(1) "There is often both lack of clarity and consensus, even in pre-planned local EOCs, on the major function of EOCs and the specific tasks to be undertaken therein. (2) Irrespective of prior planning or intent, at least six different tasks are typically carried on at EOCs: coordination, policy making, operational, information gathering, dispersal of public information, and hosting of visitors. (3) Coordination tasks (i.e., those directed at relating organizations to one another effectively, and relating capabilities of organizations to disaster demands are usually handled initially rather poorly because of lack of adequate information inputs. (4) Policy making (i.e., those tasks involving decision making vis-á-vis the overall community response) often is given precedence over coordination even to the point of organizational officials looking for matters on which to make decisions. (5) Operations (i.e., those tasks which directly meet disaster demands rather than those directed at coordination or other response demands) are particularly entered into if some slack or failure is seen in the activities of operational emergency organizations. (6) Information gathering tasks (i.e., those directed at efforts to determine the nature and extent of disaster conditions) are not just always the initial focus of activities of EOCs, but at times are continued to the extent that they degenerate into the seeking of information for information's sake. (7) Dispersal of public information (i.e., those tasks directed at informing the news media and the general public) at times dominates and in fact may interfere with other EOC tasks. (8) Hosting of visitors (i.e., those tasks necessary to handle the convergence of VIPs and others in EOCs) is frequently a major source of conflict and stress, although often kept latent, between local community officials and people, and all outsiders. (9) The very concept of coordination is interpreted in a wide variety of ways ranging from the formulizing of overall community priorities on emergency problems, to the act of an organization announcing to others what it has already done. (10) The role of chief coordinator at EOC's is far from standardized either as to who should take or how the role is to be played - although generally it is taken by an official usually associated with civil defense in some way, with the effort to exercise influence depending more on pre-emergency social ties than on formal or planned official relationships. (11) There sometimes develops at EOCs a high degree of coordination within clusters of organizations working on the same or similar disaster problems, a coordination not extended to groups outside of the given cluster. (12) EOCs are more effective at gathering than at exchanging information, and more effective at exchanging information than distributing it between organizations. (13) In general record keeping is rather poor at most EOCs. (14) More specific tasks in an EOC are emergent than is usually recognized in pre-planning, especially with respect to the obtaining and processing of information. Overall, local EOCs tend to have multiple and far from integrated functions and tasks, and particularly have a variety of problems both with respect to coordination and information". (Quarantelli, Problems and Difficulties in the Use of Local EOC's in Natural Dis., 1972, 2-3)