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Purchasing a copy of a standard or
borrowing it from a library does not obligate your organization to adopt the
published standard as a performance requirement for your membership. The biggest
implications are now legalities. There is a published standard for
performance now. Even if your authority having jurisdiction (the people
who pay the bills for your training and/or authorize you to respond to calls)
does not require you to have written SOGs and training plans you should have
both as a matter of good organization. You should also enforce those SOGs to
the extent possible. Nobody has successfully sued a wilderness
SAR organization over its training and methods because there are no compulsory
standards in most areas. A city police department was successfully sued
because they failed to look in a car trunk on arrival and when somebody looked
3 days later it was too late. More regulation is coming. In If you have a choice, pick which standards
you want to adopt or modify for adoption. There are various sources:
National Fire Protection Association, ASTM International, The Mountain Rescue Association, training
to NASAR’s tests, writing your own. But do something, do it soon, and let
others know what you have adopted so we can work together. Irv Lichtenstein Founding Member, ASTM F32 Chief of Operations SE PA SAR |
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