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IBAT Offers Members Hotline Service
With Start Of Hurricane Season
With the start of the hurricane season, the Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT) has taken steps to provide emergency communications for community bankers should a need for disaster recovery arise.
IBAT has created an 800 number hotline to serve as a conduit between the bank and its employees in the event of an emergency. The system, to be operated from the association’s headquarters in Austin, is meant to serve as a “backup” communications plan in case the bank cannot perform its own disaster recovery plan.
The hotline includes a dedicated voice mail box that employees cut off from the workplace can use to provide emergency contact information to their employer.
IBAT has also set up a non-password forum on its website for employees to use if they choose.
Once an emergency arises, IBAT staff will load contact messages from both the 800 number and the forum into a “sortable” table on the website.
Banks are urged to make “calling cards” for their personnel with emergency phone numbers, including IBAT’s hotline (1-800-341-9336).
“We urge our members to assign a staff person who can call IBAT when an emergency situation threatens, allowing us to put our staff on alert to receive calls,” Ursula Jimenez, who leads IBAT’s Disaster Recovery Team, said. “We also ask that they integrate IBAT’s emergency 800 number and web site address into their disaster communications plan.”
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