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Logistics Group. Gathers all supplies, materials, equipment, services, and facilities required
for the implementation of the exercise. For small-scale exercises, the logistics group may consist
of a single senior administrative support person working closely with the planning group.

Administration/Finance Group. Keeps an account of the costs involved in conduct-
ing an exercise. For small agencies, this group may consist of a single individual, who may be
the same administrative support person assigned to the logistics role. The Exercise Planning Process

B. Identifying Overarching Goals and Objectives

Agency-specific Goals
There are no off-the-shelf documents that will define an LPHA’s specific emergency pre-
paredness goals.Templates and guidelines cannot take into account the unique requirements of
local environments. Developing an exercise program that matches those requirements is a sys-
tematic process and the responsibility of the exercise planning team.

Given that the overarching goal of all exercises is improved preparedness, identifying goals for
any one exercise is a process centered on one question:Why does an agency need to exercise?
The answer may be staff demonstration or plan validation.The goals must also feed into an
organization’s preparedness mission, support its preparedness plan, be realistic, and include
objectives. For example, a sample preparedness mission might be: To serve the county by distributing
mass prophylaxis to employees of a UPS facility that houses a biological detection system (BDS).A
sample preparedness plan for such a mission might be:To set up a point of distribution (POD) clinic.

Objectives

The objectives for any exercise must be challenging yet achievable and should support an
LPHA’s overall mission and preparedness plan.Whether there is a single objective or several,
they should be based on the following:

1. an agency’s current stage of emergency 3. level of staff knowledge and understanding
preparedness of emergency preparedness roles and
2. gaps, weaknesses, or areas of concern responsibilities
affecting the agency’s performance as iden- 4. applicability to emerging problems
tified through prior exercises

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