Mounted search and rescue

[Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>]

IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN wrote:
>What do you consider the critical mass for your organization?

In New Mexico, the absolute minimum you need is enough people to
be able to send one field team whenever your unit gets called.
A field team normally is 2 or 3 people.  Sheriff's posse groups
and other riding clubs tend to need a minimum of 20 "SAR squad"
members in order to provide one MSAR field team.  Strictly MSAR
units seem to be able to function with 5-10 members, but to be
successful these units do need to co-train with other SAR units.

In New Mexico, all SAR management resources are individuals who
are called individually.


>Has there been a change based on activity level? Is it easier to
>recruit with lots of missions, moderate missions, or few missions? 

My impression is that it is easiest to recruit when the mission
load is moderate.  Too many, and the regulars get tired and
don't have time even for fun get-acquainted rides, never mind
training or mentoring.  Too many, and the recruits see MSAR as
involving too much effort.  Too few, and the new recruits start
to wonder why bother.  Moderate is maybe 6-10 mounted missions
per year;  responding in vehicles for road-based tasks (hasty,
containment, logistics) is *so* much easier.

It's important to put the above in context.  New Mexico has a
statewide SAR system.  Some would say it is a purely wilderness
SAR system:  most criminal situations are handled exclusively
by career public safety officers, and many urban and suburban
SAR missions are also handled outside of SAR, if only because
they are not recognized as being SAR.  So, in an average year,
our statewide SAR system has 150-250 missions, involving about
2000-2500 responders (many of them spontaneous volunteers) and
10,000 to 15,000 responder-hours.  Those responders who are
not spontaneous volunteers belong to about 80 recognized SAR
units.  Most missions involve calling multiple SAR resources.
All recognized SAR units and individual resources are listed
in a Resource Directory.

        Una Smith
        New Mexico