Chapter 22, Coordinating on the ground¶

Integrating into official coordination¶

When a disaster strikes, the authorities activate a crisis management system. In France, it is the ORSEC plan. In the United States, the Incident Command System (ICS). In the Caribbean, the national disaster management agencies (CDEMA for the region, NEMO, ODPEM, etc. by country). Every country has its own.

Your club is not an accredited rescue service. You are not meant to replace the firefighters, civil protection, or the Red Cross. But you have something none of them has: a network of experienced professionals, a capacity for rapid funding, and a permanent presence in the community.

For this added value to be tapped, you must integrate into the official coordination system, not operate in parallel.

The 5 integration actions¶

Report in to the Municipal or Regional Coordination Point in the first hours. Introduce yourselves, state who you are and what you can offer.
Declare your capabilities: number of volunteers available, professional skills (doctors, engineers, logisticians), vehicles, available funds, equipment.
Ask for an intervention area or a specific role. Do not assign yourselves a mission. Ask: "Where do you most need us? What are you not covering?"
Attend coordination meetings. In the acute phase, they are daily. Always send the same person, the club's Disaster Coordinator or their deputy.
Report back on your actions within the shared framework. No separate Rotary report sent only to the district, an integrated report within the local coordination system.

Fundamental principle: Rotary supplements, supports and funds. It does not lead rescue operations. It respects the official chain of command.

The local coordination meeting¶

It is the simplest and most effective coordination tool. A daily 30-minute meeting with all actors present on the ground.

Format¶

Element	Detail
Frequency	Daily in the acute phase (first days to 2 weeks), then twice weekly
Duration	30 minutes maximum, not an hour, not 45 minutes. 30 minutes.
Location	City hall, crisis room, or videoconference (WhatsApp/Zoom)
Participants	Rotary club + Red Cross + City hall + Fire service + Local associations
Facilitator	The official authority (city hall, regional authority), not Rotary

Typical agenda¶

Time	Item	Detail
5 min	Round table	Each organization summarizes in 1 minute what it has done since the last meeting
5 min	Identified needs not covered	Which problems remain unsolved?
5 min	Available resources not used	Who has equipment, volunteers, funds not yet deployed?
10 min	Task assignment	Who does what for the next 24 hours? Clear and named assignments.
5 min	Any other business / emergencies	Unforeseen items, weather alerts, change in the situation

Discipline rules¶

Each participant speaks once, briefly. No monologues.
Decisions are recorded by a secretary (your club secretary can play this role).
The minutes are distributed within the hour by WhatsApp or email.
Absent parties are considered to agree with the decisions taken.

The NGO coordination sheet¶

This document is updated daily. It answers a single question: who does what where? It is the operational version of the 3W rule (Who does What Where).

Template¶

COORDINATION SHEET, Date: ___ / ___ / __, Area: ______

Organization	Actions underway	Area covered
Red Cross	________	________
City hall	________	________
Fire service	________	________
Rotary	________	________
[Other]	________	________

Unmet needs:

Available resources not deployed:

Decisions taken:

Next meeting: ___ / ___ / ______ at ___ h ___

Keep 20 blank copies of this sheet in your emergency kit. In a disaster situation, you may not have access to a printer.

The 6 coordination pitfalls to avoid¶

These mistakes are classic. They cost time, credibility, and sometimes lives.

Pitfall 1, Arriving without reporting in¶

What happens: Your club deploys directly on the ground without informing the authorities. Result: you duplicate someone else's work, you get in the way of professional rescuers, and you create a safety risk for your own members.

Solution: First action: report to the coordination point. Always. Even if you think you are wasting time.

Pitfall 2, Distributing without coordination¶

What happens: Your club distributes food in one neighborhood while the Red Cross does the same thing two streets away. Another neighborhood receives nothing. Beneficiaries from the first neighborhood come back to line up at both distributions. Those in the second neighborhood are forgotten.

Solution: Before any distribution, check the map of ongoing actions. Use the coordination sheet. Ask at the meeting: "Who is distributing what where today?"

Pitfall 3, Ignoring local community leaders¶

What happens: You organize an action without involving the leaders of the affected community (neighborhood chiefs, imams, pastors, association presidents). The community does not trust you, the most vulnerable beneficiaries are forgotten, and tensions emerge.

Solution: From day one, identify local leaders and integrate them into your action. They know the most affected families, the isolated individuals, the real needs.

Pitfall 4, Promising more than you can deliver¶

What happens: In the emotion of the first hours, your president declares to the media that the club "will rebuild 50 houses". The club has neither the funds, nor the capacity, nor the mandate for that. Six months later, people are still waiting.

Solution: Only announce what is certain. "We are providing 200 hygiene kits this week", not "We will rebuild the neighborhood". Under-promising followed by over-delivering is always preferable.

What happens: A member photographs disaster-stricken families for the district report or social media. The photos circulate without consent. Damage to dignity, potential legal issues, and loss of community trust.

Solution: Ask for consent before each photo. If consent is not possible or relevant (crowds, emergency), anonymize. No identifiable faces of children without explicit parental authorization.

Pitfall 6, Disregarding NGOs already present¶

What happens: Your club launches its own operation without checking what the NGOs that have been in the area for years are doing. Rivalry, duplication, tensions. Local NGOs perceive you as a competitor, not a partner.

Solution: The daily coordination meeting. Systematic. And before launching any action: "Is anyone already doing this?"

Rotary's added value on the ground¶

When coordination is done right, Rotary brings three things that no one else brings in the same way.

1. The professional expertise of its members¶

Your members are not ordinary volunteers. They are doctors, engineers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, accountants, architects. This professional expertise is directly mobilizable in a disaster.

Skill	Application in a disaster
Doctor	Triage, basic care, health assessment
Structural engineer	Building assessment (safe / to be demolished / repairable)
Lawyer	Legal aid to victims (insurance, rights)
Accountant	Financial management of aid, fund traceability
Construction contractor	Organization of debris removal, repairs
Logistician	Supply chain, transport
Psychologist	Close psychological support
IT specialist	Restoring communications, digital tools

2. The capacity for rapid funding¶

Rotary can mobilize funds at three speeds: the DDRF (immediate), the DRG (2-4 weeks; 24-48 hours on pre-impact submission for a named storm), the Global Grant (3-6 months). No local NGO has this triple leverage. When the Red Cross needs 10,000 USD to buy water urgently and the usual funding channels are too slow, Rotary can sometimes fill the gap.

3. The international network¶

One call to DNA-RAG, and within 24 hours, your local club is connected to districts in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, with funds, expertise and partners for Global Grants. No other service organization has this global mesh activatable in less than 48 hours.

Field coordination checklist¶

To use from the first hours of the intervention: