Organizational Set-Up

RIOS Network is a voluntary collaboration of primary care clinicians led by a Board of Directors that establishes overall direction and sets policy. The Board has responsibility for setting Network priorities, for revising criteria for membership in the Network, for selecting Network management, and for deciding on relationships of the Network to outside groups. The Board is composed of the following persons:

• Network Director;
• Four Network Co-Directors;
• Five community health center clinician representatives;
• Three Indian Health Service/tribal health center clinician representatives;
• Three academic clinician representatives; an associate member representative;
• A technical support representative;
• Three Community Advisory Board representatives; and
• Up to three organizational member representatives.

A network Community Advisory Board assures that community members are involved in the planning of network activities by discussing pending proposals for Network projects and major policy decisions of the Network, as well as providing advice to the Board of Directors and the management team. It is critical to RIOS Net that its activities reflect the needs and wishes not only of its members, but also of the people served by its members.

There are three categories of membership in the RIOS Net: active, associate, and organizational.

• An active member of the RIOS Net may be any clinically active, primary care clinician whose practice is based in a community health center, an Indian Health Service facility, a tribal health care center, an academic practice serving predominantly low-income persons, or a medically underserved location.
• An associate member of the network are persons in the health care field who maintain an interest in the network activities, but who do not have a primary care clinical practice, or who are not currently participating in network projects.
• Organizations whose purpose is directly related to the delivery of primary care among traditionally underserved populations in the Southwest U.S. may be organizational members of RIOS Net.