Meeting September 15, 2001
MEMBERS PRESENT: Art Jordan (Cowlitz); Jim Brewer (Klicakitat); Glenn Schultz (Snohomish); Darrell Monroe & Sharron Fisher & Jake Weber (Yakima); Wanda Hightower (Kitsap), Dave Parker (Walla Walla), Bruce Ramey (Kitsap), Carol Schattler (Kittitas)
NEXT SARVAC MEETING November 17, 2001 Camp Murray, WA 9:30 A.M.
Board meeting 1:00 P.M.SARVAC has a new web site. The newsletters will be posted there. Any information you would like to see announced may be addressed to SARVACŐs web manager. Noel McRrae, a life member of Cowlitz County Search and Rescue Team, has agreed to be the webtech. The web address is: http://wasar.bizland.com
For information about the site you can contact the webtech at webtech@wasar.bizland.com
Chris Long [the State SAR Coordinator of WA] can be reached at: c.long@emd.wa.gov, WA-SAR.net: www.wa.gov/wsem. From this web page you select SAR. You can down load forms and find out what is going on within the state.
The next meeting dates as follows: November 17, 2001 Camp Murray E.OC, call to order 1:15
Introduction of all members present
Minutes of last meeting: Motion to accept. Jim Brewer Wanda corrected Cowlitz member as Reddington. Seconded Jake Weber. Motion carried to accept.
Executive Report:
Pager systems: What are you using? How are they working for you group? It was stated that some of the pagers just are not working. Some people donŐt carry them, nor keep batteries in them. For some groups just using the old -fashioned phone system works better. Call out, for sure, and then pagers, will help. There are some counties that have individuals that do all the call outs while other counties pay that person to do all the call outs and paperwork. Some counties have more searches than others.
In Washington State there are a lot of hours going into Search & Rescue volunteers time. Just as it is now back in New York, there are a lot of SAR volunteers giving many hours of their time in helping in a disaster. Radio Frequency: Art reported there might be a problem down the line of changing frequency numbers. If FCC changes frequency bands, how will this affect your county? We are still trying to find a more clear frequency for SAR, so school busses, ambulances, etc are not hampering us on 155.160 frequency. Chris Long is still working on getting a new frequency for SAR to use. The Ham AREAS is utilized on a lot of searches. It is difficult if you canŐt keep in touch on what is going on. Snohomish Co is going UHF 800 MHz. There are other counties thinking of going the same way. Kittitas is working with the ham operators; their communication systems works best in their county. There was a discussion on different methods of using the ham operators for effective communication in different terrain. Cell phones are becoming a help in a lot of areas. Yet they also have lack of coverage in certain areas which will hamper the search. Mast aircraft will soon have 155.160 to communicate with SAR personnel. Sharon Fisher moved that we draft a letter to FCC when they open frequency allocation of rule change for public comment. We want to encourage keeping the current public service allocation ban due to the large expenses to volunteers to convert radios. We would like to request a specific clear frequency for Search and Rescue in the state of Washington. Seconded by Bruce Ramey.
President's Report:
Art was unable to attend the last governors meeting. The Washington State SAR Conference will be held in Skamania County in the Carson area. May 17 Đ 19, 2002. Look on the web site for more information. (Skamania County Sheriff, then SAR Conference).
Art discussed what SARVAC means and what we are, and how we help other SAR units. He assured everyone we donŐt tell the other units what to do. We work as an advisory to help all the units. Carol asked about standards. SARVAC is assisting in putting together out of county standards. Out of county standards help insure that the SAR units assisting other counties have SAR skills. They were to be used by the units for a couple of years to see how they are working. Jim Hall is putting them in a new format.
Bringing new members up to speed: Discussion on the standards. The Standards should have been just guidelines, yet they did come out as Standards (for out of county missions). They are a good way to measure your team skills for proficiency. There was a general concern that out of county searchers have the skills necessary to do the job, since the on-scene coordinator is unaware of the searchers skill. It was stated that we have to have a way to be sure that individuals have been qualified to meet a certain criteria. Now it is being re-typed in a format that will be able to measure exact tasking.
Secretary report:
I am still trying to get a good mailing list. If anyone knows of a change or wants to be added they can contact me by phone 253 851-4574 or E-mail me at wandaswonderland @worldnet.att.net. I am trying to cut down on returned mail. My goal is to put our meeting dates on each countyŐs local newspaper under meetings in the meeting column. This is a free service. I just have to work out the details. (I will be getting the newsletter out sooner) We can send out a postcard to let everyone know of the next meeting and minutes are on the web site. If you need a copy you can call us and we will mail you a copy. The cost is going up in Jan 2002 and we are trying to cut down on costs. I would like to get all SAR member e-mail addresses that we can. This would cut down cost of newsletters and also post cards to be sent out. What would you prefer e-mail versus actual mailing?
I want to send out duplicate billing statements for 2001 membership, and change the return address to our treasurerŐs address. It is acceptable with the board.
Treasurer Report:
$2174.42 $500.00 To Skamania Co Seed money
$10.00 Secretary State Annual Report
Dues + $50.00 From Cowlitz Co. $1714.42
for Copies that Art made$1711.84
$150.00 501C-3
filing fee pending
At this moment we have 6 counties that have paid their $50.00 dues. A second notice will be going out as a reminder. Jefferson, Pierce, Snohomish, Whitman, King , & Cowlitz. Training Chair Person: Fred Knight was absent for this meeting. He has been absent due to illness of his mother. He still wants to still help where he can.
COMMITTEE REPORT:
NONE
Unit Reports:
Kitsap: call out for missing Alzheimer patient. She was one block out of their original search area. She was found. Kitsap SAR had a fair booth, and got 42 new names for their ESAR unit.
Walla Walla: Had one homicide/evidence search. Had a lost-person-booth at the fairÉ had 30 lost children, and found them all. There is a influx of new and old 10 Đ 15 active persons. They have 40 Đ 50 on their rosters that arenŐt fully qualified by the standard. They have yearly training. Dave Parker set up a continuing education program, to confirm the qualification for being field training. They use this form each year to be qualified as SAR member.
Kittitas: 12 searchesÉmost have been hikers, over 70 years of age, due to then wanting to be healthier. There was a river drowning they were called out on. Assisted King Co in the downed Airplane search six 4X4Ős were dispatched. They were called off when the plane was found. They have been doing a lot of public relations work. Also had a rescue of subject sick from medications, no energy; his group left him, and phoned in when they got out. He was 3.5 miles in, and it took 15 people 4 hours to carry him out.
Cowlitz: There is an intensive training program on going. Cowlitz has added a boat to their equipment. Most of their field people are SAR tech. II. They use the NASAR manual for training, and it seems that the higher the standards, the more people sign up for membership. You can go to SARVAC web site to see where there is specific training you would like to have. You can contact those units. SAR activities included water related accidents.
Yakima: Level of training is high. Most people want to have more. They havenŐt had to many lost people. They had a training weekend in July and September 14-16, They have teams on Mt Adams looking for two persons missing since 1981. The glaciers have opened up some so we are able to look for these individuals. On one rescue MAST Helicopter was used, the person may not have survived without these resources. SAR personnel coordinated directly with helicopter, it was good they had a direct frequency. Three people lost from a international environmental rehab group. The leader of the group went home and left people there. One person was sick and was sent down by himself. A girl reported her boyfriend missing from camp. He was distraught and had a history of drug problems. He left camp in his shorts and tennis shoes, he was found hidden in the brush. MAST helicopter assisted with another rescue in the Lewis county area on West side of Mt Adams and they were successful in locating and recovering the individual in Skamania county. SAR assisted with fire evacuations in the Dome Peak area.
Klickitat: Had ups and downs of membership going back to what they were a couple years ago. On a search the subject eluded the searchers. He had been gone for two hours. they found out that he crossed The Dalles Bridge they picked him up on the other side. New sheriff Chris Mace has suspended Klickitat ESAR group for lack of participation. Not allowed to have a mission number for training/support during a fundraiser.
OLD BUSINESS:
Where is Fred Knight? He did check in and is ok. He will be helping more. We will send out the SARVAC Membership Data List. If you could please take the time to fill it out so we will have an accurate mailing list. List trainerŐs available that could help teach some of the classes that are needed to qualify under the WAC 118-04.
Federal Income Tax Status (501-C-3): Maybe put steps on or web site on how to do the paperwork for attaining 501-C-3 status. Maybe bring some one from IRS to show how to do the steps at next meeting or conference? The 501-C-3 status allows us to solicit funds/equipment, and it allows those people to write of their donation on their taxes. By the next conference we hope to be able to teach a class on how to prepare 501-C-3 packet.
Where are the standards? They are in the formatting stage. There have been a couple of people who have volunteered to type them. We will get with Jim Hall and find out where he is with this process.
2002 conference: Art will be taking a $500.00 check to Skamania county, which will bring the seed money to $1000.00, to help start the 2002 conference.
NEW BUSINESS:
We will be rebilling for the dues. Members present signed up to contact a non-present county. To let them know we miss them, and find out if there is a problem. Our goal is to have all 39 counties represented at SARVAC meetings.
The possible use of teleconferencing in a few different areas was discussed. We could reach many communities at one time using video conferencing. It was stated that we could possibly use video conferencing to train the trainer.
Meeting dates for 2001:
November 17, 2001. Camp Murray EOC
Meeting dates for 2002:
March 16, 2002 Camp Murray EOC
May 18, 2002 Skamania Co SAR Conference TBA September 16, 2002 Ellensburg
November 18, 2002 Camp Murray EOC Adjourn at 6:00 p.m..