How do you join SAR? Is it a long, tedious process?

[Cy Kaicener]

Thanks for all you are doing Jim B and for encouraging us about SAR. You may get some of us at your meetings. Where are the meetings located and at what time.? Oops - I just found your link http://www.crmra.org/teams.html

[Jim Bakos]

It was great meeting you and your lovely wife, Walt – thanks also to Kathy W. for visiting us as well. It was nice to see some folks from the board at our meeting (hope we didn’t scare you off??).

As Walt mentioned, there is a Riverside Sheriff’s SAR team based out of Palm Desert. It’s Desert Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (DSSAR). They’re a great group of people, and we (RMRU) work with them often. They don’t do technical rescues like we do; they’re more ground searchers.

You can learn more about DSSAR at: www.dssar.org

Just a note: Our next meeting will be on February 27th, 1800 hours at the Hemet Sheriff’s Station, 43950 Acacia St.

We moved it up one week, do to a conflict with some Mountain Rescue training we have in early March.

Hope to see more of you visiting soon!

If you have any more questions or concerns, just ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.

--Jim

[magikwalt]

The RMRU group is real friendly and very supportive. If you have been thinking of giving back or doing some community related then you should attend a couple meetings and get to know these great people.

[KathyW]

Yes, the meeting in Hemet was interesting and the team seems really nice.

Jim: Thanks for your suggestion to attend a meeting.

Walt and Jean: It was really nice seeing you there.

Kathy

[Cy Kaicener]

The California section of the summitpost message board has also started a thread on joining Search and Rescue.
http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB2/viewto ... 077#461077

[Rob]

Jim B, could you recommend a link or book that would describe wilderness search protocol as practiced by SAR teams such as RMRU?

[Jim Bakos]

Hey Rob:

RMRU trains all its personnel internally. We are a member team of the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA), who, as our governing body, certifies teams and then each team certifies its membership.

However, all is not lost (book wise). A publication from the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR), titled: Fundamentals of Search and Rescue (ISBN 0-7637-4807-2), is a great place to start. RMRU doesn’t technically “require” our new members to read the NASAR book, or take any NASAR (SARTECH) classes. But we do encourage it.

Search and Rescue is more of a hands-on learning process – especially Mountain Rescue – but the above-mentioned book covers the basics well.

Hope this helps!

--Jim

P.S. Next RMRU meeting is February 27th, 1800 hours, at 43950 Acacia in Hemet. Drop a note to me, or info@rmru.org to let us know your coming. Any and all are welcome…

[AlanK]

A publication from the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR), titled: Fundamentals of Search and Rescue (ISBN 0-7637-4807-2), is a great place to start. RMRU doesn’t technically “require” our new members to read the NASAR book, or take any NASAR (SARTECH) classes. But we do encourage it.

Not to be confused with NASCAR.

[Rob]

Fundamentals of Search and Rescue (ISBN 0-7637-4807-2), is a great place to start.

Jim, thanks for the recommendation -- it's exactly what I was looking for. I'm forwarding the ISBN to my wife so she can buy the book for me as gift for me for the next calendar holiday. I looked at the book's index on Amazon and got excited seeing terms such as POA, POC, POD, and POS. After I read the book, if I have any questions, I'll ask. I note that the author is DC Cooper, perhaps a cousin of DB Cooper.

Next RMRU meeting is ... in Hemet. ... Any and all are welcome…

I appreciate the open-door philosophy of RMRU. Although I know nice people who live in Hemet, from my hiking point of view, Hemet represents 15 traffic lights that stand between me and Mt San Jacinto trailheads. I should get to know Hemet better. Approaching from the south, I'm timing different driving routes (Hwy 79 vs. Hwy 74) to see which is faster under which conditions.