BMC Public Health 2006, 6:285 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/6/285 resources may be highly sensitive for either security or proprietary reasons. Businesses' enthusiasm for sharing such information with government agencies in advance of crises is diminished if it is susceptible to widespread access via open record laws. Likewise, government agencies may acquire intelligence that would be valuable to businesses in protecting assets, and businesses may be uniquely posi- tioned to assist governments in interpreting intelligence reports, especially if they relate to potential threats against businesses. Despite the potential benefit of sharing intel- ligence information, government officials may feel com- pelled to withhold it, erring on the side of making sure they adhere to security regulations as they understand them. The status of efforts to address these concerns was summarized by one government respondent in the fol- lowing way: "The current mindset is 'Hold onto your information'...We're chipping away at that..." Liability Another major concern for businesses is liability, espe- cially with regard to collaboration in exercises. For exam- ple, if a company offers space to conduct an exercise or allows its employees to serve as volunteers, a host of ques- tions arise about potential liability in the event of an injury. While Good Samaritan laws typically protect peo- ple engaged in supporting an emergency response, they generally do not protect preparedness activities, nor do they protect companies. Moreover, the level of protection may be narrowly defined by the specifics of an emergency declaration. Both liability and confidentiality concerns tend to evaporate during an actual crisis, but, in the absence of advance planning, governments have been unprepared and unable to accept valuable offers for help during crises. Ironically, current open record and Good Samaritan laws deter some business from engaging in such pre-event planning. Ongoing differences in perspective Despite successes in bridging cultures, managing differ- ences in perspective remains an ongoing challenge. For example, the July 2005 SNS dispensing exercise was widely viewed as successful by business and public health respondents, both for providing proof-of-concept for the collaborative dispensing model and for evaluating spe- cific procedures. Despite this shared view, several public health respondents expressed frustration because BENS member companies did not meet initial targets for the number of volunteers they could recruit: "I had to do a lot of volunteer recruiting that I had expected them [BENS] to deliver..." "Show me the volunteers." For others, this shortfall was immaterial, as exemplified by the following observation from a business respondent: "What is the question? Is the question Can we get the number of targeted volunteers to an exercise?... Or is it can you learn a lot real quick?... We set a goal of 2000 volunteers and got 1200. I don't see that as a failure. The exercise truly flexed the process...We had enough to truly stress the operation and learn where the flaws were in the design of the operation..." While this inventory of challenges may seem daunting, none of these obstacles was viewed as insurmountable, nor were they viewed as a deterrent to planned expansions of the SNS dispensing model or extension of the partner- ship to pandemic influenza planning. To the contrary, respondents emphasized that their growing understand- ing of one another's concerns and their increased ability to be frank with one another about these issues were important signs of progress. Identifying potential barriers to growth in collaboration has enabled the partners to tar- get these concerns, including ongoing work to address legal questions surrounding confidentiality and liability. Facilitators to collaboration The ability of business and government partners to estab- lish personal relationships has been fundamental to the success of the partnership. The accompanying growth in trust and respect and the ability of participants to enjoy working together have enabled the partnership to take on increasingly complex activities. As one business respond- ent observed at the conclusion of the interview, "It's just been fun" and as one state official observed: "They're good people. Their hearts are in the right place...They're rich guys but they're down to earth...very patri- otic, they want to help." There are also attributes of BENS business model that have facilitated collaboration with public health, includ- ing their: Focus on national security and emergency preparedness BENS' mission-level focus is on national security, and its Business Force program is dedicated to collaboration with state and local governments to advance emergency prepar- edness. This focus has attracted a membership that includes representatives of very large companies with a sizeable stake in community continuity, as well as people from smaller companies with relevant expertise. Commitment to service BENS' non-profit and non-partisan status is critical to establishing and maintaining links to governments given potential differences across areas or over time in political leadership. In addition, BENS' firm commitment to being Page 6 of 13 (page number not for citation purposes)