[SaraHap] SARA Happenings September 2010

Sun Sep 19 13:50:25 MDT 2010

 Hi All: 
SARA Happenings is issued to foster communication within the Search and Rescue community in Alberta. It is going to 226 e_mail addresses that are listed as the primary contact of SAR Alberta member groups or which were requested to be added to the mailing list.

Subscription and unsubscription information is at the end of the newsletter. 

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Apologies for lateness, mail server hasn't been responding.

CH.

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SAR STATISTICS

It is that time again for the collection of 2010 statistics (Jan 1 to Dec 31) 

The spreadsheet template should be available from the SAR website (either now or soon).

I would like to have the information back to me by Jan 7 

Your info/numbers shows the valuable service our volunteers provide our communities throughout the province.

Should you have any questions, please let me know 

Thanks 

Rodney Dietrich 

SAR Alberta - Treasurer 

accountinggod at shaw.ca

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2011 TRAINING GRANTS NOW AVAILABLE

Grant applications for the 2011 training year are now available on the AEMA web site. You can access the application by clicking on this link: http://www.aema.alberta.ca/Grant%20Funded%20Training.cfm . If the link does not work, copy it and paste it into the URL bar on your browser. The deadline for submission of the grant application is October 31, 2010. Please follow the instructions in the application. Note that successful applications will have the funds deposited directly into the group's account, so you will need to complete the financial institution information form included in the application package.

The following information may be useful as you complete the application form:

* incomplete applications will not be considered 

* the statistics for your group must be sent to SAR Alberta by the end of the first week of January, 2011; forward these directly to Rodney Dietrich, Treasurer, SAR Alberta: accountinggod at shaw.ca 

* membership in SAR Alberta must be current 

* proof of registration under the Alberta Societies Act must be included 

* compliant forms for the 2010 grant year must be included with the application package, if the group received a grant in 2010 

* grants will be awarded to efficiently serve regional needs; that is two of the same course will not be granted to the same region 

* for the 2011 training year, at least one grant will be awarded for a provincial exercise and at least one grant will be awarded for a Search Manager course 

* when completing the financial (expenses) portion of the application, keep in mind that instructors who are members of a SAR Alberta member group, or whose training was provided through financial support of the Government of Alberta, or any SAR group in Alberta may not be paid; reasonable expenses to secure the services of the instructor are permissible (distance allowance, accommodation, meals), as well as costs for instructional materials 

* send the application package directly to AEMA as indicated in the application package 

* should the application be successful, be sure to retain receipts for all expenses incurred as they need to be submitted with the compliance form; copies are acceptable, as the treasurer of the group will require originals for the group''s treasury information 

If you have any questions, please contact Norman Mathew, SAR Alberta Training Coordinator, at normanmathew at xplornet.com .

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RCMP SUBMISSION: SAR NEWSLETTER ARTICLE 

"Well, it is hard to imagine that summer is over and much sooner than we had all hoped. It has been a busy summer with people searches and evidence searches taking place across the province. I wish to thank all of you who gave up those few nice summer days to answer the call for assistance. As always your commitment is very much appreciated by the RCMP. 

As you may be aware, an updated GSAR report has been brought into service. In July of this year Sgt. Mike Self introduced a slightly modified document for use when reporting on any type of search. This report consists of a cover sheet of instruction; a fill in the blank sheet; a narrative sheet; and a list of expense rates (which is always subject to change). All expenses require prior authorization by the Tasking RCMP Detachment Commander. This report has the same distribution as before with one (1) copy for the Incident Commander at the tasking Detachment and one (1) copy for the ""K"" Division RCMP SARCoordinator. The report may be faxed or e-mailed to us in ""K"" Division as per instructions on the front sheet. 

I must thank you for the thoroughness of the reports as of late! Take care and let hope for a long and warm fall. Sgt. Mike Self & Cpl. Al Fraser" 

The forms are available from the SAR Alberta website - 

http://www.saralberta.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=60&Itemid=104 

Should you have any questions please let me know.... Al.Fraser at rcmp_grc.gc.ca 

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THE MAIL AND WIKI PROBLEMS

The SARA wiki and mailing lists have largely been inaccessible since August 2 while Shaw has been experiencing service outages. I've switched over to Telus and things should be back again. 

However, Telus blocks port 80, so you will have to access the web site on port 8080. 

Links to pages, like the main wiki page 

http://saralberta.dnsalias.org:8080/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page need to have ":8080" inserted after the ".org". 

Similarly for the mailing list interfaces: http://castrov.dyndns.org:8080/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo 

I've tested what I can and everything seems to work, but there was a lot of things I had to touch in the conversion. There may well be some new problems. So please let me know if you have any difficulties or see things that don't work. Take Care, Brett Wuth wuth at castrov.cuug.ab.ca wuth at acm.org

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BISCUIT THE DOG RESCUED FROM SEPTIC TANK

Published: August 17, 2010 6:36 AM

Updated: August 18, 2010 6:09 AM

Biscuit relaxes at home with owner Edward Primus. by RANDY FIEDLER/Advocate staff

When you're 98 in people years, the old eyes aren't what they used to be.

Unfortunately, Biscuit the border collie found out the hard way when the 14_year_old pooch took a tumble into the family's septic tank on a rural property about eight km northeast of Red Deer.

Lucky for Biscuit, Red Deer County was called and three of its staff arrived with seven members of Red Deer Search and Rescue.

Assistant county manager, and Search and Rescue volunteer Ric Henderson said Biscuit was about four metres below the surface, standing in septic waste up to his belly.

Search and Rescue set up a tripod and lowered veteran volunteer Kristy Kozuska into the hole, which was only about 75 cm across and was even more narrow towards the bottom of the tank.

It took only about 15 minutes to get set up and Kozuska was able to get a sling around Biscuit and both were pulled to the surface in less than 10 minutes. The dog immediately came to her when she reached the bottom of the stinky tank.

"He was pretty happy to be rescued," said Henderson. "He's an old dog and friendly."

As soon as they got to the surface, both were hosed off.

Biscuit appears to be fine. The Red Deer Advocate.

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THE GRAPHIC

Please let me know if there was a problem with the graphic above in your newsletter copy. It's included partly as a test. 

Don Drebert had asked for a poster to be included in this newsletter but it gave me too many problems. (Much too large) The event is for the Mantracker appearance November 18th at the Ardrossan Rec Complex. I expect you can find the info at www.atra.ca.

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SARA HAPPENINGS SUBMISSIONS 

Our regular publication date for mailings of SARA Happenings is the middle of each month. Please note that the deadline for material is the 14th of each month. 

Does your group have an event posting for the SARA Happenings mailing? If so, please send information 1_1/2 months prior to the dates you wish advertised. It will then give ample time for those reading it to respond. 

Please send all material to the editor; Chris Hoare at choare at shaw.ca PLEASE DO include contact information for members to gain further information.

To subscribe or unsubscribe visit http://castrov.dyndns.org:8080/cgi_bin/mailman/listinfo/sara_happenings enter your e_mail address and click on "Edit Options". Automatic subscribers will need to click on "EMail My Password to Me". You can subscribe and unsubscribe on the same page. 
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