NASAR/MRA Joint National Meeting

I spent the first week in June taking a NASAR tracking class and attending the joint MRA/NASAR conference in Lake Tahoe. Between the rain, snow, and 70+ degree temps, it was a good conference. Here are some highlights.

The tracking class was great. It was a mix of classroom and field (both day and night) that culminated with a written exam and a large scale field exercise. I was afraid that it would be the same as the class offered by Joling and Heller, but that was not the case. The principles are the same, but they went into a bit more detail with the management of multiple tracking teams, and with tracking in a variety of environments and times of day. I think that this was the second time that this class was offered, and the instructors were pulled from all over the country. It was good to get perspectives from different regions. Evidently it is part of a new tracking cert by NASAR. I was not aware of this prior to attending. I think it is a good class. It is a good "next step" from the county offerings. If anything it gives you more "dirt time" to hone your skills.

Vendor Exhibits

I spoke with a company that makes hypothermia kits for the military. The kits are a tarp, hood, blanket with heat packs in it, and other things. The kit itself is self-contained and costs a little over $100. That is pretty steep for something that is a single use item, but the blankets are intriguing. You can read about them at TechTrade. The one that I think that my team would be interested in lasts for 8-10 hours and costs about $38. They are shrink wrapped in heavy plastic.

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