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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] local vs gov control

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  • From: "IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] local vs gov control
  • Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 15:59:51 -0400

Realizing that some counties in CA or Texas may be as big as a state is somewhere else, the county is often the lowest and therefore is the most local form of government. In many states there is no authority at the town or village level, or where there is it is extremely limited in scope.  Functioning as an agent of the government does bring with it certain advantages: insurance or immunity, training to a minimum, and possibly administrative support.  This is the concept embodied in Sheriffs’ posses, auxiliary police, special police, and volunteer fire and rescue under contract to a specific locality. If the population density or absolute population in the jurisdiction is low this approach often is used under the statute creating the county.

 

In other areas the government is more decentralized and covers smaller land areas.  Pennsylvania recently revised its state laws describing local government. This covers townships, boroughs, and small cities (there are approximately 67 localities in Montgomery County, PA and only one is under 5000).  For the first time EMS is a required government service, added to police and fire.  But if the township has less than 5000 residents they are exempt from most provisions, including having local police.

 

Certification means the certified person knew enough to pass the test when the test was given, nothing more.  It does not assure quality instruction or even quality material.  Generally, the state certifies instructors as it certifies vocational teachers.  There is a defined educational background, experience in the field, successful completion as a student of the course to be taught, and a course in instructional methods.  Depending on the subject the state may defer to a national organization for the curriculum.  In the fire service there are two major producers of materials, IFSTA, and Delmott(?), that meet the requirements for certification to NFPA standards by one or both national certification registries.  In Wilderness SAR there is the NASAR curriculum, courses offered by ERI, the CAP, the USCG. and various agencies.  In our state the state fire academy’s curriculum committee approves the use of published courses, the regional fire academies do the paperwork and hold classes.  The oversight is provided by the community college(s) who can authorize payment to the academies for courses taught.  We are moving from a state curriculum to the national registry for EMS.  Currently the state SAR council, which is far from inclusive, utilizes training from the DCNR and wrote standards pirated off VA’s.   Other groups use ASTM or NASAR based training.

 

If you make certification mandatory, and effectively the existence of certification does so, you will lose access to volunteers who have experience, knowledge and skill.

In many cases the difference in those critical factors between a certified person and a person who did it the old way is how long it took to get trained.  In the fire service the certification program replaced 4- 32 hour courses, 32 hours of hazmat, 8 hours of first aid CPR, 3 or 4 32 hour rescue courses and perhaps several other blocks with a 188 hour course taken at one time instead of over  several training seasons. Does it make a better firefighter/recue tech? Maybe.  It definitely makes one faster.

 

What you have to decide is whether having a 3rd party certify that you know what you are doing is valuable to your group and its responses.  If it is, and this especially applies to dog teams, do so.  If having a piece of paper on your wall or in your resume is important, do so.  If you are not required to be certified by law or agency directive do not waste your resources on a meaningless (at least in your environment) piece of paper, spend it on training.  But with anything you buy, make sure you get your money’s worth.

 

Irv Lichtenstein

 

 


From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of pennbo@verizon.net
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2011 10:36 AM
To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [MSAR] Was: Search for Lauren Spierer Now: local vs gov control




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