TIEMS

The Society was established in Washington, USA in 1993 as The International Emergency Management and Engineering Society (TIEMES) and registered in Dallas, Texas, USA as a non-profit organisation. Among the group of founders were Jim Sullivan, USA (First President), K. Harald Drager, Norway (First Vice President), Suleyman Tufecki, USA (First Treasurer), Jean Luc Wybo, France and Ross Newkirk, Canada. The present Mission and Aim is the original Mission and Aim developed and approved by the founding members in 1993.

The Society was reorganized and changed its name to The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) in 1996 and its registration was moved to Florida, USA.

The Society's registration was later moved to Zürich, Switzerland in 2003 in order to be close to other international organisations, and further moved to Belgium in 2006, where TIEMS today is registered as an International, Independent and Not for Profit NGO.

TIEMS Presidents have been:

• Jim Sullivan, USA, 1993 - 1995
• Jean Luc Wybo, France, 1995 - 1996
• Verner Andersen, Denmark, 1996- 1997
• John Harrald, USA, 1997 - 2002
• K. Harald Drager, Norway, 2002 - present

TIEMS arranged its first annual conference in Fort Lauderdale, USA in 1994, and have since then moved around the world, and the total list of annual conferences is:

• Fort Lauderdale, USA, 1994
• Sofia Antipolis, France, 1995
• Montreal, Canada, 1996
• Copenhagen, Denmark, 1997
• Washington, USA, 1998
• Delft, Netherlands, 1999
• Orlando, USA, 2000
• Oslo, Norway, 2001
• Waterloo, Canada, 2002
• Sofia Antipolis, France, 2003
• Melbourne, Australia, 2004
• Thorshavn, Faroe Islands, 2005
• Seoul, Korea, 2006
• Trogir, Croatia, 2007
• Prague, Czech Republic, 2008

At the annual conference in 2002 in Waterloo, Canada, TIEMS Board of Directors decided to further globalize the society by establishing activities and TIEMS Chapters around the world. The objective expressed was to:

"Think Globally but act Locally"

This resulted in increased TIEMS activity and workshops around the world. TIEMS first workshop was arranged in Washington in 2003, and then followed workshops all over the world, with the total list as follows:

• Washington, USA, 2003
• Seoul, Korea, 2004, 2005 and 2008
• Moscow, Russia, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008
• Magdeburg, Germany, 2004
• Trogir, Croatia, 2004, 2005 and 2006
• Tilburg, Netherlands, 2005
• Arnhem, Netherlands, 2006
• Roma, Italy, 2006
• Dubrovnik, Croatia, 2007
• Prague, Czech Republic, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007
• Beijing, P.R. China, 2007
• Shanghai, P.R. China, 2008
• Luxembourg, 2008
• Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2008
• Zagreb, Croatia, 2008
• Beijing, China, 2008
• Nairobi, Africa, 2008
• Seoul, Korea, 2009
• Moscow, Russia, 2009
• Antwerp, Belgium, 2009
• Split, Croatia, 2009
• Prague, Czech Republic, 2009

TIEMS launched its Africa projcet during the annual conference in Faroe Islands in 2005, and have since worked with financing the project through international cooperation. The project was presented at the CTO conference in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania in November 2007, and at a workshop in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2008 it was introduced to a young sicentist network in Africa through African Academy of Science.

TIEMS got involved in the EU project, PSC Europe Forum in 2006, and has been work package leader for Consensus Building and the Forum by engagement of TIEMS President. PSC Europe Forum is working with standardization and harmonization of public safety communication in a global perspective. The project was terminated in May 2009 and the self governed PSC Europe Forum is now operational. 

Bernd Rohrmann, Australia, contacted TIEMS President during TIEMS annual conference in Croatia in 2007, with a financial donation to establish TIEMS Rohrmann Student Scholarship Fund, which is to help and support students to participate in TIEMS events. This Fund financially supported two students at the  annual conference in Prague 2008.

TIEMS Korean Chapter's President, Young-Jai Lee, announced during TIEMS annual conference in Croatia in 2007, that TIEMS Korean Chapter will give a monetary best paper award to the three best papers presented at TIEMS annual conferences in the future, starting with TIEMS annual conference in Prague 2008.

The present focus of TIEMS Board of Directors is found in TIEMS Vision and Action Plan 2008 and focus on among others on formalization of TIEMS chapters and establishing partnership with complimentary organisations for further development of the society globally.