The Multi-Agency Resource Center (MARC) Planning Resource describes duties and responsibilities of individuals, agencies and volunteer organizations in the event of a disaster. The MARC Planning Resource is a living document and the contributors acknowledge there will be changes for each community and instance. The experience and knowledge regarding MARCs is growing. Over time, there will be new and different complexities and challenges, new lessons learned and knowledge gained, and lives improved on the path to recovery. Please share this knowledge and experience with others by collecting and recording information, experiences, expenses and decisions that help people in their time of need.

 Development of the MARC Planning Resource was highly collaborative and written based on the experience of the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities and The Salvation Army, as this is the experience and knowledge of the contributors and reviewers.  All three organizations were involved throughout the development of the material.

 Additional reviews were completed by teams at FEMA, Catholic Charities, The Salvation Army and Red Cross. Over 50 additional individuals provided comments and input to this document, and we hope we have improved the document based on their feedback.

 Also utilized in the development of the document were coalitions and the Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs) in the following states: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina. Feedback was also incorporated in real time from existing MARCs and MARC exercises.

 In addition, a course is available through the American Red Cross:

Online courses are available 24/7 in the Red Cross EDGE learning system at:  https://arc.csod.com

Non-Red Cross volunteers can access EDGE by registering at: http://bit.ly/ext_register