The Regional Resource Sharing Agreement (RSA) was developed by a workgroup of Emergency Managers and approved by the Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Council and the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) Board of Directors to provide a document intended for all jurisdictions in the MARC region willing to share resources with other jurisdictions.

The RSA was developed to serve as a safety net mutual aid agreement to fill in the gaps between the various, typical mutual aid agreements which serve law enforcement, fire service and other public-safety services. The RSA will strengthen the current mutual aid agreements by establishing a basic understanding regarding liability issues and procedures and will clarify, in writing, the typical "handshake" agreement that jurisdictions have often relied upon when requesting and sharing resources.

The RSA provides an understanding of which jurisdictions are willing to participate in a sharing agreement to support the requests of other jurisdictions to meet their needs. The concept of the RSA is considered a best practice by the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).