As 2003 goes by please rembember that Search and Rescue teams don't run by themselves. There is a whole lot more to Search and Rescue than just responding to a mission. Just like on a mission, it takes teamwork and participation from everyone to keep things going. Please take the time to do some of that other work that keeps Cibola functioning and makes this team what it is. Attend an extra training or two, join the PR comittiee, write a newsletter article, conduct an evaluation, take pager 1, take pager 2, plan and conduct a training, lead a hike of the month or a "brew and shoe", become an officer, help clean the gear cache, track down a supplier of orange shirts, convince a friend to join Cibola, introduce yourself to new people who show up to our business meetings, mentor a prospective member, the list goes on and on and on. Just remember, what you do in the field and out of the field makes Cibola the great SAR team that it is.

Let's have a fun and productive 2003!

Boots and Blisters

by Steven Buckley, Training Officer

Thanks for electing me Vice President/Training Officer. I also want to apologize for missing our first meeting this year...duty calls. This article will outline most of what I wanted to say face-to-face at the meeting. I have several ideas that I want to try for our training program this year. The first is that I want to recognize that the trainings needs of each of you are different. The most obvious difference is between new prospective members who are working on passing evaluations for the first time and the veterans who really don't need the training to pass the evaluation. To meet the needs of the new folks, it is imperative that the training program compliment the evaluation program. This drives a "standard" training event on the same subject as the evaluation for that month to be held shortly before the scheduled evaluation. A key component of our training program this year will focus on this requirement. These trainings will follow a standard convention for scheduling. I have tentatively scheduled them on the weekend before the business meeting and alternate between Saturdays and Sundays throughout the year. The other major component of our training program this year is composed so something I am calling "optional" trainings. These are similar to the "Hike of the Month" program. These are not intended to replace the "Hike of the Month" program but there will certainly be "optional" trainings that look a lot like a Hike of the Month. For example, I am looking at several "peak bagging" trips including a winter ascent of Wheeler Peak. I am also looking at GPS related activities such as Geocaching and would like to add specialty trainings such as man-tracking. I ask each of you to send me any ideas you might have for trainings that you think would be useful, different, and fun. The final element of our training program is the pre-meeting training events. I am looking for ideas for these trainings as well. These consist of half-hour mini-lessons and represent the element of our training program requiring the least effort.

As you can see, I have an ambitious training program scheduled that should provide ample opportunity to ensure none of you go "training deficient". It should also be evident that this training load will quickly use up a single individual if that person was the only person executing this program. In addition, while I pride myself on my outdoor skills, I am not the expert on everything and our membership has many individuals much more qualified than me to give some of these trainings. I have already asked some of our veteran members to help with this training program. For example, some of the most valuable things that I learned about litter evacuations came as "tricks of the trade". Larry Mervine taught me the best way to level a litter while still a perspective member. I learned another trick to save my aching back while on the uphill side of a litter from AMRC. I want these valuable techniques, learned through long experience, to be part of the lore passed on to the new members. Mike "doc" Dugger is an excellent choice to provide a medical component to our training program. Tom Russo, as our most experienced Ham, has already agreed to do an "optional" training on Ham techniques. As one of the most inexperienced Hams on the team, I am looking forward to that one. Thanks to those of you who have already committed to passing your knowledge on to the rest of us. We will be stronger for your wisdom and experience. It is also clear that the request for assistance doesn't apply to our veteran members exclusively. I need everyone's help to execute this program. For example, I see the pre-meeting trainings to be the membership's area. I will beg for topics and trainers and administer the program but I hope to never be required to give a pre-mission training. You guys have great skills and knowledge that the rest of us can benefit from. Pre-meeting trainings are quick and easy and give you a chance to teach us something useful. Thanks to David Chapek for setting up this month's training on packaging a hypothermic litter subject. Pre-meeting trainings are also a great way for new prospective members to share their skills.

Here is what I need from all of you:

1. Provide ideas for specialty trainings such as 4WD training, man-tracking, etc.
2. Volunteer to give an "optional" training.
3. Volunteer to give some of our "standard" trainings. This is especially important for you veteran members that have loads of experience that would benefit the team.
4. Provide topics and volunteer to give a pre-meeting training.
5. Provide feedback on our training program continuously so I can adjust it to meet your needs.
6. Participate as trainees.

The training program is aimed at you as a customer. Please help me make our training program effective, fun, and trouble-free this year.

Business as Usual:Meeting Minutes

by Joyce Rumschlag, Secretary

The December business meeting was held was held on Sunday, Decemer 15 at St. Chad's. While the Christmas party was the "main event", we did discuss some business.

Out going President David Dixon presented awards to: David Chapek for Highest Mission Attendance
David Dixon for Highest Training Attendance
David Chapek for Rookie of the Year
And member service awards to:
Terry Hardin 1991, Larry Mervine 1993, Mike Dugger 1994, Mickey Jojola 1995, Tom Russo 1996, David Dixon 1997.

A special award was given to Tom Russo for his service as webmaster Thank all of your for your splendid accomplishments!

Office elections also took place with the following results President: Aaron Hall,
Vice President: Steve Buckley,
Secretary: Joyce Rumschlag
Membership: David Chapek
Treasurer: Lili Ziesmann
Congratulations!

We are all looking forward to another year of working to keep Cibola Search and Rescue the best SAR team in the United States.

Since officers will continue to submit their articles monthly. Notes that will be found in the Business As Usual section will consist of additions, changes to officers column and information that bares repeating.

Looking forward to a new year and lots of exciting traings and misisons.

Pinching Pennies

by Lili Ziesmann, Treasurer

Thanks to all of you for trusting me with the office of Treasurer. It looks as though the excellent organization of prior officers has paved the way to make this a smooth transition for me. I've looked back at old newsletters to see what the biggest problems with our finances seem to be. You guessed it, Gas Vouchers! So, as a dutiful Treasurer, here's a refresher, or for you new folks, a quick primer on receipts:

1. Jot down how much fuel you have, or your mileage (if you know your vehicle's average MPG usage) before leaving for the mission.
2. After the mission is over, jot down your fuel or mileage again. This will help you calculate how much fuel you used on the mission. (A whole tank! Every time? Really!?!)
3. On the Voucher form (you can get them at meetings or print them from our website at http://www.cibolasar.org/membersonly/gasvouch.html) write your name, mission date, mission number, how many gallons and cost of the fuel and oil you used. Be sure to indicate whether you want to be reimbursed for the fuel charges, or if you'd like to donate them to Cibola. And don't forget to sign at the bottom of the form.
4. No reimbursements will be made without a receipt. If you did not buy fuel immediately before or after the mission, save the receipt when you finally do. Be sure to write your name (do you know how many receipts a treasurer gets in a month?) the mission number(s), date(s), the amount of fuel used on the mission(s), and the amount you expect to be reimbursed.

If you're one of the lazy types (like me) that doesn't want to bother with the trouble of reimbursements, consider doing it and donating the cash to Cibola! That makes all the tracking and receipt collecting worth while, doesn't it?

Also, any other purchases approved by the team must have some type of receipt, invoice or other paper-trail-y kind of thing. If you need to be reimbursed for mailing back CE tapes or for committee projects, make sure you provide a receipt, and put your name on it -- don't make me come up with another form! Although we're not subject to regular audits, we want to be sure our ducks are in a row in case we ever are.

PLEASE NOTE: January 28th we will be holding a budget committee meeting at 6:00 at Rudy's BBQ on Carlisle. Here's your chance to help us figure out how to best make and spend team money. Please let me know if you are interested in participating.

Who's Who and New

by David Chapek, Membership Officer

Welcome back another year of training, searching, and the occasional post meeting dinner. I would like to begin by thanking Steve Buckley for his work last year and for handing over a well organized file system. I would also like to thank the Cibola Web staff. The CSAR web site is continually bringing in new inquiries about membership and providing a wealth of information on a variety of topics.

As this year's membership officer, I plan to focus my energies in two primary areas. The first area is the recruitment of new members. We're starting the year with 25 field-certified members, three of whom are prospectives. I'd love to see our numbers reach 35 by year's end. If you know of someone who may be interested in joining, feel free to give them my home number or e-mail, direct them to the web site, or bring them to a meeting.

My second area of focus will be on member retention. In 2002 Cibola lost several members due to a wide range of reasons. I believe that every member of our team is important and brings with them a unique set of skills and experiences that we can all benefit from. With that said, I'll do my best to keep people up to speed on what specific requirements they need to stay active. Make sure you check your member profile on the web and let me know if you're missing credit for an event you've attended.

With that business out of the way, I'd like to welcome Cibola’s first prospective member of 2003, Michael Hines. I'm sure that Michael's extensive outdoor experience will be an asset to the team. We all look forward to seeing you on the trail!

Gearing Up

by Tony Gaier, Equipment Committee chair

The Gear Guy would like to remind you to check your backpacks to ensure you have everything in them required for mission participation. I have batteries (AAA, AA, C, D, & 4.5), trail tape, ear plugs, rubber gloves, and MREs to be used for missions. Please see me if you need anything. People with Mission Supply Boxes please let me know if you need items to restock your boxes.

Web News

by Tom Russo

I've finished the rewrite of the certification database access scripts on the website. I've also been working at getting the Member Guide and Training Policy web pages in line with what the team's voted on. Lastly, I've got a draft of the team's Bylaws on line and linked to from the on-line member guide. There's still some tweaking to do, but members finally have access to the convoluted legalese we voted in early in 2000.

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

Discipline and the SAR Volunteer

by Steven Buckley

I want to try to include at least one article about something important to Cibola SAR's training program each month if I can spare the time. This inaugural article is about something that I think is central to Cibola's mission and efficient operation. That subject is discipline.

There are many forms of discipline that do not involve search and rescue operations. There is parental discipline aimed at forming our children into viable adults. There is military discipline aimed at maintaining control of an armed body of men and ensuring that they stay a team and avoid becoming a mob (and making sure they point those weapons at the right targets). There is self-discipline aimed at ensuring that we each operate in a way that supports our individual goals and values. All of these types of discipline have three things in common. The first is that they all have some formal goal in mind that results from the act of applying discipline. The second is that each type of discipline is applied using formal standards. For example, inappropriate parental discipline can get your kids taken away, the military has a code of laws and regulations, and inappropriate self-discipline can backfire ("I like beating my head against the wall because it feels so good when I stop!") The third is that discipline is not domination. In some circles that can be considered "sport" but it is not discipline! Discipline is purposeful and is aimed at benefiting the people that the discipline is applied to.

SAR discipline shares all of these elements. The goal of discipline in a SAR team is to ensure the group of individuals can operate as an efficient team. In its purest form, this type of discipline is very similar to the discipline of a sports team. Cibola SAR has a set of standards that serve as the core of our team's discipline. The most formal element of Cibola's program that can be considered "discipline" is our training and evaluation standards. We do litter evacuation, searches, and land navigation in certain ways. These techniques are formally defined as training standards and our evaluation program "certifies" that each of us is familiar with and proficient in these skills. Cibola SAR does searches and litter evacuations the "Cibola way" and our training and evaluation standards serve to discipline us to enable efficient team operations vice confused individual actions. Much of the discipline we follow pertains to professional behavior and is implied if not formally defined. For example, we don't speak to the press, "horse around", or speak inappropriate comments that might upset the subject's family on missions. We enter the mission from the base camp in accordance with ICS and Department of Public Safety guidelines. We sign in and make sure we sign out of missions. We use radio communications professionally and appropriately. We execute our assignment safely and resist the urge to rush to a "find" despite the certainty that we are not going to find anything while executing our own assignment. We treat our fellow Cibola members as valued teammates (they are valued, and in my opinion a cut above the average person).

One potential discipline conflict is highlighted by the following example. We have a responsibility to cooperate and smoothly work with other SAR teams while executing our assignment from the Incident Commander. Indeed, for missions such as litter evacuations from deep in the wilderness, we need the additional manpower available from combining different SAR teams to properly accomplish this important task. This cooperation is crucial to our desire to be "professional rescuers". The potential conflict is that while cooperating with other SAR teams is important, differences between Cibola's formal standards and another SAR team's formal standards might cause problems in executing joint rescue activities. This issue is a hairy one. I have spent many hours contemplating this dilemma. The result of that "skull sweat" was that I determined that there was no common solution to this issue, no simple recipe to work it. The only guideline that provides insight on how to work this potential discipline conflict is to focus on the goals of everyone on the mission. Short and simple, we are all there to help the subject-- "So others may live". This is true of the ICS staff, Cibola team members, and other SAR team's members. Applying this guideline is simple: do what is best for the subject. For example, if our team's litter techniques provide a better ride for the subject and keep the rescuers safer, then we should ensure that our standards are used, or at least not compromised. Conversely, if a personality conflict between a Cibola member and another SAR team's member surfaces then we should just suck it up. It does the subject no good to bicker (providing that Cibola's core values and standards are not being compromised) on the mission. The professional would absorb inappropriate personal remarks in the interest of the mission and subject. Of course, how you handle the issue after the subject is safely at the ambulance is your business. If we go out on a joint team composed of Cibola members and other SAR team's members and the other SAR team's members want to deviate from the assignment (to hike to a "find" for instance), the only viable approach is to refuse to maintain the integrity of a joint team since deviating from our assignment without the IC's permission strictly violates Cibola discipline standards. If such a situation should occur, the only thing to do is to act to maintain the integrity of the Cibola SAR team and ourselves by sticking to Cibola's standards. Hard decisions that require the joint team to "agree to disagree" need to be reported to the IC directly for his information and guidance.

I am proud of my affiliation with Cibola SAR. Despite our differences, we combine to provide crucial services to our community. My pride results from the quality of our service and the contribution it provides to our community. The driver that creates this quality service is Cibola's discipline standards. Cibola's discipline is not an onerous burden, intrusive and uncomfortable. It is the stuff that is common to all elite units. It is the source of team pride because it is the source of our ability to work as an efficient team providing quality rescue services to our community.

Disclaimer and Copyright notice

the Editors

The contents of this newsletter are copyright © 2003 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.