Quote:
Originally Posted by BobWessex
Therefore the trustees cannot currently envisage a reason why a member should join more than one team.
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I can help the trustees out on that point.
I'm a member of two SAR teams. There's my home team, of which i am a full member and do most of my call puts.
Then there's the second team of which I am an associate member. This came about because I have family on their patch and spend a lot of time there. I noticed from Twitter that while is a in their patch there were jobs I could have helped with, including one less than a mile from where I was. I contacted their chairman and became an Associate Member. I don't train with them, don't do fundraising with them, and its up to me to make sure all my training and certification are kept up to date with my home team but I'm on their call out list and can and do attend their occasional job on their patch. The only concession from me is that I pay £20 annually to go on their insurance.
It works very well and is refreshingly easy in practice...
IF people actually want to make it work. After all, if there's a major incident while I'm over there it would be wasteful and petty not to let me assist just because of politics and squabbling.
So now you know - other volunteer responder organisations do it, and do it well. All it takes is a willingness to make it happen.
The Police do it (off duty officers regularly make arrests on someone elses turf, done it myself on a few occasions over the years). In extreme weather or national emergency the Police report to their nearest station, regardless of which Force they work for or where their home station may be. So do Ambo (ditto - they're not going to let someone die just because they're on someone elses patch enjoying an ice cream), and so do SAR. The end-game is assisting the public, and anything that gets in the way of that goal should be dismissed, overcome or eliminated.
