TGCR VOAD Resource Information

Information Management is a very important part of disaster relief operations.

This section of the TGCR VOAD website provides a streamlined method of information management. You may click on any of the disaster relief categories at the left to access information that pertains to that category.

Registered users on this site may "subscribe" to an entire section (called a forum) or to all responses for a specific post (called a thread). Once you subscribe, all RELEVENT new posts will be emailed to the email account you registered with.

Each disaster relief category maintains three sections entitled:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Providers
Open Discussion

The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section provides answers to common questions about that disaster relief category. It is recommended you review all questions/answers in the FAQ before posting to an open discussion forum as your issues may have already been addressed previously and recorded in the FAQ. If you can't find an answer to a question you believe others (interested in a category) would benefit from knowing the answer to, you may click "Add New Topic" to suggest a new question (and an answer if you know it) be listed in the FAQ section. Once the question has been researched and answered by a category moderator, your submission will be posted.

The Providers section provides contact information for known organizations that provide resources within a disaster relief category. A single organization may be listed across multiple categories. If you know of additional organizations that provide resources in a disaster relief category and they are not currently listed, please click "Add New Topic" and provide information about an unlisted organization (including contact information). Once the organization and information you provide is verified by a category moderator, your submission will be posted.

The Open Discussion section provides a forum for questions, responses, and discussions about a disaster relief category. All registered users on this site can post new topics and post replies to existing topics. All information posted to open discussion sections are immediately posted and no moderation is performed. Therefore, the informaition, ideas, and words expressed are solely a representation of the individual who put them forth.

The categories being used may be expanded or revised in the future, but are an attempt to help manage the information flow in a time of disaster response. Without effective categorization, communication gets broadcast to anyone and everyone. Often, recipients are given many pieces of information that do not relate to the activities they are performing. Uncategorized information broadcasts typically have the effect of diluting the value of information that is beneficial. In fact, many individuals end up not reading any of the information sent out from the source because the amount of time required to determine whether information is useful reduces the individual's capability to get other very important work done.