Emergency Member Section

[Elysa Jones <ejones@warningsystems.com>]

TC Members,

As we discussed on our last call, there is interest from the 
Emergency Interoperability Consortium to sponsor an OASIS emergency 
member section.  I have been on vacation for the past week :-) and 
have been out of touch.  However, we need to discuss and possibly 
vote on this during our meeting tomorrow.

The purpose of the member section would be to facilitate the 
standards development process.  This is the same goal as the EIC has 
always had, to include liaison between agencies developing 
requirements for standards, demonstrating drafts, etc.  In the past 
ComCARE has provided meeting space and staff for the EIC and that was 
supported financially by the DM program until several months 
ago.  ComCARE continued to perform this function without any 
financial support for quite some time but is no longer willing to do 
so.  The EIC dues are very low ($500/company) and therefore unable to 
pay a staff to manage the operations.

By having the EIC sponsor a member section, the OASIS staff can help 
support the operations utilizing participating member dues.  Each 
OASIS member can opt to designate up to 40% of their dues to fund a 
member section.  Also, by establishing the member section, other 
agencies and sponsors can support different aspects of the 
process.  For example, money to fund demonstrations of standards in 
early development and even in the requirements phase can be allocated 
to the member section.  This is a function that the EIC performs.  If 
there comes a time when a certification process for our standards is 
warratnted, this would be a good place for that work to be done.  By 
doing it through a member section, there will be close coordination 
with the TC.  It is proposed that the EIC BoD become the steering 
committee for the member section and include the TC chair as 
well.  If this model is adopted it is very likely that the DM program 
will provide the meeting space for the EIC and possibly a toll free 
line for TC work.

I am inviting Scott McGrath to our telecon tomorrow 8/22 12:00 
EDT.  He has been briefing the EIC and will be able to share his 
insights and answer more of your questions.  Please send any specific 
questions you have to him directly before the meeting or to the list 
as you prefer.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this step in the work we do.

Regards,
Elysa Jones, Chair
OASIS EM-TC
Engineering Program Manager
Warning Systems, Inc.
256-880-8702 x102