Community Emergency Contact Tree

Who this is for

A page that says who rings whom. Each household or member has a line with their numbers, the person they ring next and the person who rings them, so a message goes round a street without one coordinator making forty calls. What is on it is what the group agreed between themselves.

Street groups and residents' associations, village and parish schemes, allotment sites and clubs, church and volunteer groups, and any set of neighbours who have decided to have a list before they need one.

What this helps you track

• Every household or member, with the numbers that actually get answered
• Who each person rings next, and who rings them
• What each person is willing and able to help with
• Who has agreed to be on the list, and who has not
• The meeting points and shared equipment the group has agreed

How to use it

1. Write the group, the coordinator and the backup coordinator at the top, with the date the list was last agreed.
2. Add a line per household or member: the name, where they are, and a first and second number.
3. Fill in who they ring next and who rings them, so every line has a person on each side and the chain closes.
4. Write what each person can help with in their own words — a vehicle, a generator, a spare room, a language, first aid training.
5. Tick agreed only where the person has said they are happy to be on the list and to be rung; leave it blank otherwise.
6. List the meeting points and shared equipment underneath, print a copy for everyone on the list, and date it so old copies are obvious.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Do I need everyone's permission to put them on it?

Ask, and tick the agreed column when they say yes. A contact list circulates by definition, and how personal information may be shared is set by the rules where you are, so a name and number goes on with the person's knowledge.

What is the point of a chain rather than one person ringing everybody?

One person with forty calls to make is a single point of failure and a long wait for number forty. A chain shares the calls out, and the who-rings-them column shows immediately where the chain has broken.

Should this be used in an emergency?

Anything urgent goes to your emergency services, not round a phone tree. A contact tree is for passing word between neighbours — a road closed, a supply off, somebody who has not been seen.

How do we keep it up to date?

Date it, hand out fresh copies when it changes, and ask people to tell the coordinator when a number changes. The browser version makes reprinting a corrected sheet quick.

Can we run it as a group message instead?

Many groups do both. A printed sheet still works when a phone is flat, a network is down or the person holding it is not in the group chat.