Course offers anti-terrorism training for federal executives

The Army is offering training to help federal executives cope with the array of management challenges posed by terrorist attacks.

The one-day course gives managers a primer on chemical and biological weapons and outlines strategies for dealing with the legal and workforce management issues that can accompany terrorism. It also includes tabletop exercises that allow managers to practice responding to terrorist incidents.

"Most of the material is aimed at the big issues executives are going to have to deal with-legal issues, response plans, and personnel planning," said Richard Vigus, deputy leader of the homeland defense business unit at the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, which is located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. Officials with the Office of Personnel Management's Western Management Development Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency helped Edgewood develop the course.

The course is aimed at federal executives, not rank-and-file employees or local "first responders," the firefighters, police officers and emergency officials who are first on the scene of a terrorist attack.

About 40 federal managers in Minnesota took the course last month and found it to be helpful, according to Raymond Morris, executive director of the Federal Executive Board of Minnesota. "Participants left with a terrific amount of resources," he said.

For years, local government officials have received anti-terrorism training through the Domestic Preparedness Program, a Justice Department-sponsored program that has trained officials and first responders in more than 100 cities since 1996. But federal officials weren't able to participate in this program.

Morris decided to invite local officials from St. Paul, Minn., to take part in the class, which allowed participants to discuss how various levels of government would respond to terrorist attacks, he said.

The course costs $250 per person, with discounts for larger groups, according to Vigus. Some officials in Minnesota were unable to attend because their training budgets had been depleted.

Officials at Edgewood, OPM, and the Federal Executive Boards are planning to hold seminars in other regions, Vigus said. Federal managers who would like to take part in the course should contact their Federal Executive Board, he said.