Meeting November 17, 2006
MEMBERS and GUESTS PRESENT:
Art Jordan, Jim Peters, Sharon Fisher, Sarah Jordan, Darrell Monroe, Brooks Hanford, Doyle Wenzel, David Brinkman, Bill Gillespie, Glenn Schultz, Bruce Ramey, Chris Long
Next SARVAC Meeting: March 17, 2006 Camp MurraySARVAC meetings are held every year at the Washington State SAR Conference. In addition, meetings are held the 3rd Saturday of March and November and the 4th Saturday in September.
The future meeting dates and locations are as follows:
March 17, 2007 Camp Murray, WA Board Meeting 11:30 a.m. General Meeting 12:00 p.m.
May 2007 WA State SAR Conference TBA
September 22, 2007 Yakima, WA Location to be announcedMeeting minutes
The meeting was called to order at 12:00 p.m.Introductions
Acceptance of the minutes. Bill Gillespie moved and Brooks Hanford seconded to accept the minutes as written. The motion passed unanimously.President's Report:
EMC meetingSecretary’s Report:
Award nominations will be posted on the SARVAC website and will state that nominations will be accepted between Nov. 1 and March 1 for the volunteer of the year awards to be presented at the Washington State SAR Conference the following May.Treasurer’s Report:
Current balance: $ 973.45
$978.62 - 5.17 copies of minutes and agenda for 11-17-06 meeting
$973.45
Paid Counties 2006-07: Pierce, Grays Harbor, Okanogan, Yakima, Clallam, Cowlitz, Snohomish, Kitsap, Asotin, Whatcom.Committee Reports:
WSARCA meeting information was shared by Chris Long. The SAR coordinators have tabled work on the standards project while they work on other business. He announced there will be an extended WSARCA meeting next fall in order to have more time for training. They are hoping to have more SAR coordinators involved. HB 1850, which provides extended immunity for all volunteer emergency workers, is still moving forward.Old Business:
Pierce County has signed a contract with Crystal Mountain to hold the 2007 Washington State SAR Conference there. Chris Long talked about his recent attendance in SAR conferences held in Quebec and Iceland. Both were excellent. NSAR Scene will be held in early October in Victoria, B.C. Chris strongly encouraged attending this conference. It will be held in a large hotel. On the NSAR website locations will be published so that participants can find out about lodgings near by.Bill Gillespie shared a draft he completed for the process of selecting a county to host the WA State SAR conference. All present were impressed with the draft.
In addition, there is also a need for a generic planning form document with a “back out” timeline. This would help counties hosting the conference for the first time to know what needed to be done by date. The process needs to be in place by 1_ years prior to the conference (Sept. 2007 for May 2009).
Bill Gillespie agreed to continue the process and draft an application form.When the forms are complete, Jim Peters will present them to SAR Coordinators at the January WSARCA meeting.
Doyle Wenzel reported that he has received approval for SAR frequencies (expect it will be 2 or more) on narrow band to be in place in 2013. It affects mobile (portable) units only and will be implemented with Chelan being the center and extending for 400 km (360 degrees). Base stations will have to be coordinated by the E.O.C.
New Business:
SAR missions status was shared by Chris Long. In Nov. 2005, there were 529 SAR missions. This year (Nov. 2006) there have been 681 SAR missions. This does not include missions occurring in National Parks or the recent flood operations. Assume that the good weather we’ve had this past year is part of the reason for the increase in missions. More people may have ventured out to enjoy winter and summer activities as well as hunting since the weather was good.
There will be SAR Management training during the week of January 8-12. Classes will be held at Camp Murray and intended for SAR Coordinators. It will include I300 & 400. These classes will also be taught at the SAR pre Conference in May.
All SAR personnel, paid or volunteer, who are involved in operations, planning, logistics, etc. will need to have additional ICS training beyond ICS 100 and 700. First line supervisors will need ICS 200 and those in command positions, 400 and 800. All except 300 and 400 are web based and require instructors. Since many counties rely on volunteers to help with the coordination and running of searches, the problem will be how to get training for volunteers in those classes. Chris Long would be open to teaching ICS 300 & 400 on a weekend(s) so that volunteers could attend.
The deadline is Sept. 30, 2007 for ICS 300 & 400.
Using ICS forms for all SAR trainings and missions is strongly encouraged for all SAR groups and the forms can be downloaded. NIMS compliance means not just taking the courses, but using it everyday for everything. The I 201 form is an 11 x 17 form that can be folded like a book and would be for recording objectives and current actions. I 202-205 forms would be for incident action plans. Mock missions and larger missions would probably use I 203, 204, 205.
Credentialing and typing systems are primarily for FEMA’s use when requesting resources for a large event. FEMA wants self-sustaining units that can be used for 72 hours. Typing systems are used to evaluate the resource to see if it would be appropriate for a mission. NASAR has offered to manage the credentialing system for wilderness SAR. Chris Long will be going to NASAR in January to ask them about this. Currently, Chris does not see NIMS compliance will be based on typing or credentialing.
Mission number requests: Chris reminded the group to read the WACs. Local authority can make minor changes to a mission (as in changing it from one week to the next). If there is a major change, then you will need to contact Chris Long’s office. Otherwise, handle what you can locally.
Bruce Ramey presented Proposed K-9 tests for Out-of-County Response Search Dogs using the SARVAC standards as a template. The format presents standards as a demonstrated ability test. He would like all dog units to be involved in creating Out-of-County standards.
Brooks Hanford moved and David Brinkman seconded that SARVAC accept this proposal to send through a Standards Committee for peer review. The standards committee will:
1. Contact all known dog units in the state for peer review.
2. Bring back the comments to SARVAC for approval of the standards.
3. If approved, take the proposal to WSARCA.
The Standards Committee members are:
Doyle Wenzel, Chairman
Brooks Hanford
Bruce RameyA committee report will be made at the next meeting.
It was suggested that $1.00 of the registration fee goes to SARVAC. The money would go to building the WA SAR conference seed money fund. It would also enable SARVAC to drop the $50 membership dues.On the Agenda for the March 17th meeting
Decisions on:
1. the application and process forms drafted by Bill Gillespie
2. whether to ask for a $1.00 from each WA SAR conference participants
3. dropping the $50 annual dues or lowering them to $25/yearElections for:
1. Vice President
2. Secretary
3. Member-at-Large
Voting for volunteer of the year awardsRegional/County Activity:
Flood operations: There was a blanket mission number for a 72-hour period. The ability to do this is a direct result of changes since Katrina. The E.O.C. was activated and resources, including air resources, were plentiful and available.Yakima:
Yakima County SAR responded to a number of lost or injured horsemen and hunters, including one injured rider carried out when a helicopter could not access the subject and had to return to its base. Helicopters from the U.S. Army Training Center have been used on a number of other rescue missions. Additional evidence that a pilot in a fatal crash survived 4+ hours was discussed during a recent WSDOT-AD training in Yakima County.
Two overdue hunters were located when it was found they had been arrested by Fish and Game Agents. An injured hunter with a stab wound to the left leg was airlifted by MAST helicopter. He had applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
Kitsap:
Training: We are expecting 35-40 new members this year in Kitsap. We are cosponsoring an effort to create a statewide K-9 certification test with the testing being done from outside the unit.
Searches: 8/10/06 Missing Brush picker in Jefferson County. Walked out.
9/22-23/06 Possible suicidal in Grays Harbor. Subject found deceased afternoon of 3rd day of searching 80-100 feet from PLS.
10/16-17/06 Missing rider from motorcycle found wrecked with gloves, helmet and blood. Subject returned home 5 miles away after 5 hours.
10/20-23/06 Missing hunter north of Usk in Pend Oreille County (north of Spokane). He was found deceased Oct. 22. Possibly died during the last night after moving to high ground to signal the Helo flying over. He had been missing for 7 days.
10/28/06 80 YO missing from a group home. Found by others after 12 hours _ mile from home. Lack of resources caused us to activate trainees for this search. Some got a taste of how searches are run.
11/1/06 76 YO missing from his home for 4 hours. It was freezing so we started during daylight. He was reported wandering around a neighborhood unable to communicate 2.7 miles away. This was well outside any normal search area. We may be back as he is reported to disappear weekly.Snohomish:
Cowlitz:
Pierce:Adjourned:
Meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.
SARVAC‘s mailing address
Any information you would like to see announced, may be addressed
to SARVAC‘s web manager.
Noel McRae, a life member of Cowlitz County Search and Rescue Team, has agreed
to be the webtech.
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 the web address: c.long@emd.wa.gov,
WA-SAR.net: www.wa.gov/wsem.