FSAR Monthly Meeting
March 14, 2012
Members present:
Steve Y.
Steve M.
Jeff Z
Paul
Pat
Marc K.
Sprague
Coby
May 5-6 is the annual
MASAR Conference in Ellsworth. This conference is one of the best opportunities
for members to train on many different SAR topics and network with other SAR
people from across the state. The registration is only $55 (before April 20)
and food and summer camp (bunkhouse) or tent camping accommodations are
included. A straw-poll at the meeting showed 4-5 FSAR members are currently
planning on attending. See link for more info:
Team president and
MASAR rep. Steve Y. gave an update on monthly MASAR meeting.
MWS is changing over
to Delorme (brand) GPS but will still be able download recent GPS of other
brands at searches.
When MASAR requests “Certified
Searchers Only” they only want individual BASAR certified members not all
members of a certified team (FSAR is a certified team but only has a few BASAR
certified members). This is due to evidence preservation reasons as at the Ayla
search in Waterville.
MASAR now has a
Facebook page, check it out here
The new online BASAR class is
being Bata tested now. Pat and Coby have just taken the class (yesterday) and
report that “it did not take too long” This is one of the most important steps
that FSAR members can take to improve their SAR skills and to help increase
FSARs reputation and credibility (which is already very good). All members are
encouraged to take it!!!
We discussed creating an reward
or incentive for members who complete BASAR certification, a gift certificate
or something?
Steve Y. plans on piloting an
educational training for 6-9 year old children on what to do if you get lost in
the woods. He will use the video that was provided by MASAR called Lost But
Found for 1 or 2 classes at Kingfield elementary school.
A request by the MASAR
training officer was made a few months ago for rope rescue teams to mentor
interested new un-trained MASAR teams. This has sparked a lively and healthy
discussion among FSAR’s rope rescue members on the subject of rope rescue and
what direction FSAR should head, in the future. We are re-evaluating our rope
rescue focus, possibly headed more in the direction of getting most FSAR
members trained in ‘slopes rescue’ and not focusing as much on high-angle rescue.
With the site-specific exception of the Smalls Falls location, this may be more
appropriate for our area of Maine. More to come on this subject…
FSAR Blog Update, we
are averaging about 700 hits each month on our blog.... who are these people?!
Please post a comment below if you are reading this and you are not an FSAR
member, we’d love to hear from you!
Ben G. delivered the
final version of the Emergency Services Rescue map for our region. It is a
beautiful map outlining rescue access points, LZs, and other important rescue
information for our region. Unfortunately his grant is out of money to print
and laminated more copies. We will be getting the electronic file, and for any
member who would like a copy it will likely cost about $20 to be printed $30
for a laminated copy.
We ran out of time and
did not do ‘gear to share’ tonight. Next month...
Josh R. emailed to say
that he has done some serious damage to his knee (at Saddleback) and will be
out of commission for some time. The team wished him a speedy recovery.
We discussed the TIFF
grant and radio purchase. Pat has been able to negotiate a lower bid than was
first quoted. Thanks to Tim Hardy at FCEMA for his assistance with this
process. As soon as we get the check, Pat will place the order.
Paul did an excellent job of
presenting on the subject of ‘Patient Packaging’ See separate post.
Paul highly Recommends:
2 field guides 1. WMA Field guide Pocket reference 2. Lipke guide. Members agreed that
purchasing some copies to place in the team gear is a good idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment