The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Protection and National Preparedness are hosting a National Dialogue on Preparedness to supplement the mission and recommendations of the Local, State, Tribal and Federal Preparedness Task Force.

At the direction of Congress, the Task Force — comprised of 35 local, state, and tribal members and 24 Federal ex officio members with diverse expertise in homeland security and emergency management — was formed in April to assess the state of disaster preparedness and make recommendations for improvement throughout the nation. The Task Force has been working on this mission since April, through face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, and web-based collaboration. 

To supplement and build upon the discussions of the Task Force membership, DHS is opening a dialogue to a broader range of stakeholders, including EMS professionals. You are encouraged to join the National Dialogue by submitting feedback and ideas at http://webmail.naemt.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://preparedness.ideascale.com. 

The National Dialogue on Preparedness Website will be open through August 31 to allow individuals to propose ideas, vote on popular recommendations, and tag discussion topics.

Engaging a wide variety of preparedness stakeholders in this way will help DHS identify similarities and differences for how various organizations view preparedness issues and will also help DHS capture a wide range of diverse perspectives and meaningful input for Preparedness Task Force deliberation.  

More information on the Task Force is available at http://www.fema.gov/preparednesstaskforce/ .

DHS and FEMA thank you for your commitment to ensuring our country is prepared to protect against, prevent, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism and natural disasters.