NTI Group Announces Indiana University Selects Connect-ED(R) for Campus-Notification

IU-Notify will allow university and campus leaders to reach thousands of students in minutes

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NETWORK]-- September 25, 2007 - Indiana University announced it has selected the Connect-ED® communication service by the NTI Group Inc. (NTI) to provide a notification system that will be capable of reaching faculty, students and staff on all eight campuses within minutes. The service, part of the broader "IU-Notify" initiative, will be implemented with limited capabilities in October, tested in phases through fall, and should be fully functional by the end of the calendar year.

"This system provides a much-needed tool to reach the entire IU community with important information on short notice," said IU President Michael A. McRobbie. "It can be used for everything from weather delays to other administrative news. It is essential that we be able to notify students immediately in emergency situations because up-to-date communication helps minimize the spread of misinformation, maintain order and provide direction."

"We recognized the important role that immediate communication plays in keeping members of our community safe and have been looking at these services for some time. Of course, the post-event reports of the Virginia Tech incident absolutely served to verify our thinking and speed our process," said Mark Bruhn, associate vice president, information and infrastructure assurance. "As a main component of our critical incident communications plan, IU-Notify with its multimodal capabilities will allow us to keep individuals informed, whether they are in their dorms or offices, sitting in front of their computers, or on their way to class."

Bruhn added, "This system allows IU to load contact information for all students, faculty, staff and for others who may be physically on one of our campuses for an extended period, such as IU Foundation employees, volunteer faculty, visiting scholars, and contract employees. We also provide for parents who may wish to subscribe to certain types of communications." The data will come from central student, employee and faculty databases, and from an online self-service form in IU's OneStart portal (onestart.iu.edu). The online form is scheduled for release in early October. A strategy/policy group has been formed to address issues, policies, standards and procedures for IU-Notify.

About Indiana University
Indiana University enrolls 99,122 undergraduate and graduate students on campuses in Bloomington, Indianapolis, New Albany, South Bend, Kokomo, Fort Wayne, Richmond and Gary. It employs more than 16,000 faculty and staff.

Source: Vendor Press Release

Send Word Now and BNET Partner to Deliver Emergency Notification for Corporate Emergency Access System Members

System Members Successfully Notified During Manhattan Steam Pipe Explosion Emergency

LAS VEGAS --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- September 24, 2007 - Send Word Now, a provider of on-demand alerting and response services, has announced a partnership with Business Network of Emergency Resources Inc. (BNET) a to integrate BNET’s CEAS with Send Word Now’s real-time mobile alerts via text and voice messages on cell phones, BlackBerry and Treo devices.

Created by BNET, the Corporation Emergency Access System (CEAS) uses a “critical employee access card” system to mitigate the economic loss incurred through unforeseen emergencies such as the recent steam pipe explosion in Manhattan, which resulted in travel and access restrictions. By enabling business to initiate a re-entry and recovery process as quickly as possible, CEAS allows companies to maintain core IT systems, meet regulatory requirements and secure critical data and records in the aftermath of an emergency; all with the aim of continuing the functions of business throughout or soon after a disaster.

During this summer’s steam pipe explosion on Lexington Avenue in New York City, steam and mud were forced from the ground near Grand Central Station on East 41st Street from Third to Lexington Avenue forcing people to evacuate the area. With the Send Word Now service, BNET was able to send text or voice alerts to CEAS members’ cell phones and PDAs. They were notified immediately when CEAS was activated by the City and were given status updates on the situation.

“We were extremely impressed with the deployment of the CEAS program at the site of the Manhattan steam pipe explosion, and were pleased that the Send Word Now on-demand alerting and response service was such a vital part of our communications,” said Peter Picarillo, Executive Director of BNET, Inc. “Response to an emergency is clearly more than just evacuating people; it is also about getting people back in. This emergency situation demonstrated to us and to all the CEAS participating businesses that the City of New York takes business recovery very seriously.”

In addition to New York City, BNET’s CEAS program has also been implemented in Buffalo, New York, Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Stamford, Connecticut. More cities like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are expected to participate in the near future. Any city, county or state can adopt CEAS through a written agreement with BNET. Once adopted by a municipality, any business can elect to participate in the program, assigning a designated number of CEAS cards to critical employees or contractors, prior to any emergency or disaster.

Source: Vendor Press Release

New Canaan Adopts Connect-CTY® Service to Improve Emergency Preparedness and Communication

Testing to Ensure Residents are Ready to Receive Important Messages

NEW CANAAN, CT--[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- September 24th. The Town of New Canaan announced it has arranged with the mass communication provider Connect-CTY for a service that provides town officials the ability to communicate with all residents regarding time-sensitive matters, such as emergencies and important planned and unforeseen events.

This important tool allows town officials to send and track personalized voice messages to thousands of residents, businesses, and local officials in just minutes. The service requires no additional hardware; it can be used from any computer with Internet access or telephone, ensuring that officials can send vital messages from wherever they are located. Messages can be sent by email, text-messaging-to-cell-phones as well as by voice to the recipient’s primary phone. The town also can track homes that were reached with a report on the results of outgoing messages. The system is provided by the company that provides a similar alert notification service for the New Canaan School District.

“Quick, accurate communication in an emergency situation has an impact on safety,” said James Cole, Emergency Management Director and Chair of the New Canaan Police Commission. “Having a fully-featured system that allows us to send messages to the community through several modes of contact will enhance our likelihood of reaching all residents, whether they are at home, work or out of town.” “With Connect-CTY, we have the capacity to immediately inform the entire community, or just affected neighborhoods, regarding time-sensitive matters of public interest, such as flooding, a gas leak or missing person,” Cole said.

Town administrators can target messages to an unlimited number of groups – everything from mobilizing emergency response teams to notifying necessary department heads. Authorized users also can use a map on the Connect-CTY system to contact specific geographical locations, sending messages only to select neighborhoods when needed.

Primary residential and business phones in New Canaan will automatically be included in the system. However, residents can opt-in to provide their complete information (up to three phone numbers and two e-mail addresses for each registered user) by visiting the New Canaan Web site (www.newcanaan.info) and clicking on the indicated link to enter their information into the secure database. Families can make each member a registered user. Those without Internet access can have their information added into the system by calling the Emergency Operations Center at (203) 594-4100 and leaving a recorded message. Residents with call blocking services can ensure they can receive the town’s time-sensitive calls by adding (203) 594-3000 to their approved number list.

“The best way to keep residents safe is through communication, and this service makes it easy,” reported Mr. Cole. “With the Connect-CTY service, administrators have a powerful tool for mass communication without having to purchase new computers, software and telephone lines.”

New Canaan will be conducting its first test-call on Sept. 28, in order to ensure all residents who would like to be included in the system are given a chance to correct their phone numbers. If residents do not receive the call, they should visit the town’s Web site at www.newcanaan.info and click on the indicated link to enter their contact information into the Connect-CTY database.

Residents without Internet access can have their information added into the database by calling (203) 594-4100 and leaving a recorded message.

Jim Cole, town director of emergency preparedness and chairman of the Police Commission was quoted in The Norwalk Advocate on October 6, 2007 as saying "New Canaan contracted with NTI for one year at a cost of $17,500."

Source: Town of New Canaan Press Release

University of Missouri Expands Emergency Notification Capabilities with 3n’s InstaCom Campus Alert

64,000-Student University to Rely on 3n to Ensure the Safety of Campuses.
All State of Missouri Agencies Eligible for Emergency Notification Services Under State-Wide Contract.

GLENDALE, CA--[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- September 24, 2007 – 3n (National Notification Network), a mass notification system provider, today announced that the University of Missouri’s four campuses will expand their emergency notification capabilities using 3n’s InstaCom Campus Alert.

The University and 3n announced Monday that the 3n InstaCom Campus Alert system has been selected to automate emergency communications with students, faculty, staff and administration on the UM campuses in Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis. Under a three-year contract, the 3n system will be installed during the coming weeks.

Using 3n’s InstaCom Campus Alert system, the University of Missouri plans to communicate during emergencies using a variety of modes of communication, including phone, e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging, pager, fax and BlackBerry devices.

The system is planned to allow rapid communication with an array of devices on or off campuses, expanding the University’s capacity in delivering quick and reliable crisis notifications to the entire UM community or to targeted audiences on a specific campus.

“The University of Missouri is committed to providing a safe and secure environment to learn, live and work,” said Dr. Gordon H. Lamb, Interim President of the University of Missouri. “By partnering with 3n for its mass notification services, the University builds on that commitment in a significant and strategic way. This will help us to quickly and efficiently communicate with our students, faculty, staff and others using an array of technologies.”

Prior to selecting 3n, the University of Missouri relied heavily on phone trees, voice messages and e-mail, which may not reach all necessary audiences with the appropriate messages in a timely manner.

With about 64,000 students plus thousands of faculty and staff spread statewide across four campuses, the University of Missouri’s crisis notification and communications needs are far-reaching and complex. The University needed the capacity to issue event-based alerts tailored to specific, targeted audiences as well as the ability to communicate rapidly across a single campus or system-wide for large-scale emergencies.

The University identified several key criteria in its notification system selection process: ease of use; ability to integrate with existing systems; guaranteed infrastructure security and reliability; and ability to address challenges specific to a campus environment, including delivering messages using student-friendly contact paths, such as instant messaging and true two-way Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging.

About the University of Missouri
The University of Missouri is the state’s land-grant, research and doctoral-granting public higher education system, with campuses at Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis. The University was founded in 1839 as the first public university west of the Mississippi River and the first state University in Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase territory. For more information, log onto the University of Missouri System homepage at www.umsystem.edu

Source: Vendor Press Release

MIR3 Announces International SOS OEM Medical Alerting Agreement

MIR3's inWebServices integration to provide Intelligent Notification to International SOS global network of Medical Assistance Alarm Centers

SAN DIEGO, CA --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- September 19, 2007 – MIR3™, the technology leader in Intelligent Notification (IN®) solutions for global enterprises, has signed an OEM agreement with International SOS, the world's leading provider of medical assistance, international healthcare, security services, and outsourced customer care to deliver MIR3's Intelligent Notification technology--two-way phone, cell, SMS, email, and pager capability at any time, any where - to clients globally through International SOS Online Services.

"When combined with the International SOS global network of Alarm Centers, the joint solution ensures the accuracy and availability of the latest client information, such as medical condition, family contact details, and certification for air evacuation." Todd Schofield, chief technology officer of International SOS, said, "At International SOS, we are constantly looking for innovations that can further improve our emergency response infrastructure. Delivered through our Online Services tools, the coupling of the MIR3 intelligent notification engine with our global network of 27 Alarm Centers will enhance the speed and cost efficiency of our emergency response infrastructure."

“The MIR3 fast, secure communication platform is a natural solution to the demanding notification requirements of a leading global enterprise operation such as International SOS,” said Dan Long, chief technology officer at MIR3. “Our global infrastructure ensures the success of our partners.” MIR3’s inWebServices™ product allows OEM partners to tightly integrate MIR3’s communication engine into their applications and infrastructure. Built on secure, enterprise-grade technology, inWebServices bridges the gap between all standard forms of communication to enable high-speed two-way communications to tens of thousands of users and devices across all modalities, including email, wireless pager, PDA, landline, mobile phone, satellite phone, TDD/TTY, fax, and two-way SMS. MIR3's notification capabilities can also be used for routine high- volume messaging and all-purpose broadcasting such as administrative notices to employees, messages for coordinating staffing and schedules, and delivering important, auditable information to customers.

About International SOS
International SOS is the world's leading provider of medical assistance, international healthcare, security services and outsourced customer care. With 5,000 professionals operating in over 70 countries, International SOS helps organizations manage the health and safety risks facing their travelers and global workforce. Working in some of the most inhospitable places on earth, International SOS offers international standards of medical care where it is not available or where cultural and language barriers exist. For more information , visit www.internationalsos.com, phone Petrina Ong at +65 6330 9826 (Singapore) or email petrina.ong@internationalsos.com

Source: Vendor Press Release

Strohl Systems Releases LDRPS 10.2 featuring tighter integration with NōtiFind

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.--[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- Sept 17, 2007- Strohl Systems® announced today that the latest version of LDRPS®, is now available. LDRPS 10.2 features increased integration with Strohl’s emergency notification system NōtiFind®. In addition, through the improved Plan Navigator™ feature, the new version enables users to build custom interfaces for their users, streamlining and strengthening their plan building efforts.

The new integration claims near real-time synchronization of data between LDRPS and NōtiFind and still enables users to contact entire organizations or those assigned only to specific plans. In addition, NōtiFind enables users to contact people assigned to core components such as applications, hardware or business processes.

“This new functionality in LDRPS 10.2, in conjunction with NōtiFind, provides a much more powerful duo,” said Eric Strohl, President of Strohl Systems. “Organizations will be able to use LDRPS and NōtiFind together to specifically target their business continuity communications based on their at-time-of-disaster needs.”

The new features and NōtiFind integration are available in all versions of LDRPS – Essential, Professional and Enterprise – as well as in OnDemand, Hosted and perpetual license versions. NōtiFind is powered by Varolii.


Source: Vendor Press Release

San Diego City Mayor Unveils Reverse 911® Broadcast System

$180,000 Reverse 911® system has the capacity to make two 30-second voice mail broadcasts a minute, giving the City the ability to broadcast to a total of 11,520 devices in an hour.

San Diego, CA - [EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- Sept 6, 2007 - As part of National Preparedness Month and to further highlight the City’s increased ability to respond to emergencies, Mayor Jerry Sanders today unveiled the City’s new Reverse 911® emergency notification call system. The system can optionally deliver emergency messages to as many as 240,000 households and businesses in an hour.

Reverse 911®, recently acquired by PlantCML, Inc. from Sigma LLC, is web-based, community-alerting system is designed to make mass telephone calls to the public in a timely manner during emergencies or disasters. The system uses a combination of databases and GIS mapping technologies to quickly target and effectively disseminate emergency notification calls to a precise geographic area.

The City of San Diego purchased Reverse 911® as another tool to rapidly broadcast emergency notifications to the public in the event of an emergency. The system hardware, software and three-year contract cost $180,000. The system was paid for with Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Homeland Security grant funds. Additional per event pricing for the Mass Call® feature during large emergencies wasn't specified.

When activated, the Reverse 911® system uses the 911 telephone database to initiate a voice mail broadcasted message via landline telephones to San Diego residents and businesses in the affected areas. A taped message delivers instructions on how to proceed during the ongoing emergency. Individuals using non-landline cellular and VoIP phones can also register their numbers online to receive the emergency calls.

When would be Reverse 911® be activated?
Reverse 911® would only be activated for the following emergency situations:

• Evacuation notices
• Imminent or perceived threat to health, life or property within the City of San Diego
• Disaster notifications
• Public safety tests to verify data accuracy and system operability

How many calls can be made?

• The Reverse 911® system offers a variety of features designed to meet small, medium, and large-scale—including citywide—notification needs.
  
• For large-scale disasters and emergencies, the City has the ability to activate the system’s Mass Call® feature. This feature provides the ability to use a remotely located telecommunications hub with the capacity to make up to 240,000 30-second community emergency calls per hour.
• During small- and medium-scale emergencies, the Reverse 911® system has the capacity to initiate two 30-second voice-mail broadcasts a minute, giving the City the ability to broadcast to a total of 11,520 telephony devices in an hour.
• If more than the 11,520 voice-mail broadcasts are required in an hour, the City of San Diego can request assistance from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department via mutual aid. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department utilizes a similar Reverse 911® system which includes landlines within the city and can effectively double the broadcasts per hour to 23,040. When more than 23,040 calls need to be made in a given hour, the Mass Call® feature can be activated.

What is the activation process?

• An incident occurs and is reported.
• Reported incidents are routed to the San Diego Police Department Watch Commander.
• The Watch Commander initiates the relay of information through a prescribed chain of command.
• The information ultimately flows to the Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Public Safety and Homeland Security (DCOO).
• The DCOO notifies and consults with the Mayor, Chief Operating Officer, and Communications Director (Executive Team).
• Executive Team makes the decision to issue or not issue the Reverse 911® call.
• A series of final organizational steps are followed until the message is ultimately launched by the San Diego Police Department Communications Division.

How are the defined areas chosen?

• Notification ares are defined by subject matter experts (Fire, Police, Water, etc.)
• The number of required calls is calculated by the system based on the defined area.
• The City Executive Team decides on the appropriate call areas and approves the capacity deployment.

Who broadcasts the Reverse 911® messages to the public?

The City of San Diego Police Department is the entity that broadcasts the actual Reverse 911® emergency notifications to the public on behalf of the City of San Diego. Although cellular phone numbers and VoIP numbers are not currently in the system database (because it only contains landline telephone numbers), these numbers can be added to the system. To receive Reverse 911® on a cellular telephone or VoIP, an individual needs to complete the Reverse 911® Cellular/VoIP Addition Authorization Form on the City of San Diego Office of Homeland Security webpage at http://www.sandiego.gov/ohs. Persons using a TTY/TDD phone system will also receive Reverse 911® notifications.

Source: San Diego City Press Release

3n Launches InstaCom™ Campus Alert 2.0 Mass Notification Solution

Mass Notification Solution Targeted to Emergency Communication Needs of Colleges and Universities

GLENDALE, CA --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- September 5, 2007 – 3n (National Notification Network), a global mass notification system provider, today announced the availability of InstaCom Campus Alert 2.0 with enhancements to meet growing demands from colleges and universities.

Version 2.0 to provide enhancements including:

• Extended support for university-controlled self-registration portals,
  
• Bulletin board-style call-in capabilities supplemented with sophisticated privacy and security features,
  
• Advanced message-recording options for ease of use and maximum message effectiveness, and
• Live call transfers.

3n’s InstaCom Campus Alert 2.0 is designed to provide colleges and universities with a scalable, cost-effective and quick-to-implement solution for targeted and campus-wide critical communication needs ranging from routine communications to emergency notification. The 3n system also claims up-to-the-second reporting of who has received and confirmed messages so administrators can gauge communication effectiveness.

3n provides InstaCom Campus Alert 2.0 via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model with multiple data centers in an active-active configuration. SaaS enables customers to access software over the Internet without purchasing or maintaining hardware, software or telecommunications equipment. According to 3n, with active-active data centers, data is continuously replicated between data center locations. If service is disrupted at a data center location, all traffic is dynamically rerouted to a different site so that 3n's systems remain continuously available with no failover delays.

According to Larry Hincker, associate vice president of university relations at Virginia Tech, “The 3n InstaCom Campus Alert system is a sophisticated tool that is easy to use. I believe it can only further benefit our students, faculty, and staff.”

Source: Vendor Press Release

St. Lucie County's New Emergency Notification System Becomes Operational

Fort Pierce, FL --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- Sept 4, 2007 - St. Lucie County Public Safety, in collaboration with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, St. Lucie County Fire District, Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie Police Departments, has taken a significant step in upgrading the ability to communicate critical emergency information to its residents. St. Lucie County Emergency Notification System (SLCENS), an automated telephone message delivery system, was activated on Sept. 1 and is now operational.

SLCENS can quickly deliver a voice message to telephones throughout St. Lucie County. The system will be activated and calls made to the affected community during emergencies in which there is a threat to life or property. Examples of such emergencies include critical missing person reports, natural disasters, hazardous materials or wildfire evacuation orders, and alerts of other eminent dangers.

Using a database that contains all of the telephone numbers in St. Lucie County and an integrated mapping program, SLCENS is able to isolate any specific geographic area and display the exact list of residential and business telephone numbers within it. For example, authorized personnel could identify all numbers within a half-mile area of a specific address within the county. St. Lucie County Public Safety, Sheriff's Office, Fire District, Fort Pierce or Port St. Lucie emergency response personnel are then able to create and send information or instructive messages to those telephones. SLCENS recalls numbers that are busy and leaves a message on phones that have a voice mail or answering machines.

SLCENS is able to reach as many telephones as the AT&T system can accommodate, possibly delivering as many as 30,000 messages in less than 10 minutes. All outgoing messages are in English, call recipients will be given the option to select Spanish if desired. FirstCall can deliver messages in more than 140 different languages. FirstCall of Baton Rouge, La., owns and operates the high-speed notification network on which SCLENS operates. FirstCall maintains 1,728 dedicated phone lines via a diverse entry fiber-optic network for outbound message delivery and is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by certified emergency notification personnel.

St. Lucie County residents with unlisted numbers can register for participation in the emergency telephone notification process. The privacy of these telephone numbers is protected under the normal non-disclosure agreement that FirstCall has with its clients. FirstCall Network also geo-codes cellular or wireless telephone numbers provided by residents or from the registration process.

Registration for the St. Lucie County Emergency Notification System can be done in three ways:

1. 1. On line at www.firstcall.net and select Unlisted Registration.
   
2. E-mail unlisted@firstcall.net , list your name, phone number, street address, city, state and zip code.
   
3. Telephone by calling 1-866-484-3264. This process is very user friendly. Once the submitted number has been entered into the system, the person registering will then receive a message via the submitted number as a call back from the system confirming their registration.

Source: St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners

City of Winter Park and Rollins College Announce Emergency Notification Partnership

Winterpark, FL --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- Sept. 4, 2007

The City of Winter Park and Rollins College held a press conference on Friday, August 31, to announce that they have partnered on a community emergency notification network. Dubbed "Outreach," the system will provide high-speed notification through multiple communication infrastructures including cell phones and loud speakers.

The City will own and operate the emergency alert system. The College is providing the City with a three-year, interest-free loan to make the system a reality. Rollins is also purchasing an additional siren/speaker which will be placed on campus to enhance communication. Authorized College personnel will be able to request that College-specific messages be broadcast over this speaker to the campus community.

"The City of Winter Park realizes the importance of communication, especially in a crisis situation and has brought emergency notification to a higher level. That is why we are implementing Outreach, the city's new comprehensive system to notify city residents during various emergency situations,” said Winter Park Mayor David C. Strong. “Rollins College is a great neighbor and partner within our city limits. It is integral to partner with the College as we put safety measures in place."

Winter Park Fire Chief Jim White described Outreach as “one of the most interactive and robust community-wide emergency alerting networks in the country."

Here are some features of the new system:

• The Outreach network will combine the convenience of electronic devices that many of us turn to for information with the proven alerting benefit of outdoor voice and siren devices.

• Using a network first established by the Federal government to communicate with troops in the field, Outreach will inform and interact with citizens in the event of a community emergency.

• The Outreach network will afford emergency management personnel and other leaders in Winter Park the ability to not only alert residents, but also interact with citizens in need.

• Outreach can alert citizens through landline and cell phones, e-mail and text messaging, FM radio and pagers. For those who may not be close to or have access to these devices, communications will occur via outdoor warning sirens.

• As a part of Outreach, these outdoor warning sirens will include the ability to announce voice messages when large groups of people need to be directed to seek shelter or evacuate a venue.

"Tornadoes passing through Central Florida in February of this year and the Virginia Tech tragedy have underscored the importance of having in place a system that can quickly reach the members of our shared communities," said Rollins President Lewis Duncan.

Federal Signal and EMTEL will provide the infrastructure and technology to make Outreach possible. It is expected that portions of the system, including text messaging capabilities, will be operational by the end of October. Outreach is slated for complete functionality by the end of the year.

Source: Rollins College

CODE MAROON, Texas A&M's Emergency Notification System, Is Now Operational

College Station, TX - [EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- Sept. 03, 2007 - CODE MAROON, Texas A&M University’s new emergency notification system, is now operational, Interim President Eddie J. Davis announced Monday (Sept. 3) in an electronic memorandum sent to all students, faculty and staff.

“All it (CODE MAROON) needs is you — if you have not already signed up,” Davis said in the campus-wide memo. “Thousands of students, faculty and staff have enrolled, giving us the ability to communicate health and safety-related emergency information quickly via e-mail and phone text messaging. It’s to everyone’s advantage to do so (to sign up). It could literally be a life-saver.”

While the university has long had the ability to contact students, faculty and staff, such as via the campus-wide system used for the Monday message, Davis said the tragedy at Virginia Tech earlier this year underscored the need to have multiple means for making quick contact — ideally, almost instantaneously via email and phone text message.

“Quick contact: That’s the CODE MAROON goal — a goal that can only be met if you and all of your fellow classmates and campus colleagues enroll,” Davis said.

He assured members of the campus community that their privacy will be respected. Also, he said everyone on campus will be informed prior to any testing of the new system.

“CODE MAROON will never be used for any purpose other than delivering critical information such as campus emergencies or weather-related closings,” Davis said. “That is the goal — for all students, faculty, staff and others on campus to feel safe and secure in Aggieland.

“It’s essential for you to take the first step: enroll in CODE MAROON, if you have not already done so, and help us be in the best position to be proactive in notifying you if an emergency should arise.”

He also urged recipients of the Monday memo to “talk to fellow Aggies and colleagues and ask them to show their ‘12th Man Spirit’ by getting involved and enrolling in the program.”

“Aggieland is a great place to be. Let’s all continue to make it a safe place to be,” Davis concluded.

To enroll in CODE MAROON, students, faculty and staff are requested to go to http://codemaroon.tamu.edu. They will need to use their NetID and password as part of the sign-up process. A full set of instructions appears on the first page of the Web site.

Code Maroon is powered by the e2Campus mass notification system. The e2Campus solution allows designated university administrators to send time-sensitive messages to the mobile phones, email, and/or pagers of Code Maroon subscribers — regardless of geographic location.

Source: Texas A&M University