Meeting March 17, 2001
They went out on March 9th, with a different set of minutes being posted on the web. A decision was made to post the proposed minutes on the web site in a non official area. When SARVAC at its next meeting,approves the minutes, the official minutes will be posted on the official minutes web site area. Brooks motioned to accept the minutes, and Paul seconded. Motion carried.
The Board audited the books. Everything looked appropriate. 501C3 application is still in progress. Fred Knight is not here for his training report. Awards Deadline for the conference was set. The date was set for the 20th of April, for the nominations, to be accepted by SARVAC. Notify those nominators of the award recipients so the nominators can see that the award recipients will be at the conference, so so the recipient can receive their award.
Reported on the Governors Emergency Management Council- Art will be presenting about SAR to this group at their May meeting.
$2138.48 currently, with $50.00 paid by King County. (Pierce and King County have paid for 2001)
They were: Vice President, Jim Brewer; Secretary Wanda Hightower; Member at Large, Terry Lawrence. Motioned by Brooks to accept the them unanimously. Motion was seconded and motion carried.
From the State DEM, we requested and received copy of which counties, from the first of the year, had mission numbers issued to them. This reflected the activities within the counties both present and present, for which SAR operations were being conducted.
Cowlitz: The trainings coming up, which are located on the SAR Teams Web Site were discussed- the trainings are open - please contact the team ahead of time. A mission was discussed. It involving four overdue girls who went on evening hike, they got lost. Twenty searchers looked for them. The girls were able to walk out to a house light, with the searchers right behind them, after spending part of the night in the woods.
Kitsap: five missions, one involving a fatality, a 92 year old who succumbed, 14 year old male who had a fight with parents and was wandering the streets, another was a local lady with dementia, wheelchair bound, that got sent via a ferry to Seattle.
Mason: Brush picker from Guatemala who climbed a tree and fell. He was found 25 feet from the tree. (Interesting tracking, with no tracks leading from the tree.)
Klickitat: No activity.
King: Dementia (56) last year. Many urban searches. King County has an Academy coming up. Clark: Murder at the Safeway store. Another involving a 45-year-old who was a trail walker, and deaf, did not return from the trail. Used strobes were the best, but whistles and sound sweeps would not work. He had pulled apiece of plywood over him for cover.
Clark is working on the APROS. (Auto Plotting Radio System) This radio, coupled with the GPS, is very accurate.
Yakima: Training Mission to recover stolen vehicles. Dive team recovered two vehicles from the Yakima River. Missions there were light. Forty-two students at the academy, while getting many professionals (academically and business backgrounds) involved. Five members went to Spokane for simulated helicopter training.
SARVAC STANDARDS
These reflect the minimum, or basic, qualifications. They should also have a re-certification period. Jim will contact Jim Hall to see how SARVAC can help him with the formatting stages. Discussion was held about how SARVAC could be a assist with gathering ideas for the standards. (Measured, Test them, Demonstrate with a check off list. Link with the WAC and RCWÕs.)
SARVAC AWARDS
We will order three meritorious awards. People must get them into Chris LongÕs office by the 20th of April. Please choose one from each area. Certificate will be awarded. Please get those individual nominated to the awards assembly. The SARVAC Board will try to contact individual counsel members to make sure they turn in their nominations. 2001 State Conference. Sign up by April 15th, or the price goes up.
SARVAC Logo
We will use the state of Washington patch, with the individual counties used in the stateÕs symbol, and "United in Search and Rescue" below the logo. Motion to accept by Sharon, Second by Jim Hightower.
King County has rejoined SARVAC. Standards formatting, where we are and where we are going with it.
It was suggested that Jim Brewer, SARVACÕs representative to WASSARCA, contact Jim Hall at the WASSARCA meeting , to set a date on the continuation of the work, on those standards. WEB SITE fee.
It was decided to keep the current web site and pay the fee, rather than change the site. Paul suggested that he would look into a web domain name for SARVAC.COM.
Reimbursement for motels, gas expense relating directly to SARVAC was discussed. The development of a Voucher system for tracking expenses with a check box for "for information only" or for "reimbursement." Members of SARVAC volunteer their time. Some of the member counties are financially well off. Others are not.
It was agreed that expenses incurred attending or representing SARVAC could be reimbursed. To keep the membership open for all counties, regardless of their financial situation, this reimbursement will be needed. We would like to obtain a list of the people who attend the SAR Conferences, their address and e-mails.
Discussion of Bill #1643, involving voluntary organizations to carry liability insurance. SAR is covered under the RCW WAC. SAR was exempted from the Bill. Chris Long and Grant Smith were instrumental in seeing that the SAR community was exempted from this legislation.
ThankÕs goes to Chris and Grant. SARVAC should link on, co-signature, our support for the 304th. The 304th will be moved to another part of the country.
Employers letter excusing SAR volunteer from their work should be posted on our web. Please send the examples to the Web master.
Discussion was held about the fall SARVAC meeting, which is to be held on the East Side of the State.
Motion to move to adopt policy to pay for all travel expenses of members, related to SARVAC Business, and create a form for record tracking. Receipts need to be presented with the form. The form will have a check for "Reimbursement," or "For records only."
Trainers for SAR activities: need to look at/ who and where the trainers are. We need to simplify the location process through SARVAC Link. (Button Contact)
Teleconferencing was discussed for our meeting, in lieu of traveling to Camp Murray.