panelists will be: a large grocer, bank rep, electricity rep, water co.,red cross,hospital rep, gas co.,city manager, telephone rep., and FEMA. City started a PR campaign the first of this month. Lots of smiling 'officials' saying everything's fine. I would like to blow the top off this "discussion" next tuesday. I'm sure that they will try to cut me off and downplay anything I get a chance to bring up, so I need a couple of real good, hard questions and follow ups to likely responses. Can I get some ideas here? Thanks.

-- steve (steve@NWMo.com), August 06, 1999

Answers

Ok Steve,

Ask them how long the city can function without imported oil since the CIA and the Senate have both said that all oil imports will cease due to total lack of remediation in oil producing countries.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), August 06, 1999.

How about this:

"It seems that every public statement about any organization's Y2K readiness always reassures us that they are ready or will be. The next line typically says that they can not garrantee that they will not be shut down by one of their suppliers. Since most organizations form a kind of web of interdependencies of supply can't anyone blame someone else for shutting them down and so avoid responsibility?

Second question:

"There is virtually no company or organization which is telling us they will NOT be ready. Surely there will be failures since this problem is affecting every computer installation and program, across the entire world all at the same time. It seems that what we are really hearing from organizations like those which you represent is that you would LIKE to be ready and are 'trying really hard' to be ready. What would happen if 10 to 20% of the organizations in this state/nation/world do not make it and fail? How would this affect your ability to deliver prodcut and services?

-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), August 06, 1999.

R, provide some documetation that "the CIA and the Senate have both said that all oil imports will cease due to total lack of remediation in oil producing countries."

If you can't do that, provide documentation that both the CIA and the Senate have both said that a ubstantial amount of oil imports will cease due to total lack of remediation in oil producing countries.

-- Prove It (think@you're.exaggerating), August 06, 1999.

I'll save Ray the time and trouble of typing it out - Prove It, can you prove that the CIA and the Senate did not say this?

-- Butt Nugget (nubuttet@better.mousetrap), August 06, 1999.

Oil not getting puped due to lack of remediation in oil producing countries?

If you ask that they are going to laugh your ass back to the StinkBomb2000.

Oil producing countries are doing FINE! Why? Because, duh, they have the money to do whatever it takes to get themselves compliant.

Sheeesh, sometimes I think you Doomers live in a vacumn.

-- (whacky@little.doomers), August 06, 1999.

Riversoma:

Why stop there? Why not ask how they'll function after terrorists blow everything up like the Secretary of Defense promised? And how about the banking and power failures like Gary North has guaranteed? And don't forget the collapse of transportation, the failure of the water supply, the exploding chemical plants, the confused traffic signals, the total snafu of everything related to JIT, the missing dial tone, the hopeless 911 system, and the solar flares?

And oh yes, they won't take you seriously if you don't SHOUT! Remember that.

(Hint: If your allegation were even remotely true, we'd see some kind of *massive, major* undertaking right now. Hell, we even went to WAR with Iraq when *only one* of our sources was threatened. Earth to Riversoma, please come in for once!)

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), August 06, 1999.

Flint, you're wrong again. If you remember, when Iraq threatened to invade Kuwait, the response of the US was "That's nice."

It was only after the invasion that Uncle Sam got off his ass and realized his precious oil supply was in jeopardy.

-- a (a@a.a), August 06, 1999.

Steve, I've looked and just can't find it and the phones are ringing away here, so you will need to research it yourself. Either Monday or Tuesday, think the latter, there was an excellent thread about questions to ask. I printed it out and took it to my county's meeting with the utilities and county services. It is extensive. You would do well to look it up...would save you much time and give you well-worded questions. Noticed other GIs at the meeting asked those very questions!

Also...ask the water rep what I did at my church and again at the county meeting...I got two alarming answers. First, when he tells you glibly that there's no problem if the electric power goes out, because they can manually do the controls, ask for how long. If he says "up to 3 days," ask him, "If the power is down for 2-3 weeks, as the head of the DC remediation said on "60 Minutes", can you continue manually?" The answer is "no." Then ask him how long the water can be supplied without power. He will have to admit, "Two to six hours." Nuff said.

See my post of yesterday entitled "Fairfax County Post-Meeting..." for questions to ask your human services people. Lots of luck...you will need it. Hope you have lots of GIs there!

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 06, 1999.

Ask how long the hospital can keep running without daily medicare reimbursment? Ask if their life support equipment is compliant and how about their echo units and their MRI and CT scanners? Oh, and don't forget to ask about their radiation dosage mechinisms.

Taz...who is not going anywhere near a hospital in 2000!!

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), August 06, 1999.

Want to see a small bit of squirming? Have each panelist answer the following:

"Has your organization (or any affiliates to which your organization belongs) engaged the assistance of an outside public relations firm for the purpose of helping your group address Y2K-related public relations concerns? If so, can you name the firm?"

It's certainly not illegal for a company to do so. It is also a very fair and reasonable question to ask. But pay very close attention to their faces as the question is asked. Their faces will reveal more than their words ever could.

I would expect a few straight-forward answers from those who either have not hired a PR firm or who are truly prepared for the question.

I would be particularly interested in those who say, in essence, "that's proprietary information."

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), August 11, 1999.