When preparing for disaster, Jennifer Elder, business strategist and president of the Sustainable CFO, recommends thinking backward.

"What could you do wrong that would cause your members to leave? That's your disaster," Elder says. "It's not necessarily the hurricane or the IT outage. What's the piece of what I do that if I couldn't do it, my members would head for the hills?"

Elder defines a business disaster as "an unplanned interruption of normal business function or process for an unacceptable period of time." To that end, she recommends that associations take inventory of their most important functions today, in preparation for the disaster that might strike tomorrow.

"In effect, you're doing a big pre-mortem," she says. "A post-mortem tells you why something died, but a pre-mortem is looking at why could it die? And, what could I do beforehand that would stop that?"

For one association, a functioning website that conveys information through webinars or continuing education might be a critical function. For another, it might be the phone lines. Elder says to ask yourself: What would you do if the website or phone lines stopped working?

"In disaster planning, there's no one single plan," Elder says. "You really have to create it [for] yourself."

What could you do wrong that would cause your members to leave? That's your disaster. It's not necessarily the hurricane or the IT outage.—Jennifer Elder, The Sustainable CFO

Disaster planning doesn't have to be a lengthy affair. Simply setting aside time to create a plan can be the most important step, she says.

Here are a few tips for creating a disaster plan:

Pinpoint your critical functions. It might be the phones or the website or even your facility, but identify the functions that are essential to fulfilling your responsibilities to your members. If you're having trouble defining these functions, Elder recommends asking yourself: "What is it that I do that my members think is critical?"

Create your plan. During Superstorm Sandy, organizations lost power for days, weeks, and months. A backup plan is a contingency plan for serving your members. Your plan might involve investing in generators or choosing a team to turn off and unplug office computers to protect against power surges. Elder recommends taking a look at the American Red Cross and the federal government's Ready.gov website, which contain checklists and questionnaires that can help you develop a plan.

Test your plan. Trying out your new disaster plan is essential. Associations can start with a tabletop exercise, in which a select group of association staff sits around a conference table and goes through the motions of implementing the disaster response to make sure that everyone knows their roles and responsibilities. But it's also wise to run through the plan in full, so you can work out the kinks that arise, such as a traffic jam in the stairwell as staff are exiting the facility or a faulty generator that's backing up your power.

Communicate your plan. Too often, a disaster plan is created and then shoved in a drawer and forgotten. To prevent that from happening, Elder recommends communicating your disaster plan with staff. Start by saving an electronic copy in a place where everyone can access it, she says, and keep a hard copy around the office too. Appoint a point person, who will be responsible for setting the plan in motion.

Update your plan. You'll need to revisit your plan at least once a year, Elder says, and make updates where applicable. Review the plan with staff on an annual basis.

Most important, make the plan a priority. "People think that if we do it, we're never going to use it," Elder says. "That's the best of all worlds if you never use it. It's the same approach to insurance. We pay for insurance, but we hope we never have to use it."