IAEM Oceania

When it was recognised that there were sufficient members in Oceania to form a region of the IAEM one of the first considerations was how to structure the management of the region. Because many countries are included in Oceania there were issues regarding banking, taxes and representation. After several discussions the following structure was developed.

Elected Officers

The Region President is the Oceania Representative on the IAEM Board of Managers and is the chairperson of the Governance Committee of the Oceania Region.

The vice-Chair shares the President's workload and represents the president when the president is unavailable. If the president stands down before the end of their term the vice-president fills their role until the end of the term.

The secretary and treasurer are also elected officers and manage the correspondence, minutes, membership data for Oceania, and finances of the Region.

National Representatives

In addition to the Executive Team it was thought that representation from different countries or sub-regions should also have a place in managing the region. Initially there were two trains of thought - firstly that all countries be represented (if they have members) and secondly that anyone who wants to should be able to become part of the management team. Because both of these options had the potential to make the management team very large a new solution was sought.

The solution that was developed is to have 5 permanent ad-hoc positions on the management team. These positions do not have to be filled. National Representatives are appointed by members of that country through an election (if there are sufficient members) or appointed by the President as Ad-hoc representatives. Additional Ad-hoc appointments are made at the President's discretion to comprise sub-committees

Each ad-hoc representative does not have to be from the sub-region they represent but they have a role to play in representing members from that sub-region and in helping to promote the IAEM to emergency management professionals in that sub-region. Elected national representatives must reside in the country or sub region and have been members of the IAEM for two years in order to be elected.

The Sub-Regional positions are:

• Australia & Norfolk Island Representative
• Melanesia Representative
• Micronesia representative
• New Zealand Representative
• Polynesia Representative

Regional Sub-Committees and Committee Liaisons

The Oceania Region has big goals. In order to achieve these sub-committees and liaison roles were created. Each sub-committee is made up of Ad-hoc representatives appointed by the President and members of the Executive Team. Their job is to drive activities in the region. Liaisons are also appointed by the President and they sit on IAEM Global Committees. Their role is to be an Oceania voice on their committee and to keep the Oceania Region informed on what is happening in those committees.

Each month, sub-committees, liaisons, national representatives and executive members submit a report to the Regional President. The Oceania President submits a summary of all this to the IAEM Board and these are also posted on this website for members to read.