The Section currently has committee's assigned to the five content areas identified in the section operational guidelines. The committee's and the current chair are identified below: Disaster Planning (Hospital and community based): Neal Richmond, MD, FACEP
Education, Research, and Publications: Andrew Milsten, MD, MS
Disaster Response (out-of-hospital and disaster response teams): Jerry Mothershead, MD, FACEP
Communications Network: David Hogan, DO, FACEP
Policy: Bill Rogers, MD, FACEP and Wayne Lee, MD, FACEP

Disaster Planning (Hospital and Community)

Education, Research, Publications

1. Active oversight for developing and executing section grants.
2. Assist in developing surveys of members and after action reports to further the science of Disaster Medicine.
3. Develop and report annually any recommendations for new courses to be considered at SA or any other meeting venue.
4. Facilitate a speaker's bureau function between DMS members, the college and its chapters, and other entities.
   1. To take an active role in educational programs development and execution.
5. Support to the communication's committee with recommendations for content to the newsletter, Elist, and website.
6. Monitor and publish academic opportunities for DMS training or specialization including fellowship opportunities.
7. Monitor and communicate (surveillance) with DMS educational materials available through websites, articles, text, courses.

Disaster Response (out-of-hospital and disaster response teams)

1. Assist with the Community Resource Guide revision by identifying and monitoring contact information with all national/ state/ local response teams (for the appendix and our own database).
2. Develop recommendations and implement strategies for compiling, analyzing, and sharing after action reports and lessons learned (possible section grant 2002-2003 cycle).
3. Develop and facilitate the process for a DMS to become a member of a local team.
   1. Identify remote learning opportunities.

Communications Network

1. Facilitate bidirectional communications between section members and the college.
   1. Oversight for the newsletter, Elist, discussion boards, and any other communication tool available.
   2. The Newsletter Editor, Associate Editors, Contributing editors, Elist editor, and website facilitators serve on this committee.
   3. The Secretary is part of this committee
2. Evaluate and facilitate the role of the section matching member interest with opportunities (while helping to identify those opportunities).
3. Develop a strategic plan to facilitate using the Elist- website-discussion boards-and survey instruments to meet the objective of sharing information, receive and give council, and serve as a resource to the ACEP BOD, the college membership, external organizations, and agencies as well as others.
4. To promote the expertise in Disaster Medicine and promote membership in DMS
   1. Facilitate and develop a functional membership subcommittee.

Policy

1. Monitor, review, and make recommendations for Policy, PREP, or liaison appointments annually.
   1. Review the college policy documents to keep policies current.
   2. Assist in the development of Board Recommendations
   3. Monitor implementation successes with current policies.
2. Identify issues which would benefit from the development of policy or legislation.
   1. Example-the job protection issue of team members that are not part of the DMAT federal statues.
3. Assist in the development of Council resolutions
4. Identify policies by other medical or non-medical organizations in Disaster Medicine which might raise turf issues.