This past Tuesday and Wednesday the building where I work, Greensboro Sportsplex, was closed to the public. For months leading up to these days there were a great deal of meetings, seminars and planning sessions to prepare us and our building to be a RSS (Receipt, Stage and Store) distribution site for the Public Health Preparedness and Response program. The purpose of this exercise was to simulate that there was a bio-hazard attack somewhere in North Carolina and to use the designated Sportsplex as a receiving and distribution center for critical drugs and medical supplies from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) via the SNS (Strategic National Stockpile).

Having said all this background information, in essence the Sportsplex was turned back into what it was initially build to be, a warehouse distribution center. There was one key eliminate missing from this whole process. Where the building was once again a warehouse distribution center the staff on hand manning this operation were no were near qualified as warehouse personnel. Yet because of the advance training, team work and the promise of pizza for lunch, we learned and performed or assigned job with remarkable efficiency. During this simulated exercise the building and surrounding landscape was under lock-down by local and state police, a full contingency of fire department personnel as well as US Marshals on call if needed. In essence, if you did not have an authorized badge and/or toting a gun you were not getting anywhere near the building or surrounding property. It was most impressive to watch and be involved with this process from both inside and outside the building.

When the dust settled and the consumption of eatables underway we received word from the organizers that our simulated receiving and distribution activity produced two shipment errors. Somewhere between Receiving (my department), Picking (my assistant managers department), Quality Control (my managers department) and Shipping (one of our soccer coordinators department) two boxes of simulated drugs were sent out to the wrong location…oops! However when you take into account that no one working in the warehouse side of this exercise was remotely qualified or trained to perform these tasks prior to this event, having only two errors was not bad at all.

I’m damn proud of my warehouse team mates. I’m also quite confident that in the outside chance that such and exercise goes live we will be ready to perform or duties in getting vital drugs and medical supplies to their destination points across North Carolina.

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