[SaraHap] SARA Happenings January 2012

Tue Jan 17 12:12:45 MST 2012

Hi All:

SARA Happenings is issued to foster communication within the Search
and Rescue community in Alberta. It is going to 237 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.

Apologies for the late arrival...the mail program isn't speaking to me
again. (Editor)

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*MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT: 2012-01-11*

Happy new year to SAR providers across the province from myself, the
executive, and board members. We wish you all the best in the new year
and successful searching to all.

*Government*

With the new year comes new challenges to overcome in terms of dealing
with the government, tasking agencies, and municipal governments. I
will rise to the challenge to effectively represent the needs and the
best interests of the search and rescue community to the best of my
ability for the remainder of my term as president. One such challenge
that has come to my attention in recent weeks is the Office of the
Fire Commissioner has taken over as the lead agency for search and
rescue in the province of Alberta. I have been asked to attend a
meeting with the OFC and in the interim have asked they provide a
meeting agenda and an official press release of the changes so I can
have it posted on our web site, but at the time of writing, none has
been produced. I would ask that the topic of the change be discussed
at the grass roots level, so please send comments and questions to
your regional representatives as well as myself at
president at saralberta.ca. It is important to me to represent the
membership's wishes and to be informed as to their thoughts.

*Training*

On January 5th, Norman Mathew, our provincial training coordinator and
I met with Tom Sand and Tina Bak from AEMA to determine the training
grant selection. We were provided with a list of requests prior to the
meeting to give us time for thoughts of regionalisation and how to get
the best bang for our training buck. The meeting went very well and
lasted approximately three hours. There were some problems with
information missing from the applications but with a quick call or
e-mail I am happy to say compliance has been met and as of Jan.11th
the requests are on their way to the minister for approval. Once again
the total asked was for just short of $300,000.00 and it was a tough
decision to trim it to $150,000.00. With the mindset of
regionalisation we believe we made the best decisions for all
involved. Hats off to Norman for being so vigilant and dedicated to
volunteer the time required to help out.

*RCMP*

On January 5th, I also met with Cpl Al Fraser with criminal operations
in K division. For those of you that don't know, Al and SGT Mike Self
are in charge of all things SAR at the provincial level. It is my job
at SAR Alberta to maintain a relationship with the RCMP and bring
forth any issues that affect Search and Rescue's performance in the
field and for developing standards and procedures that fall into line
with the way the RCMP expect us to operate on their behalf. I came
away from the meeting with a sense of pride with the SAR teams'
performance as there were no issues, which is a good thing. Good work
to all teams involved, as building and maintaining credibility is
essential to our success.

*Insurance*

I would like to include an introductory letter from our new insurance
broker Rob at Del Fisher:

"I would like to introduce myself, Rob Klewchuk, and my company, Del
Fisher Insurance Inc., as your new broker contact for the Search and
Rescue insurance program. Del Fisher Insurance Inc. has been involved
in the Calgary insurance market for over 30 years and is looking
forward to providing excellent service and helpful insurance
information to all of the Alberta SAR teams.

There were issues with the insurance renewals this term due to the
transfer of this account from Jardine Lloyd Thompson to Del Fisher
Insurance. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the
teams for their patience and quick work in getting their insurance
renewals completed and sent back to me in record time.

To avoid a repeat of the 2011 renewal issues, each team contact will
be receiving a renewal email containing the information required to
process the renewal no later than July 1, 2012. Please send me your
updated information no later than August 1, 2012. If your team has not
received this renewal information email by July 1, 2012 please contact
me at rob at delfisher.ca or 402-230-3811.

*Newsletter*

I received an e-mail from Chris Hoare on the 9th of January requesting
that I find someone to replace him as editor of SARA Happenings. Chris
has been doing the news letter since 2005 after retiring from work in
2004. When he started, the idea was a simple text platform for people
to access on dialup, but with the advance of technology and the
computer world what it is today Chris does not have a setup to handle
graphics that so many people send to him. I would like to thank Chris
for all his support in the past in getting the message out to all the
people who subscribe to the newsletter and all the best in your
official retirement. Chris has agreed to stay on until the AGM and if
anyone is interested in the position please contact Chris or
myself. Once again thanks for a job well done.

*Meeting dates*

Board meeting dates:

January 28th in Red Deer

March 17th in Edmonton

AGM April 28th in Edmonton

Thank you

Don Drebert President

SAR Alberta

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*H2S SEARCH PROTOCOL*

Pincher Creek SAR and Shell Canada have negotiated a protocol for the
involvement of SAR responders in incidents of H2S release in the area
managed by the Shell Waterton facility. H2S, a gas that is poisonous
at higher concentrations, is found in some natural gas regions. An H2S
release can require shelter-in-place or evacuation notifications.

Under the protocol, a Pincher SAR Manager will be notified of
incidents and join the ICS structure as a technical advisor on SAR. If
a search is to be performed, it will be lead by Pincher SAR drawing on
personnel from Shell, Pincher SAR and neighbouring SAR groups.

The protocol addresses safety as well as the training of both SAR and
Shell personnel. It was tested in an exercise in November.

Shell anticipates that if this protocol is successful, Shell will use
it as a model to negotiate similar agreements with SAR groups near its
other holdings in Alberta and B.C.

If you would like more information, see

http://pcsar.webhop.org/mediawiki/index.php/Protocols/Shell_H2S

or contact pcsar-preplan at castrov.cuug.ab.ca.

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*SCENT DOG NEWS*

This item was submitted for the December issue, which did not go out
due to a lack of submissions. Sorry, Michelle, but I felt your own
notice to your regular readers would suffice and avoid sending a
newsletter with one item of news.

Best wishes for happy holidays.

Please see our December newsletter at www.sardaa.ca

scroll down to Scent Dog News...

Michelle Limoges

SARDAA Secretary/Treasurer & Dog Handler

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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. PLEASE DO NOT send me any .docx files; thanks.

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-- 
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