Meeting May 20, 2005
Next SARVAC Meeting: September 17, 2005
City Council Chamber (small conference room)
at 102 N. Pearl, Ellensburg, WA Board Meeting 11:30 a.m., General Meeting 12:00
p.m.
SARVAC's official mailing address is: For information, questions, etc.:
SARVAC Contact the president (address, phone Washington EMD number, and email
address are below.)
Camp Murray WA 98430-5122SARVAC web site.
The meeting minutes will be posted there.
Any information you would like to see announced may be addressed to SARVAC's
web manager.
SARVAC meetings are held every year at the Washington State SAR Conference.
In addition, meetings are held the 3rd Saturday of March, September, and November.
The future meeting dates and locations are as follows:
September 17, 2005 Camp Murray EOC
November 19, 2006 Camp Murray EOC
March 18 ,2006
May 2006 State SAR Conference TBA
Art Jordan, Glenn Schultz, Jim Peters, Jake Weber, Doyle Wenzel, Jeannie Hughes, Chuck Dunnavant, John MacDuff, Chris Long, Steve Reddington, David Brinkman, Fred Knight, Tony King, Scott Miller, Charlie Arvidson, Bruce Ramey
The meeting was called to order at 6:10 p.m.
Introductions
Everyone at the meeting introduced themselves to the group.
Acceptance of the minutes.
Chuck Dunnavant moved and Fred Knight seconded to accept the minutes as written. The motion passed unanimously.
President's Report:
Steve Reddington attended the Governor's Advisory meeting in March, but neither Steve nor Art could attend in May.
Art shared that the ongoing goal for SARVAC is to get people from counties all over the state of Washington to be involved.
Secretary's Report:
Dues notices were sent to the SAR Coordinator in each county in Washington.
Treasurer's Report:
The treasurer couldn1t make the meeting as the date and time weren1t posted until the last week.
Committee Reports: None.
Regional/County Activity:
Cowlitz: A few searches including a road search for a missing couple and three children. They were found - cold and wet, but fine - walking out from where their vehicle was stuck. Ongoing trainings keep volunteers busy and skilled.
Ferry: Searches for a 10 yr. old girl and a 6 yr. old girl were successful.
Grays Harbor: No missions.
King: There were 40 missions in the last quarter in King County and many trainings for the volunteers. More and more subjects are calling in on their cell phones and reporting themselves lost.
As a result, King County has developed a protocol that they follow for this type of mission. They would be glad to share the protocol that they have developed.Kitsap: One body recovery that involved both SAR dogs and the dive team.
Okanogan: Only 1 rescue to report. A man drove his truck into the middle of a river and SAR helped tow the truck out.
Yakima: 14 volunteers just graduated from the SAR Academy. The SAR group is still in the process of moving to a new location.
Pierce: The county has a new communication vehicle. In addition, a multi-county vehicle is 85-90% finished. A SAR academy will be held again in Pierce County this fall. This year the date is October 8 & 9th. Last year, a banquet was held in conjunction with the academy and a presentation of SAR units and their capabilities at that time was made. The plan is to have a similar banquet this year.
The need for a standardized protocol for searches initiated by self report using a cell phone was expressed. One problem with cell phone reports is that the location of the caller can be difficult to ascertain because the higher you get, the further the call travels.Snohomish: There were missions for subjects missing in the Glacier Peak area and also for a subject who fell from a cliff. Several turn-around missions on Project Lifesaver.
Whatcom: New vehicles and new ESAR leadership. One water rescue initiated by a cell phone report ended up with a rescuer in cold, January river water.
Old Business:
Chris Long expressed that a traditional function of SARVAC is to help coordinate the annual WA State SAR Conference. Since hosting a conference requires coordination with that county1s sheriff department, determining the host really needs to be a joint venture between the county sheriff1s department/SAR coordinator and SARVAC. If there is more than one county willing to host a conference, SARVAC could make a recommendation to WSSARCA and the State.
One problem that was expressed about the current conference was the cost for participants. Chris confirmed that the cost is rising and will continue to rise. Currently, food is the single largest expense for the conference host. One of the reasons is that instructors aren1t paid a stipend, but receive their conference fees waived including food. This conference has approximately 150 instructors so that gets to be quite an expense that has to be factored into the conference fee.
Also, trash pickup and portable toilets are another expense for the host.As a result, participants need to be aware that the days of $50 conference fees are gone.
The SAR Conference for 2006 will be hosted by King County at the Enumclaw Fairgrounds.
The 2007 Conference should take place on the east side of the state, although it was reported that Mason County had expressed an interest in hosting.
Whatcom County is investigating the possibility of hosting the 2008 Conference.
New Business:
Chris Long shared that the state is currently involved in two lawsuits. One is the result of a car accident following a SAR mission in which the SAR volunteer involved had no car insurance. The other over a water rescue in which the rescued subject was allegedly injured following his rescue.
Washington state law (WAC 118) delineates the personal responsibilities of volunteers. There has been a misconception that the state has insurance that covers everything/one involved in searches. The state reimburses expenses incurred in search activities, but it is not an insurance policy.
State law requires that every citizen must have car insurance in order to drive. Chris recommended that units ask for proof of insurance of searchers who are driving. One idea is to download WAC 118 04 from the Washington legistlative website and have searchers read it and sign a form to that effect.
Adjourned: Motion to adjourn was made by Scott Miller at 7:00 p.m. and seconded by Chuck Dunnavant. The motion unanimously passed.
SARVAC‘s mailing address the address as follows:
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.
The web address is: http://wasar.bizland.com/
For information about the site you can contact the webtech at webtech@wasar.bizland.com or llamapacker "at" starband.net
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.
From this web page you select SAR.
You can down load forms and find out what is going on within the state.