SARA Happenings, August 8, 1999

Table of Contents

Fund-Raising Experience

STARS Chain of Survival Fund

Newsletter Editor Contact

Past Issues of SARA Happenings

How to Become a SAR Manager

SAR Fundamentals Instructors Course

SAR Alberta Board Meeting

Candidates for Vice-President

CARES Available for Lost Persons

Telecommunications Workshop

Volunteers Needed for SARA Mailings

Member Groups of SAR Alberta

Becoming a Member Group of SAR Alberta

Testing after Courses

Let's Hear from You!

Hi,

This is a regular mailing intended to improve communication within the Search and Rescue community in Alberta. It's going out to over 90 e-mail addresses that are listed as the primary contact of SAR Alberta member groups or which were requested to be added to the mailing list. If you want to be added or removed from the list, please contact Brett Wuth wuth@acm.org.

Here are some of the happenings in SAR in Alberta:

Doing the fund-raising for a local group often takes the full resources of one volunteer. There's a lot to learn if you're taking it on for the first time. Shannon Dyrland has been doing the fund-raising for Edmonton Regional SAR and offers her experience on what has worked and what hasn't. If you're just getting into fund-raising, or would like to share some ideas contact Shannon at sdyrland@hotmail.com or 780-464-7063.

STARS has started a new fund to help support other organizations related to its work using some of the money from the STARS Lottery. SAR groups can apply. A mailing went out to all groups which are members of SAR Alberta for this years' application, for which the deadline has now passed. Groups will again be able to apply next year. Contact Carol Morris CarolM@stars.ca 403-295-2185.

You should soon be receiving the July/August issue of the newsletter prepared by our new Newsletter Editor, Rose Saunders. Rose has moved to Claresholm. You can contact Rose at rosesaunders@hotmail.com or 403-625-3312. Please let her know about your story ideas or events in your area.

Did you see something is a previous SARA Happenings and now can't recall the details? Past issues are now available on the SAR Alberta web site http://www.saralberta.org. Thanks to Phil Paradis pparadis@oanet.com.

One group writes: "Hi Brett - We are at a loss as to how to get what you need to be a SAR Manager. As we have no one close in our area, one of our goals for the next year is to get a few trained to be SAR Managers. Please let me know what is needed and how to get who to contact."

Generally the consensus for becoming a Search Manager is expressed as:

SAR Fundamentals course

a few years of SAR experience

the support of your local SAR group

the support of your local tasking agency

and then of course the SAR Managers course.

There are two courses planned this year. Take a look at the July 1 SARA Happenings on http://www.saralberta.org.

Grant Hignell has arranged a course to train more instructors that will be able to run SAR Fundamentals courses. It is open to anyone who has completed the SAR Fundamentals Course, SAR Managers Course and Man Tracking Course. Candidates must have some training in effective presentation, or equivalent experience. The cost of the course will be dependent on the number of candidates. The more candidates, the less the cost.

Grant is willing to host the course in Lethbridge near the end of September or early October. The course length is three days and will probably be held over a weekend.

Contact Grant Hignell, 403-329-5035 or Grant.HIGNELL@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

The SAR Alberta board will be meeting this Saturday, August 14, near Red Deer. As always, the meetings are open to everyone in the SAR community. If you would like to have some time in the meeting agenda, please let me know. Meeting time is 12:00 to 16:00. The location is the Red Deer Flying Club, which is the first building North of the Red Deer Air Terminal, at the Red Deer Industrial Airport (South of the city on Highway 2A). Contact Brett Wuth wuth@acm.org 403-627-2460.

As mentioned in the last SARA Happenings, the Vice-President of SAR Alberta has resigned. The board will be installing an "acting" Vice-President based on a mail-in vote of the members. The term is until the next general meeting in April 2000. The representative of any member group may run for the office. Candidates need to provide a letter to the board by the meeting on August 14, indicating their intention to run and a brief description of the skills and priorities.

In the "Did You Know?" department, Daryl Black, Daryl.Black@telus.com offers:

Did you know that... The Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) -- whose Alberta arm is the Civil Air Rescue Emergency Service (CARES) -- is available to assist in searches for missing/lost persons? CASARA's mandate has previously been limited to searching exclusively for missing aircraft but the DND and RCMP have entered into an agreement whereby CASARA's services will be made available in the event of a missing/lost person. The RCMP Incident Commander must make the request by calling the Rescue Coordination Center in Trenton: 1-800-267-7270, 613-392-2811, or 613-965-3870/3875. Hopefully it won't be long until planes of CARES flying overhead become commonplace.

Ever since SAR Alberta first came together five years ago, the need for a provincial telecommunications plan has been repeatedly identified. The problem however has been a difficult one, with technical, financial, jurisdictional, regional and political aspects. Earlier this year the board formed a Telecommunications Committee. They are currently preparing their report.

There are several alternatives to consider. And it is time to involve the membership directly.

We ask that each member group identify someone in their membership who understands their local telecommunications needs.

We want to bring these people together (either in one place for the province, or possibly within smaller regions) to meet in a workshop with the experts. The purpose of the meeting will be to share information, to consider the alternatives, to generate new ideas, and to adopt a near term plan and the general direction of a long term plan.

The date(s) of the meeting(s) will depend on those involved, but are expected to be in the next two months.

Please send the name and contact information for a person in your group to Brett Wuth wuth@acm.org 403-627-2460.

The paper mailings for SAR Alberta such as our newsletter are provided by the kind help of Disaster Services in Edmonton. As you can expect, they are often overloaded with other things. If you can help out (e.g. stuffing envelopes) on an occasional basis with SAR Alberta mailings, please let us know. It would make life a lot easier for some busy people. Contact Ken Tryon Ken.Tryon@gov.ab.ca 780-427-8643.

SAR Alberta is an umbrella organization; its members are other organizations.

The current members are:

Athabasca Search and Rescue

Blackfalds Search and Rescue

Bonnyville Search and Rescue Society

Brazeau Regional Search and Rescue

Calgary Police Services

Calgary Search and Rescue Association

Civil Air Rescue Emergency Services

Cold Lake Search and Rescue Society

Crowsnest Pass Rescue Equipment Campaign Society

Disaster Services Branch, Alberta Transportation and Utilities

Edmonton Regional Search and Rescue Association

Foothills Search and Rescue Society

Fort MacLeod Fire Department

Fort McMurray Search and Rescue Society

Grande Prairie Technical Search and Rescue Association

Hinton Search and Rescue Association

K-9 Search And Rescue Society

Kananaskis Country Public Safety Program

Lethbridge Area Search and Rescue Dog Association

Lethbridge Police Service

Lloydminster Search and Rescue

North East Alberta Search and Rescue Society

Northern Alberta Aquatic Rescue Society

Parkland Search and Rescue Society

Parks Canada: Banff

Parks Canada: Jasper

Parks Canada: Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks

Parks Canada: Waterton Lakes National Park

Peace Regional Search and Rescue Society

Pembina Search and Rescue

Pincher Creek Volunteer Search and Rescue Group

RCMP Civilian Search Dog Association

Red Deer Search and Rescue Association

Rocky Mountain House Volunteer Search and Rescue Society

Search and Rescue Dog Association of Alberta

Sundre Volunteer Search and Rescue Society

Swan Hills Search and Rescue Organization

Whitecourt Search and Rescue Society

Yellowhead Search and Rescue

Yellowhead Search and Rescue, Onoway Chapter

If your group is not already a member of SAR Alberta it may be because it did not get its membership information in on time this spring when SAR Alberta was formalizing its membership. Or your group may be a newly formed one.

New members are voted in by the existing members at a general meeting. The next meeting will be in April 2000. Please contact the Secretary, Jennifer Dancause dardan@telusplanet.net 780-454-4107 if your group is interested in becoming a member and she will get some basic information.

In the meantime, SAR Alberta is committed to working closely with new and/or quiescent groups that have not yet formally become members. Expect us to treat you like members in everything except formal stuff like voting. Just let us know that you're interested in this kind of relationship. And please consider putting your group forward to becoming a member in April 2000.

Edmonton Regional SAR has an interesting approach for testing its members. Whenever they put on a course, they ask the instructor to prepare a test (both written and practical) which is given several months later. They find that the debriefing after the test generates lots of useful ideas and lessons learned. For details contact Shannon Dyrland sdyrland@hotmail.com 780-464-7063.

What's happening in your group? What training exercises do you have coming up? What would you like help with? Send me a note and I'll pass the word along. Contact Brett Wuth wuth@acm.org, 403-627-2460.

This document was generated on 8 August 1999 using the texi2html translator version 1.54.