As a leader for a small volunteer search and rescue one of the things I often struggle with is keeping member motivated and ethusiastic about the group. I think people often come into the organization expecting to immediately be called to action to help locate a missing child. What many people don't realize is the commitment that must be made to not only training, which will help ensure the safety of team members and the subject, but the necessary tasks that are needed to move the organization further and to help it grow. I am boggled by the fact that people choose to join the group and than are not willing to participate in any of the activities.
One of the side-effects of this behavior is the impression that it leaves on new perspective members. During a meeting, when no one volunteers to assist with a routine administrative duties the new perspective member interprets that to mean the group is not interested in performing even the simpliest of functions needed to keep itself coherent.
I sat in the meeting on another organization the other day. This volunteer group had nothing to do with SAR but another area that I am interested in. Throughout this meeting, the coordinator discussed tasks that needed to be done. The tasks that were being requested were directly linked to what the organization was all about. Like asking a group a baseball players if the wanted to play baseball. Over and over again the coordinator was met with silence when looking for someone to perform the requested tasks. Why were these people here if they did not want to do anything? I chose not to return to the group because no one was interested is helping the group grow. This sceanrio is one that I often face with my SAR team.
So the big question I have is what motivates people to serve others? More specifically, why do people get involved in search and rescue?
We all know it is not for the pay as most SAR teams are composed of volunteers. At first read the answer may seem simple..."to help others", but is that really the answer or is that enough of an answer. If it is than you need to ask yourself at what price? Are you only willing to help when it is convient to you (More on this later)? Or maybe more importantly, are you only willing to do certain tasks?
Many that join SAR teams expect action, adventure and excitement, but what they do not realize is there are lots of underlying duties that need to be performed in order to ensure you are able to do your job safely and to make sure you are actually given a chance to do your job (More on this later). Various administartive duties are required in order to keep the group functional. More on this later.
So what is your answer? why are you get involved in search and rescue?
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The intent of this Blog is provide an avenue for me to record some thoughts about the fundamental process of serach and rescue. In particular the use of technology, such as Geographic Information System (GIS) software, geographic position system (GPS), computer networking and various other applications, as well as SAR leadership and team management.
4 comments:
To the question, So what is your answer? why are you get involved in search and rescue?
My answer is really simple, to really help others at first and to work with dogs, those are the main reasons i've joined my sar groups (http://www.acrs.qc.ca)afterwards the duty that every members has to accomplish told me that my groups was really serious and really wanted to help. We have practice every week we each have our work to do, mine is to update our website wich is on the way and to make sur that my german sheppard as all her shots and exam at the vet to date. As to how much are we willing to help, well let me say that for my part, as soon as the beeper beeps i'm ready to leave, my bosses know about it and accept the fact, it's has if a was a volunteer firefighter except that we received less call than those guys. So in conclusion if i could get paid to be a K-9 sartech without being in the police i would be the happiest man on earth.
I'm a member, TL and board member of a SAR organization in Washington State. Member management has been our true pain. We bring a lot of folks onboard, and then they disappear when they find out they don't just immediately go on missions - that they do need training too.
Or, the worse is when we get good people on board and they leave because of lack of training and/or communication.
We need better ways to communicate with our organization members, teams and the community. Not to mention, better ways to communicate with other SAR organizations.
I'm sure all organizations share similar pains - having a single communications means would be helpful.
Actually, as an owner of a software development company (15+ years in business) - I'm finally dedicating some of my staff resources to building such a community and soon adding in member management and record keeping (ie. training records). Its way overdue and the ones out there are just terrible imo.
Your article was great - I wish I had seen it sooner.
I'm a member of the Coconino County, Arizona, Sheriff's Search & Rescue team, which receives over 100 calls per year. So our pagers are quite active, at all hours of the day and night. Our ground team (as opposed to our mounted unit) currently consists of about 60 members, all of whom must go through a 50-some-odd hour Basic Training Academy before they receive a pager and can wear the uniform shirts. Of those 60 people, maybe half are very active, and I mean very, showing up for the majority of call-outs and meetings. Our team requirement is a measely 50 hours per year, including missions, trainings, and other SAR events, and most folks do well over the minimum. I'm not sure if it's the large number of calls that keeps people motivated, the good leadership, the ongoing training opportunities, the occasional fun "treats" and volunteer appreciation events, or a combination of multiple factors, but I sure know we all feel great after a successful mission. Morale is pretty high after the recent, multi-agency rescue effort at Havasupai, where we evacuated more than 400 people from the flooded canyon. I keep a blog of our activities at Deb's Search & Rescue Stories if interested.
This is really great information site.
Nice Site....great work...
Hardware and Networking
Post a Comment