Mounted search and rescue

["Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>]

From: "Una Smith" <una.smith@att.net>
> How was the Washington state SAR conference last month? [...]
> Now would be a good time to make a pitch for MSAR-specific
> training, [...]

Since nobody else responded to Una's question yet, I'll toss in my 
observations ...
The WA State SAR Conference was very successful and over 1000 people 
attended. Kudos to King County for a job well done as the 2006 host county. 
Overall I heard nothing but positive feedback from attendees on the quality 
of the classes. Several speakers who are nationally recognized in their SAR 
specialty and speak all over the country were there, so I got to see some 
old friends and make new ones.

There was very good attendance at all my MSAR classes by mounted folks and 
management, and I was flattered to hear from several folks - including some 
management - that they considered my classes the best they attended at the 
large conference. MSAR classes were focused on expanding horizons for MSAR 
versatility while educating management on more effective use of the 
resource.

Pierce County (the location of next year's conference) is already working on 
the 2007 conference, including pre-planning for more extensive mounted 
classes ...with a purpose and focus. A great suggestion was the potential 
for using a train-the-trainer format for certain classes for each county 
MSAR and management to take back to their own county. TTT for MSAR may be 
included in pre-conference and repeated during the conference ... concepts 
still under development by Pierce County ... but I did promise to return to 
teach in 2007. :)

I highly recommend MSAR folks who are close enough to mark their calendars 
for next year's Washington State SAR Conference May 18 - 20, 2007 
(pre-conference training beginning May 14th) at Crystal Mountain 
<http://www.crystalmt.com/>.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jorene Downs
Tulare Co SAR - Hasty Team ICP Team
www.ceoates.com/sar
Tulare-Kings CERT
www.tk-cert.org