SAR Day 72: AGM and hours not tracked.

We had our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday the 28th of September. As a Society under the province of British Columbia, we abide by the Society’s Act, and have to have an AGM once a year to elect our executive members. For some organizations this might be a n interesting meeting with lots of voting and contention for the various roles, but for our society it’s mostly a formality. Everyone realizes that the executive have the resposibility (legal and otherwise) of running the team, and that this takes a lot of effort. We rotate through these roles pretty regularly.

My little hobby of tracking my SAR Days has been an interesting one so far, but I’d like to spend a little time here and mention the hours not tracked. As of August, we are half-way through the year and we’ve had approximately 70 SAR Days, comprising and estimated 167 hours (101 my personal hours). You can se the raw data here.

It came up during the meeting that we should thank one member who had spent quite a bit of time this year putting together our swiftwater rescue trailer. Prior to the construction of the trailer, all of our swiftwater rescue gear was stored on shelves and in duffel bags, and sent out on tasks by stacking it in the back of the boat. With the addition of the swiftwater trailer we now have a dry secure place to put all of the gear, a mobile change room for gearing up and cleaning off, and a way to carry our second boat and motor.

It was brought to our attention that the member who took charge of this project, and his helpers, spent over 50 hours purchasing, and outfitting the trailer.

A second mention was the construction of a third complete rope rescue kit. Also a large project in that a lot of very specific gear had to be purchase and assembles into the various kits and configurations that the team is familiar with, and to make it identical in most ways to the other kits.

A third mention goes out to our truck and transportation chairperson. So that the teams three trucks, two boats and 8 wheel drive ATV are in running order at all times, this person must monitor their status and respond very quickly to repairs, most of the time in the middle of the work day. The fact that all of the vehicles are in running order is a testament to the time this person puts in. I don’t even know how to estimate it.

The list can go on;

• the communications chair maintains the radios, sat phones and repeater systems, 
• the technology chair maintains the web site, computers, software and email system. 
• the training chair and committee makes the training schedule and makes sure that the appropriate training is delivered at the right time, 
• the GSAR (Ground Search and Rescue) trainers make sure our members in training are moving through the curriculum at the right pace, 
• the equipment chair makes sure all of the gear is in top shape
• community education manages presentations to cubs, scouts, guides, and local naturalist and hiking groups on what we do and on wilderness safety
• SAR management maintains the processes and schedule for the managers, one of a group of eight who must respond to tasks before the team does.

These are all untracked time in this little project I’d guess that each of these members (and several other positions) put in an additional 4 hours a week because of their additional responsibilities.