Paid members present
SAVES
(Shippensburg Area Vertical Evacuation and Search)
Greater Philadelphia
SAR
Allegheny Mountain
Rescue Group, ASRC/MRA Rescue 40
Somerset County
EMA ESAR Post 616, ASRC/MRA DER - State Parks
Paid but not present
EMRS SAR Services
Vigilant SAR
Keystone SAR
Thornhurst
DER - State Forests
Members last year; not present,
dues not paid
Shenandoah Mountain
Rescue Group, ASRC/MRA Juniata SAR
NorthEast SAR
Observers (nonmembers)
PA Wing, Civil Air
Patrol
Individuals present
Keith Conover,
M.D. 36 Robinhood Road, Pittsburgh PA, 15220 412-561-3413 (AMRG)
Bruce Trego 47
Forsythe St., Lewistown, PA 17044 717-242-0234 (Fire Academy/SAVES)
Ron Wisbith 43
Fifth Avenue Koppel, PA 16136 412-843-5378 (Rescue 40)
Peter McCabe 11034
Berrypick, Columbia, MD 21044 301-596-5554 (ASRC)
Joe Thrash RD #1
Box 75 Friedens, PA 15541 814-445-4762 (Somerset Co./CAP)
Larry Kearns 1424
Ritner Hwy., Shippensburg, PA 717-532-9643 (SAVES)
Jack Humbertson
355 Stoystown Rd., Somerset, PA 15501 814-443-3777 (Somerset Co.)
Martha Ann Ackroyd
RD 2 Box 46 Friedens, PA 15541 814-445-6689 (Somerset Co.)
Ken Boyles 1599
Doubling Gap Rd., Newville, PA 17241 717-776-5272 (DER-Parks)
Irv Lichtenstein
704 Preston Rd., Erdenheim, PA 19118-1327 215-233-3360 (GPSAR)
The meeting was called to order at
1035 by Bruce Trego, Vice-President. President Irv Lichtenstein arrived at
about 1130 and assumed the chair.
Correction to last meeting's
minutes: The State Fire Academy Search First Responder has been given for 3-4
years; only the Grid I and Grid II classes are new.
(Boyles) PEMA has
taken on the task of "coordinating" the state relationship with Scott
AFB. (This gives them some degree of responsibility for SAR, but not really any
authority.) Annex 5 of the state Emergency Operations Plan is now being amended
to require a county SAR plan in every county. It also stipulates that any multi
jurisdictional incident (more than .one agency or township) becomes a county
incident; the county can (but is not required to) assume authority. You may get
a copy of Annex 5 from your local County EMA. The consensus was that we use a
few good model county plans, along with public pressure, to get all counties to
adopt good SAR plans. A good draft SAR plan for Somerset County is available
from Joe Thrash, address above. Another suggestion: that PSARC send
representative to regional PEMA meetings.
(Various) PEMA has
only about 6 search teams currently listed on their computer. (Various) State
Fire Academy Search Classes:
1. Managing Search
Operations (MSO)- a course by Emergency Response Institute (ERI), similar to
the NASAR Managing the Search Function (MSF) course, but may be taught by local
instructors, unlike MSF, which must be taught by NASAR instructors. The NASAR
MSF is accepted as an equivalent. Now have 5-7 instructors available, which is
adequate. Courses are being offered on a regular basis at the Fire Academy. The
cost for the Fire Academy MSO course is just $25 for books, compared to $275
for the NASAR MSF course.
2. Search First Responder:
there are already adequate instructors to meet the present (low) demand (about 7).
3. Grid I and Grid
11: No "train a trainer" classes have yet been offered for the by the
State Fire Academy (for "SAR basic grid team" or Grid I and "SAR
advanced," or Grid II); the Fire Academy will see about having these
classes soon. Requirements for instructor certification: 1 year of active SAR
with an organized SAR team, SFR training, and training in education equivalent
to that required of all Fire Academy instructors. Instructors must have
education training, but need not have fire service training, to become a Fire
Academy "nonsuppression instructor" to teach these classes. The Fire
Academy and DER (the developer of these classes) will try to get volunteer
teams to start offering these classes locally through the Fire Academy (which
provides some funding). Announcement - (Boyles and Trego) The Fire Academy will
need instructors for the Grid I and Grid II classes; There will be a maximum of
about 10-12 instructors state-wide. DER and the Fire Academy will announce
through the SAR Council when they will start accepting applications for
instructor certification. (Le., don't bug them about this until they announce
the program in a few months!)
Action item: Send
to each member and officer: proposed Annex 5 of the state Emergency Operations
Plan; information on search First Responder classes including the names of
instructors available to teach courses; and a copy of the PSARC folder
original. (Keith Conover, Secretary.)
Action item: contact
PEMA to ask a PSARC representative to speak at each of their regional meetings,
preferably on a continuing basis. Will also (Martha Ann Ackroyd, Somerset Co.)
1. (Ken Boyles) We
had talked, at one point, of having state-wide PSARC meetings twice a year and
regional meetings more often. Those present were generally in favor of this
plan. January and June would be regional, coordinated by one team in each
region, with a written report to the PSARC President to include in the
quarterly newsletter. March and September would still be statewide meetings at
the Fire Academy. Ken Boyles will make a formal proposal, with regional
boundaries, at the next PSARC meeting (September); he will call the various
teams to discuss details of the plan. (Elections are held by mail so they are
not a problem). We will submit an agenda to the regional meetings from the
state meetings. (Passed by consensus; to be formally proposed and voted on at
Sept. meeting.)
2. Should we list
ALL SAR teams in the resource survey, or just Council Members? Currently, all
PSARC members get copies of a compilation of resource surveys for any organization
submitting a resource form to the Council. Non-members do not get copies of the
assembled resource list, except those at the last MSO class, which includes
only 2 organizations that were not yet members. Consensus- put this topic on
agenda for Sept. and establish formal policy. N.B. only PSARC members will be
listed with STATCOM.
3. PSARC fall
simulation. Our currently planned date of Oct. 27-29 includes the first day of
turkey hunting season (very dangerous day!) We will change the dates to
November 9-11; moved by Ken Boyles, seconded by Martha Ann Ackroyd, and then
passed unanimously. It will be held in south-central Pennsylvania. Bruce Trego
and his Training and Standards Committee will make the arrangements, working
with SAVES. Moved by Joe, seconded by Martha, to accept the SAVES proposal
(attached). Passed unanimously. (Will be as close as possible to a real
mission.) Note - Maryland ESAR plans to complete its one remaining station of
the MRA test at this simulation; other MRA testing might be possible at the
simulation, too. Keystone and GPSAR have been interested in MRA membership;
Rescue 40 and Somerset EMA are also interested.
4. Ken moved, Bruce
seconded, and unanimously passed as amended: the draft agreement with STATCOM
(attached).
5. Legislative
Committee: Ron has made little headway with his local representative in getting
a meeting with legislators set up. Members and teams speaking with their state
representatives would help. Last time, with 16 sponsors, the bill went nowhere
because other issues (abortion, finance, etc.) overshadowed it. Ron will
investigate possible political roadblocks we can eliminate.
Special Order of the Day: Nominating
Committee: to present slate of officers at the Sept. meeting. Keith Conover was
involuntarily impressed to chair this committee.
Next meeting -
Sept 29 (Sat), State Fire Academy, 1000 hours. Meeting Adjourned at about 1305
hours.
Respectfully submitted, Keith
Conover, M.D.