[EAS] The 2013 National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) Forum

[Richard Rudman]

Greetings:

We seem to be going backwards on EAS commitment among participants for a number of reasons. I have made a personal commitment to deal with one of those reasons. Make no mistake. There are more, and they are all serious.

I recently became a member of the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA). NEMA is the professional association of and for emergency management directors from all 50 states, 8 territories, and the District of Columbia. NEMA allows other interested parties to become members.

My decision to become a NEMA member came out of a realization that the major challenge we face in our world of EAS participants is wider acceptance in the emergency management community that emergency public information (EPI) is really an emergency response resource to be managed like a resource. Without that commitment, many warnings that should have been issued by the emergency management community never were.

With the support of the California Broadcasters Association, I attended the NEMA annual Management Policy and Leadership Forum that held in Anchorage, Alaska, September 9-12.

I just posted a report on this event on the EAS Forum website that you might find interesting.

Regards,

Richard Rudman
BWWG Core Member
Vice Chair, CA SECC