be chosen based on their hazard vulnerability analysis or some historical event in the area. Organizations not chosen will have their entry weighted slightly in future lotteries to increase theirs odds of being chosen.
Funding for the administration, development, conduct and evaluation would come from existing lottery funds. Monetary prizes would range for a minimum of $150,000 just for participating upwards to $3.5 million. 
All proceeds would be required to be dedicated to correct findings in the plan of improvement that organizations would receive.
Traditional means of promoting preparedness appears to produce traditional results. What do you think about using innovative ideas to help organizations achieve and maintain a higher level of preparedness and reward them for doing so?
The Quaker in me dislikes lotteries; the cynic says it’s worth a shot.
Hahaha
Great concept Jan! I think, when looking at the various contracts and government exercise costs, this cost could probably be lowered a bit by having an ongoing system like you propose which could potentially increase the winnings.
This is definitely going in a good direction!
Not a bad idea. Unfortunately monetary funding is not the only issue. The societies – the people themselves and within their communities need to know what to do in any emergency situation, whether large or small scale. A huge problem is that most people just function according to their daily, perhaps mundane, lifestyle. More often than not, when it hits home is when people pursue some sort of involvement; and even then, the pursuit can be short term. As an educator, it might be of benefit, to mandate a course or courses for certification and / or degree completion. A good start would be at the pre-school, middle school, high school……..Just a thought.
You are correct about our lack of interest regarding topics of preparedness. Once an event happens attention is drawn to one topic area (active shooter for example),but I have found interest only lasts about 90 days. Raising children with a preparedness mindset is certainly an option unfortunately our school days are crammed with test prep information which needs to get out. It would be great to find a small school district and conduct a study, following children on into young adulthood to see if early education makes a difference. The one upside to my lottery concept is that citizens can participate. A CERT could agree to be evaluated and if they are selected for the lottery, they at least get $150,000 which is huge in terms of CERT support.
$150,000 for a CERT program would be enormous and could carry us for 3 years doing everything we’d like to do!
VA and MD recently mandated CPR/AED for all high school graduates. It isn’t true preparedness but definitely a step in the right direction. I would love to see Teen CERT, or adult CERT (for Seniors) as an elective, at a minimum. This could spur thought, motivation and perhaps further involvement. I agree, starting at a younger age would be great.
My local PD, Police Volunteers, County CERT and Fire are teaming up in a couple of weeks to pilot a kids preparedness academy for 6 hours, incorporating hands on activities and a mix of prep, personal safety, fire safety and more. If successful, we plan to take it county wide next year.
We are also finalizing planning for a Preparedness Expo in SEP with CERT, Fire, Sheriff’s and Economic Development to showcase Response Capabilities, educate on preparedness, educate on what to bring to shelters, family and business planning, and lots more.
At the same time, we finally have a Continuity Planning effort ongoing with all of County Gov.
It’s a start but, lots more to do!