Director's Dialogue August 2009

If you remember, and I am sure that most of you do, that back in the August 2008 Directors Dialogue, we talked about participation (or lack thereof) of members for call-outs. It turned out that most of our units were in-fact, having problems getting their members to participate on these various missions.

What was really surprising to us, as a result of this discussion, was the fact that the units were also very concerned about dealing with their own non-active members for their other unit activities as well.

Over the next couple of months, around the county and at SAR Council, several serious discussions were held regarding this topic. Recommendations were made and some policies were implemented to try and help correct these problems.

For the most part, this discussion did help to make members more aware that call-out participation was an issue that had to be dealt with. I am happy to announce that since that time our countywide and mutual aid numbers have increased. Considering our current economy and other factors, this is a good sign. However, we still have a number of units who still have these concerns on dealing with their members who are not active for unit trainings, events, meetings, and yes . . .. Call-outs!

Now, because of the number of non-active members within our units, another problem seems to have developed. It has become very obvious that when the normally inactive members decide to take part in a SAR mission, they do not have the basic SAR skills to be totally effective while in the field. These members have forgotten most of what has been taught to them when they attended BSAR. This has been of concern in the past, but we are now seeing more of it as time goes by.

Liability, and more importantly, safety issues begin to come into play now that this has occurred. It is great that your units are covering the basic SAR skills at trainings during the year, but you have to admit, not every member is training up to the standards that are required of them to perform professionally, proficiently, and safely in the field. This is, obviously, a concern. If our members are not training on a regular basis then it is pretty safe to say that their basic SAR skills taught to them previously are beginning to diminish.

It has been our own SAR volunteers who have become very concerned about this problem. In fact, it was the volunteers who brought this to the attention of the SAR Council.

Because of these concerns a decision was reached that the SAR Council would (and has) put together a committee to make some recommendations on how to deal with these problems. After several discussions based on our volunteer members’ recommendations, there have been suggestions made to implement a new policy dealing this issue and others.

If, in fact, this proposed policy is approved and put into practice, it will solve a host of the problems that our units are experiencing. This suggested policy would help, directly and indirectly with call-out participation, dealing with non-active members, members who are not training on a regular basis, and other non-active membership concerns.

The proposed recommendations were presented to the SAR Council and the Council submitted them to Volunteer Forces for their review. Volunteer Forces has a few minor concerns about some wording and with a couple of the solutions, but otherwise, they like the concept. They have asked that we, the volunteers, continue to work on this proposal and to seek the support of our members and their units. When the majority of our units support this proposal, it will then be returned to Volunteer Forces for further review and final approval.

To meet these requests and to make sure that we have input from all of our SAR units, it has been decided by the committee that myself, Frank Kams and Mike Ward will be contacting all of our Unit Commanders. The purpose of this contact will be to get the Unit Commanders ideas, input and suggestions. Just like we did for the new HARMS and OHVSAR standards, we will have a policy that has been developed and approved by our own volunteers.

If this proposed policy is accepted, then all of our discipline standards for SAR should be spelled out for everyone’s use and information. We have specialized standards now in place pertaining to BSAR, the Dog Team, OHVSAR, MSAR, RROC, and now we are looking to include standards for our Ground Searchers. Between these standards, we now will be able to address the issues that are of concern.

I will keep you posted on the development of this proposed policy and we will be contacting all of our Commanders during the next few weeks.

OTHER NEWS

The SAR Council will be hosting another Helitac Training Class on September 6th. The class in July was attended by members from six units and had 23 members in attendance. The class on the 6th is filling up fast and we only have room for 25. Please contact me at davenicolet@earthlink.net if you are interesting in attending. Sign-ups will be on a first-come-first-serve basis.

The Mud Run is drawing near. Deputy Marion Browne of Volunteer Forces has once again asked me to remind you that if you plan on participating in any manner please contract her ASAP. I believe that there is going to be a meeting on the 19th of August for those who plan on attending. Deputy Browne will be able to give you all the details. Contact her at 909-387-011 or email her at: mbrowne@sbcsd.org.

The ICS 300 classes have been held and a number of our SAR personnel have certified in that class. A series of ICS 400 classes are now being conducted during the month of August. If you would like to sign up for this two-day class, please contact Dan Whitten at Dwhitten@sbcsd.org.

Congratulations are in order to Deputy John Hayes of the Wrightwood SAR unit for hosting the Urban SAR Orientation that was held in Wrightwood. I had the pleasure of attending this class and it was very informative.

Our Cave and Techinque Rescue Unit held a Cave Rescue Orientation during July and it was excellent. Everyone that I have talked to, who attended this two-day event, was very pleased that they had taken the time to participate.

BSAR begins on September 19th and 20th. Make sure that you get your members signed up. Contact Stella at Volunteer Forces to reserve them a spot at: 909-387-0611. The other two weekends of BSAR will be conducted on October 3rd and 4th and October 17th and 18th.

DO NOT FORGET TO SUPPORT SAR CITY this year! Barstow will be conducting this annual event on October 9th, 10th, and 11th. Go to our www.sbsar.org web site to obtain the information that you need to sign up.

This year’s Sheriff’s Rodeo will be on held on September 25th, 26th and 27th We will once again have a SAR Booth at this event and we will need some assistance in manning it. Please contact Christine Stuehrmann at: chrisstueh@aol.com to sign up.

The next SAR Council Meeting will be on September 16th. Please plan on attending - I am sure there is going to be some discussion about what has been discussed in this issue of the Directors Dialogue.

As you can see, its going to get busy . . .I hope to see you at that these events…until then remember to . . . . . . ..

Be Safe
Dave Nicolet, Director
Inland Empire Search and Rescue Council
davenicolet@earthlink.net
760-363-7475
760-831-5743