Communications crisis (part 1)

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 It's an exciting day at Age Aid. Emily has been working very hard on the improved supporter database and new enewsletter and today is the day it goes out. Everyone at Age Aid is excited as this finally brings their communications into the 21st Century and launches their first-ever campaign with a bang. Emily's IT volunteer Will has been a huge help in making it all happen.

On her cycle into work that morning she remembers the awayday in November when the campaign was first discussed. Colleagues had been passionately arguing that it was time do something positive about the isolation of older people in Millcaster. It had been difficult to persuade the Trustees to spend so much money and time on the campaign but the staff are sure that it will be worth it. There has been a buzz in the office ever since and everyone has contributed 100% to make this work.

Getting ready to send

Emily sips her coffee at her desk and goes through her mental check-list:

• do final proof-read and dummy send of enewsletter - done
• do final check of supporter database
• send out enewsletter to 3000 supporters
• check everyone is ready to deal with phone calls.

She wonders what the response to the campaign will be. She hopes that local people will take up the idea of making contact with their older neighbours. The town really needs a befriending scheme. There are so many local older people who go days without speaking to anyone, it's so sad. As an extra boost to the campaign, local TV and radio are covering the story next week. It's all very exciting!

Emily does one last check and notices something odd. All the letter 'a's' in the database are turning into percentage signs. She blinks and looks again and the 'b's' are turning into dollars. In shock she gasps, "what's going on? Help! Help! Where is Will?"

The office

As Emily rushes through the office to find Will she notices that colleagues are looking puzzled in front of their computers. She hears occasional cries across the room.

Will spots Emily rushing over looking more flustered than usual. "What's up Em?" Will has been helping to prepare the IT systems for the campaign. He has been volunteering at Age Aid off and on through his second year at University and has been a real asset. His knowledge of databases has made this project possible.

Emily explains about the a's and b's. They look at the database together. “More and more letters are changing. Can’t you do something to stop it Will? We can't lose this data!” Emily tries to stay calm but Will seems very concerned. They hear more cries across the office. The problem seems to be affecting more and more people now.

Data copies

Struggling to stay calm, Emily remembers that Will had made a copy of the database earlier in the week and saved it to a CD. “But I’m not so sure that the enewsletter has been copied on to it!” She knows that Will will do all he can to make it ok but what if this has affected the whole IT system? He can't fix that. "The email absolutely has to go out today. There is so much riding on this. What are we going to do?"

At that moment, Joan the chief executive comes into the office. "Hi team, are we all set? Everything ok?"

Have your say

Poor Emily - why do things always go wrong on the most important day?! As the Data and Office Manager, Emily should know how to sort this out but she might need some help:

• what advice would you give to Emily?
• what do you think went wrong?
• what happened to you in a similar situation?

Have your say on the Millcaster Tales forum. 

Useful links

• Dealing with viruses (Lasa)
• How safe are charity ICT systems? (NCVO)

Other episodes

Find out what happens next in communications crisis (part 2).

Catch up with past episodes.