Officers are important and they do a lot of work for the team, but there are also other people who make this team happen. We have three standing committees and they need leaders. Those committees are Public Relations, Equipment, and Medical. The PR committee coordinates and conducts all of our recruiting and preventative SAR functions. They are our outreach to the community and they represent Cibola to the public. Attending PR events and talking to people about Search and Rescue is a lot of fun. The equipment committee maintains all of our team gear and purchases new gear for the team gear cache. If you like gear this is the place to be. The Medical committee coordinates all things Medical for Cibola. That means putting together CE classes, maintaining records for our WFRs, and helping new WFRs get trained. All of these functions are vital to the team and we need people who are willing to step up to the plate and make them happen. As the weather turns cold and you find yourself digging through your pack for that extra pullover or a warmer hat think about being an officer or getting involved with a committee. It's fun and it's an important way to serve your team.

Boots and Blisters

by Steven Buckley, Training Officer

The Mock Search is upon us. In the final month before we hold this training there is much work still required. My biggest concern today is that I have not been able to fill all of the ICS staff positions.

I need the following:

1. Help with making the "aircraft". I need cardboard, white paint, yellow/green paint and painting supplies.
2. Help lining up a couple of "medical" dummies (nothing personal intended). I would like two, an adult and a child. We can make these if required.
3. Help lining up the Office of the Medical Examiner (OME). Tom Russo gave me a contact for this but I have not been able to get to it. I would like to delegate it to someone.
4. Scouting assistance.
5. Possibly help lining up permission for the location.
6. Possibly some ICS staff.
7. Tom Russo might need help simulating bodacious wounds (otherwise known as moulaging).
8. A subject or two.

Please let me know if you have been saving any cardboard for this event. Also please let me know if you are willing to take some of this work on. I appreciate the help during this very busy time for me at home and work. I could also use some volunteer trainers to help carry the load in October and November. Please let me know if you would like to conduct a training event. Finally, we need you all to get the word out to maximize participation.

Again, thanks for the training assist in these difficult times. I appreciate the support.

Business as Usual:Meeting Minutes

by Lili Ziesmann, Secretary

Minutes of the 14 August 2003 Business Meeting

Old Business

Pager issues: Mike Dugger reported that he has been working with Contact to improve pager performance. He also did some research with Verizon. Last year Contact tried to get us to abandon our 858-xxxx numbers, since they no longer control them. Qwest can inadvertently change our numbers and interrupt service. Last month's pager test did not point to any patterns related to age of pagers or locations. Our system of pager 1 and 2 and 5 tree tops should catch a page at some point. Procedural problems with 900 MHz and 150 MHz pagers. Arch and Contact 900 MHz pagers did not perform better in tests than our original 150 MHz Contact pagers. Researched use of cell phones which was cost prohibitive and procedurally difficult. Mike went back to Contact, and with them wrote a 3 page document that outlines our history, concerns, what broke and how to fix it so as Contact staff changes we have something to give them. Will also have business cards for each pager handler so that standard settings are easily communicated. Mike's recommendation is to 1)Get off of 858 prefix. Can have two sets of numbers to overlap service for a period of a year; 2) Pager tune-ups - recommend that members go in over the next few months and get a tune up just in case; 3) We need to review our calling procedures, either reduce the time between pager 1, 2 and treetops or initiate callout before a detailed recording is done. Just do a very brief message the first time and go back to fill in detail after the tree has been activated.

Land Nav Committee: The committee met last Saturday after the training. They recommended eliminating the resection, add terrain identification and map orientation, identify 3 out of 5 terrain features selected by evaluator, add GPS component - entering current datum and relate back to map, add magnetic, plot UTM coordinates on the map to 200 m and a course to +/-5 degrees. All this in addition to distance and bearing skills. Some members felt the resection should not be eliminated altogether, as it does incorporate terrain identification, map orientation and coordinates.

Treasurer

Lili reminded members that if they are considering a donation to Cibola through UW or CFC, they must request a donor option card, otherwise we don't get a part of the regular campaign money.

Training

The Mock Search has been moved to Oct 4th-5th. Steve asked for more help in planning and executing the search. Volunteers should contact him as soon as possible.

Medical

Congratulations to Aidan Thompson for taking the WFR course in El Rito. His WMA paper work still needs to be done. Mike Dugger is working to schedule a WFR refresher course in spring of 2004.

P.R. Committee

David Dixon reported he still needed more volunteers for the Sunset Chat on August 23rd, Open Space Hike on the 24th, UNM Day on the 29th and Public Lands Day at Sandia Crest on September 20th. He invested $40 for a 9x9 "Easy-up" canopy that will get much use at these and other P.R. events. The shirt embroidery person moved to north 2nd St so he is a little more inconvenient. David should have samples by next month.

New Business

Storage container proposal - need to find a place to store it, temperature control, cost is under $2K.

It is also time to consider candidates for Officers for 2004. Please consider any position for others or that you would like to fill.

Cabezon peak climb planned on August 23rd. Contact Terry Hardin if you're interested.

Gearing Up

by Tony Gaier, Equipment Committee chair

Greetings from the Gear Guy! Everything is going well with the team's equipment. I have plenty of supplies so if you need replacement items for ones used on missions please see me. We also still have GPS units and radios for sign-out. It is starting to cool off in the mountains which means fall is just around the corner. You may want to start looking at the contents of your pack and see if it is ready to support you on a fall/winter mission. It's better to figure that out now than when you're spending a frigidly cold night in the Sandia Mountains.

Public Relations

by David Dixon

August was a busy month for PR. On the 23rd Bob, Adam and I did our Outdoor Preparedness Presentation to a small but interested group at Elena Gallegos Picnic Ground. The next morning I conducted the Open Space Hike with another small group by myself so Bob could go on a mission. I think we left both groups more knowledgeable about the outdoors, gear and clothing. On the 29th we had enough volunteers help staff our booth at UNM Welcome Back Day where we got a good list of potential members. As usual thanks to all those that helped with these events.

We have two more upcoming PR events. On Saturday the 20th we have been asked to have a table at Public Lands Day on the Crest. This sounds similar to July's Sandia Wilderness Day and another good recruiting opportunity for us. I haven't been able to make a commitment to them though as so far only Bob has volunteered. (I will probably be at SC Training in Silver City). And on October 18th we are giving a talk on Cibola to the Mt. Club. No volunteers yet for this except me so you know the routine if you are interested in helping with either event.

We finally have someone who will do team embroidery for us. Scott at Duke City Graphics, 7522 2nd NW will put our logo or your name on almost any item of clothing for $5 each. ($10 for both). If you didn't make the meeting to see the samples he has some he'll show you. The embroidery is a nice option to our team patch.

The next PR Committee meeting is on Wednesday, September 24th, 6:30 p.m.at Frontier Restaurant. I would really enjoy having some enchiladas with a few others. Come and we'll talk about lots of things important to Cibola

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.