Request Activation of the COVOST

The COVOST is a resource that can be activated to support your agency and community during an active incident or during a pre-planned event. If you would like to request activation of the COVOST please read through the COVOST Handbook and complete the Activation Authorization form.

If you have any questions at all please contact Nathan Hunerwadel at COVOST@gmail.com @COVOST or 720-879-2462

Potential COVOST missions:

The following are potential COVOST missions listed from least liability for responding agency to highest. A responding agency is highly discouraged from utilizing the COVOST for the platform creation and/or publication. While these services could be filled by the COVOST, the COVOST prefers to come alongside an agency to enhance their efforts rather than simply do it all for them.

Services offered by the COVOST are meant to enhance the capabilities of a sponsoring agency not replace them. A potential sponsoring agency should not look the COVOST as a primary resource but rather as a secondary and supplementary program.

• Monitor 
• Emergency Messages 
• Online Rumors 
• Media 
• Key Community themes/members 
• Multiple Platforms 
• Amplify 
• Same platform amplification 
• Cross platform amplification 
• Archive 
• Agency official post archive 
• Community posts archive 
• Media posts archive 
• Product Creation 
• Maps 
• Pictures, video, captions, 
• Infographics 
• Platform Creation 
• Creating new platforms not already in use by sponsoring agency for information dissemination
• Publish 
• Publish information to platforms directly on behalf of the sponsoring agency

The COVOST Needs You!

Without you the COVOST really can’t do much of anything.  We need you to partner with us.  Our goal is to join together trusted agents from across Colorado, the United States and the World.  The success of the COVOST asks that you step up and lead.  With your help we can provide leadership and support to Colorado communities during their time of need. 

What is in it for you?

Warm fuzzy feelings.  Seriously. When you become a trusted agent on a VOST you are signing up to help out your neighbor.  If the feeling that one gets after extending a helping hand to another in need is not enough I am not sure what is.  That said, we will make every effort to extend to you the latest and greatest training and experience.  Don’t pay big $$ for training, just join the COVOST!

What are you committing to?

The time commitment to the COVOST is what you make of it.  We understand that you are already overburdened and underappreciated.  The COVOST appreciates you and your time.  We only ask that you agree with our mission, attend training, and make an effort to set aside some time to help when we activate. When we sound the trumpet we simply ask that you make every effort to rally to the cause.

Ready to sign up?  Complete the registration form and volunteer agreement.
Colorado thanks you.

Want to use the COVOST?  You know you want to try it out!
Complete the Activation Authorization form and you might just be the first to activate the team!

Have a question?

Contact Nathan Hunerwadel - COVOST@state.co.us - @COVOST - 720-879-2462

COVOST Org Chart

This is a potential COVOST organization chart built to help explain how the chain of command might work during an activation of the team.  If you activated the team for your incident would this flow work for you? Please provide your comments below.

Mission, Vision, Values

COVOST Mission:

The mission of the Colorado Virtual Operations Support Team (COVOST) is to lead and support the State of Colorado and our local Colorado communities through the innovative use of social media and other online tools.

COVOST Vision:

The vision of the Colorado Virtual Operations Support Team (COVOST) is to provide the State of Colorado and our local Colorado communities a powerful and effective team of trusted agents whose mission is to support public information, operations, and information gathering efforts through an innovatively effective, efficient and elegant use of social media and other online or ‘virtual’ tools.

COVOST Values:

The Colorado Virtual Operations Support Team’s continues to subscribe to the original values held by the preceding JeffcoVOST.  These values closely mirror the values of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Integrity - COVOST members will act in a manner that reflects the highest integrity – this includes behavior and actions taken in the real world as well as in the virtual world.

Innovation - COVOST members will engage the virtual world in an innovatively effective, efficient and elegant manner thereby offering the State of Colorado and our local communities the ability to fully benefit from the continuously changing virtual landscape.

Partnership - COVOST members will remain in close partnership with the State of Colorado (via the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management). The team will also maintain a close partnership with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and any other local community that requests the activation of the COVOST. Finally, the COVOST will remain in close partnership with the broader VOST and SMEM communities.

Service - COVOST members will remember that their primary responsibility is to lead and support the State of Colorado and our local communities.  In this vein the COVOST will never act alone but will always act out of service to, and in direct partnership with, the State of Colorado and any local community for which it may be activated to support. 

Accountability - COVOST members will remain accountable for the information that they share or pass on. COVOST members will remain accountable to policies held by the State of Colorado and any local community that is being supported.  The COVOST will likewise remain accountable to established public information and Incident Command System (ICS) best practices, rules and regulations.

COVOST Handbook

This handbook is meant to guide members of the Colorado Virtual Operations Support Team (COVOST) as they complete the mission of leading and supporting the State of Colorado and our local Colorado communities through the innovative use of social media and other online tools.

It is important to remember that the social media landscape is fluid and constantly changing.  The guidelines shared in this guide are current as of the date listed below.  It is the job of each VOST member, however, to ensure that they stay up to date and knowledgeable of the many changes that will inevitably occur as the ‘virtual’ social media and digital landscape continues to evolve.

Nothing written in this handbook supersedes any preexisting rules or guidelines provide by the State of Colorado or any local community for which the COVOST is activated to support. Likewise, nothing written in this handbook supersedes standard Incident Command System (ICS) practices, rules set forth via any delegation of authority, or any rules or guidelines provided by any agency having jurisdiction.

In the fast moving world of social media adherence to rules and policies is all the more important.  When in doubt, check with the COVOST Manager or Coordinator, lead PIO and/or Incident Commander.

Direct Link to the COVOST Handbook

Reality requires virtual support. Reality requires responsibility.

Virtual Support demands great responsibility grounded by reality.

COVOST Introduction & Brief History

Ours is a digital age where the virtual world must be fully engaged.

The Colorado Virtual Operations Support Team (COVOST) grew out of the preexisting Jefferson County Virtual Operations Support Team (JeffcoVOST).

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office realized that the modern information sharing strategy must differ from traditional press release based ‘pad n paper’ media outreach.  The Sheriff’s Office thus created and activated, in 2013, the JeffcoVOST as part of its overall integrated social media and public information strategy.

The intent of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office was to define and refine the integrated social media and public information strategy.  To this end, the Sheriff’s Office used the JeffcoVOST to not only support the information strategy but also to gather information for the purpose of informing and influencing the planning and operational response while simultaneously providing vital overall situational awareness.

In March of 2014 the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) adopted the JeffcoVOST and restructured the team into the COVOST.  DHSEM continues to work in close partnership with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to insure the continuity and success of the COVOST program.

The COVOST is specifically designed to be a resource that will be available to the State of Colorado and any local community that wishes to fully experience the dual benefits of both engaging with, and listening and responding to, the modern virtual landscape.

The COVOST is not meant to replace or substitute any social media response or plan.  The COVOST is a resource that can be activated to supplement or enhance a community’s existing social media for emergency response (SMEM) plan.

The virtual operations and SMEM world is a relatively new realm with exciting possibilities.  The Colorado Virtual Operations Support Team stands ready to further define and refine this virtual arena while leading and supporting communities across Colorado as they continue to mold SMEM into the powerful reality we already know it to be.

Links:

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office social media use during the #LowerNorthForkFire.

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office social media use during the #BlueBellFire.

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office social media use during the #LimeGulchFire.

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office social media use during the #JeffcoFlood.

Storify documenting the first utilization of the JeffcoVOST during the #JeffcoFlood.

Mastering Social Media: An Analysis of Jefferson County's Communications during the 2013 Flood. Paper written by Lise Ann Denis documenting the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office use of social media and the JeffcoVOST during the #JeffcoFlood.