ICE-SAR was founded July 1 1999 upon the merger of the National Life-saving Association of Iceland and Landsbjörg, the Association of Icelandic Rescue Teams.
Form of government
A national congress every other year, attended by representatives from the association units, exercises the highest authority in the association and elects a chairman and other members of the board of directors who manage the association between national congresses. The board has 9 directors, from all over Iceland. The managing director sees to day-to-day management.
The national headquarters comprise three operational divisions:
Rescue Operations sees to everything having to do with search and rescue on land and at sea, including services and relations with the rescue teams around Iceland. This division handles the matters of the youth sections and the Icelandic Rescue School.
Accident Prevention is responsible for all accident prevention efforts and liaison with accident prevention sections. Many tasks are carried out in this division involving issues like traffic accident prevention, child accident prevention, accident prevention for the elderly and maritime accident prevention.
Administration and Finance sees to general office operation, finance and services for association units. This division also sees to matters involving publication and publicity. The headquarters also see to procuring fireworks for the association units to sell at New Year's.
