Clue awareness is part of search techniques, but is usually over looked in trainings because we think this skill is too simple or not important. But every search you go on, you are looking for clues. Searchers must search for clues, not the lost subject. This is becuase there are more clues than subjects. The detection of clues reduces the search areas and the information gained from the detection of certain clues approches that of the subject.

Four categories of clues:

1. physical - footprints, cigarette butts, clothing
2. recorded - summit logs book, trail register
3. people - witness, family, friends, people in the search area
4. events - flashing lights, whistle, yelling

Virtually every person that passes through an area leaves evidence of their passing. A common problem is not a lack of clues, but often too many clues and determining which are important. A detailed subject profile enables searches to relate a particular clue to the subject or discount it altogether.

For the best possible results when a clue has been detected, searchers should notify base camp, evaluate and interpret the clue in the field (as a team), and act upon the interpretation of the clue within the guidelines set forth by the Incident Commander or Operations Section Chief. When base camp direct us to mark the clue we should include: date, time, team number on the trail tape. And place the trail tape so that it is easily seen by other teams. On the ground is not a good place, but possibly on a nearby tree or bush. Base camp might also request GPS coordinates.

During the 6:30 session team members will then be ask to describe clues to other team member using their radios. Team members will divided into two groups, one as searcher and other as base campperson. Instruction to them include:

• Describe the item as clearly has possible and have the base camp person repeat your clue description.
• Talk slowly, the person on the end of the radio is writing your information down, be patient.
• Remember to release the transmit button on your radio!

David Dixon came up with an excellent location for the class at Hodgin Elementary School, where his wife, Rose, is principal. The class was held in the cafeteria, and there was a great courtyard just outside where Ken and Deb held some interesting scenarios for us to practice. Parking facilities were right outside the room, and along with the somewhat central location of the facility, this made for a very convenient class.

Thanks, too, to Susan Crutcher for arranging food. When I first realized we were under budget for the class I considered having Subway sandwiches in bagged lunches for everyone, and when I solicited help organizing food Susan stepped up and suggested that we actually have good food delivered for the same price. This kept us all in the general vacinity of the class during lunch, gave us opportunity to mill about and socialize, and it was the perfect addition to the class.

By the time you read this, our last Land Nav evaluation of the year will be over. At this time, all active, field certified members who needed Land Nav this year to stay field certified have had it, and most of our prospective members who need it have taken it, too. Thank you all for helping make the evaluation process go so smoothly this year.

We have one remaining evaluation session this year, on Search Techniques, on Saturday, 4 December. If you need Search Techniques, please be sure to mark your calendar.

November's training will be on Sound Attraction and Hasty Search. Susan Corban, Curtis Crutcher and I have come up with a handful of interesting exercises that we think will sharpen our understanding of how we can search using sound beyond the vague notion that blowing a whistle is a good idea. We hope also to do a few telling exercises to show how well we can attain reasonably high POD on hasty searches, and what "high POD" would really mean in this setting. This being the first time we'll ever have attempted such a training, it will be highly experimental, and we don't know exactly how each of the exercises will go, but it should be fun and at least a little educational. Hope you can join us.

Finally, a light has appeared at the end of the tunnel in our quest to obtain a license to use 155.265 as the team frequency. After many phone calls and a few irate letters, the incorrect frequency coordinators to whom the application had originally been sent finally returned the application and the fees associated with it, and I resubmitted the application to the right place. They "coordinated" the application in about 24 hours, and passed it on to the FCC with a recommendation that it be approved. The application currently appears in the FCC's pending database at http://gullfoss.fcc.gov:8080/cgi-bin/ws.exe/beta/genmen/index.hts. Until we have a confirmed approval of this application, we are not yet licensed to use 155.265! Watch this space.

President: Larry welcomed new faces Art Fischer and Ben Gorelick.

Communications Clue Training will be before the November Business meeting at 6:30.

All present officers are nominated for same positions.

There will be a Section Chiefs meeting on November 6 at 5 p.m. at Larry's house.

Membership: Curtis Crutcher and Frances Robertson are now active members.

Treasurer: Previous months finances and balance are given.

VP/Training: Money saved on Wilderness 1st Aid Training will be used for lunches for everyone on both days.

November Training will be a Sound Attraction Hasty Search on the 13th.

Equipment: A request is made for members to sign up to be Pager 2.

PR: Our PR table was staffed on Sandia Family on September 24th and the next day at UNM for Kids Outdoors. We had a few interested stop by at Sandia but Kids Day was almost kidless.

A brief presentation was made on October 13 to the IRS for the United Way campaign.

PR and other Committees are seeking members and/or Committee heads for next year.

CSAR posters will again be placed at various businesses and other locations around the area in the coming month.

Escape: A Mock Search is still planned for February probably at Philmont.

New Business: Garmin 12s can be purchased for $100 if we order 25 or more. See Mickey Jojola if interested.

Don G. discusses POS and has some handouts.

Curtis Crutcher's wife, Susan, and daughter, Annie, hand out a Annie's Creations price list for clothing with team and name embroidery.

Who's Who and New

by Susan Corban

Amber Pickel is now an active member. Welcome aboard, Amber.

Otherwise, membership has been quiet this month. There have been no orientations.

To review the year, there have been 19 orientations so far this year. We currently have 21 active members and 12 prospective members. A total of eight members have become active during this year, to date. We will probably have more active members before the year is over.

New Members

It has become very apparent to me this year that are lots of people who like search and rescue, would like to be part of search and rescue, but can't commit the time. I've seen a lot of enthusiasm from prospective members, but in the end, only a very few follow through to the point of attending missions and joining the team. We all know why because it's hard for us, too. We all have to make time.

This means that we have to solicit recruits constantly and make them feel welcome while we get the chance. I've learned that it's also important not to overwhelm newcomers with too much information. I know we each have a different motivation for our participation. For some it's honing skills, for some it's the company of others with a common interest. When, occasionally it works out that way, we are all motivated by helping to save someone's life. Service, skills, socializing, adrenaline-addiction, whatever your motive, communicating your enthusiasm to potential members is the best recruitment tool I know of. Please spread the word when you get the chance.

Feedback, Please

Since there are so many new members on the team this year, I invite you to give me your perspective on your first year. If you have suggestions for improving the experience, please tell me. If any members have membership issues, please give me your feedback. If I continue in the job another year, I'd like to make it better for everyone, new and continuing.

Group Dynamics

One thing we can do to increase camaraderie is to go eat and chat after missions, meetings, and trainings. Everyone has a standing invitation. No one has planned these events, but they've happened spontaneously. Ask around after events to see who wants to go or pick a place and let other members know you're going. Or just hang out after events and visit. As membership officer, I will make a point of organizing a time at ESCAPE when all Cibola members get together to eat, meet or play. And don't miss the party in December. You'll hear about it at the next meeting.

I think the team is in good shape right now. It does take a lot of work to keep us strong. So, while I'm at it, thanks to all of you for sticking with this, for your dedication and loyalty, your skills and efforts.

Public Relations

by David Dixon

For over a year now the PR Committee has been focusing on team recruitment. We have spoken to groups, put up posters, promoted ourselves in the newspaper, and continue to attract through our excellent website. Our primary goal for 1999 is a 50% increase in membership and with our numbers up we're certainly close to reaching that objective. We continue to have good attendance at business meetings. In fact in the last 12 months there were 70 new attendees. (See additional info about membership in Who's Who and New Column). But for every person who stays with us many more do not. Less than 25% of those new people have become members. PR and recruitment is thus important but so is TR or Team Relations. If we're working to get people to meetings we need to make them feel welcome. If someone continues through orientation they're obviously interested in us and may go on to become active. That's what we want. They certainly need to feel like they are a part of the team. Everyone joins to go on missions and new people need that expertise of active members. Members in turn should get to know those prospectives that may be with them on a search. People that don't come back after a meeting do so for various reasons. They are less of a concern for us than those that go through orientation but choose not to become active. The reason these people did not stay with us is important. We don't want it to be because the team did not make them feel welcome. When I first started almost 3 years ago there were times when I felt like the team door was not very open to me. And even though I want to feel like things have changed I know that some new people, at times, still feel that way. We do need to know that people are serious about SAR and Cibola. But their actions and attendance should speak for them. They shouldn't have to prove themselves before we deal with them. We are a team of volunteers who always need others. Let's get to know everyone on the team and work to keep our door wide open.

There are no scheduled PR events this month so the Committee will end the year by replenishing our posters around town at businesses and other organizations. If you know of a place where one might attract a potential see me.

Member Spotlights

The following came from Brian Murray. I was born and raised in Lakewood, OH, a suburb of Cleveland. I graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH in 1995. I lived in Cleveland until November of 1996, and decided that I had lived in Ohio long enough. At that point I moved to Albuquerque. It was an easy choice because I had been visiting the city since I was born and my uncles, aunt, grandparents, cousins, and mother live here as well. Soon after I arrived I became employed by American Modern Insurance Group in Cincinnati as a local Staff Adjuster. I live with my Chihuahua, Max, and my Boa Constrictor, Slithers. When I am not working here in Albuquerque or at the site of the latest hurricaine or other natural disaster, I hike, ride my road bicycle, snowboard, and workout. It was at the gym that I saw the Cibola poster and thought that SAR would be a good way to help people and be more involved in the outdoors.

A certified (possibly certifiable) curmudgeon, Tom somehow got the idea that community service was missing from his life and joined Cibola SAR in the fall of 1996. One fine day he criticized how the leadership of the team was approaching a particular subject, and found that by doing so he had "been volunteered" to try it himself or shut up. He has been unsuccessfully trying to shut up ever since, but they keep coming up with more stuff to do. Tom often wonders how he found things to do with all the spare time he is finding he doesn't have now that he has incorporated Cibola into his life.

Web News

by The Wayside

There is no Web news, but as always, the team website can be accessed at http://www.cibolasar.org/

Statewide SAR Notes

by Mike Dugger

PACE NEWS

The last PACE field evaluation session for the year will be held Saturday, Dec. 11 in Santa Fe. Contact Bob Lathrop at rlathrop@dfn.com or leave a message at (505) 625-1307 to register and request study materials.

The PACE committee met on October 23 to address some of the problems we've had with the field evaluation process this year. The three main problems have been getting study guides to registrants, cancellation of sessions, and having a majority of no-shows at sessions. Despite the perception created by these problems, the Department of Public Safety MOST DEFINITELY still cares about PACE field certification. This certification is one way for the SAR Resource Officer to document that volunteers have the basic skills to stay safe as well as contribute to finding the missing person. We expect to see an increased emphasis on PACE in the coming year. This will probably mean that more challenging assignments will be reserved for PACE-certified searchers, and they will be the preferred field team leaders.

From the registrant's perspective, not getting study materials and having sessions cancelled are major frustrations. Contrary to popular belief (including my own until October 23), the PACE chairman (Bob Lathrop) with whom people register has not been in control of sending study materials out. The state SAR office has been responsible for this. The PACE committee will try to fix this problem in two ways. First, PACE is assuming responsibility for getting the study materials out. Second, we will be making all the documentation for the evaluation available via download from the Internet. Not everyone has a computer at home, but at least individuals can take charge and get the materials on their own if they don't want to wait for the mail.

Cancelled sessions were usually due to only a few people signing up, and in one case due to lack of evaluators. To address these problems, beginning next year PACE will hold just two scheduled evaluation sessions per year - one at the state SAR conference in the spring and one in November far from where the SAR conference was held that year. These will not be cancelled, even if only one person signs up. We are also trying to increase the number of evaluators. The goal is to have a larger pool to draw from so that existing evaluators don't burn out. Groups can still arrange a special evaluation session with an evaluator, and having more evaluators from all over the state will make this easier.

From the evaluator's perspective, it can be extremely frustrating to get materials and personnel together expecting 20 people to take the tests, and then have only four show up. We are guessing that this means that people want the information in the study guide, but they see no real reason to follow through with the evaluation process. As mentioned, expect to see an increased emphasis on PACE field certification at missions in the coming year.

PACE committee members want to regain your confidence. We have taken control of the process as much as possible, and I am optimistic that these changes will result in an improvement. Remember, the PACE committee is made up of hard working volunteers just like you. We all believe that making sure each volunteer knows the basic skills and has the basic gear is in the best interests of everyone - SAR members and the missing subjects included!

Finally, if anyone reading this (CSAR member or otherwise) is interested in becoming a PACE evaluator, please contact me. An increased population of evaluators throughout the state will make it easy to ensure all our volunteers are PACE-certified.

Disclaimer and Copyright notice

the Editors

The contents of this newsletter are copyright © 1999 by their respective authors or by Cibola Search and Rescue, Inc., and individual articles represent the opinions of the author. Cibola SAR makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in these articles, and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. Articles contained in this newsletter may be reproduced, with attribution given to Cibola SAR and the author, by any member of the Search and Rescue community for use in other team's publications.