Membership of more than one team

[Richard Jewell]

Originally Posted by BobWessex

Therefore the trustees cannot currently envisage a reason why a member should join more than one team.

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.

[james chalkley]

Originally Posted by Chopper

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.

Richard

That's all very sensible stuff and works because ALSAR have a set level of training and accreditations across the board however because our organisation has grown organically with out central direction or administration each team operates in very different ways. I have noticed this on several instances when we have worked with other 4x4r groups and its unfortunately not just the little things!

There is no way of knowing that a responder from (for the sake of argument) kent will have the same skills, levels of training, competences or equipment carried as a responder from Carlisle and here lies the problem.

We train regularly with our local SAR group and have tried to emulate some of the key skills and practices, infact all of our police vetted members have the opportunity to go through a search tec's course with KSAR .. this gives the team the edge when responding to a SAR callout as they know exactly whats expected of them.

I would have no issue welcoming members of other groups if I knew they had been trained and operated to the same standard as my team, thats not to say I think my team is superior to any other, it is purely because as a trustee and officer of the group I have the confidence in my guys and their training to know that if anything untoward should happen I can back them 100% knowing they have followed the training as set out in the members manual and followed correct procedure.

unfortunately its about mitigating risk and liability for me, my members and my user agencies.