Hello All!!
 

Hi there, just found this forum and signed up to it.

Live near Mintlaw in Aberdeenshire. not a member of the local response group (cotag) as they are full but still always willing to help out the locals round here in the great snowy times we are having.

Hello and welcome, we are just next door to cotag :)

Yeah if i lived a bit further north i would join the highland response.

Hi
 

Hi welcome to the forum I'm new to this as well I hope to join Tayside 4x4 response.

Colin

COTAG are full?

What a wonderful position to be in!

Personally we won't be full until we have every experienced 4x4 Driver in Hertfordshire and North London signed up :D

Colin.. i know i few folk down Tay way, Im a member of the off road club down there. bit of a hike, but a good laugh.

Yeah not sure how Cotag are full.. surely the more the merrier to help out but just the way it is i guess.

Hi I'm thinking about joining them but not sure I have signed up to there forum will see how it goes they have a meeting on the 27th but I have to pick my future son in law up from Glasgow airport that morning thats if the airport is open. Hope to meet you some day. Have a great Christmas.

i wish RNE were full, we've room for hundreds more if they want to join :)

I'd be more than happy for Steve to Join RNE and deploy for which ever team he is closest to......;)LOL

Nigel.

Well they are definitely full... http://www.cotag.net/news/news01.php#

Yes there not taking new members at present, the reason is clear on their news page. While this might seem not good when you want to volunteer to help, please remember that to complete the criteria that they and other groups have does take time and money. Which means your most likely not going to be able to respond to calls at the moment anyway.

Look at it from another angle, they state that funding ongoing training and equipment is an issue, which is no suprise for many teams. Why not offer to help with fundraising for the team, make sure you keep in touch with them, this might help them to open up their membership process sooner.

Funding is an issue for all teams and those that put a minimum level of training/equipment in place and one that is not always easily resolved. We at Lothian’s 4x4 Response have the same issues and acknowledge that ongoing funding will limit the operational effectiveness of any team if not addressed correctly.

We've aactually suspended recruiting but that's as a result of lessons learned -- We have previously had a lot of requests to join during snow; floods etc only for 50% OR MORE of those to melt (drain) away when the event is over. So we'll start again come February.

Ah ha that's a different story then, there not full, they just can't afford more at the moment.....

As always people want to join as soon as the snow arrives and expect to be used immediately, or they don't ultimatelly join or the wait till the next time it snows.....we are currently re-addressing our procedures as a result, as I type.....it's not that the system we use at the moment doesn't work, we just want it to work better.....!!!!

Nigel.

Colin, they are only setting up on the 27th, event is the 28th. Dont think im going to make this one though, steering in bits at the moment and with the snow im stuck waiting on parts.