The past year prevented the young Southeast Saskatchewan Search and Rescue (SESKSAR) chapter from many of the regular activities they would have otherwise. Nevertheless, a lot of progress was done and now the volunteer organization is ready to move forward.
The 2020 outcomes were discussed during the virtual annual general meeting on May 13, with 13 people present.
Members elected the SESKAR executive and board of directors. Katia Bigney was elected as president, Dan Hardern and Mike Meyer became vice-presidents. All were elected by acclamation. The secretary and treasurer positions remained vacant at this time.
The new board of directors consists of Alex Critikos, Leanne Strokov, Mickey Quigley and Derek Leyden.
During the meeting, the members accepted the new constitution, bylaws and policies developed by the board of directors in 2020.
"Creating three documents that have the scope that these three do takes quite a while. I lost track of the amount of meetings we had but it had to be at least somewhere around 10 to 15 meetings. At a time, we would just take one segment of one of these and we would go through it, draft it, suggest revisions, take a look at how it fits our needs in the southeast and over a period of several months, we were able to put in place these draft policies. So for the directors that worked on this, thank you very much for your time and your commitment," Hardern said.
"I would like to thank our SESKSAR board of directors for their time and effort in creating, revising and editing these documents that will become the administrative foundation for our organization going forward," said Bigney.
Over the past year, the organization lost some members due to various reasons and is now ready to recruit more volunteers that would like to join. The application form can be found on Southeast Saskatchewan Search and Rescue Facebook page. New members can go through training and become active SAR volunteers, join as a part of the active support group or help out with one of the few committees pushing the organization forward.
During the meeting, Strokov, who spearheads the active support group project, explained that these are the members responsible for everything that's happening in the background during SAR operations.
SESKSAR is planning on getting the next group of volunteers going through the basic search and rescue training. The theoretical part will be done virtually over several evenings, and the hands-on training is to happen in person with safety measures in place. Also, certified members will start practising more to maintain and improve existing skills.
Another project that Strokov is currently working on is Lifesaver, which is currently run only by the Saskatoon SAR chapter in the province.
"The long and the short of it is it's to help with the elderly in our community, or those that may have medical conditions that may come susceptible to high risk of being lost in their environment, if they leave their facilities or their house. It is a wristband that goes on their wrist," Strokov said, adding that Carievale and Carnduff already expressed interest in it.
The volunteer organization already does the Adventure Smart training, which is aimed at teaching kids and teenagers some basic survival skills in different environments. Some of the members received the special training to be able to deliver the preventative program and also teach others to become trainers. Hardern, who chairs the Adventure Smart committee, said that SESKSAR can now do the presentations virtually and is accepting requests from schools and community groups in the area.
The fundraising and public relation activities had a slower year due to the pandemic as well, but the organization still received a few significant donations and continued working on the incident command trailer while moving forward with other equipment.
"The command centre had the counters and cupboards put in," reported Leyden, who co-chairs the equipment committee along with Quigley.
The organization received a donation of two smart generators to power the two trailers when needed. Next on the list is four GPS units and further progress with the incident command trailer.
The canine unit started training in May. On average it takes about two years to have a dog trained to be a searcher. Ten units from Regina, Prince Albert, North Battleford and southeast Saskatchewan will have their first practical course May 29-30 in the Carnduff area.
The chapter is currently also working on creating the first in Saskatchewan equine unit.
