OMC-WKS-003 · Version 1.0 · November 2026
Print the card sheet at actual size, cut, fold, fill in and carry one for every household member. This page is always the most current version.
Purpose
Most of us no longer know anyone’s phone number by heart. They live in our phones, and phones break, get lost, or run out of battery at exactly the wrong moment. This card puts the numbers and agreements that matter most on paper, in your wallet, in a size that goes everywhere you go.
It’s the pocket version of your household communications plan (OMC-PLN-002). Printing a card for every household member, children included, is a Tier 0 step in the OmniCORE Readiness Framework: it costs almost nothing and takes ten minutes.
How to make your cards
- Fill in your household plan first (Annex A of the communications plan), so everyone’s card says the same thing.
- Print the card sheet (the page with four cards in the PDF) at 100% / actual size, not “fit to page”, so the cards come out the size of a bank card. Each sheet makes four cards.
- Cut along the dashed lines and fold along the dotted line, so each card is printed on both sides.
- Fill it in with a pen, not a pencil, which smudges.
- Protect it with clear tape or a laminating pouch, if you have one.
- Carry it in a wallet, a phone case, a school bag or a go-bag. Make one for each go-bag too.
What goes on the card
Front: who to contact
- Name: the card holder.
- Contacts 1 and 2: the people to reach first, usually other household members, with phone numbers.
- Out-of-area contacts 1 and 2: the relatives or friends far away who relay news when local networks are overloaded.
- Emergency number: the number for your country (for example 911 in North America, 112 across Europe and in many other countries, 000 in Australia). Write it even if you think you know it: a child or a visitor may not.
- Doctor: your doctor or clinic.
- Medical notes: optional, and only what a first responder would need to know, such as a serious allergy or a condition that affects treatment.
Back: if we’re separated
- Meeting points 1, 2 and 3: near home, in the neighborhood, and out of the area.
- Check-ins: your agreed check-in times, for example 09:00 and 21:00.
- Radio channel and backup: if your household uses two-way radios.
- The message format and status colors are printed on the card: Who · Where · Status · Next, and GREEN safe, YELLOW need something, RED urgent help.
Privacy
A card in a wallet can be lost. Keep it to names, phone numbers and meeting places. Don’t write your home address, account numbers, passwords, or details of when your home will be empty. Keep medical notes short, or leave them off if the card holder prefers.
Children
- Make a card for every child old enough to carry one, and keep a copy in their school bag.
- Show them the card, read it together, and practice: “If you can’t find us, who do you call?”
- For young children, a contact on a wristband or sewn into a jacket works when a card would get lost.
Keep it current
Update the cards whenever a number, school, workplace or meeting point changes, and check them twice a year along with your go-bags. An out-of-date number is worse than none, because it wastes time.
Sources
- US Federal Emergency Management Agency, Family Emergency Communication Planning Document (Ready.gov)
- OmniCORE, Family Communications Plan and Readiness Framework
OmniCORE is an open-source preparedness initiative stewarded by UpRiver Holdings LLC. You may share and adapt this work for any purpose, with attribution to OmniCORE (omnicore.blog). The OmniCORE name is not licensed for endorsement. Do not present an adapted version as an official OmniCORE publication.
Spot a mistake, or something unclear? Suggest a correction.