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PARTNERSHIP FOR PUBLIC WARNING TO BE DISSOLVED

McLEAN, Va., March 21 – The Board of Trustees of the Partnership for Public Warning (PPW) announced today that the corporation is being dissolved. PPW was created in December 2001 by representatives from federal, state and local government, emergency managers, private industry and academia who recognized an opportunity for America to develop a more effective way to warn and communicate with citizens during times of emergency. PPW was created as a non-profit consortium where government, private industry and the public could work together to identify the major challenges to improving the nation’s public warning capability and reach consensus on effective solutions and strategies. Participants in this unique partnership included state and local emergency managers, private sector industry executives, non-profit organizations, representatives of academia and of special needs constituencies such as the deaf and hard of hearing, members of the public and federal agencies. PPW’s accomplishments include the following: Establishing the only national collaborative, public-private partnership where government, industry and the public could work together on public warning issues. Focusing national attention on the need to improve America’s public warning capability by educating senior government executives and the public on the key issues and opportunities. Hosting two national summits on public warning and the first trade show dedicated to public warning technologies and issues.. Developing and promoting the first standard message format for public warning – the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). As a result of PPW’s efforts, CAP was approved by the OASIS XML group as the first warning standard and is gaining growing acceptance throughout the country and internationally. Conducting an assessment of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and providing recommendations for improvement. PPW’s work was a major factor in the recent Federal Communications Commission decision to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the EAS. • Evaluating the Homeland Security Advisory System and providing recommendations for developing a more effective way to communicate terrorist threat information to the public. • Producing a consensus-based national strategy and implementation plan for creating a more effective national capability to warn and inform citizens during times of emergency. Craig Fugate, chair of the PPW Board of Trustees and director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management stated: “PPW was created to focus attention on the public warning issue and to begin moving our nation towards solutions. We have made considerable progress toward that objective by raising the level of awareness of the status of our public warning capabilities and the opportunity and benefits of improving them. There are an increasing number of initiatives in both government and industry to improve America’s public warning capability. The Partnership played a major role in stimulating that activity. Moreover, we have also seen PPW’s work cited around the world, from the United Kingdom to Sri Lanka. Those of us in the public warning community intend to continue to work towards better warning systems so we can protect the public. While there is still a vital need for public-private partnerships in this area, we expect that other organizations will step forward and build upon the work done by PPW. Those of us who participated in the Partnership are proud of its accomplishments.” The Partnership for Public Warning was established as a not-for-profit consortium of industry, government and other organizations committed to saving lives and property by improving the nation’s public warning capability. PPW’s mission was developing consensus on processes, standards and systems in order to ensure that people at risk from terrorism, accidents and natural disasters receive the right information at the right time so that they can take timely and appropriate action to save lives, reduce loss and speed recovery. PPW was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, formed with the assistance of The MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit company chartered to work in the public interest to address issues of critical national importance.   Contact: Partnership for Public Warning Alan Shoemaker (781) 271-2488   Last Updated: March 23, 2005