Stop 4 of 8 · Weekly
Advance planning
Build the advance document as a template with labelled sites and routes, and keep the annex that names them on paper only.
The advance is a form, not an essay
Curtis runs advances for events, for travel and for the occasional court appearance. The thinking is the same every time: where the principal will be, how they get there, what happens if the primary plan fails, and who he calls. The document is the same every time too. Which means it should be a template he fills, not a document he writes.
The template can be thorough precisely because it names nothing. Site 1 arrival, Site 2 venue, Site 3 overnight. Route A primary, Route B alternate, Route C emergency egress. Vehicle 1 and Vehicle 2. Contractor 1 through 4 by role. Every real value lives in a printed annex, filled in by hand, carried in a folder, destroyed after the movement.
What the template holds
| Section | What goes in the template |
|---|---|
| Sites | Access, egress, control points, hold areas, medical, comms coverage |
| Movement | Route legs, timings as offsets, hand-off points, alternates |
| Contingency | Vehicle failure, route closure, medical, crowd, media, separation |
| Contacts | Roles and functions, never names or numbers |
Route timings come out of Curtis's mapping tool with the real endpoints on his own screen, and go into the annex in pen. The checklist is a separate and shorter document: the dozen things he confirms in person before he signs the advance off. That one is worth keeping current in the practice Project, because every movement teaches you an item you forgot, and a checklist that never grows is a checklist nobody is reading.
Try this
Build an advance planning template for a two day movement with three fixed locations, labelled Site 1 to Site 3, and primary, alternate and emergency routes labelled Route A, Route B and Route C. Sections for site survey, access and egress, control points, hold areas, medical, communications, movement legs with timings written as offsets from H hour, contingencies and a contacts page listing roles only. Every field a person or place would go in is a blank labelled for the offline annex. Word format, one page per site, no cover art.
Below is the contingency section of an advance for an evening event at an indoor venue with a public arrival. Tell me what is missing. Cover the failure of each element in turn: vehicle, route, venue access, communications, medical, crowd, media, and separation of the principal from the detail. For each gap, give me the trigger, the immediate action, and who owns it by role. Use only the labels in my document and add no places or people. [paste the contingency section]
Compress the advance below into a single briefing page a contractor reads in the vehicle before the movement. Sequence of legs with offsets, hold points, comms plan, three contingency triggers with their immediate actions, and the roles present. Leave every real value as an underscored blank I fill in by hand. Nothing on this page should mean anything to someone who finds it in a car park. [paste the advance template]