Director's Dialogue October 2009

Attention Golfers!  The San G Search and Rescue Unit is in need of tee sponsors and players for their 6^th Annual Calvert & Johnston Memorial Golf Tournament that is being held on October 5^th.  If you can help out call:  909-534-6207 or email sgsar.golf@gmail.com for more info.

As promised in the last issue of the Directors Dialogue, September was a very busy month for all of our SAR members and their units.

Things started off with the SAR Council hosting the Helitac Class on the 6^th of the month, 24 members representing nine of our SAR units attended.  The class, as usual was very well ran and our members received excellent hands on training.  Thanks to all those members who took the time over the Labor Day Weekend to attend and thanks to Aviation for having the class.

What a great day September 12^th turned out to be.  The Mudrun is an event that you want to see.  Over 2500 runners participated and what a fun day!  Next year you really need to come out to lend a hand and take the opportunity to see all of these crazy people running up and down hills, over obstacles and though a whole lot of mud pits.  It is amazing to see the energy, the fun and the competitiveness that they all displayed.  Rim SAR had 10 of their members run in the Run and I want to thank all of them for the huge group hug that I received when they came out of the mud pit.  It did wonders for my nice clean uniform!  However, I was a whole lot cleaner then Sheriff Hoops and Chief Fonzi as they mustered up the energy to complete the course.

Next on the list of events was the Sheriff’s Rodeo, which was held on the 25^th. 26^th and 27^th.  I would like to thank the members of Barstow, East Valley, Rim, SBDO Mountain, the Dog Team and West Valley SAR for coming out and helping with the manning of our SAR booth.  Christine Stuehrmann did an outstanding job in finding the manpower for the booth, setting up a nice display, providing information to the citizens who stopped by and for having lanyards and t-shirts on hand for sale. 

On the 16^th of September we held our SAR Council Meeting at Headquarters.  Through the efforts of many of our volunteers the proposed Annual Individual SAR Skills Certification was discussed, voted on and passed.  The proposal has been resubmitted to Volunteer Forces for final approval.  The final vote was 18 “yes” votes, l abstention and 0 “no” votes.

Our very own SAR volunteers developed this Individual SAR Sills Certification proposal.  It was found that our SAR members, the SAR Council, BSAR Staff and the Individual SAR Skills Committee, for a number of reasons, felt that a certification to show our members proficiencies in the basic SAR skills was needed.  By conducting this annual certification it will help to solve a number of issues that our units felt necessary to address.  Safety, professionalism and membership activation are going to be the big winners with the passing of this proposal.  I will let you know when this is approved by Volunteer Forces, at that time the necessary paperwork will be mailed out to all of the units.

As you know we have been working on the Citizens Volunteer Memorial that we want to have constructed in the lobby of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Building.  As of this date we have made the necessary decisions to complete this project.  The Memorial Committee has placed the order, has determined the needs for the installation and has begun raising funds.  We are not asking our SAR Units for unit donations.  But, if there are any members who would like to make an individually donate we sure will accept any amount, no matter how large or small.  If your unit has any members who would like to chip in have them make out a check to: IESARC and on the checks memo line have them write:  CV Memorial Fund.  They can send their check to: 

San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department

ATTN:  Volunteer Forces/IESARC

655 East Third Street

San Bernardino, Calif. 92415-0061

In the meantime, San G SAR has made a generous donation of $2500.00.  These funds, along with $900.00 from the SAR Council, were used as the downpayment, which allowed us to place the order.  Our target date for the completion of this project was November 30^th of this year, but it now has been moved to January 31, 2010.  This is due to the fact of the time needed to fabricate the granite and bronze.

Earlier, I was talking about the Mudrun; to our surprise the Mudrun Committee has made a $2500.00 donation to the SAR Council for the CV Memorial.  All of our individual SAR members, the SAR Units and the SAR Council would like to thank the Mudrun Committee for their generosity!  With this donation the CV Memorial Committee now only has about $3000.00 left to raise.  Thank You!

Some bad news!  Corporal Thad Riley is going to be leaving Volunteer Forces effective October 10^th.  He is being transferred to the Rancho Cucamonga station and will be assigned to them as a detective.  Thad has been with us for four years and truly will be missed.  Corporal Riley is the last of “The Big Three” to leave us, sadly this is an end of a era.  Bryan Lane, Dave Pichotta and Thad during their tenure together at VF truly symbolized, teamwork, leadership and trust to all of us in the SAR community.  All of us would like to thank Thad for his service, friendship and inspiration.  We all wish him the best of luck at his new station and look forward to seeing him in the future.

SAR City is coming up fast.  On October 9th, 10th and 11th Barstow Junior College will be seeing a lot of orange shirts.  Lets support the Barstow Desert Rescue Squad by having as many of our members that we can attend this great event.  For more information go to the www.sbsar.org website.

The fall BSAR Class is under way.  The first weekend was conducted on September 19^th and 20^th.  The second weekend will be on October 3^rd and 4^th.  Remember, we need mentors for the overnight exercise on October the 17^th.  Please contact Corporal Dan Whitten at Volunteer Forces and supply him with the names of the members who can attend as a mentor.  (909-387-0611).

The new 2010 Unit Roster Forms will be mailed out on November 1^st and you need to make sure your text messaging information is updated.  Please remind your unit commanders that they are requested to attend the Directors Breakfast on January 9, 2010.

Until I see you again, please remember to…………..

Be Safe
Dave Nicolet, Director
San Bernardino County Sheriff Department’s
Inland Empire Search and Rescue Council
H:  760-363-7475
C:  760-831-5743