Mounted search and rescue

["Jeff Ezell" <eztech@pdq.net>]

Jorene, Una & Others,

I'm glad y'all are batting this ball around for us to consider all these
aspects, especially as they apply to each local, regional & state need.

The bottom line is that our customers (the missing person) deserves the best
resource that can be available, balanced with the time, expense & effort it
takes to deliver the resource in a timely manner.

Volunteers reading these words are all making big contributions toward the
opportunity to help out when needed. Unfairly to the potential victim and
their families, there are many obstacles to overcome to provide these
resources in their time of need. The public doesn't think there is a need
until it "happens to their family"!

Maybe the biggest impediment is funding or lack thereof, with all it's
ramifications. Until the citizens rise up in their communities/states and
insist that this is important enough to them, the agencies providing other
services aren't going to spend much money on SAR. So what can we all do to
improve the situation until the "FEMA of SAR" is created? Keep educating the
"corporate citizens" including; locally in your community, and statewide and
national corporations. Tell them the story and how easily they could help.
There are many that would if they only knew!

Other areas that we can control more directly include the effort to adopt
and adapt reasonable guidelines for the capabilities of those delivering the
services...that's us folks! The standards approach allows a requesting
agency of SAR services to have an "expectation of deliverables" (and you of
your fellow searchers). They know that when they call upon you that you at
least proved you could perform at a certain level on a given day when
tested. Your experience resume' over time will strengthen that performance
expectation.

Bravo to those of you tackling the much debated "standards" challenge. There
is no one set of standards that will ever realistically apply to all of the
diverse regions we represent. We can only take our best shot at it and keep
moving forward doing what we do. The points about NASAR that I've read here
seem valid about availability, cost, setting the bar too high for the job at
hand, etc. But what else is there as a starting point? (Don't get me started
on why all NASAR's training is wilderness oriented when 90+% of my searches
for missing people are urban/rural interfaces!)

Ask any of the NASAR instructors how "lucrative" their efforts are.
Satisfaction of helping us is high, but the money hardly pays expenses it
seems. Availability could be improved if responsible state agencies would
send people to become NASAR qualified instructors. It's not a big budget
item and it would provide at least a person or two qualified to teach and
test in your state. This knowledge could also be helpful in any future
"state standards" that may evolve. If everyone of you sent a letter to the
appropriate agency and politician asking this to be done it would be a great
start. Share it with your news outlets in an appropriate way. Get the story
told!

Wouldn't it be nice to wake up tomorrow and find out that an agency is
willing to provide an instructor and testing opportunity? Start now and keep
up the pressure until something happens. Get help from your neighbors,
church, and work associates. It all adds up. While your dreaming, think
about how nice to have your training and testing funded (if you pass) and
maybe even deployment expenses covered by someone. If state and local
politics are too messy, maybe a corporate training team would be willing to
pitch in an instructor to learn the NASAR courses and provide testing
opportunities. Go ask them. You might be surprised!

OK, enough soapbox stuff. What are your thoughts? Share these ideas with
your K9 & ground-pounder friends. Get them mobilized too.

Anybody had success stories with corporate help that they could share so
others might try it in their areas?

Jeff Ezell
US Regional Search Dogs
US Search Affiliates
...to Search...to Save...
jeff@usrsd.org <mailto:usrsdjeff@usrsd.org>



-----Original Message-----
From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Una Smith
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2003 9:00 AM
To: Mounted search and rescue
Subject: [MSAR] NASAR certifications


All else aside, there are significant practical barriers to
adoping wholesale any NASAR standard:  (1) low availability
of NASAR instructors, courses, and exams, and (2) high cost
of NASAR courses and certification exams.

Jorene wrote:
>Do you have another vehicle for launching nationwide MSAR standards
>that you'd suggest? Is there some other existing national standard
>for ground searchers that you'd prefer over NASAR ground standards?

I recommend reading the archives of SAR-L, where this exact
issue was discussed at length a few months ago.  It applies
to all SAR standards and certification schemes, not just to
MSAR.

        Una Smith
        Santa Fe County Sheriff's Posse, in New Mexico
_______________________________________________
MSAR-riders mailing list
MSAR-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/msar-riders