Changes to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act

Using mass notification for legitimate marketing purposes just got a little more complicated. New regulations for the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) went into effect on October 16, 2013, imposing written consent requirements for prerecorded or autodialed telemarketing calls.

The TCPA applies to both voice and SMS text messages, if they are transmitted for marketing purposes. The TCPA was designed to prohibit the sending of unsolicited commercial messages to landlines and cell phones.

By definition a “telemarketing” call includes those that offer, market, or promote products or services to consumers. If a call is conducted to induce the purchase of goods or services, it is a telemarketing call. Even calls that have both an informational component and a telemarketing purpose are considered to be telemarketing (e.g., calls or text messages reminding consumers that their gift certificates or coupons are about to expire).

Calls and messages sent for emergency purposes, information delivery only or other non-commercial purposes are exempt from the FCC’s regulations.

Other exceptions include the following:

• Calls for noncommercial purposes, including school and university notifications, airline notification calls, bank and credit card balance and fraud alerts, research or survey calls, package deliveries, and cellular usage notifications
• Calls by or on behalf of tax-exempt nonprofit organizations (although nonprofit entities engaged in for-profit-type activities should remain cautious)
• Calls for political purposes
• Debt collection calls
• Calls made by loan servicers regarding the servicing of a consumer loan or home loan modification, and refinance calls placed by loan servicers

As of October 16, 2013 you must have prior express written consent before the pre-recorded message call or SMS text is placed. This consent can be obtained in electronic or digital form, which can include email, website form, text message, telephone key-press or voice recording.

Read More:  http://www.loeb.com/new-written-consent-requirements-under-the-tcpa/

Choose Your Words Carefully

Using mass notification to communicate with your citizens in non-emergency situations requires a delicate balancing act between transparency and restraint. The Palo Alto Fire Department recently learned a lesson in choosing words more carefully for a non-emergency alert.

Out of an abundance of caution, the Palo Alto Fire Department Chief decided to alert the county to an upcoming rescue simulation that would involve a helicopter landing in the middle of town. This simulation was to take place during a charity pancake breakfast. When crafting the alert message the Chief mentioned the pancake event first and the helicopter second. Unfortunately this gave many residents the impression that the purpose of the alert was to promote the charity event.

The message in its entirety:

“This a message from the Palo Alto Fire Department. Palo Alto firefighters will be hosting a community pancake breakfast benefiting Project Safety Net this Saturday, Oct. 12, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Rinconada Park, located at 777 Embarcadero Road. The event will include a simulated automobile rescue using the Jaws of Life and a live landing of Life Flight’s helicopter. For additional information, please find us on Facebook and Twitter or visit Project Safety Net at http://www.psnpaoloalto.com.”

The message was sent to 27,000 people and the department received fewer than 10 complaints, none of which were about the helicopter landing. Instead of feeling like the department was keeping them informed of potentially alarming events, some residents got the impression the system was being abused to promote an event.

The lesson to be learned is the need to choose words very carefully in an alert message. Overuse of a trusted public alerting system has the potential to turn citizens away from registering or even paying attention.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_24311039/palo-alto-use-alert-system-draws-fire

Emergency Planning for Houses of Worship

FEMA offers a multitude of resources for every imaginable emergency situation and scenario. Now FEMA has developed guidance documentation that specifically caters to the unique needs of churches and congregations with its new “Guide for Developing High-Quality Emergency Operations Plans for Houses of Worship.”

This new guide provides houses of worship with information regarding emergency operations planning for the spectrum of threats and hazards they may face. It discusses actions that may be taken before, during, and after an incident in order to reduce the impact on property and any loss of life and it encourages every house of worship to develop an emergency operations plan (EOP).

The guide is organized in four sections:

• The principles of emergency operations planning
• A process for developing, implementing, and continually refining a house of worship’s EOP with community partners
• A discussion of the form and function of a house of worship’s EOP
• A closer look that discusses house of worship emergency planning in the event of an active shooter situation.

This guide is designed to be scalable for use by small to large-sized houses of worship in order to help navigate the planning process. For houses of worship that also operate a school, please see the “Guide for Developing High-quality School Emergency Operations Plans” for planning considerations specific to the school environment.

Learn more:

http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/REMS%20K-12%20Guide%20508_0.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/developing_eops_for_houses_of_worship_final.pdf