Pennsylvania Search and Rescue Council

Official Meeting Minutes

September 29, 1990 (Saturday)

State Fire Academy, Lewistown

Groups represented:

Paid but not present

Coventry Canine SAR

DER - State Forests

Keystone SAR

Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group, ASRC/MRA

Thornhurst VFD

Vigilant SAR

Paid members present-

Allegheny Mountain Rescue Group, ASRC/MRA

DER - State Parks

Greater Philadelphia SAR

EMRS SAR Services

ESAR Post 616, ASRC/MRA

SAVES (Shippensburg Area Vertical Evacuation and Search)

Rescue 40

Somerset County SAR

Observers (nonmembers)

Mifflin Co. Specialized SAR

PA Wing, Civil Air Patrol

S.T.R.I.K.E. K-9 SAR

Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency

Members last year; not present, dues not paid-

Juniata SAR

NorthEast SAR

Individuals present

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)

Kim Carr (STRIKE)Keith Conover, M.D. 36 Robinhood Road, Pittsburgh PA, 15220 412-561-3413 (AMRG)

Garrett Den (? spelling of last name) (Gr. Philadelphia SAR)

Clyde Geary (no affiliation listed)

Jack Humbertson 355 Stoystown Rd., Somerset, PA 15501 814-443-3777 (Somerset Co.)

Roy Keiser (STRIKE)

Irv Lichtenstein 704 Preston Rd., Erdenheim, PA 19118-1327 215-233-3360 (GPSAR)

John Lihus???? (signature not legible) (dog handler from Pittsburgh area)

Bob Long PEMA P.O. Box 3321 Harrisburg, PA 17105

Peter McCabe 11034 Berrypick, Columbia, MD 21044 301-596-5554 (ASRC)

Carol Prosseda (STRIKE)

Greg Sassaman Cowan's Gap State Park HC 17266 Fort Loudon, PA 17224

Joe Thrash RD # 1 Box 75 Friedens, PA 15541 814-445-4762 (Somerset Co./CAP)

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)

The meeting was called to order at 1015 hours by President Irv Lichtenstein. Minutes from last meeting were accepted as mailed to each member and distributed at meeting. Treasurer's report (Greg Sassaman): accepted as attached. (Attachment 1)

General Announcements:

· Our 800 number has been established as planned at the last meeting (1-800-MED-STAT in Pennsylvania, 412647-7828 elsewhere). As explained at the last meeting, the number is for "resource referral" (information) only, and will not actually dispatch any teams for the SAR Council. (But note that the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania's STATCOM, who provides the SAR Council resource referral service, also provides dispatch service for two SAR Council members: AMRG and EMRS.)

• Members should take the new 800 service as an opportunity/reminder to submit updated resource information sheets to Irv. Blank forms are available from him.
• The Pennsylvania State Police have requested, by phone, a copy of our resource information; they will follow up with a letter (to be discussed in new business).

Training Committee Report (Bruce Trego):

The November training exercise: was initially planned as a joint operation between PSARC and ASRC, and still is (some people had thought it was only a PSARC function). We discussed the plans briefly. Some complained about a lack of pre-planning despite several months of lead time. Per the President, the Training Committee will have a detailed plan to the President by the 15th of this month, including the number of victims, the area(s) of search, when the initial alert will go out, and a rough timeline for mobilization and demobilization, in writing. We will need referees, a designated safety officer, and search, medical, and evacuation plans for any real incidents that occur.

· The Training Committee consists of Bruce Trego, Joe Thrash, Ken Boyles, Larry Kerns, Peter McCabe. The Training Committee will meet after today's general meeting.

Membership Committee

Three applications for new membership have been received: S.T.R.I.K.E. K-9 SAR (complete)

Mifflin County Specialized SAR team (complete except for resource survey) Search 1 (missing letter, survey, Bylaws; these to be mailed to Irv)

All were referred to Membership Committee, which will meet after general business meeting. (Addendum: Membership Committee approved all 3 pending receipt of all supporting documentation; due to expressed concerns of some SAR Council members, Search 1 will receive a cautionary letter detailing the SAR Council's policy on recruiting and ethical behavior toward other teams and members of other teams.)

Regional Meeting Ad-Hoc Committee Report (Ken Boyles)

· Ken showed local groupings of member and non-member teams across the state. Based on his groupings, he recommends we establish the following regions, each meeting at a central point (in parentheses), and each to have a regional coordinator. He noted that it was important to invite non-SAR Council members to these meetings.

• Southwest (Pittsburgh): Lee Lyons of EMRS.

· Northwest (Erie/Allegheny National Forest): inactive at present. * Central (Mt. Union): Todd Horn of Mifflin County. North-Central (Emporia): pending, Joe Thrash to try to locate a suitable regional coordinator from area teams.

• Northeast (?): inactive at present.
• Southeast (Allentown): Irv Lichtenstein of Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue

Boundaries for regions are 1-80; US 219; The Susquehanna River south and and U.S. Rt. 15 north. Accepted by acclamation. Maps attached (Attachment 2)

Special Order of the Day (Ad-Hoc nominating committee, Keith Conover)

Dr. Conover presented the following slate of officers as nominated by the Nominating Committee:

President: Irv Lichtenstein

Vice-President: Joe Thrash

Treasurer: Greg Sassaman

Secretary: Keith Conover, M.D.

Director: Peter McCabe

The floor was opened for further nominations. Ken Boyles nominated, and Martha Ann Ackroyd seconded, Peter McCabe for President. Martha Ann Ackroyd nominated, and Bruce Trego seconded, Larry Kearns for Vice President. Peter McCabe nominated Keith Conover for President; Keith quickly and emphatically declined. Greg Sassaman nominated, and Joe Thrash seconded, Ken Boyles to continue as Board Member. There being no further nominations, the Nominations were closed.

Ballots will be mailed out on or about October 15 by the Secretary; each nominee should prepare a short (100 word or less) biography and send it to the Secretary ASAP.

Old Business:

• SAR Annex ("Annex 5") to the State Disaster Plan: is really Annex "V" as in Victor (letters to and from PEMA and the actual Annex V were mailed with last meeting's minutes; contact the Secretary if you need another copy.

· Search First Responder Instructor names: A list with adresses is attached (Attachment 3). Our understanding is that any State Fire Academy Search Management (MSO/MSF) instructor may teach the Search First Responder course. Martha Ann Ackroyd showed her State Fire Academy Search Management instructor card and thus, we added her name, even though she was not on the list given us by the Fire Academy.

• PSARC Folders: were distributed to those who wanted them.
• PSARC speaker at PEMA regional meetings: (Martha Ann Ackroyd): Martha's understanding was that she was to go to meetings of the Western Region of PEMA, but others had understood from the last meeting that she was to work on getting a PSARC representative to meetings of all three PEMA regions; Martha accepted responsibility for getting PSARC representatives to all PEMA regional meetings.

Informal Discussion:

• Bob Long was present from the PEMA state office. He will serve as liaison with the SAR Council. He sees PEMA as providing coordination but, unlike Virginia DES, PEMA will have no field involvement.
• Legislative questions: Ron Wisbith and Irv Lichtenstein noted that the SAR bill (drafted by the SAR Council) is supposed to be introduced in the state Conservation Committee, and has some support in the state legislature, but needs support from other sources (i.e., local team members) if it is to succeed. Ken Boyles observed that PEMA involvement in SAR may help greatly (e.g., as far as coordination with public safety agencies) until SAR legislation is passed (which will probably take years). Bob Long: PEMA has recently hired about 25 people, so SAR is now getting more emphasis. Bob suggests a meeting with SAR organizations in the state, including but not limited to the SAR Council. The President will ensure that SAR Council is represented at this meeting.
• Resource information policy: Referred from last meeting. The questions are (1) who can have access to the SAR resource information gathered by the SAR Council? and (2) what do we do with the information we've gathered on non-SAR Council SAR teams? Keith Conover pointed out that the information on nonSAR Council teams is mostly out of date, and we have no real idea how accurate it was in the first place. Moved by Keith and seconded by Lee Lyons: accept policy as proposed by Irv (Attachment 4) with amendment (add to section 2, paragraph 2 member's forms). Amendment proposed by Ken Boyles to strike paragraph one; accepted by Conover and Lyons. Passed unanimously. On a related note, PSARC will NOT collect mission reports; Ken Boyles will continue to collect them, but solely as a DER function. This will remove PSARC from any problems of deciding which mission report material might not be suitable for public release.
• The Membership Inquiry Policy typed up by Irv was presented; it was accepted by consensus as reflecting our present policy (Attachment 5.

New Business

• State Police Research and Development unit's request for copies of our resource information: Joe Thrash moved, and Martha Ann Ackroyd seconded, the motion that we release our members' resource sheets to them. The motion passed unanimously.
• Bylaws and regional meetings: The Board of Directors is to act as the Bylaws Committee to propose revisions at December meeting; Carol Prosseda will type the present Bylaws into ASCII for on a floppy diskette and send them to Keith Conover. (Thanks!)
• SAR Forms: Keith Conover proposed that the SAR Council establish operational and reporting forms for all SAR operations, based on the Virginia Department of Emergency Services/Virginia SAR Council forms and others gathered by the Pennsylvania SAR Council. Keith will work with Joe Thrash and Bruce Trego to submit a complete proposal at the next meeting.
• Wilderness EMT admissions policy: Keith Conover explained that the upcoming (November) Wilderness EMT course in Western Pennsylvania will give preference for admissions to ASRC members, and would also like to offer a preferential admissions policy for PSARC members in good standing; the WEMT course will offer one position to each PSARC member in good standing, incuding State Parks and State Forests. Joe Thrash moved, and Ron Wisbith seconded, a motion to support this admissions policy; the motion passed unanimously.
• Meeting Procedures: a long informal discussion, started by Ken Boyles, concerned the need to change the meeting procedures. Specific concerns included:

(1) the need to make meetings meet the needs of those attending, rather than internal PSARC bureacratic matters, including (a) a chance to talk to members of other teams, and (b) to learn of search and rescue news, including new technical information.

(2) the need to avoid lengthy discussions for what should be a short business meetings.

The following motion was put forth by Ken Boyles, seconded by Keith Conover, and accepted by a unanimous vote:

(1) Follow Robert's Rules of Order strictly,

(2) keep extraneous discussion to a minimum (using the speak-once and 2 minute rules as needed),

(3) keep business to one hour and ten minutes,

(4) have everyone submit agenda items to the Secretary or President prior to each meeting,

(5) have a one-hour technical discussion after the business meeting (having the President establish and publicize a specific topic in advance),

(6) have a brief session when each team presents observations on recent happenings, and

(7) have the Board meet at 10, and the general meeting start at 11.

The meeting adjourned at 1325.

Respectfully submitted, Keith Conover, M.D., Secretary, October 8, 1990.

Attachments:

(1) Treasurer's Report

(2) Maps for region proposal

(3) Official List of Search First Responder Instructors (4) SAR Resource Information Policy proposal

(5) Membership Inquiry Policy