[SARA-Members] ,message from the VP

[Don Drebert]

Message from the Vice President
Good day to all SAR providers:
First of all a little history. I became involved in search and rescue about
five years ago when my wife was tasked to a search in the Rocky Mountain
House area. She was not comfortable driving by herself in the foothills and
in unfamiliar territory so I volunteered to drive her. Once we arrived at
the scene she did what all searchers did and at the time the whole process
baffled me. The RCMP took little time in putting me to work at the command
post doing various tasks. On the ride home the conversation was all SAR. My
wife had been involved with SAR for about two years previously so I had herd
bits and pieces of the goings on. The die had been cast and the rest is
history so to speak. I am now in my third term as president of Brazeau
Regional SAR located in and serving Drayton Valley and surrounding areas,
and currently one of the group’s three search managers.
In April 2009 at the AGM of Search and Rescue Alberta I accepted the
nomination for Vice President. My goal as VP is to assist the board in a
consolidated effort to work with AEMA to strengthen the position of the
volunteer SAR worker in Alberta. In light of the recent events that have
taken place in Golden our focus has shifted slightly in that the priority
has changed to ensure the protection of our volunteers. With the focus of
SAR Alberta on the protection of our grass roots people we need unwavering
support from all of our teams throughout the province so we can lobby the
government with the confidence of a unified voice. The support of all the
teams is necessary to accomplish the tasks that we have set for ourselves
and as the VP I am committed and focused on the resolution of some of the
past problems. The road has been a little tough to navigate with AEMA and we
are gaining a better understanding in how they work and how they think we
work. We will educate them on how we work in an effort to give them a better
understanding of who we are and what we do and the kind of support that we
require from them as our lead agency. Monica and I have meetings set up this
week with the Minister of Municipal Affairs and top officials at AEMA and we
will focus on cutting through red tape in an effort to make progress. In an
effort to be a transparent and accountable board we will make as much
information as possible available to the general membership as it becomes
available. 
With that being said we as the executive and regional board members need to
be kept in the loop about all the issues that pop up that ultimately affect
the health and wellbeing of Search and Rescue Alberta and all the teams
under our umbrella. With that information we can lobby the government to
make changes or to provide assistance in a clear and informed manner.
I have met with Cindy Heselton, the chair of the standards committee and
will be working closely with the committee in a support role to provide the
necessary backing that they need to do the job at hand in a timely manner. I
believe that we as the executive have made it clear that we support each
other and will forge ahead to accelerate the process and realize timely
results. 
Lastly I would like thank the teams that have dropped us a line expressing
their support. This is important to us at SAR Alberta to know that we have
your support and that we are moving in the direction that benefits the
volunteers that we represent.
 
Thank you
On behalf of Search and Rescue Alberta 
 
Don Drebert
Vice President
Search and Rescue Alberta
780-542-2817(h)
ddrebert at telus.net 
 
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