Virginia EMS Association

The Virginia EMS Association (VEMSA) is an alliance of Virginia:

• Public entities, including local and state governments,
• Private business,
• Military and other federal facilities
• Colleges and universities.

VEMSA’s mission is to serve as:

1. A collaboration of Environmental Management System (EMS) practitioners to support and celebrate each others efforts;
2. A mentoring/education system to promote and support EMS across the Commonwealth and across all sectors (can include EMS practitioners, entities interested in EMS, and consultants providing EMS-related services);
3. A Virginia-based liaison organization committed to sharing information, ideas, strategies, and experiences with EMS.

The common thread of our association is active participation in DEQ's VEEP Program by the majority of the members and desire for ongoing and affordable EMS education opportunities.

The association was proposed in the Fall of 2005 and formally convened a year later. The first priority of the association was to hold an annual EMS Conference featuring information sharing and best practices. The 1st Annual Virginia EMS Conference was held in October, 2006, at the Hotel Roanoke. It was cosponsored by DEQ, EPA's Office of Water and the Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement and Virginia Tech. Over 140 people attended the three-day event. That was followed up by successful conferences in 2007 and 2008. The next conference will be in October, 2010.