Volume 5, Issue 10
| Top of the Hill | by Larry Mervine |
Tom is looking for anyone interested in helping with our Web page. See Tom. Also, officer nominations close at the November meeting. Nominate someone, better yet, volunteer to be an officer or committee chair. Committees are: PR, gear, and budget. Since my term as officer is coming closer to an end, I would like again to remind members about fitness. It does not matter what you do as long as you do something that increases or maintains your fitness. We never know what terrain the next mission will in or how long, so keep exercising.
See you out there?
| Boots and Blisters | by Tom Russo |
October's training will be on Sunday, 15 October. Joyce Rumschlag and James Newberry will be giving us a second opportunity to practice search techniques with them. The training will take place at the Embudito trailhead at the east end of Menaul. Please meet us there at 9:00 a.m. and bring your full SAR pack. I would like us to do a pack breakdown --- the kind where all of us show what we have in our packs, not the kind where one or two of us demonstrates --- as part of this training, just to make sure we've all got our winter gear prepped and ready. A further advantage of these pack breakdowns is to share with other members your ideas of what constitutes "essential" and/or "cool" items to take along on missions.
October's evaluation will be on Saturday, 21 October. James Newberry will run the evaluation on litter handling. As always, please leave a message on the voicemail to indicate whether you are coming out to evaluate on that day. Location will be Embudo trailhead at the east end of Indian School and time will be 9:00 a.m.
November's eval will be on land navigation on Sunday, 5 November. November's training will be on low-angle litter handling. While we will do some practice of patient packaging, we will not concentrate on packaging as much as at normal trainings. The emphasis will be on low angle technique, and will rig low-angle haul systems and practice our rope technique for most of the time.
Happy trails.
| Business as Usual | by David Dixon |
Missions are exciting but we wouldn't be a team without organization and leadership. Be a part of that - be the Secretary!
Proposal is discussed, made and seconded to move our account to the State Employees Credit Union where interest rates and services are better. As volunteers we are also eligible to get personal accounts. Vote passes unanimously.
Search Evaluation is this coming Sunday, Embudo trailhead at 9 am. Call hotline if going.
James is nominated for Training by Tom R. Brian LeMatta is nominated for Treasurer by Mike D.
James and others are interested in getting new shirts using the old logo. See him if interested.
We now have a labeled litter bag for each of the 2 litters.
James apologizes that he's over his Equipment budget but asks for $300 more to buy AA batteries and batteries for the Uniden radios. Mike explains how he has enough left and doesn't need to ask for more.
Reminder given that perspective members get 25' of webbing and new members a carabiner.
David is giving up the PR Chair position for next year. Anyone interested see or a member of the PR Committee.
The next WFR class is at EMS Academy in October. Officers discussed reimbursement relative to class in spring. Discussion is whether the team should do this again. Proposal is made and seconded to pay up to $150 of cost of class for those active by time of the last class, with total team maximum of $1000. Motion to proposal is made and seconded. Vote is unanimous for.
Hike of the Month is on Saturday. Let Susan know if you are coming.
| Who's Who and New | by Susan Corban |
| Gearing Up | by James Newberry |
We can get a discount on our favorite sar shirt (the orange poly/cotton uniform number, we all love so dearly) if we buy a large quantity. (10 or more.)
The more we buy the bigger the discount.
Get in touch with James Newberry or Chris Murray if you would like to purchase a new shirt.
Paratus Et Vigilans
| Mini Lesson | by Joyce Rumschlag |
Because the first problem we expect to encounter is getting stuck, these items are listed first.
| Public Relations | by David Dixon |
I put the following on the team listserve last week but it bears repeating in the newsletter.
I would like to remind everyone during this United Way time that our only
income is from UW, and the only money we receive from them is that which is
specifically designated to Cibola. Many people that give to United Way do so
to the general fund without regard to a specific area but any or all of that
could be directed to us. So remind your co-workers of our many needs and the
great deeds we perform (you perform) for them. In addition, any of us who give
would certainly want do the same. If all of us reach out who knows how much we
could bring in. (Note: If you would like something to hand a questioning
donator who would like more information about us I always have some of our
brochures on hand).
| Member Spotlights:Art Fischer |
Art Fischer shares the following with us.I was born and lived the first seven years of my life in the Chicago area. I was then transplanted to Wisconsin where I learned to appreciate milk, fine cheese, and beer drinkin'. My parents had a small cottage near a lake in Wisconsin where my brothers and sisters and I used to go fishing and camping and build forts in the woods. Those were the good old days. Now I have a job and responsibilities. Anyhow, I first learned to love the outdoors at this cottage in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin.
After high school I left for college. I spent some time back in Chicago as well as in Stillwater, Oklahoma where I met my beautiful and talented wife, Catherine. She has put up with me for six years of marriage; clearly she is a candidate for sainthood. After I graduated from Oklahoma State University, I felt pressure from the rest of the world to get a real job. So I accepted a position at Sandia National Labs and moved out to Albuquerque. I really love the mountains of New Mexico and know that I will always want to live near mountains.
I first became interested in search and rescue after hearing stories from a friend who is on the Los Alamos Auxiliary Fire Brigade. I am fairly new to search and rescue but I have really made it an important part of my non-professional life. I am also a member of Sandia Search Dogs where I am training my Australian Shepherd (Rachel) to find people in the woods. She will eventually be a trained airscent dog similar to Jake (but much better looking and doesn't jump out of moving vehicles). I asked her to write something for this mini biography, but she hasn't learned to type yet and her paw writing is almost unreadable. Typing is part of the test for canine SAR field certification so we are working on it (that and proficiency in radio communication). You have to teach them to bark very softly.
Catherine and I both love dogs and dog training. We have another dog named Lucy which Catherine is training for obedience competition. Catherine also has another yappy, hairless dog, but let's not talk about him.
My experience thus far in Search and Rescue has been both enjoyable and
educational. I plan to keep doing this stuff for a quite a while. I hope to
see you all out there in the field.
| Web News | by Tom Russo |
At that time I managed to convince the owners of Southwest Cyberport that Cibola was a worthy cause; they have been donating some $20/month worth of internet service and web storage since June of 1997. Southwest Cyberport also has SunOS/Solaris UNIX systems, so much of the programming could be used as-is. In October of 1997, Mary and Chuck left the team and I took over as primary webmaster. Actually, I took over as sole webmaster. Since then the site has been restructured considerably, and a much more secure and fully-featured set of database functions is now in place.
But after over 3 years of doing it all by myself, I think it's time to get some help. There are frequent housekeeping chores do to: backing up the databases takes a few minutes a week, the access logs need to be cleaned out every few weeks lest the disk quota be exceeded --- this takes all of 10 seconds and two or three UNIX commands. Some newsletter publishing chores cannot be done through the web interface and need an hour or two of manual effort on a monthly basis. Final publication of the printed newsletter requires an hour or so of layout massage so that things paginate properly. Programming new database features is also required from time to time; this is by far the most difficult and time consuming of the lot. Most of these tasks are not by themselves very difficult, but the UNIX system can be a little intimidating for the uninitiated, and the combination of these things does add up to some time. I think I spend a couple of hours a week all told, more when a significant new feature for the database is in the making.
I seek one or two people with a bit of time on their hands to volunteer to help with some of these things. For starters I could use some help with the mundane chores of database backup and access log cleaning. Little by little we could share some of the other load such as updating the static pages (e.g. the member guide, pager procedure, FAQ list, etc.) --- this would require that you learn a little about marking up documents with HTML. As you get more comfortable with that, we can let you help edit the newsletter --- this would require even more HTML experience and a few hours a month. And if you are ambitious, I could help you learn PERL and MySQL and you could help extend the features of our already very valuable database.
If you have the time and interest, please contact me. If you have any UNIX and web experience, like, groovy, wow, pretty please contact me. If you have UNIX, web and database experience, I beg you to contact me.
The team website can be accessed at http://www.cibolasar.org/
| SAR Resources in Emergency Management | by Jeff Phillips |
The Search and Rescue (SAR) community in the State of New Mexico is a network of highly skilled people who could perform valuable roles in emergency and disaster response at the local level. By tasking SAR resources, local first responders can be freed up to perform the tasks for which they are specially trained. Local Emergency Managers would benefit a great deal by knowing who and what these resources are, what they are capable of and how to access them. The following is information about the State<92>s SAR resources; Emergency Managers are encouraged to determine what resources are available to them locally and to develop working relationships with them.
SAR Resource Specialties include air, avalanche, cave, ELT, ground, horse, mine, K-9, snow, technical, vehicle and water search, rescue, recovery and evacuation. There are communications support (i.e., mobile command posts, air to ground, communications vans, portable repeaters, resource dispatch and logistics), medical and food service resources available. SAR personnel arrive with their expertise and equipment (generators, lights, radios, tents and trailers, etc.) and are capable of sustaining themselves for at least 24 hours in severe conditions.
The State SAR Resource Officer, Rick Goodman, maintains a directory of resources (persons, agencies and organizations) available in the state. He can be contacted at 505-827-9228 or rgoodman@dps.state.nm.us
There are a minimum of two SAR-trained State Police Officers in each State Police District designated as SAR Mission Initiators. These Mission Initiators are responsible for investigating potential SAR situations and if a SAR mission is deemed advisable, the State SAR Plan is put into effect by assigning an Incident Number to a Field Coordinator. The Field Coordinator is responsible for managing the incident, on scene, during the operational phase and is supported by an Area Commander (also a Field Coordinator). The Area Commander is responsible for overseeing the management of single or multiple incidents and reporting developments to the Chief of the NM State Police.
When a Field Coordinator accepts the assignment of a SAR incident they become the Incident Commander for that SAR incident and are responsible for initiating, alerting, assigning and directing all SAR resources participating on the incident. All SAR incidents in the State of New Mexico must be managed by the NIIMS Incident Command System (ICS) per the Governor's order and the SAR Act of 1978. The Incident Commander establishes an Incident Base which will be the principal base of field operations for that SAR incident. The Field Coordinator acting as Incident Commander will be a member of the Unified Command during a large-scale emergency or disaster. The New Mexico State Police is the final authority and will resolve any disputes during the operational phase of the incident.
For information on SAR Resources in your area Rick Goodman (above) or Jeff Phillips at 505-476-9677 or jphillips@dps.state.nm.us
| Special Notes |
Please remember to keep your Cibola records up to date. If you change phone or pager numbers, cancel pager service, move, get a new cell phone, or any such change, please notify Susan so we have as accurate a phone tree and member records as is possible. -- submitted by Susan Corban
| Disclaimer and Copyright notice | the Editors |