Mounted search and rescue

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

Karen, I believe the recent posts were not made by someone paid to perform SAR/MSAR, as you seem to believe. I think it needs to be clarified that there are trained volunteers who are affiliated with a recognized response group and eligible for activation, and [presumed] untrained spontaneous volunteers. Some of the posts may not have made that distinction clear when referring to "volunteers."

 

What you described is untrained spontaneous volunteers - also known as unaffiliated volunteers -  mixed with comments on family participation.  Those should be considered separate topics. The line is a bit fuzzy for a general usage definition, but generally reference to the spontaneous volunteer is when an official search is launched by the appropriate authorities and people in the community show up wanting to help. These folks have not followed the process to be recognized as a trained and affiliated volunteer, but are certainly folks to consider for recruiting.

 

Concerns regarding the spontaneous volunteers participating as searchers during a SAR incident are not related to someone feeling as if their job as a paid employee may be threatened, since the vast majority of SAR (including MSAR) in the USA is performed by trained volunteers, not paid personnel.  

 

I have met several of the recent posters and they, like myself, are trained volunteers with substantial training and credentials recognized or even required at the local, state or national level. Some of us have years of experience at the SAR command post, with anything from a handful of callouts per year to working hundreds of incidents ... as unpaid trained volunteers.

 

Paid personnel in SAR - for example an LE Sgt - are more likely to be active at the management level, representing the authority having jurisdiction for that SAR incident ... and spontaneous volunteers don't have the credentials to threaten those positions. (It takes substantial formal training and experience to be considered qualified for any incident management or supervisor level position.)

 

Spontaneous volunteers are NOT perceived as a threat to anyone's SAR-related income. Instead, the vast majority of SAR / MSAR response commonly results in out of pocket expenses for the trained volunteer who has already invested substantially in training and appropriate equipment, the MSAR-trained mount, etc.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jorene Downs

SAR, CERT, Emergency Communications

Mounted SAR

http://www.ceoates.com/msar

KJ6JCD

 

From: Karen Nesbitt

 

Hmmm, I get it.. what it is going to come down too is that there will not be enough manpower PERIOD..  And so what some of you here that get paid are just about saying is that those of  family members who have a missing person should not even search in their own backyards or farm fields.  I get the impression that you feel volunteers threaten your jobs.   [...]