Conducted At Mills Farm Hancock,
Maryland Officers & Directors Present and Time Period Present Peter McCabe Saturday from 1330 & Sunday
to 1230
Martha Geary Saturday from 1700 & Sunday to 1230
Keith Conover Saturday from 1330 to 1930
Tom Hirchak Saturday from 1330 to 2400
Ron Wisbith Saturday from 1400 to 2300 Others present
Ken Snyder, representing Roy
Keiser, PSARC Central Region Saturday from 1330 & Sunday to 1230 Jim
Howley, Thornhurst SAR
Saturday from 1330 & Sunday to
1230
New Articles of Incorporation have
been approved effective February 17, 1994. A Nominating Committee will be
appointed at the March 19 Council meeting to solicit nominees for a special
election to be conducted to fill the three new Directors positions.
Reballoting for
Officer and Director positions has been completed with those elected to take
office at the March 19 PSARC meeting. Elected for 2-year terms as officers are:
Peter McCabe, President; Martha Geary, Vice President and President-Elect;
Keith Conover, Secretary; and Greg Sassaman, Treasurer. The Director elected
for a 4-year term is Jim Howley.
Concerning the PSARC radio
licensing situation, a motion was made (Conover) and seconded (Hirchak) to ask
the PSARC Communications Committee to make a written report to the Council
membership on their findings regarding the VHF radio licensing situation to
enable a decision to be made whether or not to proceed with a formal hearing.
Brief discussion followed. Vote was unanimous in favor. Motion passed.
Concerning the need to develop a
disciplinary procedure process in the Council. A motion was made (Conover), and
seconded (Hirchak) to create a disciplinary procedure process for Delegates and
elected and appointed officers of the Council. Brief discussion followed
regarding language
contained in a procedure used by
another group. Materials were revised, read and edited several times to a final
version. Vote was unanimous in favor. Motion passed.
Concerning the need to work with
PEMA to improve the coordination of search and rescue services in the
Commonwealth. A motion was made (Wisbith), and endorsed (Howley) for the PSARC
President to write to the Director of PEMA making a series of recommendations
to improve SAR services in the Commonwealth by coordinating existing services.
A draft letter was read with suggested revisions made. Vote was unanimous in
favor. Motion passed.
Concerning existing SAR training materials
and curriculum objectives in Pennsylvania. A motion was made (Wisbith), and
seconded (Hirchak) for the President, PSARC to write to the State Fire Training
Academy for copies of all search and rescue training materials and training
curricula to enable the PSARC Training Committee to review existing materials
and learning objectives for the three courses. Vote was 4 in favor, and 1 not i
favor. Motion passed.
Concerning the need to address
existing wilderness SAR training needs for PSARC member units relative to the
existing PEMA State Fire Training Academy program, it was recommended that the
PSARC Board establish a educational curriculum coordinating committee on an
immediate basis with membership including, but not limited to, Ken Boyles,
individuals from PEMA and the State Fire Training Academy, the PSARC
President-Elect, and Keith Conover. This
recommendation was not in the form of a motion. All were in favor of the
recommendation.
Concerning the process of moving towards
the goal of mutual aid in PSAR operations, the Board recommended that as the
process moves forward to revise existing training curricula at the State Fire
Training Academy to reflect PSARC training standards, the Council should
proceed with development of a draft operations manual and standard operating
procedur guidelines for PSARC member teams. All were in favor of the
recommendation.
The President indicated that with
recent elections and the forthcoming special election for three new Director
positions on the Board, there would be reassignments of Director
responsibilities with those to be determined. At this time, Director
assignments would include Training, Operations, Ethics and Grievances,
Inter-state liaison, and new member liaison. One Director would be asked to
serve as the Executive Officer. It was also announced that several changes
would be made in the PSARC Regional Ranracantativc line in
The meeting was adjourned on March
6 at 1230 hours.