It's nice to see the Hike (or Bike) of the Month back in operation by Joyce. This month she has planned a great hike in the Pecos. It would be a great opportunity to learn more about an area we've often missioned in - (that's a new SAR word). Let's support her efforts by attending.

Aaron is continuing to offer great trainings. August will be something different and useful to all, Terrain Identification. The September training is becoming a tradition for the Albuquerque SAR community, our annual Mock Search. Steve has been working hard on preparing for it and with the committed addition of AMRC and other state teams it should be even better this year. I'd like to see 100% team attendance on this one.

We've been asked again by Open Space to start off the Fall Fireside Chat series in September with our great presentation on Outdoor Preparedness. We're also hosting a hike the next day. Both events are always well attended and we sometimes stir up a few outdoor types interested in joining. Let Frances know if you are interested in helping out.

The officers met recently with our AMRC counterparts for a nice discussion on many aspects of the two organizations and SAR in general. A small committee will meet soon to develop a joint litter protocol and its implementation via a training sometime later in the year. Everyone seemed to feel that continuing a joint training every year was a good idea. AMRC is also committed to the Mock Search and their Training Officer will be working with Steve to finalize their role. Both teams also agreed to share their training schedules so that all members could take advantage of what each has to offer. All in all I think the meeting was productive and positive. I remain optimistic that Cibola and AMRC can work together to better serve Albuquerque and themselves.

The forests have opened up and missions are on the rise. We all look forward to getting back into them, either as visitors or doin' our SAR duty. So stay in shape, and good rescuing.

Boots and Blisters

by Aaron Hall, Training Officer

Horray! The forests are open again and we have the opportunity to do some hiking. I've planned our next training to take advantage of this. August's training will be Terrain Identification for Land Navigation. It will be held at the Embudo trailhead at the East end of Indian School on Saturday, August 10th at 8:00 am. (The earlier time is to prevent us from hiking during the hottest part of the day.) I've designed this training specifcally to teach you how to identify terrain features around you using a topographic map. This training will begin with a "class room" session about topographic maps and terrain identification. This session will be followed by a hike approximately 2 miles long. You will be given terrain features that you must locate on your map and hike to, much like a compass course, but without the emphasis on the compass. It should be an enjoyable hike and good preparation for the August Land Navigation Evaluation that will be held at the Embudo Trailhead at the East End of Indian School on Saturday, August 24th at 9:00 am. Also, Cibola voted recently to provide all members with topographic maps of the Sandia's. Tony Gaier has those maps and we will be working with them during this training. It should be a good opportunity to become familiar with your new maps if you aren't already familiar with them.

July was a good month for trainings and evaluations. Tom Russo put on a Low Angle Equipment and Techniques training, Thanks Tom! Six people passed July's litter evaluation, way to go people!

September's training is one to be looking forward to. It will be our annual mock search. Steve Buckley is leading the planning for this training, Thanks Steve. It will begin sometime on the evening of the 21st and will likely end sometime on the morning of the 22nd. Put this on your calendar and plan to be there. The annual mock search has typically been one of Cibola's best trainings and I think one of the most fun. Other teams from around the state usually participate, so its a great opportunity to meet other people in the NM SAR community.

Minutes of the 11 July, 2002 Business Meeting

Pre-meeting mini lesson was presented by David Dixon on Knot Tying. The team practiced tying the knots required for the litter handling evaluation.

President's Report David Dixon started the meeting with the introduction of the officers and general introductions. The team discussed the pending meeting with AMRC to generate joint protocols for litter evacuations, preparations for the Mock Search, activities to update the Member's Guide, procuring Team vests/shirts, and concerns with the new training policy.

Vice-President/Training Aaron Hall was absent. David Dixon reminded members of the dates for upcoming trainings and evaluations.

Treasurer Art Fischer was absent. Steve Buckley covered inputs to the Treasurer.

Membership Steve Buckley discussed the Member's Guide review process and stated he wanted to get the final draft in front of the team by the August meeting. He also discussed planning for the Mock Search. The team identified 21 September as a good date for the event.

Equipment Tony Gaier reported that he is procuring maps of the Sandias (4 sheets) for the membership. The team decided to buy four Etrex GPS's and give them to the high mission attenders for a six-month period. The measure was approved (13 for/0 against).

The team decided to buy two team radios and give them to the high mission attenders for a six-month period. The measure was approved (13 for/0 against).

Medical The team discussed the requirement for the WFRs to get CE courses. The Team discussed renting video tapes from the EMS Region II Video Loan Program to meet the need.

P.R. Committee Frances Robertson reported that there would be a presentation on Wilderness Preparedness and Survival on September 7 in the Open Space. She also stated that there would be two Boy Scout events in late September.

New Business New business included awarding the Bronze Boot to Aidan Thompson and Alex Fischer for the El Malpais mission, proposed changes in the phone numbers for one of our pagers, a discussion of a proposal to unite New Mexico SAR teams under the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA), and a proposal to buy new team gear (GPS's, radios, and snowshoes).

Who's Who and New

by Steven Buckley, Membership Officer

Let me be the first to congratulate our newest full members. Don Codding and Mark Espelien completed all training requirements with the July litter eval. Congrats! Several other perspective members are very close to completing their training as well. We received several new contacts this month but had no new prospective members. One member was restored to field status by making up the first half training deficiency. The rest of the training-deficient members will be restored to field status as soon as the deficient training is made up. I urge you to come to the trainings; we need you in the field. I have finalized the Member's Guide for your review. Please review the changes and provide any comments to me ASAP. The changes are marked in blue.

We have begun planning our Mock Search. We are planning to hold it on 21 September. I have been contacted by many New Mexico SAR organizations that wish to participate. This year's Mock Search should be a great event. I look forward to seeing all of you turn out to be tested by the devious - I mean ingenious - scenarios your Mock Search Committee is contemplating.

Public Relations

by Frances Robertson

CSAR is now booked as the first presenters of the Fall Open Space Series at Elena Gallegos Picnic Area. On Saturday, September 7, 7 PM, we'll do a lecture/discussion on wilderness prepardness and basic survival skills. On Sunday, September 8, 10 AM, we'll present an activity for the public (a hike, demonstration, or hands on activity) determined by forest access at that time. If you'd be willing to help with either of these events, please let me know. Each presentation should take about 4 hours, travel time included, and it's fun to work with the folks who show up for these events.

We are also on the schedule with indefinite dates in September and Octocber (at this time) for presentations to several scout troops. The topic will probably be search techniques. If you like working with kids or are a kid at heart, this is your thing.

The next PR committee meeting is Wednesday, August 21, 6:30 PM at the Frontier Restaurant. If you like intimate meetings, this committee is for you. Bring your ideas, leave with a belly full of Frontier's special burritos.

Medical News

by Mike Dugger

Two video CE courses were offered on July 28, for a total of 3.5 hours BLS medical CEs for the folks who showed up. The first topic was "Heat-Related Emergencies," and discussed the signs, symptoms and treatment of a spectrum of hyperthermal conditions. The second topic was "Falls from Heights," which discussed injury mechanisms present in falls of different types. There was also a segment in the second video on packaging a subject for litter evacuation in cold, snowy weather. Although not as effective as a hands-on course, there was a lot of good information in both videos. Look for announcements of other medical videos in the coming weeks. If you are not a medical provider, but wish to attend these videos, please let me know.

Remember that we still have a review scheduled with our medical director on the evening of August 19. We plan to review missions where medical care was provided during the past year and a half. Please check the voicemail for updates on location.

Web News

by Tom Russo

Please take a look at the phone tree as it appears in this issue. This is substantially similar to how the final version will look when I'm done with my website programming changes.

You will see that instead of (Not Avail.) appearing when a member hasn't had enough trainings in a 6-month period to go on missions, there will be a notation "(TD 1)" or "(TD 2)." This indicates "Training Deficient," just like it has for the past two months, but the number following the TD indicates how many trainings that member must take in order to go back on mission-available status.

Remember, the new team policy is that if you are short of your training requirement in a 6 month period, you must make up that shortage in the next period in order to go on missions, and must take two additional trainings in the current period in order to stay on available status next period. This is the flipside of the statement "you can go back on available status as soon as you make up your deficiency, but you can't count those trainings towards this period's requirements." If you begin two periods in a row with a training shortage you're dropped from the roster.

In order to help you keep track of your own status more easily, I've set up the phone tree generating program to add a flag to your entry for the last two months of each period. If a (W) appears next to your name in May, June, November or December, then you are warned that while you didn't have a shortage last period you are two months away from the end of the period and not yet finished your requirements. If a (WW) appears, it means you were deficient last period and made up that deficiency but have not yet completed your requirements for this period; if you don't complete your requirements you will be dropped from the team roster. You get the two months heads-up so that you are aware that you have only two more opportunities to complete your requirements. This should take some burden off the membership officer of writing up those warning letters --- please heed the warning and spare him the pain of having to wag a finger at you.

I hope these new changes help members keep track of their own status in an "at-a-glance" format. Please let me know if there are any ways you see to make it more readable and informative as I continue to "re-bug" the web functions.

One last item: you may notice that the new "member information database" page has links for "Ham Operators," "Members with Email" and "Members with Pagers." It used to be a phenomenal drag do do something like "send email to all members with email." No more. Each of these three pages generates a clickable link at the bottom that will send an email to everyone on that page who has an email address. This should be used sparingly, as we have the team list server for most purposes --- some people don't want to receive lots of team-related email and have chosen not to subscribe to the listserve for that reason --- but this should be a helpful thing to have available.

The team website can be accessed at http://www.cibolasar.org/

CISM, Part 4: The Big One

by Joyce Rumschlag

You are on the mission from hell. Everything has gone wrong and in rapid succession. You do your job as best as you can with what you have and yet things don't get any better. You've even done things you never thought you were capable of doing. The mission has gone on longer than anyone could have guessed. There's even a fresh I.C. on duty. You've been out in the field so long you wonder if the new I.C. even knows that you are still out there. We have the makings of critical incident stress here. When eventually your team is pulled out of the field, the I.C. has members of NMCISM (New Mexico Critical Incident Stress Management) team there to defuse or do one-on-ones. But you may be tired, cold, wet or hungry and all you want to do is go home so you pass on the opportunity. In a day or so you're asked to attend a debriefing. A debriefing is a seven step process, using the ICISF (International Critical Incident Stress Foundation) method. The debriefing will take between 1 and 3 hours and afterward the debriefing team will make themselves available if you have anything to say that you didn't want to talk about during the debriefing or if you have any questions. The team members will have additional hand outs that may be of help to you. I carry "Common Signs of Stress", "A Practical Guide To Feeling Better", "Eight Ways to Deal With Stress"," Suggested Post-Critical Incident Do's and Don'ts", and "Things To Try" including suggestions for family members and friends. I carry these with me because I like the way the information is presented.

Follow ups after the debriefing are available as well as referrals. There is help out there that will get you back on the job or out in the field whatever the case may be. This, my friends, is what we have been trained to do. We have prepared ourselves so we can offer our services to you because we understand how important it can be in the recovery from exposure to a critical incident as well to lesson the emotional impact of the situation. You are the best judge to tell if things just don't feel right with you, just ask for help.

This is the end of this series of articles, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

There is a 24 hour CISM hot line number to schedule debriefings, defusings or one-on-ones. Please contact me for the phone number.

Disclaimer and Copyright notice

the Editors

The contents of this newsletter are copyright © 2002 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.