One of the things I liked about industry or government / industry committees i served on is that I could likely find some of my peers that were facing the same issues or opportunities as I was. That opened up the opportunity to share ideas or work on projects collectively to our mutual benefit. As I look back I can recall several situations where by working collectively with other industry responders we were able to make significant improvements in industry's collective emergency response capability. 

PTSC-Online is much like some of the committees or task forces you are involved with and provides many of the same opportunities. You just have to be aware of them and take the initiative to take advantage of them . PTSC-Online is an on line community which is made up of career emergency managers, business continuity professionals, students who are studying emergency management and others who are volunteers or may not be directly involved but are interested in emergency management. Some have too much to do, others are looking for projects to become involved with. Like any commuity or group you first have to get to know the others to better understand their skills and interests and you don't have to look far to find some very capable and talented folks in PTSC-Online. Have you completed your profile to help others get to know you? Have you checked the members section recently to see who else is in your community or checked the What's New section to see what they are saying? 

Thelp us all work more effectively in 2013 can I offer three suggestions for your consideration? 

• Start by helping others. Take a look at recent articles which most interest you and comment on at least one of them to help those who have already taken the initiative to share their thoughts / suggestions / challenges.
• Try to think of one thing you would like to accomplish in 2013 that could benefit from input from other members of our PTSC-Online community and share that in an appropriate blog channel or discussion group to ask others for assistance. If you need help participate in one of our on line training sessions. 
• Most of you are part of some organization, committee or task force. Can PTSC-Online help your organization by sharing our communication and collaboration tools to help your organization work more effectively? Check our Networking section for examples of this.