What, then, should your organization do? There is obviously no single general solution to a problem that will have as many different manifestations as there are addressees of this letter, but a few common sense guideposts may be helpful:

- If you have not yet evaluated your Year 2000 exposure, do it now. Assemble whatever resources are needed to get a handle on the scope of the problem at your organization now, so that remedial efforts can be started without further delay. Most public companies will already have started this process in response to SEC disclosure requirements, but everyone should take a good, hard look at their compliance efforts to ensure that nothing has been overlooked.

- Set priorities. What is critical and what merely important? What can be fixed and what should be junked?

- Be practical. Many "Year 2000 questionnaires" seem designed as much to transfer potential blame as to solve the problem. If there is a truly crucial third party -- your payroll services vendor, for example, or the sole supplier of an indispensable raw material -- don't just send a questionnaire. Instead, give serious consideration to direct testing and evaluation of the vendor or supplier's systems. If there is a crippling Year 2000 problem, a later breach of warranty claim against the supplier's trustee in bankruptcy will not provide you a great deal of comfort.

- Test, test, and then test some more. Expect and plan for the unexpected.

As I said at the outset of this letter, the potential for dislocation from Year 2000 problems is unprecedented. But so is the level of knowledge concerning the problem and the technical ability to solve it. I urge all of our insureds to address their Year 2000 issues promptly and aggressively.