• Persons to chair the NZLSAR Communications and Specialist Subcommittees.

• The ability to manage their respective Subcommittees and work together as a team
• To have a good working relationship with other members of the NZLSAR Committee team

• Have had SAR experience, over the last five years, at a level of Adviser or Field Controller
• Ability to draw up agendas, chair meetings and manage projects to completion.
• As Specialist Subcommittee Chairman you must have had a close association with an ACR Team

• Have a vision as to what each of the Subcommittees can contribute to the betterment of SAR

Affiliation. Affiliation is a subject that appears to be interesting a few people in some parts of the country. There are advantages and disadvantages to all types of membership of a National Organisation and these are explored in an article elsewhere in this newsletter.

The ‘Way Ahead’. The NFO has prepared a paper entitled "The Way Ahead" and Roscoe Tait has spent some time updating our Mission statement. These documents along with the notes from the NZLSAR Review Panel meetings have been incorporated into a planning file that the Review Panel is using to establish our direction for the next five years. They will also provide useful background material which will support our approach to the development of the MoU.

The National Committee again discussed funding and the way it is being managed at the last National meeting and as a result of this discussion I have been checking our progress over our first five years. It is interesting to note that over the last three years the National Committee in conjunction with the standing Sub Committees, has been successful in generating funding for the development of SAR throughout the country in the order of $609,750. Since the inception of NZLSAR the figure exceeds $800,000 which is an outstanding result when you consider the financial climate we are operating in at this time.

Graham Thorp
Chairman NZLSAR

The NZLSAR budget for the 99/00 financial year has made provision to assist the holding of a course for handlers and search dogs, similar to that which I attended and reported on in the April 1999 News. Below is some information from Course Organiser, Marcus Milne, on the event. JPT

We expect 18 to 20 dog handlers will spend three and a half days in search dog training using a variety of exercises and simulated bush/wilderness search problems. In particular, a major objective of this course is for the more experienced search dog handlers to pass on training and advice to those dog handlers with less experience or just starting out. All instructors will be giving their time as volunteers.

In addition to search dog training and assessment, the course will also involve the course participants receiving instruction in Track and Clue Awareness, the Operational Context of Search and Rescue, Essential First Aid for Dogs, Navigation and Skills for Self Sufficiency in the Bush Environment. Again, the instructors and guest lecturers for these course elements shall be providing their time as volunteers.

Aside from the direct training benefits this course will provide to the participants, it will also provide an invaluable opportunity for operational search dog handlers and trainees from different groups to familiarise themselves with each other. In the event of a major problem (e.g. an Abbotsford disaster) such familiarity is essential to enhancing the operational capability of our resource to the people of New Zealand. Two operations outside our District this year have seen dogs from Dunedin travel to another area. In one case we travelled through the night to be involved in a search north of Christchurch. Without previous cross-training and familiarity with the local resources, provided on courses like this, this would not have occurred.

Places on this course are limited, and those wishing to attend need to contact me before November 5. Given we anticipate this course will be fully funded, first time intending participants from outside Dunedin will also need the written support of their District SAR committee. For further information, please phone 03-479-8120 (wk), 03-482-1558 (hm), fax: 03-479-8450, or email: mmilne@commerce.otago.ac.nz

John P Tristram,
National Field Officer

• The responses to the questionnaire sent out in 1993 indicated a desire that there be a national body for land search and rescue. This wish became NZLSAR.

• For the views and participation in the management by the "grass roots", national SAR, NZLSAR must operate under some form of "regional representation" of the volunteers.
• To be truly representative, the Regional Representative must take instruction from and report to some democratically selected body. These are the Regional Committees.
• There had to be a fair and democratic selection method for Regions to select their Representatives.
• The Regional Representative must have current in depth experience in SAR at a high level.
• Regional Committees would have within them a number of Police Districts which may alleviate any inter District frictions within that Region.
• It was realised that there is no ideal carve up of the country to give completely acceptable geographically areas. There will always be some points that grate and allowance should be made for special local adaptation.
• There must be a limit to the number of Representatives, otherwise the Committee would become too large, unwieldy and expensive to service.
• That NZLSAR would give a title, name or number to each of its Regions and not necessarily be bound by the Police nomenclature.

This was done, six Regional Committees were formed and went about their business. After nearly five years it is interesting to see how this process has evolved especially with the multiple changes the Police have made to their organisational structure. Region Five Otago/Southland and Region Five Canterbury/West Coast have each found that meeting from time to time has solved a number of problems and has provided a platform to work on away from the meetings. In the North Island, Region Two and Three have also pulled people out from "behind the village wall" and obliged participants to view SAR as a larger picture than they may have previously done. Even Region One Auckland/Northland with less than ten Advisers communicates better within itself.

The one Region that clearly did not come together was Region Four. There was a lack of commonality of search boundaries and the meeting impediment imposed by Cook Strait meant that the Wellington and Nelson/Marlborough SAR participants, while committed to their respective SAR organisations, saw little benefit with a Regional Committee. This is to be overcome by a resolution passed at the August Committee meeting to create a seventh Region, comprising Kaikoura, Blenheim, Murchison and north to include Nelson Motueka and Takaka. With these towns already developing a Committee to oversee and integrate their activities and with the adoption of the Regional Rules and the selection of a Regional Representative, they are well on the way to being a NZLSAR Regional Committee. Help has been offered to them to work through the issues.

At the risk of sounding unkind, this leaves Wellington somewhat orphan-like relative to the rest of the Regional Committees. This then raises the question whether to put Wellington up into Region Three or in view of the changes in Police boundaries, should the whole of the North Island NZLSAR geographical representative areas be reassessed. I include maps and invite anybody with a view to get it to a someone who is attending the November meeting.

Affiliation. Another area that raises questions is affiliation or membership of NZLSAR by the SAR Organisations around the country. When first raised 18 months ago, the Training Subcommittee researched how such groups as Mountain Safety Council, Federated Mountain Clubs, Deerstalkers and the Red Cross were structured. While enlightening, this did not produce any clear model for NZLSAR.

Reading the Constitution and the "Objects" also offers little guidance. It mentions the provision of an effective and efficient SAR capability throughout the country (3a) It also mentions the need to "establish appropriate systems for representation and liaisons with other SAR related bodies" (3b xiii). Can it be said that this is achieved by the Local Committee to the District to Regional to National and all under the umbrella of the Police as the government department responsible for SAR?

National SAR Register. Finally NZLSAR has been taken to task for "not having a national register of SAR personnel" and as was also said, "we are not sure how many members we have at this stage". NZLSAR does have good information for contacting its key people. A directory is circulated of the NZLSAR "owners", its Committee and Subcommittee members. It also circulates a Land and Underground Advisers, Air and Communications List and has details of those who have attended an Advisers, Field Controllers or ACR Standards Workshops. For all the Workshops attendees, it should be noted that it only knows those who attended. It doesn’t know if they are fit to do the job as there was no examination or assessment. The individual’s ability to do the job is left to that person peers.

And so how would a national register of SAR personnel work. Do we keep a record of the shepherd working for a couple of years on a farm behind Methven who goes on a couple of SAR training events before taking off to Australia or the university student in Wellington who changes flats every couple of weeks. Is he or she a "member" such that they need to be on a national register?

All this and much more to think about. So if you have any thoughts on any of the above, please contact your Representative or myself with as much time before the meeting as possible. We need your the thoughts, preferably in writing in plenty of time to allow for circulation and consideration by the persons attending.

John P Tristram
National Field Officer

Below and with the maps over the page indicates a number of District combination to arrive at Regions for the selection of Representatives to be members of NZLSAR. Any ideas are welcome.