Mounted search and rescue

["Dick L Sweet" <dsweet.fsm@voyager.net>]

Hey Karen…………

Enough is enough, don’t you think….they don ‘t read or don’t care and don’t get it……………..they believe they are in charge????

Hope you are there if we ever need you………….

Dick

 

From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jorene Downs
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 10:00 AM
To: 'Mounted search and rescue'
Subject: [MSAR] Spontaneous Volunteers

 

Some authorities will use spontaneous volunteers. Some SAR organizations work independent of the legal authorities and may/may not use spontaneous volunteers. Some authorities / organizations have a policy to not allow spontaneous volunteers to help for numerous reasons. Some of those reasons include the liability of using untrained and likely ill equipped searchers, the need for extra management and staff just to organize and provide some quick basic training to those spontaneous volunteers, and the need for sufficient trained personnel to supervise them in the field.

 

Some management will strictly limit participation to "safe" tasks such as distribution of fliers or other support functions. Another fairly safe assignment is "road search" on specific main roads - less likely to get lost -  with at least 2 "searcher passengers" assigned to a vehicle so the driver can focus on safe driving.

 

Just processing the spontaneous volunteers takes extra time while you try to figure out how you can [hopefully] safely and effectively use each individual, since records for each spontaneous volunteer's knowledge, skills and abilities are not already in the system. Meanwhile management is rearranging available trained personnel missions to set personnel aside to supervise spontaneous volunteers in the easiest terrain, etc. And Logistics is scrambling to adjust to having X more people to potentially transport, provide water to since they didn't bring near enough, addressing traffic control, parking and staging area issues, etc.

 

Yes, having lots of unexpected spontaneous volunteers show up can create "mayhem" - or at least what seems like a chaotic period of adjustment - as management and staff now have a lot of changes to make. Any authority / organization accustomed to having spontaneous volunteers show up is likely to already have processes in place ... and hopefully enough trained personnel to perform the additional tasks since you can't really predict how many folks will show up.

 

Management may also take spontaneous volunteer "applicant" information 1 day, provide some training, identify some requirements and assign to a staging area for deployment the next day ... and meanwhile they may also run a background check. When you have several hundred (or more) show up this preplan allows the time to be better organized and more effectively use those spontaneous volunteers. You can reroute all spontaneous volunteers to the separate processing location. Meanwhile on day 1 you send out your trained personnel.

 

All of this is incident and perhaps even mission-specific. There are also circumstances when it is best to use traffic and crowd control to keep the "I want to help!" untrained folks back.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jorene Downs

SAR, CERT, Emergency Communications

Mounted SAR

http://www.ceoates.com/msar

KJ6JCD