September 26, 2023 • 52 mins
This episode explores how logistics organizations coordinate disaster relief efforts before, during, and after crises like hurricanes and wildfires. Learn from Emilee Martichenko, the Communications Coordinator at American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), how nonprofits like the American Logistics Aid Network bridge the gap between relief supply needs and donations to effectively get supplies to impacted communities. The conversation provides insight into an often overlooked but critical component of disaster response.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Blythe Brumleve (00:05):
Welcome into another episode of Everything Is
Logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
We are proudly presented by SBILogistics and I am your host,
Blythe Brumleve.
I am happy to welcome in EmileeMartichenko.
She is the CommunicationsCoordinator for the American
Logistics Aid Network, otherwiseknown as ALAN, and I am it
(00:26):
feels weird to say I'm reallyexcited to talk about disaster
recovery because of the natureof it, but I am just endlessly
fascinated.
What happens after, whathappens before, during and after
a disaster takes place, all ofthe people that come together to
make sure that other folks aretaken care of.
So that's really the root ofthe conversation that I wanted
(00:49):
to have today, because that'sexactly what ALAN provides.
So, real quick, before we getinto the discussion, give us a
little bit of sense of yourcareer backstory.
Were you involved in logistics?
Is this sort of your firstlogistics company?
Give us a scoop.
Emilee Martichenko (01:06):
Yeah, so to be fairly brief, this is my
first professional position inthe logistics industry.
I guess it kind of runs in thefamily.
My father had a logistics andsupply chain business that he
built up from the ground up.
Oh nice, he was sold in 2020,so he is a long time industry
(01:30):
professional.
And I went to college, did notstudy logistics, I studied Latin
American studies in comparativeliterature and then just kind
of made my way to ALAN in 2020.
First part-time as a contractworker and then full-time in May
of this year.
Blythe Brumleve (01:48):
Oh, wow, so okay.
So you kind of grew up withsupply chain knowledge, Were you
?
Because I know my friends knowthat I work in supply chain and
logistics, but they have no ideawhat that entails.
Was that a similar experiencefor you that?
Emilee Martichenko (02:02):
you had no idea what your dad did yes
admittedly for many, many years,and it really wasn't until I
started my work with ALAN that Istarted to get pretty educated
in what it all meant andentailed.
Blythe Brumleve (02:16):
Oh.
I'm sure he's so proud now tobe able to have somebody else in
the family to talk logisticstoo.
He's having a lot of fun withit, awesome, okay.
So give us, I guess, thebackstory of ALAN.
From what I understand is thatit was started after, I guess,
sort of the questionable reliefefforts after Hurricane Katrina
hit.
I think it was back in 2005,.
(02:38):
I think is when HurricaneKatrina hit.
That's what I have in my notes.
So ALAN was started right afterthat, is that?
Emilee Martichenko (02:43):
correct.
Yeah, so you know, HurricaneKatrina hits in 2005 and it's
devastating, and ALAN was formedas a result.
ALAN was formed by industryassociations coming together and
saying, hey, this hurricane wasso unprecedented and so
devastating and so much of therelief that people that was
(03:07):
pouring in and that peoplewanted to provide could not get
to where it needed to be in theright quantities at the right
time in order to be as effectiveas possible during the first
response phase and then recoveryphase.
So these industry associationscame together and they said
(03:27):
there is an opportunity here toimprove disaster response and
ALAN was born out of that.
Blythe Brumleve (03:34):
What were some of those, I guess, moments that
were like, wow, that this iscompletely not working and we
need to create a solution for it.
Were there anything that youcould pinpoint?
Emilee Martichenko (03:47):
You know, unfortunately, that one will be
a little bit tough for mebecause I wasn't around in 2005.
Blythe Brumleve (03:51):
It was a long time ago, so it was a very very
long time ago.
Emilee Martichenko (03:54):
So I would have to admittedly, on this one
I would have to touch base witheither our executive director or
truly, one of our foundingnetwork, one of our founding
partners.
Blythe Brumleve (04:08):
Who are some of those, I guess, founding
partners that you mentioned,trade associations.
So it's awesome to hear thatsome of these trade associations
are working together andbecause usually they're
independent operations or wherethey work pretty independently.
Emilee Martichenko (04:22):
So our founding president, who's
unfortunately no longer with us.
His name was Jock Menzies andhe passed tragically a couple
years ago.
He was the kind of unitingfigure in all of this who really
got ALAN off the ground, andthere's at this point there's
too many for me to name, butwhat I would encourage your
audiences to do is go to ourwebsite, because we have an
(04:45):
industry association page whereyou can actually see all of the
associations who were with usfrom our founding and who are
with us to this day.
Blythe Brumleve (04:54):
Oh, wow, so it's good that it was so all
those groups came together andthey stayed together, which is,
I guess, a testament to themission that's at hand.
And so I guess, to segue into,I guess sort of the description
which I love, the description ofALAN.
It says on a mission to savelives and reduce suffering for
(05:14):
two disaster survivors in theUnited States by engaging
industry to supplement nonprofitorganizations logistics
capabilities.
They serve by coordinatinglogistics, providing education
and building cross sectorrelationships before, during and
after disasters.
Can you kind of walk us through, I guess, those different steps
of you?
(05:34):
Know, maybe like a hurricane isprobably the only one that
maybe you can pre-plan for whatkind of, I guess, pre-planning
goes into disaster relief?
Emilee Martichenko (05:43):
Yeah, absolutely so.
ALAN functions at all stages ofthe disaster life cycle, the
first one being, if you look atit as kind of like a loop.
The first one being thatpreparation stage and
preparation isn't just hurricanespecific you can prepare in
various ways for all kinds ofdisasters From the ALAN side.
A lot of that preparationinvolves us interfacing with our
(06:07):
industry partners and ournonprofit partners.
To understand, you know, if itis hurricane specific and we
have an idea of where thishurricane is making landfall,
who is mobilized and is stagingrelief supplies?
What are the anticipated needsfor after the hurricane makes
landfall?
Is there, are there theresources and the logistics,
(06:30):
services and infrastructure inplace to move these supplies to
where they need to be after thehurricane makes landfall?
You know we another importantcomponent of this preparation is
amplifying and getting as muchvisibility on important
information as possible.
So going to going to socialmedia accounts like the National
(06:52):
Hurricane Center and resharingthose and trying to just get
that information out there sopeople can be as prepared
themselves as possible, so theycan plan evacuation routes.
We always encourage people toregister for our supply chain
intelligence center, which is afree to use GIS tool which we
developed in tandem with our oneof our partners, everstream
(07:14):
Analytics.
We love them.
Thank you, everstream.
But it's a free to use GIS toolthat brings updates on the
charted path of hurricanes andtropical storms and will also
give updates on supply chainimpacts before, during and after
disasters.
So it's kind of your one stopshop tool if your government,
(07:35):
nonprofit industry and lookingto understand how these
disasters are impacting criticalinfrastructure and supply
chains.
Blythe Brumleve (07:43):
That's interesting.
I just signed up for it thismorning, so I'm I'm waiting on
access for it, but I watched acouple of the demo videos and it
was great.
It was one of those things thatI'm like how has this not been
thought of before?
So it really sounds like it'salmost with you being the
communications manager.
So are you in charge ofmanaging these communications?
(08:04):
Is it a bunch of people comingtogether?
I guess?
What does it look like duringthe process, during a disaster?
So we kind of covered whathappens before, but what about
like during?
Because it feels so chaotic.
I think for folks who, you know, I'm a Florida resident and at
times it does feel like okay,where can I get the most the
latest information?
(08:25):
And that feels like abottleneck.
But you're you're saying thatthere are resources out there
that we could be checking inorder to get those up to date
communications of what's goingon.
Yes, absolutely.
Emilee Martichenko (08:37):
So you know, when a disaster hits and Alan
mobilizes and we go into ourimmediate response phase.
The Alan team were we kind ofmobilize in our specific sectors
.
So I'm communications.
I'm here to make sure that theAlan website is up to date and
that we are talking with talkingwith the media and getting
(09:01):
critical information about whatAlan is doing and how Alan is
responding, getting as many eyeson that as possible so people
are informed.
The best place to check forthis updated information is our
disaster micro site, which ishoused on our website.
So you go to alanadeorg slashoperations and after a disaster
hits, that is your point pagefor where, for where to find out
(09:26):
what activities were engaged in.
From an operations side, we arecoordinating efforts with our
nonprofit partners and engagingindustry to help relief supplies
get to where they need to be tohelp survivors as efficiently
and as cost effectively aspossible.
So we have an operationscoordinator, lexi who's, who
(09:46):
came on full time to Alan thesame time I did.
She's absolutely wonderful.
So you have her doingoperations, you have me doing
communications, you have ourwonderful executive director,
kathy Fulton, uniting us inthese efforts and helping to
guide the Alan team to, you know, engage in these response
activities and unite thesenetworks you know, the nonprofit
(10:07):
partners with the industrypartners and streamline that
communication to avoid anydeduplication of response
efforts.
Blythe Brumleve (10:15):
What are some of those I guess immediate needs
when a disaster strikes, is itas simple as food and water,
shelter?
What kind of needs I guess areimmediate versus maybe some of
the longer term needs?
Emilee Martichenko (10:31):
Yeah, so disasters are unpredictable and
no matter you know how manyhurricanes we have or how many
wildfires we have, andunfortunately it looks like it's
sadly, I hate to say this beena busy year or a busy summer for
disasters, but so they'reunique and no one is the same.
(10:51):
So it's it's impossible to say,in the event of this or in the
event of that, you always needthis or you always need that.
But you can kind of get, youcan kind of get a sense,
especially during thepreparation phase, when we're
liaisoning and trying tounderstand what's being staged,
what you might need.
So in the case of let's takeMaui, for example, because that
(11:14):
was a very, very devastating andvery tragic disaster that were
still immersed in trying toprovide response and recovery,
for Maui happens, and what madeit extra tricky was that it's an
island.
So suddenly getting reliefsupplies from point A to point B
becomes, you know,exponentially trickier.
(11:37):
You have to understand.
You have to understand thetransportation and the freight,
the freight requirements.
You have federal and stateefforts overlapping and there's
this huge, huge influx ofdonations Because people, well,
their hearts are in the rightplace, they want to be helpful,
but they just send stuff overwithout an idea of what the
(11:59):
immediate need is or you know,even if there's a plan for
distribution in place.
So where Alan comes in, is weengage the, is we engage
nonprofits in the US, in the USmainland and over in Maui and on
neighboring Hawaiian islands,and we say, hey, what are the
most immediate needs?
And we get a sense for that andcan we match these needs with a
(12:24):
partner who has the capacity tomake them happen.
And so one case that being thatwas a result of this that we
ended up fulfilling was wehelped move a lot of
telecommunications equipmentfrom mainland.
USA over to Maui, because thesefires knocked out a lot of.
They hindered a lot of abilityto even understand and
(12:47):
facilitate communicationthroughout the island.
So we learned quickly thattelecommunication and getting
Wi-Fi working and even gettingcommunication flowing to
understand what other reliefsupplies are needed became an
imperative.
So then one of our nonprofitpartners, the Information
Technology Disaster ResourceCenter, reached out to us and
(13:08):
they said, hey, we have point topoint gear and we have.
We have point to point gearsitting in the mainland USA and
we need help moving it.
Can you help us move it?
And then we go out into ourpartner base and we say, hey,
this is an immediate need.
Can someone donate thetransportation and help us move
it to Maui?
And that's an example of anisland case that we got filled.
(13:30):
That was kind of a long windedanswer, but no, I love it.
It's a good example of you know, in the case of a disaster, yes
, you need water, yes, you needfood, yes, you need medical
supplies, but you might notrealize.
Hey, telecommunications,absolutely critical, but because
of the tricky nature, theobstacle of moving supplies that
(13:53):
distance, and across water oracross air, it becomes just as
important.
Blythe Brumleve (13:59):
I've had a previous guest on the podcast,
admiral Craig Foller, and he hasled disaster relief efforts in
Haiti and also in Indonesia andthen also was speaking about the
disaster recovery reliefefforts in Syria and Turkey
after they had those justdevastating sort of back to back
, really bad earthquakes over inthat region, and he said that,
(14:22):
you know, while he sort ofechoed you know, some of what
you were saying is that, youknow, while people's hearts are
in the right place, he's like weneed to, from a port supply
perspective, we need toprioritize the freight that is
going to directly help peopleversus something like a teddy
bear, for example, where that's,you know, an emotional thing
that somebody is sending andit's great.
But at the same time, they needcommunication devices, and you
(14:46):
had mentioned a couple timesabout different phases.
Is, I guess, communications, Iwould imagine as part of maybe
that initial response phase, orthere are different kinds of
phases that you guys approachdifferent disasters with.
Emilee Martichenko (14:59):
Yeah.
So you know my job ascommunications coordinators to
really help our is to reallyhelp our networks understand
what needs we're servicing atdifferent phases of the disaster
life cycle.
So in this response phase, theALAN team is getting together
and we are hard at work tryingto figure out what the most
(15:20):
immediate needs are.
But then, you know, as time goesby, maybe the media cycles drop
, stop reporting on certaindisasters because unfortunately,
as we've seen, hurricanes andtropical storms are, they're not
in short supply this year or inpast years.
That's when we transition to ourrecovery phase and we start
(15:40):
looking at what are the longterm needs that these
communities need to A rebuildand B install in order to become
more resilient in the face offuture disasters.
So what our communications tryand articulate as we transition
from response to recovery is wetry to keep focus within our
networks and also with ouraudiences, on the, despite the
(16:06):
fact that the media may havestopped reporting on it and
moved on to other things, ormaybe, even though you hear
about it less, this community isstill rebuilding and they're
still in dire need of help.
And so what we see we see kindof a transition of needs and we
try and articulate that and wetry and engage industry to say,
(16:28):
hey, we know this disaster haspassed out of the immediate
public consciousness, but thereis still a need to move.
There's still a need formaterial handling equipment,
let's say to help warehouseoperations move more efficiently
as rebuilding materials aredistributed.
Blythe Brumleve (16:45):
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And so when you, I guess,sticking with the Maui example,
it's a good time to sort of, Iguess, not revisit it, but it
feels like you're revisiting itbecause it was just dominating
the news for a couple of weeksand, like you said, it just
(17:49):
falls out of the news cycle andfalls out of the, I guess, just
general consciousness for folkswho are outside of those
impacted.
And so when you, what is, Iguess?
Do you know the right time tostop disaster relief or disaster
recovery?
Or does it move into sort oflike a different phase where
(18:13):
different organizations andnonprofits are handling those
long issues that are going to bearound for a long time?
Emilee Martichenko (18:21):
Yeah.
So for ALAN we're engaged 365days of the year on what we can
do to prepare people incommunities to help them with
short and long term recovery.
And we are taking in and youknow a huge part of this
involves taking in cases as theycome.
So we work with a network ofnonprofit partners and they come
(18:45):
to us and they say, hey, thisis a need that we have and they
register that as a case andthat's posted, as I mentioned
before on the disaster, on ourdisaster micro site, very, very
important section of our website.
So that kind of I would saythat's kind of one element that
drives our work is because we'realways trying to focus on what
(19:09):
is the immediate need or whatcapacity needs to be built.
So, that being said, sometimesdisasters it takes years or even
decades to rebuild from them.
So we could get we just got arecent case, a transportation
case for a COVID-19 outbreak,which I know everybody is sick
(19:33):
and tired of hearing about.
But so things come and go, butit serves as an important
reminder that you might be doing, you might be heavily engaged
in response for a little bit andthen you might be heavily
engaged in response forsomething else and they might
overlap on that responsetimeline and then, as these
(19:57):
communities rebuild and theystart reassessing what else is
important for the long-termrecovery, then they might have
to circle back to Alan.
Blythe Brumleve (20:05):
And so you had mentioned a couple times about
the case numbers on the site, orthe cases that are on the site,
and you have them listed out bynumbers, which is and it's very
specific needs, you knowwarehouse requests, equipment
requests, expertise requests,transportation requests, all of
these different things.
That I think is incredible.
So what does that process looklike?
(20:28):
I would imagine that you'relisting these cases on your
website and then going.
It almost sounds like you're abroker, like you're the broker,
like coordinating between theneeds and the customer who
actually needs, you know, thosesupplies or those relief efforts
.
Is that a conscious?
I imagine it's a consciouseffort with the case numbers on
(20:49):
there?
But what happens after?
I guess that you list the caserequests on the website?
Are organizations reaching outto you?
Are you coordinating them kindof like a broker does, like how
does that process work?
Emilee Martichenko (21:00):
Yeah, brokers.
Actually it's an interestingword that when I always default
to his facilitator.
I like that too, yeah same.
Although I will say, one of theabsolutely fabulous things about
Alan is we can do all of thisand provide these services for
our non-profit partnersabsolutely free of charge, which
you know makes, as we're anon-profit ourselves so it makes
our work extra special.
(21:23):
But a non-profit has a need thatthey register with us and it
gets put on our website in somecases.
In other cases we do directoutreach, but you know, let's
use the website as an example.
It gets posted on our websiteand we, a lot of the times you
know are including with ourdirect outreach.
(21:45):
Our industry partners will cometo us and say, hey, we either
saw this case on your website orwe heard from you directly and
we believe that our capacitymatches this need and we would
like to donate the service.
And then our operationscoordinator, lexi, who I
mentioned earlier, works toessentially facilitate the
(22:10):
execution of that donation.
So you know, alan puts thedonor in touch with the
non-profit and they work togather all of the important
information.
If it's transportation, youknow you need origin,
destination, you need palletcount, you need weight
dimensions, all of that, and weessentially just kind of act as
that guide to make sure thatwhatever needs to be moved gets
(22:34):
from point A to point B.
Blythe Brumleve (22:36):
Are there, I guess, different modes, like
obviously with Maui you neededcargo ships or air freight or
planes to haul the freight over.
Are there different?
I guess a typical and you saidno disaster is the same, but I
guess maybe for a fire versus ahurricane versus maybe a tornado
(22:57):
are there usually, you know,transportation or logistics
needs based on the type ofdisaster, if that makes sense.
Emilee Martichenko (23:06):
Yeah, so are there overlapping or common
logistics needs per disaster?
So I would say that I would say, out of all the logistics needs
, the one that we get the mostrequests for is transportation,
because if there is a hurricaneor a wildfire or a flood, that
(23:31):
means there's relief suppliesusually staged nearby or not
nearby in some cases.
We've helped transport suppliesacross the country in a lot of
cases, but anyway, point beingis that it needs to get moved to
the disaster site in order tobe distributed.
So we get a lot oftransportation requests would be
(23:53):
our most common.
But material handling equipment.
We mentioned associationpartners at the beginning of
this call.
We receive a lot of supportfrom the from Mejida.
We love Mejida, they'rewonderful to us.
They've been heavily involvedin helping us fill cases by
(24:15):
putting material handlingequipment requests out to their
network and that's another formof outreach that our network
helps us with.
And then a lot of the timestheir members come back and they
say, hey, we see there's a needfor a forklift or a pallet jack
, which even one pallet jack orone forklift can just spell a
world of difference, because itmeans that the relief supplies
that have been staged in awarehouse maybe not too far from
(24:40):
the disaster site.
Suddenly their operations canmove and be executed much more
efficiently.
Blythe Brumleve (24:47):
And so I guess, when you have these partners,
what about from the, I guess,the lens of working in logistics
?
Over the last couple of yearswe've heard these excess
inventory and all of thesedifferent retailers are having
to buy up warehouse space allover the country because they
have too much inventory.
So what happens, I guess,during a disaster, if there's
(25:09):
not any space to store the goods, what happens in that case?
Emilee Martichenko (25:13):
Yeah, and this is where I give my spiel on
behalf of Alan about notdonating to product collection
drives, because that hadhappened with Maui.
They received an influx ofdonations and there was not
enough.
In the case of Maui, therewasn't enough container space or
warehouse space on the islandto store everything.
(25:34):
Because people are generous andpeople's hearts are always in
the right place because theywant to help, and that's amazing
.
A lot of the times what peopledo is they donate to product
collection drives and then thesedonations pile up, and pile up,
and pile up and they clog portsand they clog supply chains,
and then they're all of a sudden.
And then they're all of asudden.
Art isn't the infrastructure inplace to help distribute what's
(25:57):
piled up?
And then the response effortsbecomes a case of not only
trying to get critical materialsto disaster site but also
trying to deal with what'sarrived that isn't critical.
So at Alan we say, as asolution to that, in the event
of a disaster, instead ofdonating to a product collection
drive, make a financialdonation, which I know it
(26:21):
doesn't give that kind of rushof doing good that we all want
when we give a physical donation, but it means that the
non-profits who have been doingthis for years and know what
they're doing in order to getthese supplies to disaster sites
.
It means that you're helpingfortify their operations with
(26:43):
your financial donation.
Blythe Brumleve (26:45):
That's great tips.
Emilee Martichenko (26:47):
It spells a world of difference, especially
because, alan, we have anamazing network of very generous
partners and very generousdonors, but we are, in terms of
full-time staff, we're a team ofthree, wow.
Blythe Brumleve (27:01):
So you're doing a lot of work a lot of
coordination.
Yeah, A lot of communications.
Speaking of communications, Iwas looking at the Alan Twitter
feed this morning and noticedthat there's some organizational
efforts going on for theearthquake victims in Morocco.
How global is Alan?
Maybe starting to get moreglobal?
(27:23):
Or how does the maybe disasterrelief work in the US versus
outside of the US?
Emilee Martichenko (27:29):
Yeah, so how global is Alan?
Alan does a lot of first-miletransportation when it comes to
global relief efforts.
So we have helped a lot inHaiti over the past few years
with the earthquake and alsowith cholera outbreaks at
various times.
So a lot of our work justinvolves when it comes to
international deployment ofrelief materials.
(27:51):
We're doing that first-milemove just to various ports
throughout the US in tandem withour non-profit and industry
partners, and so, oh, go ahead,I don't know, go ahead, I'm
sorry.
Blythe Brumleve (28:04):
Well.
So I'm wondering too doesintermodal, does rail lines, do
those play a role in disasterrecovery as well?
Emilee Martichenko (28:15):
So Alan actually doesn't.
We are not heavily involvedwith the rail community in our
work, so I am not yet as wellversus I would like to be to
speak about that, not yet.
Not yet.
Blythe Brumleve (28:29):
So if the intermodal company is out there
with a generous heart, then youguys need to get linked up.
So I guess, with your time onthe job you've been there since
2020.
I mean, obviously you saweverything that happened with
COVID sort of first-line defenseor offense, I guess, depending
on the time of the year but Iwonder, has there been any
(28:51):
moments during this role for youthat have really been impactful
?
I'm sure there's been a ton,but do any of them sort of stick
out to you of?
This is why I do this job.
Emilee Martichenko (29:05):
Yeah, you know, 2023 has been a big year
for Alan, and part because, atthe beginning of the year, we
received a grant from theWalmart Foundation in order to
kickstart a long-term projectthat aims to help build capacity
logistics capacity specificallyfor small and medium-sized
(29:26):
nonprofits specializing indisaster relief, and so we
started.
It has different work streamsand we're currently in a work
stream that involves planningand executing what we call
logistics coordination calls,which are aimed at gathering
this nonprofit community thatwe've been working with and
building over the years together, both during disasters and in
(29:48):
what we call blue skies, whichis a non-disaster time, and
essentially trying to facilitatethe flow of information through
collaborative discussion,through seminars, through guest
speakers and just through, yeah,through this joint
collaboration in order to buildcapacity and also equip
nonprofits with the knowledgeand experience and further
(30:13):
experience of supply chains, sothat they can help improve their
disaster relief efforts in amore cost-effective manner.
Because, you know, a lot of thetimes, nonprofits they can have
so much information and so muchexperience when it comes to and
be in the business for years andyears and years, but because
they're given the, you know,strained budgets that nonprofits
(30:37):
operate off of, particularly,at least the small and
medium-sized ones, they there'sstill, no matter how much
knowledge they have, stretchingtheir budgets thin.
So, that being said, becauseI'm circling back to your point,
I tend to go off on these long,long-term.
Blythe Brumleve (30:54):
Oh, no worries, I love hearing it.
Emilee Martichenko (30:56):
So we've gathered, we've started this
year, gathering these nonprofitstogether and these logistics
coordination calls in order tofacilitate this capacity
building, and we had our firstone in August and then our and
then the Maui wildfires hit andwe pivoted to hosting them twice
a week and making them Mauispecific, and that was just a
(31:20):
really, really remarkable.
It was a remarkable time to bea part of ALAN, because not only
were we engaged in this newwork stream, in this long-term
project that we have to, youknow, really try and
systemically improve disasterrelief efforts from a logistics
standpoint, but suddenly we weredoing it in a very, very
important and high stakesenvironment and we found that it
(31:41):
was helping make a differencefrom the feedback that we
received.
Blythe Brumleve (31:45):
So that was-.
I was gonna say it's gottadefinitely be, maybe not in the
exact moment of when everythingis going on, but after the fact
being like, wow, maybe we reallylearned a lot of really good
things from a collaborationstandpoint to be able to help
you know the next disaster alittle bit better, even if it's
just a microcosm.
Emilee Martichenko (32:07):
Exactly exactly.
And you know in engaging thecommunity together to understand
what worked and what didn't.
So you know, next time we uniteeverybody in one of these calls
, how can we coordinate betterand how can we be a better
facilitator.
Those are huge takeaways.
Blythe Brumleve (32:21):
I am curious with Maui in particular.
You know native like Hawaiiansare very protective of you, know
their land and you know for awhile there was even, like Jason
Momoa and the rock, tellingpeople don't come, don't send
anything, don't visit our island.
We wanna handle this.
Is that common, I guess, amongdisaster, that the community
(32:44):
wants to handle it and that theydon't want the outsider help?
Or is it more of just allowingthem to trust you and to build
that relationship internallyfirst?
Emilee Martichenko (32:57):
So I think I'll answer this kind of twofold
.
So something that's importantto know about Alan is that we do
not send any relief supplies toa disaster site unless there is
a very specific plan fordistribution.
So if a non-profit comes to usand they say, hey, we have all
these pallets of water and wejust wanna get it there, but
(33:18):
nobody at the disaster site hastold us we want this water, we
say hey, you need to wait untilyou know the state, until a
state agency or a local agencyis saying we need this water.
So that's something that Alanalways takes a lot of care to do
.
The second part of this and Iapologize for the sirens in the
(33:42):
background- no worries, it'skind of, I guess, conducive to
the conversation Exactly.
But the second part of thisbeing is that, when it comes to
disaster response and recovery,rebuilding local economies is
key to long-term recoveryefforts.
So we want to get in theimmediate, immediate aftermath.
(34:05):
We wanna get critical reliefsupplies there and we wanna meet
these immediate needs.
But we also wanna make surethat local businesses have what
they need to reopen as soon aspossible so people can get back
into grocery stores and grocerystores can start distributing
again and because that way localcurrency is pouring back into
(34:28):
the economy.
So part of Alan's work ishelping get supplies that need
to get there in order to getpeople back on their feet, so
that local business and localenterprise can get back on its
feet as fast as possible.
Blythe Brumleve (34:45):
I love that approach because it really I
didn't even think about it fromthat lens you want the buildings
and the established folks thatare in the area to get up to
speed the fastest, because thenthey're gonna help.
It's almost like being on anairplane when they tell you to
put your own oxygen mask onfirst before you start helping
out other people.
Let's help these key locationsfirst, and it's interesting that
(35:06):
you identify like a grocerystore, for example, to keep the
money flowing within thecommunity, and so then that way
it's the community building eachother up, which is probably
where it should start and end, Iwould imagine, with help, of
course, from outsiders when theywanted, which I think was super
interesting to watch, justgiven the history of Hawaii and
(35:29):
I guess the I'll call itcomplications there with wanting
outside help and outsider help.
So I love that you guys do thatand you prioritize what they
need first to sort of hold backthe people who want to help.
But you might be hurting theentire process with your help.
So it's almost like you'recreating a distribution system
(35:51):
for help.
Almost you definitely are Nowwith, as I close out this round
of questions before we get intothe last round of questions
which is a little bit more likea beat and more fun.
Is there anything else with itor anything more?
I guess, within disaster relief, recovery, that you feel like
(36:12):
we're not strong enough yet, Iguess as a nation, to provide or
what kind of areas ofimprovements.
How could people help all thatgood stuff, helping a good way?
Emilee Martichenko (36:22):
Yeah, so you know just, the overarching
theme of this conversation islogistics, and I will say that
improving knowledge andexecution of logistics during
disaster relief, that's ourAlana's on a mission to just
improve and improve and improveand make logistics so much more
(36:46):
of a focal point when it comesto disaster relief efforts.
You know, a metric that we liketo share with people, that a
lot of people don't realize andthat I didn't realize when I
started it, alan is that as muchas 80% of humanitarian spending
on disaster relief is directedtowards logistics.
Oh, wow.
And of that, 80%, as much as 40%of that spending ends up being
(37:08):
waste.
So logistics and you knowlogistics and supply chain,
we're so familiar with it, butit's something that, because of
COVID, has really come into thepublic consciousness in the past
few years, so so many peopledon't even know what it means
when we say that, when we usethat terminology.
And so Alan would, and, like Isaid, we're on a mission to
(37:30):
center logistics as not just aperiphery element that helps
disaster relief, it is a drivingforce for better disaster
relief efforts.
Blythe Brumleve (37:42):
And so for companies who maybe wanna get
involved, they wanna volunteertheir services within the
logistics realm.
How do they get set up?
What does that set up processlook like?
Emilee Martichenko (37:51):
Yeah, absolutely so.
You can donate to Alan.
You can make a financialdonation via our website or we
talk to directly to us at infoat alanaidorg and I'm happy to
talk about our varioussponsorship levels.
If a logistics organizationwants to donate logistics
services or equipment, onceagain you can reach out directly
(38:12):
to us.
And we also always encourageorganizations to pre-register on
our website or make a pre-offer.
And so what you do is you goonto our website and you fill
out our pre-offer form, justgiving a little bit of
information about who you areand what kind of services that
you would potentially wannaprovide.
It's not obligatory.
(38:33):
You are in no way signing on asyou're in no way obligated to
donate to us.
Pardon me, but what it does isit puts you in our database so
that in the event of a disaster,when we start getting that
influx of cases in the responsephase, we can go back into our
database and we say, hey, thiscompany pre-registered with us
(38:56):
and they said we are potentiallyinterested in offering a
forklift or donated warehousespace.
And we know to reach out to youbecause when we have a case
that we believe might match yourcapacity.
Blythe Brumleve (39:11):
I love that.
I mean the website's great.
It has so many differentresources on it.
So for folks who wanna check itout, I will be sure to list it
in the show notes just to makeit easy for everyone.
But, rounding out thisconversation, I like to
affectionately call this segmentthe relatable eight, and it
feels a little weird to talkabout some fun topics in
(39:32):
addition to the seriousness ofdisaster relief and recovery, of
course.
But the relatable eight isessentially a set of questions
about marketing and sales andjust general.
So for folks who get to knowyou a little bit more, get to
know the organization a littlebit more.
So first up on this list ofquestions is and this is
(39:53):
probably this is perfect for youhow do you think about
marketing when it comes to youand your company?
Emilee Martichenko (39:57):
Yes, this is a conversation that that me and
our communications director,laurie, have often, because the
thing about Alan is that we'reAlan is the behind the scenes
organization.
You know, we're the facilitator, we are happy, we love what we
do, and because it all takesplace behind that curtain and it
(40:20):
makes us very proud, the onlything that is not conducive to
is excellent visual imagery forwhat we do as a company.
So when I, when I go to workand I think about oh, how can I,
you know, spell out foraudiences what we do and who we
are and why it's so important,I'm always trying to think of
creative ways to tell stories,whether that's through blogs or
(40:43):
case studies or social mediaposts, and even get creative
with graphic design.
Blythe Brumleve (40:50):
Yeah, I imagine you have to tow like a fine
line between, like the casestudies and you know, I guess,
reporting on these things, butyou know it, telling the stories
of it, I guess, without sharingtoo much, which is a fine line
that I'm sure that y'all, y'allhave to walk.
But you're doing a great job onsocial media so it makes people
(41:11):
care and it makes people have,you know, some kind of an
information source about eventsthat people care about.
So great work on there and, youknow, related to that question
is what's your favorite socialmedia platform and why?
Emilee Martichenko (41:24):
Ooh, you know, for organization of visual
content, instagram is great,but I would have to go with
LinkedIn.
I found that most of most ofthe industry that engages with
us is on LinkedIn and it's wherewe get the most visibility on
our messaging.
And it's been really fun sinceI started at ALAN to watch our
engagement increase throughLinkedIn.
Blythe Brumleve (41:43):
Yeah, for sure, there's definitely a very
strong logistics LinkedIncommunity on there.
All right, next question whatis your favorite SaaS tool that
you use every day?
Can't live without, but itcan't be your own?
Yeah, canva.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Emilee Martichenko (42:01):
There's not a day of my life that goes by in
which I don't use Canva.
I am dependent on Canva foreverything, and it's a great
tool.
Blythe Brumleve (42:09):
It's a great tool.
It's a great story to femalefounder led.
I think they just IPO'd as wellRecently, or they're going to
IPO one of the two, but it'sreally incredible to watch that
company grow and then makegraphic design, make these sort
of things approachable andattainable for normies like
myself that never went to schoolfor, you know, for graphic
(42:30):
design and just try to put somethings together.
Emilee Martichenko (42:31):
I didn't know, Okay next one Favorite
freight business that isn't yourown.
Blythe Brumleve (42:40):
So I'm going to be.
Emilee Martichenko (42:42):
I'm going to be a cop out on this one,
because at ALAN we really don'tplay favorites.
Yeah, you kind of can't.
Blythe Brumleve (42:48):
You know when you.
The more you get to know aboutour network, the more your mind
will just be blown about howgenerous they are.
Emilee Martichenko (42:56):
Truly, everybody has to be a favorite
to every.
Every one is a favorite, andevery one is a favorite, and
everyone has been so supportiveof our mission.
I will say, though, that ifaudiences want to learn about
some of the and like disasterrelief initiatives and community
(43:16):
development initiatives thatare unique to industry members,
go on our website and read aboutour past humanitarian logistics
award winners.
We, you know, open thesenominations up every year, and
we're actually two weeks away,on this very date, from
announcing our 2023 winners, andit's they were just started to
recognize some of the incredibleachievements that our industry
(43:38):
is doing in the context ofdisaster relief, and it's
amazing that isn't necessarilypublicized very much.
Yeah, I didn't even think aboutit from that lens, and so
hopefully we'll be able to seethat in the future.
Blythe Brumleve (43:48):
I didn't even think about it from that lens,
and so hopefully, by the timethis episode drops, though, that
list of winners will bereleased, and so I encourage
everybody to go and check thatout, because I wouldn't have
even thought about, you know,the recognition part of it, and
you're right, there's so manyfolks that are, you know,
passionate about these things,and so giving a little bit of
recognition probably goes a longway.
(44:09):
Okay, next question, and Idon't I mean, this is kind of a
tough one, I think, for folks toanswer, but what's one task in
your current job that you can'tstand doing?
Emilee Martichenko (44:20):
Um, I can't stand as a in this kind in this
case is a strong phrase, becauseI love the people I work with
and I love my job and I truly do.
I love all elements of it.
Uh, I guess, if we're going toget very, very technical about
it, I you know, I maintainAlan's website and I'm entirely
(44:42):
self taught when it comes to theweb design, thank you.
So I have most of the time I'mjust, you know, surprising
myself with what I can do.
But every now and then I go tomake an update or I go to make a
change and, you know, wordpressed us something and I'm
like I don't know exactly whatyou're telling me.
Who?
Blythe Brumleve (45:00):
are you telling ?
Emilee Martichenko (45:03):
So I would say you know, it's too, it's too
full.
It's fun to.
It's fun to have a challengeand fun to conquer, but every
now and then the technical stuffit feels like it's coming out
on top.
Blythe Brumleve (45:14):
Yeah, I love and hate at times word press.
We host, more than you know, 30freight websites on our digital
dispatch platform, and sosometimes you make one update on
one site and then the othersite doesn't like it and it
screws everything up and it'sback to the drawing board.
You got to call in the reservesof the tech team and get them
to fix it, and the waiting gameof getting it fixed is annoying.
(45:38):
So, yeah, I definitely sharethat sentiment.
I would echo that thatsentiment too.
I can't stand it.
I can't.
I like making updates to thesite, but I can't stand when it
breaks when I try to make thequick update.
Emilee Martichenko (45:50):
I'm like I just needed to go.
Blythe Brumleve (45:51):
Well Right, it's just like it's usually the
quick updates that screweverything up, that you know it
turns into a very long updateafter that.
Okay, Next question If youdidn't have to worry about money
, what would you do for the restof your life?
I would be an actor, oh nice.
Have you, have you tried, oryeah?
Emilee Martichenko (46:09):
absolutely, yeah, I am.
It's an industry that I love.
It's an industry that's goingthrough a lot of strife right
now and that I hope changes much, much more for the better, and
I love it.
I think it's an absolutelyextraordinary art.
Blythe Brumleve (46:23):
Well, for folks who haven't you know, I guess
they were to listen to thebackground and gotten that cue.
You're based in Manhattan, sothat makes a lot of sense from
the actor perspective.
Okay, next question, Second tolast one what's something you
believe in that most peopledon't?
Emilee Martichenko (46:39):
So I'm not sure.
I don't know what the ratio ofbelievers to nonbelievers on
this point would be.
I hope there's a lot ofbelievers, but you know I am.
I believe we're living in sincewe're living in a time of rapid
technological development thatwhen it comes to innovation,
that people, their well-being,their likeness, their privacy
(47:00):
and how new advancements impacttheir social and economic
welfare should always beprioritized first and foremost.
That's something that's kind ofbeen on my mind a little bit
recently.
Is is just, and you know, andwe work in disaster relief, so
we're always thinking First andforemost about the survivors and
about how we can upliftindividuals and communities
(47:21):
alike.
So I'm just thinking this time,when we're having a lot of
rapid development, that weshould, we should think about
people and always put them first.
Blythe Brumleve (47:31):
Yeah, very well said.
And then, last one on the list,what is your favorite supply
chain or logistics?
Back to give a really great one, or earlier, about the I am.
Emilee Martichenko (47:42):
I snuck it in.
I snuck it in early by accident, but it was just too good that
is.
That is a really powerful statwhich you know all of you don't
mind me repeating it, because Ido find it so powerful Is that a
lot of people don't realize asmuch as 80% of humanitarian
spending on disaster relief isdirected towards logistics and
(48:02):
of that 80%, as much as 40% ofthe spending ends up going to
waste.
It makes you think about notonly how important logistics is
and what Alan does is but howtimely it is, as well, 100%.
Blythe Brumleve (48:15):
I mean that that really is such a powerful
stat that it deserves to berepeated several times over,
because I think it kind of goesback to your, your earlier point
of if you're, if you want todonate, if you want to help, you
know, get involved with thenonprofits that are already
established and experienced, butalso consider a financial
donation as well, and so thatmoney can be put towards things
(48:37):
that are in immediate or longterm needs, and and let the
nonprofits figure it out.
Emilee Martichenko (48:42):
Yeah, and they're the ones with boots on
the ground and with theexpertise so Exactly and they
know what they're doing andthey're so passionate they're
wonderful to work with, exactlyand so.
Blythe Brumleve (48:52):
So, emily, where can folks follow more of
your work?
Follow Alan's work.
You know all that good stuff.
Emilee Martichenko (48:57):
Yeah, so go to our website, alan aorg.
Go to our disaster micro siteto learn about our disaster
response activities.
You can make a donation on thiswebsite.
You can pre offer services.
You can follow Alan on Twitter,linkedin, facebook and
Instagram.
Our handle is Alan aid and Iencourage everyone to reach out
(49:17):
to us directly at info at Alanaorg, if you want to get
registered, and I'll make sureyou get registered with Alan
supply chain intelligence centerand we're just.
If you would like anintroduction to you know some of
our team.
If you're interested inlearning more about operations,
I would so love to connecteveryone with our operations
(49:38):
coordinator and with ourexecutive director.
They're wonderful, hardworkingand passionate people.
Blythe Brumleve (49:44):
Heck yeah.
So we got a lot of littlelogistics books.
I would hope you know, witheverything is logistics podcast,
that we would have a lot oflogistics folks listening to
this episode.
So reach out, get involved.
You're looking for a place tohelp.
This sounds like the perfectopportunity to be able to offer
those resources which you knowlogistics providers are already
an expert in hand over yourexpertise to another company.
(50:05):
That's expertise.
That is a long way of sayingthat.
Thank you for you know, sharingthis insight, sharing this
conversation and sharing themission of Alan, because it
really it's a fascinating topic,because I think that it's
always evolving and there'salways ways to improve.
You know relief and recoveryefforts and we can't do much
(50:26):
about, you know I mean, youcan't do much about, you know
natural disasters, at least inour current capacity.
So, with what you can do, beable to offer help to
organizations and nonprofitsthat need it.
So thank you again.
This was great.
Thank you so much for having me.
Emilee Martichenko (50:41):
I really appreciate it Absolutely.
Blythe Brumleve (50:48):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of
everything is logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over at everythingis logistics dot com.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let you know
about another company I operate,and that's digital dispatch,
(51:09):
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Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo Jags.
Welcome into another episode of Everything Is
Logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
We are proudly presented by SBILogistics and I am your host,
Blythe Brumleve.
I am happy to welcome in EmileeMartichenko.
She is the CommunicationsCoordinator for the American
Logistics Aid Network, otherwiseknown as ALAN, and I am it
(00:26):
feels weird to say I'm reallyexcited to talk about disaster
recovery because of the natureof it, but I am just endlessly
fascinated.
What happens after, whathappens before, during and after
a disaster takes place, all ofthe people that come together to
make sure that other folks aretaken care of.
So that's really the root ofthe conversation that I wanted
(00:49):
to have today, because that'sexactly what ALAN provides.
So, real quick, before we getinto the discussion, give us a
little bit of sense of yourcareer backstory.
Were you involved in logistics?
Is this sort of your firstlogistics company?
Give us a scoop.
Emilee Martichenko (01:06):
Yeah, so to be fairly brief, this is my
first professional position inthe logistics industry.
I guess it kind of runs in thefamily.
My father had a logistics andsupply chain business that he
built up from the ground up.
Oh nice, he was sold in 2020,so he is a long time industry
(01:30):
professional.
And I went to college, did notstudy logistics, I studied Latin
American studies in comparativeliterature and then just kind
of made my way to ALAN in 2020.
First part-time as a contractworker and then full-time in May
of this year.
Blythe Brumleve (01:48):
Oh, wow, so okay.
So you kind of grew up withsupply chain knowledge, Were you
?
Because I know my friends knowthat I work in supply chain and
logistics, but they have no ideawhat that entails.
Was that a similar experiencefor you that?
Emilee Martichenko (02:02):
you had no idea what your dad did yes
admittedly for many, many years,and it really wasn't until I
started my work with ALAN that Istarted to get pretty educated
in what it all meant andentailed.
Blythe Brumleve (02:16):
Oh.
I'm sure he's so proud now tobe able to have somebody else in
the family to talk logisticstoo.
He's having a lot of fun withit, awesome, okay.
So give us, I guess, thebackstory of ALAN.
From what I understand is thatit was started after, I guess,
sort of the questionable reliefefforts after Hurricane Katrina
hit.
I think it was back in 2005,.
(02:38):
I think is when HurricaneKatrina hit.
That's what I have in my notes.
So ALAN was started right afterthat, is that?
Emilee Martichenko (02:43):
correct.
Yeah, so you know, HurricaneKatrina hits in 2005 and it's
devastating, and ALAN was formedas a result.
ALAN was formed by industryassociations coming together and
saying, hey, this hurricane wasso unprecedented and so
devastating and so much of therelief that people that was
(03:07):
pouring in and that peoplewanted to provide could not get
to where it needed to be in theright quantities at the right
time in order to be as effectiveas possible during the first
response phase and then recoveryphase.
So these industry associationscame together and they said
(03:27):
there is an opportunity here toimprove disaster response and
ALAN was born out of that.
Blythe Brumleve (03:34):
What were some of those, I guess, moments that
were like, wow, that this iscompletely not working and we
need to create a solution for it.
Were there anything that youcould pinpoint?
Emilee Martichenko (03:47):
You know, unfortunately, that one will be
a little bit tough for mebecause I wasn't around in 2005.
Blythe Brumleve (03:51):
It was a long time ago, so it was a very very
long time ago.
Emilee Martichenko (03:54):
So I would have to admittedly, on this one
I would have to touch base witheither our executive director or
truly, one of our foundingnetwork, one of our founding
partners.
Blythe Brumleve (04:08):
Who are some of those, I guess, founding
partners that you mentioned,trade associations.
So it's awesome to hear thatsome of these trade associations
are working together andbecause usually they're
independent operations or wherethey work pretty independently.
Emilee Martichenko (04:22):
So our founding president, who's
unfortunately no longer with us.
His name was Jock Menzies andhe passed tragically a couple
years ago.
He was the kind of unitingfigure in all of this who really
got ALAN off the ground, andthere's at this point there's
too many for me to name, butwhat I would encourage your
audiences to do is go to ourwebsite, because we have an
(04:45):
industry association page whereyou can actually see all of the
associations who were with usfrom our founding and who are
with us to this day.
Blythe Brumleve (04:54):
Oh, wow, so it's good that it was so all
those groups came together andthey stayed together, which is,
I guess, a testament to themission that's at hand.
And so I guess, to segue into,I guess sort of the description
which I love, the description ofALAN.
It says on a mission to savelives and reduce suffering for
(05:14):
two disaster survivors in theUnited States by engaging
industry to supplement nonprofitorganizations logistics
capabilities.
They serve by coordinatinglogistics, providing education
and building cross sectorrelationships before, during and
after disasters.
Can you kind of walk us through, I guess, those different steps
of you?
(05:34):
Know, maybe like a hurricane isprobably the only one that
maybe you can pre-plan for whatkind of, I guess, pre-planning
goes into disaster relief?
Emilee Martichenko (05:43):
Yeah, absolutely so.
ALAN functions at all stages ofthe disaster life cycle, the
first one being, if you look atit as kind of like a loop.
The first one being thatpreparation stage and
preparation isn't just hurricanespecific you can prepare in
various ways for all kinds ofdisasters From the ALAN side.
A lot of that preparationinvolves us interfacing with our
(06:07):
industry partners and ournonprofit partners.
To understand, you know, if itis hurricane specific and we
have an idea of where thishurricane is making landfall,
who is mobilized and is stagingrelief supplies?
What are the anticipated needsfor after the hurricane makes
landfall?
Is there, are there theresources and the logistics,
(06:30):
services and infrastructure inplace to move these supplies to
where they need to be after thehurricane makes landfall?
You know we another importantcomponent of this preparation is
amplifying and getting as muchvisibility on important
information as possible.
So going to going to socialmedia accounts like the National
(06:52):
Hurricane Center and resharingthose and trying to just get
that information out there sopeople can be as prepared
themselves as possible, so theycan plan evacuation routes.
We always encourage people toregister for our supply chain
intelligence center, which is afree to use GIS tool which we
developed in tandem with our oneof our partners, everstream
(07:14):
Analytics.
We love them.
Thank you, everstream.
But it's a free to use GIS toolthat brings updates on the
charted path of hurricanes andtropical storms and will also
give updates on supply chainimpacts before, during and after
disasters.
So it's kind of your one stopshop tool if your government,
(07:35):
nonprofit industry and lookingto understand how these
disasters are impacting criticalinfrastructure and supply
chains.
Blythe Brumleve (07:43):
That's interesting.
I just signed up for it thismorning, so I'm I'm waiting on
access for it, but I watched acouple of the demo videos and it
was great.
It was one of those things thatI'm like how has this not been
thought of before?
So it really sounds like it'salmost with you being the
communications manager.
So are you in charge ofmanaging these communications?
(08:04):
Is it a bunch of people comingtogether?
I guess?
What does it look like duringthe process, during a disaster?
So we kind of covered whathappens before, but what about
like during?
Because it feels so chaotic.
I think for folks who, you know, I'm a Florida resident and at
times it does feel like okay,where can I get the most the
latest information?
(08:25):
And that feels like abottleneck.
But you're you're saying thatthere are resources out there
that we could be checking inorder to get those up to date
communications of what's goingon.
Yes, absolutely.
Emilee Martichenko (08:37):
So you know, when a disaster hits and Alan
mobilizes and we go into ourimmediate response phase.
The Alan team were we kind ofmobilize in our specific sectors
.
So I'm communications.
I'm here to make sure that theAlan website is up to date and
that we are talking with talkingwith the media and getting
(09:01):
critical information about whatAlan is doing and how Alan is
responding, getting as many eyeson that as possible so people
are informed.
The best place to check forthis updated information is our
disaster micro site, which ishoused on our website.
So you go to alanadeorg slashoperations and after a disaster
hits, that is your point pagefor where, for where to find out
(09:26):
what activities were engaged in.
From an operations side, we arecoordinating efforts with our
nonprofit partners and engagingindustry to help relief supplies
get to where they need to be tohelp survivors as efficiently
and as cost effectively aspossible.
So we have an operationscoordinator, lexi who's, who
(09:46):
came on full time to Alan thesame time I did.
She's absolutely wonderful.
So you have her doingoperations, you have me doing
communications, you have ourwonderful executive director,
kathy Fulton, uniting us inthese efforts and helping to
guide the Alan team to, you know, engage in these response
activities and unite thesenetworks you know, the nonprofit
(10:07):
partners with the industrypartners and streamline that
communication to avoid anydeduplication of response
efforts.
Blythe Brumleve (10:15):
What are some of those I guess immediate needs
when a disaster strikes, is itas simple as food and water,
shelter?
What kind of needs I guess areimmediate versus maybe some of
the longer term needs?
Emilee Martichenko (10:31):
Yeah, so disasters are unpredictable and
no matter you know how manyhurricanes we have or how many
wildfires we have, andunfortunately it looks like it's
sadly, I hate to say this beena busy year or a busy summer for
disasters, but so they'reunique and no one is the same.
(10:51):
So it's it's impossible to say,in the event of this or in the
event of that, you always needthis or you always need that.
But you can kind of get, youcan kind of get a sense,
especially during thepreparation phase, when we're
liaisoning and trying tounderstand what's being staged,
what you might need.
So in the case of let's takeMaui, for example, because that
(11:14):
was a very, very devastating andvery tragic disaster that were
still immersed in trying toprovide response and recovery,
for Maui happens, and what madeit extra tricky was that it's an
island.
So suddenly getting reliefsupplies from point A to point B
becomes, you know,exponentially trickier.
(11:37):
You have to understand.
You have to understand thetransportation and the freight,
the freight requirements.
You have federal and stateefforts overlapping and there's
this huge, huge influx ofdonations Because people, well,
their hearts are in the rightplace, they want to be helpful,
but they just send stuff overwithout an idea of what the
(11:59):
immediate need is or you know,even if there's a plan for
distribution in place.
So where Alan comes in, is weengage the, is we engage
nonprofits in the US, in the USmainland and over in Maui and on
neighboring Hawaiian islands,and we say, hey, what are the
most immediate needs?
And we get a sense for that andcan we match these needs with a
(12:24):
partner who has the capacity tomake them happen.
And so one case that being thatwas a result of this that we
ended up fulfilling was wehelped move a lot of
telecommunications equipmentfrom mainland.
USA over to Maui, because thesefires knocked out a lot of.
They hindered a lot of abilityto even understand and
(12:47):
facilitate communicationthroughout the island.
So we learned quickly thattelecommunication and getting
Wi-Fi working and even gettingcommunication flowing to
understand what other reliefsupplies are needed became an
imperative.
So then one of our nonprofitpartners, the Information
Technology Disaster ResourceCenter, reached out to us and
(13:08):
they said, hey, we have point topoint gear and we have.
We have point to point gearsitting in the mainland USA and
we need help moving it.
Can you help us move it?
And then we go out into ourpartner base and we say, hey,
this is an immediate need.
Can someone donate thetransportation and help us move
it to Maui?
And that's an example of anisland case that we got filled.
(13:30):
That was kind of a long windedanswer, but no, I love it.
It's a good example of you know, in the case of a disaster, yes
, you need water, yes, you needfood, yes, you need medical
supplies, but you might notrealize.
Hey, telecommunications,absolutely critical, but because
of the tricky nature, theobstacle of moving supplies that
(13:53):
distance, and across water oracross air, it becomes just as
important.
Blythe Brumleve (13:59):
I've had a previous guest on the podcast,
admiral Craig Foller, and he hasled disaster relief efforts in
Haiti and also in Indonesia andthen also was speaking about the
disaster recovery reliefefforts in Syria and Turkey
after they had those justdevastating sort of back to back
, really bad earthquakes over inthat region, and he said that,
(14:22):
you know, while he sort ofechoed you know, some of what
you were saying is that, youknow, while people's hearts are
in the right place, he's like weneed to, from a port supply
perspective, we need toprioritize the freight that is
going to directly help peopleversus something like a teddy
bear, for example, where that's,you know, an emotional thing
that somebody is sending andit's great.
But at the same time, they needcommunication devices, and you
(14:46):
had mentioned a couple timesabout different phases.
Is, I guess, communications, Iwould imagine as part of maybe
that initial response phase, orthere are different kinds of
phases that you guys approachdifferent disasters with.
Emilee Martichenko (14:59):
Yeah.
So you know my job ascommunications coordinators to
really help our is to reallyhelp our networks understand
what needs we're servicing atdifferent phases of the disaster
life cycle.
So in this response phase, theALAN team is getting together
and we are hard at work tryingto figure out what the most
(15:20):
immediate needs are.
But then, you know, as time goesby, maybe the media cycles drop
, stop reporting on certaindisasters because unfortunately,
as we've seen, hurricanes andtropical storms are, they're not
in short supply this year or inpast years.
That's when we transition to ourrecovery phase and we start
(15:40):
looking at what are the longterm needs that these
communities need to A rebuildand B install in order to become
more resilient in the face offuture disasters.
So what our communications tryand articulate as we transition
from response to recovery is wetry to keep focus within our
networks and also with ouraudiences, on the, despite the
(16:06):
fact that the media may havestopped reporting on it and
moved on to other things, ormaybe, even though you hear
about it less, this community isstill rebuilding and they're
still in dire need of help.
And so what we see we see kindof a transition of needs and we
try and articulate that and wetry and engage industry to say,
(16:28):
hey, we know this disaster haspassed out of the immediate
public consciousness, but thereis still a need to move.
There's still a need formaterial handling equipment,
let's say to help warehouseoperations move more efficiently
as rebuilding materials aredistributed.
Blythe Brumleve (16:45):
Are you in freight sales with a book of
business looking for a new home?
Or perhaps you're a freightagent in need of a better
partnership?
These are the kinds ofconversations we're exploring in
our podcast interview seriescalled the Freight Agent
Trenches, sponsored by SPILogistics.
Now I can tell you all day thatSPI is one of the most
successful logistics firms inNorth America, who helps their
(17:07):
agents with back officeoperations, such as admin,
finance, IT and sales.
But I would much rather youhear it directly from SPI's
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I want better way to do thatthan by listening to the
experienced freight agents telltheir stories behind the how and
the why they joined SPI.
Hit the freight agent link inour show notes to listen to
(17:28):
these conversations or, ifyou're ready to make the jump,
visit spi3plcom.
And so when you, I guess,sticking with the Maui example,
it's a good time to sort of, Iguess, not revisit it, but it
feels like you're revisiting itbecause it was just dominating
the news for a couple of weeksand, like you said, it just
(17:49):
falls out of the news cycle andfalls out of the, I guess, just
general consciousness for folkswho are outside of those
impacted.
And so when you, what is, Iguess?
Do you know the right time tostop disaster relief or disaster
recovery?
Or does it move into sort oflike a different phase where
(18:13):
different organizations andnonprofits are handling those
long issues that are going to bearound for a long time?
Emilee Martichenko (18:21):
Yeah.
So for ALAN we're engaged 365days of the year on what we can
do to prepare people incommunities to help them with
short and long term recovery.
And we are taking in and youknow a huge part of this
involves taking in cases as theycome.
So we work with a network ofnonprofit partners and they come
(18:45):
to us and they say, hey, thisis a need that we have and they
register that as a case andthat's posted, as I mentioned
before on the disaster, on ourdisaster micro site, very, very
important section of our website.
So that kind of I would saythat's kind of one element that
drives our work is because we'realways trying to focus on what
(19:09):
is the immediate need or whatcapacity needs to be built.
So, that being said, sometimesdisasters it takes years or even
decades to rebuild from them.
So we could get we just got arecent case, a transportation
case for a COVID-19 outbreak,which I know everybody is sick
(19:33):
and tired of hearing about.
But so things come and go, butit serves as an important
reminder that you might be doing, you might be heavily engaged
in response for a little bit andthen you might be heavily
engaged in response forsomething else and they might
overlap on that responsetimeline and then, as these
(19:57):
communities rebuild and theystart reassessing what else is
important for the long-termrecovery, then they might have
to circle back to Alan.
Blythe Brumleve (20:05):
And so you had mentioned a couple times about
the case numbers on the site, orthe cases that are on the site,
and you have them listed out bynumbers, which is and it's very
specific needs, you knowwarehouse requests, equipment
requests, expertise requests,transportation requests, all of
these different things.
That I think is incredible.
So what does that process looklike?
(20:28):
I would imagine that you'relisting these cases on your
website and then going.
It almost sounds like you're abroker, like you're the broker,
like coordinating between theneeds and the customer who
actually needs, you know, thosesupplies or those relief efforts
.
Is that a conscious?
I imagine it's a consciouseffort with the case numbers on
(20:49):
there?
But what happens after?
I guess that you list the caserequests on the website?
Are organizations reaching outto you?
Are you coordinating them kindof like a broker does, like how
does that process work?
Emilee Martichenko (21:00):
Yeah, brokers.
Actually it's an interestingword that when I always default
to his facilitator.
I like that too, yeah same.
Although I will say, one of theabsolutely fabulous things about
Alan is we can do all of thisand provide these services for
our non-profit partnersabsolutely free of charge, which
you know makes, as we're anon-profit ourselves so it makes
our work extra special.
(21:23):
But a non-profit has a need thatthey register with us and it
gets put on our website in somecases.
In other cases we do directoutreach, but you know, let's
use the website as an example.
It gets posted on our websiteand we, a lot of the times you
know are including with ourdirect outreach.
(21:45):
Our industry partners will cometo us and say, hey, we either
saw this case on your website orwe heard from you directly and
we believe that our capacitymatches this need and we would
like to donate the service.
And then our operationscoordinator, lexi, who I
mentioned earlier, works toessentially facilitate the
(22:10):
execution of that donation.
So you know, alan puts thedonor in touch with the
non-profit and they work togather all of the important
information.
If it's transportation, youknow you need origin,
destination, you need palletcount, you need weight
dimensions, all of that, and weessentially just kind of act as
that guide to make sure thatwhatever needs to be moved gets
(22:34):
from point A to point B.
Blythe Brumleve (22:36):
Are there, I guess, different modes, like
obviously with Maui you neededcargo ships or air freight or
planes to haul the freight over.
Are there different?
I guess a typical and you saidno disaster is the same, but I
guess maybe for a fire versus ahurricane versus maybe a tornado
(22:57):
are there usually, you know,transportation or logistics
needs based on the type ofdisaster, if that makes sense.
Emilee Martichenko (23:06):
Yeah, so are there overlapping or common
logistics needs per disaster?
So I would say that I would say, out of all the logistics needs
, the one that we get the mostrequests for is transportation,
because if there is a hurricaneor a wildfire or a flood, that
(23:31):
means there's relief suppliesusually staged nearby or not
nearby in some cases.
We've helped transport suppliesacross the country in a lot of
cases, but anyway, point beingis that it needs to get moved to
the disaster site in order tobe distributed.
So we get a lot oftransportation requests would be
(23:53):
our most common.
But material handling equipment.
We mentioned associationpartners at the beginning of
this call.
We receive a lot of supportfrom the from Mejida.
We love Mejida, they'rewonderful to us.
They've been heavily involvedin helping us fill cases by
(24:15):
putting material handlingequipment requests out to their
network and that's another formof outreach that our network
helps us with.
And then a lot of the timestheir members come back and they
say, hey, we see there's a needfor a forklift or a pallet jack
, which even one pallet jack orone forklift can just spell a
world of difference, because itmeans that the relief supplies
that have been staged in awarehouse maybe not too far from
(24:40):
the disaster site.
Suddenly their operations canmove and be executed much more
efficiently.
Blythe Brumleve (24:47):
And so I guess, when you have these partners,
what about from the, I guess,the lens of working in logistics
?
Over the last couple of yearswe've heard these excess
inventory and all of thesedifferent retailers are having
to buy up warehouse space allover the country because they
have too much inventory.
So what happens, I guess,during a disaster, if there's
(25:09):
not any space to store the goods, what happens in that case?
Emilee Martichenko (25:13):
Yeah, and this is where I give my spiel on
behalf of Alan about notdonating to product collection
drives, because that hadhappened with Maui.
They received an influx ofdonations and there was not
enough.
In the case of Maui, therewasn't enough container space or
warehouse space on the islandto store everything.
(25:34):
Because people are generous andpeople's hearts are always in
the right place because theywant to help, and that's amazing
.
A lot of the times what peopledo is they donate to product
collection drives and then thesedonations pile up, and pile up,
and pile up and they clog portsand they clog supply chains,
and then they're all of a sudden.
And then they're all of asudden.
Art isn't the infrastructure inplace to help distribute what's
(25:57):
piled up?
And then the response effortsbecomes a case of not only
trying to get critical materialsto disaster site but also
trying to deal with what'sarrived that isn't critical.
So at Alan we say, as asolution to that, in the event
of a disaster, instead ofdonating to a product collection
drive, make a financialdonation, which I know it
(26:21):
doesn't give that kind of rushof doing good that we all want
when we give a physical donation, but it means that the
non-profits who have been doingthis for years and know what
they're doing in order to getthese supplies to disaster sites
.
It means that you're helpingfortify their operations with
(26:43):
your financial donation.
Blythe Brumleve (26:45):
That's great tips.
Emilee Martichenko (26:47):
It spells a world of difference, especially
because, alan, we have anamazing network of very generous
partners and very generousdonors, but we are, in terms of
full-time staff, we're a team ofthree, wow.
Blythe Brumleve (27:01):
So you're doing a lot of work a lot of
coordination.
Yeah, A lot of communications.
Speaking of communications, Iwas looking at the Alan Twitter
feed this morning and noticedthat there's some organizational
efforts going on for theearthquake victims in Morocco.
How global is Alan?
Maybe starting to get moreglobal?
(27:23):
Or how does the maybe disasterrelief work in the US versus
outside of the US?
Emilee Martichenko (27:29):
Yeah, so how global is Alan?
Alan does a lot of first-miletransportation when it comes to
global relief efforts.
So we have helped a lot inHaiti over the past few years
with the earthquake and alsowith cholera outbreaks at
various times.
So a lot of our work justinvolves when it comes to
international deployment ofrelief materials.
(27:51):
We're doing that first-milemove just to various ports
throughout the US in tandem withour non-profit and industry
partners, and so, oh, go ahead,I don't know, go ahead, I'm
sorry.
Blythe Brumleve (28:04):
Well.
So I'm wondering too doesintermodal, does rail lines, do
those play a role in disasterrecovery as well?
Emilee Martichenko (28:15):
So Alan actually doesn't.
We are not heavily involvedwith the rail community in our
work, so I am not yet as wellversus I would like to be to
speak about that, not yet.
Not yet.
Blythe Brumleve (28:29):
So if the intermodal company is out there
with a generous heart, then youguys need to get linked up.
So I guess, with your time onthe job you've been there since
2020.
I mean, obviously you saweverything that happened with
COVID sort of first-line defenseor offense, I guess, depending
on the time of the year but Iwonder, has there been any
(28:51):
moments during this role for youthat have really been impactful
?
I'm sure there's been a ton,but do any of them sort of stick
out to you of?
This is why I do this job.
Emilee Martichenko (29:05):
Yeah, you know, 2023 has been a big year
for Alan, and part because, atthe beginning of the year, we
received a grant from theWalmart Foundation in order to
kickstart a long-term projectthat aims to help build capacity
logistics capacity specificallyfor small and medium-sized
(29:26):
nonprofits specializing indisaster relief, and so we
started.
It has different work streamsand we're currently in a work
stream that involves planningand executing what we call
logistics coordination calls,which are aimed at gathering
this nonprofit community thatwe've been working with and
building over the years together, both during disasters and in
(29:48):
what we call blue skies, whichis a non-disaster time, and
essentially trying to facilitatethe flow of information through
collaborative discussion,through seminars, through guest
speakers and just through, yeah,through this joint
collaboration in order to buildcapacity and also equip
nonprofits with the knowledgeand experience and further
(30:13):
experience of supply chains, sothat they can help improve their
disaster relief efforts in amore cost-effective manner.
Because, you know, a lot of thetimes, nonprofits they can have
so much information and so muchexperience when it comes to and
be in the business for years andyears and years, but because
they're given the, you know,strained budgets that nonprofits
(30:37):
operate off of, particularly,at least the small and
medium-sized ones, they there'sstill, no matter how much
knowledge they have, stretchingtheir budgets thin.
So, that being said, becauseI'm circling back to your point,
I tend to go off on these long,long-term.
Blythe Brumleve (30:54):
Oh, no worries, I love hearing it.
Emilee Martichenko (30:56):
So we've gathered, we've started this
year, gathering these nonprofitstogether and these logistics
coordination calls in order tofacilitate this capacity
building, and we had our firstone in August and then our and
then the Maui wildfires hit andwe pivoted to hosting them twice
a week and making them Mauispecific, and that was just a
(31:20):
really, really remarkable.
It was a remarkable time to bea part of ALAN, because not only
were we engaged in this newwork stream, in this long-term
project that we have to, youknow, really try and
systemically improve disasterrelief efforts from a logistics
standpoint, but suddenly we weredoing it in a very, very
important and high stakesenvironment and we found that it
(31:41):
was helping make a differencefrom the feedback that we
received.
Blythe Brumleve (31:45):
So that was-.
I was gonna say it's gottadefinitely be, maybe not in the
exact moment of when everythingis going on, but after the fact
being like, wow, maybe we reallylearned a lot of really good
things from a collaborationstandpoint to be able to help
you know the next disaster alittle bit better, even if it's
just a microcosm.
Emilee Martichenko (32:07):
Exactly exactly.
And you know in engaging thecommunity together to understand
what worked and what didn't.
So you know, next time we uniteeverybody in one of these calls
, how can we coordinate betterand how can we be a better
facilitator.
Those are huge takeaways.
Blythe Brumleve (32:21):
I am curious with Maui in particular.
You know native like Hawaiiansare very protective of you, know
their land and you know for awhile there was even, like Jason
Momoa and the rock, tellingpeople don't come, don't send
anything, don't visit our island.
We wanna handle this.
Is that common, I guess, amongdisaster, that the community
(32:44):
wants to handle it and that theydon't want the outsider help?
Or is it more of just allowingthem to trust you and to build
that relationship internallyfirst?
Emilee Martichenko (32:57):
So I think I'll answer this kind of twofold
.
So something that's importantto know about Alan is that we do
not send any relief supplies toa disaster site unless there is
a very specific plan fordistribution.
So if a non-profit comes to usand they say, hey, we have all
these pallets of water and wejust wanna get it there, but
(33:18):
nobody at the disaster site hastold us we want this water, we
say hey, you need to wait untilyou know the state, until a
state agency or a local agencyis saying we need this water.
So that's something that Alanalways takes a lot of care to do
.
The second part of this and Iapologize for the sirens in the
(33:42):
background- no worries, it'skind of, I guess, conducive to
the conversation Exactly.
But the second part of thisbeing is that, when it comes to
disaster response and recovery,rebuilding local economies is
key to long-term recoveryefforts.
So we want to get in theimmediate, immediate aftermath.
(34:05):
We wanna get critical reliefsupplies there and we wanna meet
these immediate needs.
But we also wanna make surethat local businesses have what
they need to reopen as soon aspossible so people can get back
into grocery stores and grocerystores can start distributing
again and because that way localcurrency is pouring back into
(34:28):
the economy.
So part of Alan's work ishelping get supplies that need
to get there in order to getpeople back on their feet, so
that local business and localenterprise can get back on its
feet as fast as possible.
Blythe Brumleve (34:45):
I love that approach because it really I
didn't even think about it fromthat lens you want the buildings
and the established folks thatare in the area to get up to
speed the fastest, because thenthey're gonna help.
It's almost like being on anairplane when they tell you to
put your own oxygen mask onfirst before you start helping
out other people.
Let's help these key locationsfirst, and it's interesting that
(35:06):
you identify like a grocerystore, for example, to keep the
money flowing within thecommunity, and so then that way
it's the community building eachother up, which is probably
where it should start and end, Iwould imagine, with help, of
course, from outsiders when theywanted, which I think was super
interesting to watch, justgiven the history of Hawaii and
(35:29):
I guess the I'll call itcomplications there with wanting
outside help and outsider help.
So I love that you guys do thatand you prioritize what they
need first to sort of hold backthe people who want to help.
But you might be hurting theentire process with your help.
So it's almost like you'recreating a distribution system
(35:51):
for help.
Almost you definitely are Nowwith, as I close out this round
of questions before we get intothe last round of questions
which is a little bit more likea beat and more fun.
Is there anything else with itor anything more?
I guess, within disaster relief, recovery, that you feel like
(36:12):
we're not strong enough yet, Iguess as a nation, to provide or
what kind of areas ofimprovements.
How could people help all thatgood stuff, helping a good way?
Emilee Martichenko (36:22):
Yeah, so you know just, the overarching
theme of this conversation islogistics, and I will say that
improving knowledge andexecution of logistics during
disaster relief, that's ourAlana's on a mission to just
improve and improve and improveand make logistics so much more
(36:46):
of a focal point when it comesto disaster relief efforts.
You know, a metric that we liketo share with people, that a
lot of people don't realize andthat I didn't realize when I
started it, alan is that as muchas 80% of humanitarian spending
on disaster relief is directedtowards logistics.
Oh, wow.
And of that, 80%, as much as 40%of that spending ends up being
(37:08):
waste.
So logistics and you knowlogistics and supply chain,
we're so familiar with it, butit's something that, because of
COVID, has really come into thepublic consciousness in the past
few years, so so many peopledon't even know what it means
when we say that, when we usethat terminology.
And so Alan would, and, like Isaid, we're on a mission to
(37:30):
center logistics as not just aperiphery element that helps
disaster relief, it is a drivingforce for better disaster
relief efforts.
Blythe Brumleve (37:42):
And so for companies who maybe wanna get
involved, they wanna volunteertheir services within the
logistics realm.
How do they get set up?
What does that set up processlook like?
Emilee Martichenko (37:51):
Yeah, absolutely so.
You can donate to Alan.
You can make a financialdonation via our website or we
talk to directly to us at infoat alanaidorg and I'm happy to
talk about our varioussponsorship levels.
If a logistics organizationwants to donate logistics
services or equipment, onceagain you can reach out directly
(38:12):
to us.
And we also always encourageorganizations to pre-register on
our website or make a pre-offer.
And so what you do is you goonto our website and you fill
out our pre-offer form, justgiving a little bit of
information about who you areand what kind of services that
you would potentially wannaprovide.
It's not obligatory.
(38:33):
You are in no way signing on asyou're in no way obligated to
donate to us.
Pardon me, but what it does isit puts you in our database so
that in the event of a disaster,when we start getting that
influx of cases in the responsephase, we can go back into our
database and we say, hey, thiscompany pre-registered with us
(38:56):
and they said we are potentiallyinterested in offering a
forklift or donated warehousespace.
And we know to reach out to youbecause when we have a case
that we believe might match yourcapacity.
Blythe Brumleve (39:11):
I love that.
I mean the website's great.
It has so many differentresources on it.
So for folks who wanna check itout, I will be sure to list it
in the show notes just to makeit easy for everyone.
But, rounding out thisconversation, I like to
affectionately call this segmentthe relatable eight, and it
feels a little weird to talkabout some fun topics in
(39:32):
addition to the seriousness ofdisaster relief and recovery, of
course.
But the relatable eight isessentially a set of questions
about marketing and sales andjust general.
So for folks who get to knowyou a little bit more, get to
know the organization a littlebit more.
So first up on this list ofquestions is and this is
(39:53):
probably this is perfect for youhow do you think about
marketing when it comes to youand your company?
Emilee Martichenko (39:57):
Yes, this is a conversation that that me and
our communications director,laurie, have often, because the
thing about Alan is that we'reAlan is the behind the scenes
organization.
You know, we're the facilitator, we are happy, we love what we
do, and because it all takesplace behind that curtain and it
(40:20):
makes us very proud, the onlything that is not conducive to
is excellent visual imagery forwhat we do as a company.
So when I, when I go to workand I think about oh, how can I,
you know, spell out foraudiences what we do and who we
are and why it's so important,I'm always trying to think of
creative ways to tell stories,whether that's through blogs or
(40:43):
case studies or social mediaposts, and even get creative
with graphic design.
Blythe Brumleve (40:50):
Yeah, I imagine you have to tow like a fine
line between, like the casestudies and you know, I guess,
reporting on these things, butyou know it, telling the stories
of it, I guess, without sharingtoo much, which is a fine line
that I'm sure that y'all, y'allhave to walk.
But you're doing a great job onsocial media so it makes people
(41:11):
care and it makes people have,you know, some kind of an
information source about eventsthat people care about.
So great work on there and, youknow, related to that question
is what's your favorite socialmedia platform and why?
Emilee Martichenko (41:24):
Ooh, you know, for organization of visual
content, instagram is great,but I would have to go with
LinkedIn.
I found that most of most ofthe industry that engages with
us is on LinkedIn and it's wherewe get the most visibility on
our messaging.
And it's been really fun sinceI started at ALAN to watch our
engagement increase throughLinkedIn.
Blythe Brumleve (41:43):
Yeah, for sure, there's definitely a very
strong logistics LinkedIncommunity on there.
All right, next question whatis your favorite SaaS tool that
you use every day?
Can't live without, but itcan't be your own?
Yeah, canva.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Emilee Martichenko (42:01):
There's not a day of my life that goes by in
which I don't use Canva.
I am dependent on Canva foreverything, and it's a great
tool.
Blythe Brumleve (42:09):
It's a great tool.
It's a great story to femalefounder led.
I think they just IPO'd as wellRecently, or they're going to
IPO one of the two, but it'sreally incredible to watch that
company grow and then makegraphic design, make these sort
of things approachable andattainable for normies like
myself that never went to schoolfor, you know, for graphic
(42:30):
design and just try to put somethings together.
Emilee Martichenko (42:31):
I didn't know, Okay next one Favorite
freight business that isn't yourown.
Blythe Brumleve (42:40):
So I'm going to be.
Emilee Martichenko (42:42):
I'm going to be a cop out on this one,
because at ALAN we really don'tplay favorites.
Yeah, you kind of can't.
Blythe Brumleve (42:48):
You know when you.
The more you get to know aboutour network, the more your mind
will just be blown about howgenerous they are.
Emilee Martichenko (42:56):
Truly, everybody has to be a favorite
to every.
Every one is a favorite, andevery one is a favorite, and
everyone has been so supportiveof our mission.
I will say, though, that ifaudiences want to learn about
some of the and like disasterrelief initiatives and community
(43:16):
development initiatives thatare unique to industry members,
go on our website and read aboutour past humanitarian logistics
award winners.
We, you know, open thesenominations up every year, and
we're actually two weeks away,on this very date, from
announcing our 2023 winners, andit's they were just started to
recognize some of the incredibleachievements that our industry
(43:38):
is doing in the context ofdisaster relief, and it's
amazing that isn't necessarilypublicized very much.
Yeah, I didn't even think aboutit from that lens, and so
hopefully we'll be able to seethat in the future.
Blythe Brumleve (43:48):
I didn't even think about it from that lens,
and so hopefully, by the timethis episode drops, though, that
list of winners will bereleased, and so I encourage
everybody to go and check thatout, because I wouldn't have
even thought about, you know,the recognition part of it, and
you're right, there's so manyfolks that are, you know,
passionate about these things,and so giving a little bit of
recognition probably goes a longway.
(44:09):
Okay, next question, and Idon't I mean, this is kind of a
tough one, I think, for folks toanswer, but what's one task in
your current job that you can'tstand doing?
Emilee Martichenko (44:20):
Um, I can't stand as a in this kind in this
case is a strong phrase, becauseI love the people I work with
and I love my job and I truly do.
I love all elements of it.
Uh, I guess, if we're going toget very, very technical about
it, I you know, I maintainAlan's website and I'm entirely
(44:42):
self taught when it comes to theweb design, thank you.
So I have most of the time I'mjust, you know, surprising
myself with what I can do.
But every now and then I go tomake an update or I go to make a
change and, you know, wordpressed us something and I'm
like I don't know exactly whatyou're telling me.
Who?
Blythe Brumleve (45:00):
are you telling ?
Emilee Martichenko (45:03):
So I would say you know, it's too, it's too
full.
It's fun to.
It's fun to have a challengeand fun to conquer, but every
now and then the technical stuffit feels like it's coming out
on top.
Blythe Brumleve (45:14):
Yeah, I love and hate at times word press.
We host, more than you know, 30freight websites on our digital
dispatch platform, and sosometimes you make one update on
one site and then the othersite doesn't like it and it
screws everything up and it'sback to the drawing board.
You got to call in the reservesof the tech team and get them
to fix it, and the waiting gameof getting it fixed is annoying.
(45:38):
So, yeah, I definitely sharethat sentiment.
I would echo that thatsentiment too.
I can't stand it.
I can't.
I like making updates to thesite, but I can't stand when it
breaks when I try to make thequick update.
Emilee Martichenko (45:50):
I'm like I just needed to go.
Blythe Brumleve (45:51):
Well Right, it's just like it's usually the
quick updates that screweverything up, that you know it
turns into a very long updateafter that.
Okay, Next question If youdidn't have to worry about money
, what would you do for the restof your life?
I would be an actor, oh nice.
Have you, have you tried, oryeah?
Emilee Martichenko (46:09):
absolutely, yeah, I am.
It's an industry that I love.
It's an industry that's goingthrough a lot of strife right
now and that I hope changes much, much more for the better, and
I love it.
I think it's an absolutelyextraordinary art.
Blythe Brumleve (46:23):
Well, for folks who haven't you know, I guess
they were to listen to thebackground and gotten that cue.
You're based in Manhattan, sothat makes a lot of sense from
the actor perspective.
Okay, next question, Second tolast one what's something you
believe in that most peopledon't?
Emilee Martichenko (46:39):
So I'm not sure.
I don't know what the ratio ofbelievers to nonbelievers on
this point would be.
I hope there's a lot ofbelievers, but you know I am.
I believe we're living in sincewe're living in a time of rapid
technological development thatwhen it comes to innovation,
that people, their well-being,their likeness, their privacy
(47:00):
and how new advancements impacttheir social and economic
welfare should always beprioritized first and foremost.
That's something that's kind ofbeen on my mind a little bit
recently.
Is is just, and you know, andwe work in disaster relief, so
we're always thinking First andforemost about the survivors and
about how we can upliftindividuals and communities
(47:21):
alike.
So I'm just thinking this time,when we're having a lot of
rapid development, that weshould, we should think about
people and always put them first.
Blythe Brumleve (47:31):
Yeah, very well said.
And then, last one on the list,what is your favorite supply
chain or logistics?
Back to give a really great one, or earlier, about the I am.
Emilee Martichenko (47:42):
I snuck it in.
I snuck it in early by accident, but it was just too good that
is.
That is a really powerful statwhich you know all of you don't
mind me repeating it, because Ido find it so powerful Is that a
lot of people don't realize asmuch as 80% of humanitarian
spending on disaster relief isdirected towards logistics and
(48:02):
of that 80%, as much as 40% ofthe spending ends up going to
waste.
It makes you think about notonly how important logistics is
and what Alan does is but howtimely it is, as well, 100%.
Blythe Brumleve (48:15):
I mean that that really is such a powerful
stat that it deserves to berepeated several times over,
because I think it kind of goesback to your, your earlier point
of if you're, if you want todonate, if you want to help, you
know, get involved with thenonprofits that are already
established and experienced, butalso consider a financial
donation as well, and so thatmoney can be put towards things
(48:37):
that are in immediate or longterm needs, and and let the
nonprofits figure it out.
Emilee Martichenko (48:42):
Yeah, and they're the ones with boots on
the ground and with theexpertise so Exactly and they
know what they're doing andthey're so passionate they're
wonderful to work with, exactlyand so.
Blythe Brumleve (48:52):
So, emily, where can folks follow more of
your work?
Follow Alan's work.
You know all that good stuff.
Emilee Martichenko (48:57):
Yeah, so go to our website, alan aorg.
Go to our disaster micro siteto learn about our disaster
response activities.
You can make a donation on thiswebsite.
You can pre offer services.
You can follow Alan on Twitter,linkedin, facebook and
Instagram.
Our handle is Alan aid and Iencourage everyone to reach out
(49:17):
to us directly at info at Alanaorg, if you want to get
registered, and I'll make sureyou get registered with Alan
supply chain intelligence centerand we're just.
If you would like anintroduction to you know some of
our team.
If you're interested inlearning more about operations,
I would so love to connecteveryone with our operations
(49:38):
coordinator and with ourexecutive director.
They're wonderful, hardworkingand passionate people.
Blythe Brumleve (49:44):
Heck yeah.
So we got a lot of littlelogistics books.
I would hope you know, witheverything is logistics podcast,
that we would have a lot oflogistics folks listening to
this episode.
So reach out, get involved.
You're looking for a place tohelp.
This sounds like the perfectopportunity to be able to offer
those resources which you knowlogistics providers are already
an expert in hand over yourexpertise to another company.
(50:05):
That's expertise.
That is a long way of sayingthat.
Thank you for you know, sharingthis insight, sharing this
conversation and sharing themission of Alan, because it
really it's a fascinating topic,because I think that it's
always evolving and there'salways ways to improve.
You know relief and recoveryefforts and we can't do much
(50:26):
about, you know I mean, youcan't do much about, you know
natural disasters, at least inour current capacity.
So, with what you can do, beable to offer help to
organizations and nonprofitsthat need it.
So thank you again.
This was great.
Thank you so much for having me.
Emilee Martichenko (50:41):
I really appreciate it Absolutely.
Blythe Brumleve (50:48):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of
everything is logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over at everythingis logistics dot com.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let you know
about another company I operate,and that's digital dispatch,
(51:09):
where we help you build a betterwebsite.
Now, a lot of the times, wehand this task of building a new
website or refreshing a currentone off to a co-worker's child,
a neighbor down the street orstranger around the world, where
you probably spend more timeexplaining the freight industry
than it takes to actually buildthe dang website.
Well, that doesn't happen atdigital dispatch.
(51:31):
We've been building onlinesince 2009, but we're also early
adopters of AI automation andother website tactics that help
your company to be a centralplace to pull in all of your
social media posts, recruit newemployees and get potential
customers a glimpse into how youoperate your business.
Our new website builds start aslow as $1500, along with
(51:52):
ongoing website management,maintenance and updates starting
at $90 a month, plus some bonus, freight marketing and sales
content similar to what you hearon the podcast.
You can watch a quick explainervideo over on digital dispatch
dot IO.
Just check out the pricing pageonce you arrive and you can see
how we can build your digitalecosystem on a strong foundation
(52:15):
.
Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo Jags.
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