The first step in the planning process is forming a collaborative planning team. Experience and lessons learned indicate that emergency planning is best performed by a team. When working as a team to plan, the team members:

• Better understand the roles played by each team member.
• Build or expand relationships with each other.
• Can generate support and backing of the school chief executive, school board, and other community stakeholders.

Your school planning team should start with a smaller group of planners that is inclusive but not too large to inhibit productivity—the core planning team. The team is later expanded to include more members of the community to provide specific expertise and to review the plan.