FB-ISAO’s Working Groups and Information Sharing Communities

The Membership Reimagined roll-out was a big success, and now that we’ve got that out of the way, we are looking forward to getting down to the more rewarding work ahead of us. Many former FB-ISAO subscribers have now become FB-ISAO members who are ready to roll-up their sleeves and get down to the business of working with their colleagues to help the community reduce risk while enhancing preparedness, security, and resilience. So, how do we do that exactly?

Two capabilities available to members are Working Groups and Information Sharing Communities. Both capabilities lean heavily on collaboration among members.

Working Groups
Members have the opportunity to join one, or several if they have the time, of FB-ISAO‘s Working Groups. Working Groups provide the vehicle to develop products that build resilience and enhance security for the entire community. By joining a group, members will be able to contribute to each other’s knowledge by way of exchanging experiences, thoughts, ideas, and resources. That exchange lends itself to enhancing professional growth. In addition, working groups are a great opportunity to network with like-minded security practitioners at all levels of the tradecraft.

Currently, there are two groups that are working on two distinct products. One is the development of a Physical Security Maturity Model, and the other is the development of our 2024 Educational Program Series, which will have a focus on “FireArms in the House.” We are certain that many of you have skills to lend to the development of these products. But please don’t feel limited by those two efforts. Perhaps you’ve identified a need such as the development of a volunteer recruitment and retention plan, or, the development of a guide on how to monitor social media accounts and posts? Let your fellow members help you develop a product. Once a product is developed, we can share that product with all members of the community, so they can benefit from it too! The possibilities are endless! On Slack, Working Groups (WG) channel names are prefaced by the letters ‘g‘. Current working groups are:

• Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTIG): The CTIG is tasked with identifying information security / cybersecurity-related threats relevant to the community and the associated risks; helping to inform the FB-ISAO cybersecurity threat level; developing actions members can consider given a specific threat level, and other activities relating to enhancing the awareness, security and resilience of our members and community during both routine operations and during incidents relevant to the community. Read more.
• Operational Resilience (ORG): The ORG is tasked with identifying non-cybersecurity-related threats – those pertaining to man-made threats, natural hazards and health issues – relevant to the community and the associated risks, helping to inform the FB-ISAO physical threat level, developing actions members can consider given a specific threat level, and other activities relating to enhancing the awareness, security and resilience of our members and their communities during both routine operations and during incidents relevant to the community. Read more.
  Threat and Incident Response (TIG): During active threats, incidents, or for other issues identified by FB-ISAO staff, FB-ISAO may convene joint meetings of the CTIG and ORG under the banner of the TIG. Read more.
• Preparedness: The preparedness leads and supports preparedness activities, such as seminar and workshop events and facilitates collaboration among members relating to facility and operational preparedness. Read more.
• Communications: The Communications group is focused on ensuring effective communications and reporting, both internally from FB-ISAO to members and among members, and then externally with all our FB-ISAO partners. This may include reviewing reports, as well as reviewing the traffic-light protocol and other communications related activities. Read more.
• Outreach & Engagement (EOG): The focus of the EOG is on increasing awareness of FB-ISAO among our community of Faith-Based Organizations and partner organizations. The OEG may develop campaigns to increase awareness and engage the community, identify events to help raise awareness and interest in FB-ISAO, and consider member engagement to help ensure FB- ISAO members are being afforded ample opportunities to be involved with FB-ISAO. Read more.

Do you have skills for building presentations, or a gift for writing? Maybe you like the limelight and thus enjoy public speaking? Or maybe you like digging into data and making sense of it to tell a story? How about relationship building? Working Groups meet virtually, at a cadence that everyone agrees on. Please feel free to join a working group channel or ask to be added. You can explore the many Working Groups we offer, but we ask that members eventually settle on one or two which hold their interest so they can make a commitment to contribute time and talent. Bring your unique skills and we’ll put them to work for the benefit of the whole community! We are certain that you will also benefit from the engagement!

Information Sharing Communities
Other than the prolific information sharing that takes place in the general information sharing channels on our Slack workspace, the workspace also hosts several Information Sharing Communities (ISCs.) Information Sharing Communities band people in close geographical areas so that they can share information specific to them. For example, we host an information sharing community for the National Capital Region. There, our members share information, training, and resources pertinent to the Washington D.C. Metro faith-based community. They also share Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and incidents. On Slack, information sharing community channels names are prefaced by the letters ‘isc.’ The information sharing community for the Washington D.C. Metro is:  isc_national_capital_region”. If you find an ISC channel for your area, feel free to hop on or request to be added.

In time, we will be creating Information Sharing Communities for all our members. We may have to start with broad areas and then get more specific as we go along. So, for example, if we have 100 members in the pacific northwest but only 10 in the Seattle area, we could create an information sharing community called the Pacific_Northwest which bands those 100 members along with the 10 members from the Seattle area. At the very least, there will be important information about weather and climate threats which can pertain to the larger group. As more members from the Seattle area join, we can carve out an Information Sharing Community for the Seattle area and its immediate surroundings. Over the next few weeks, we will reach out to members to ask if they would like to belong to an information sharing community. Members are encouraged to perform outreach to their neighboring houses of worship in order to build up ISCs.

There’s much to do and we are excited to get to work with your ideas and your energy! Please reach out to the team with any questions – we look forward to working with you.