08/21 - 0800 - Monday
More that 250 participants filled the bleachers at building 557, the temporary home of Strong Angel III, and anxiously chatted about the days to come.

Eric Rasmussen lead the briefing covering many of the points from Sunday and emphasizing the value and importance of the Strong Angel III demonstration, the lessons learned and the bonds and friendships that will develop. The bottom line – We need to improve our efficiencies and capabilities because in a disaster response and crisis management, inefficiencies cost lives.

We also heard from Dave Warner on the ShadowLite plans which focus on collecting data from the community through multiple daily sorties and also will offer some seminars including ICS/NIMS training and certification.

Nigel Snoad talked through the rhythm of the week and the daily plan and then gave us some insight on the social aspects of a pandemic. As people begin to get sick and fear spreads, people begin staying home from work. Essential services, police, fire, trash collection, begin to suffer. In our scenario these challenges are compounded by a power black out and then the loss of communications, cell phones, cable TV, Internet service etc. People, some sick and some thinking they are sick show up at hospitals, fear rises and begins to spiral. Clearly Strong Angel must ‘Stand up’ quickly and bring Situational Awareness to the command and control organization.

We were honored to have by Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart, well known for their work on defining a framework for transforming ‘Failed’ nations into Sovereign nations and focusing aid and support programs to that end.. Eric R delivered a San Diego Yellow Pages to Ashraf and ask him to look it over and see if Strong Angel III was comprehensive in its out reach to the community.

Dr Ashraf Ghani is currently Chancellor of Kabul University. From 2002-4 he was Finance Minister of Afghanistan, and from November 2001 to February 2002 was Adviser to the United Nations on Afghanistan. Clare Lockhart is currently a Research Fellow at Overseas Development Institute. From 2001-5 she worked first at the UN on Afghanistan and then was seconded as Adviser to the Ministry of Finance in Afghanistan.

Also attending Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, A conversation about the future of journalism "by the people, for the people" and thoughts on methods to avoid social disintegration.

And many others – sorry my notes are incomplete