MRA Spring Business Meeting Minutes

June, 8, 2014

Woodcliff Lakes, NJ

(Please note, the minutes have been prepared to accurately reflect the meeting

proceedings. The minutes have been reviewed to a limited extent by the officers. The final

edits and approval of the minutes will occur at the MRA Winter meeting in January 2015.

The minutes are respectfully prepared and submitted by MRA Secretary/Treasurer -

Doug McCall.)

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MRA Executive Secretary Kayley Bell called for proxies at 0903.

MRA President Doug Wessen called meeting to order at 0947.

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Roll call –

Board Members 42 voting delegates by attendance or proxy

Team Name Region Dues Paid

Team Status

Voting Non Voting

Alaska Mountain Rescue Group Alaska Yes 2014

Regular Present

Denali National Park SAR Alaska Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Juneau Mountain Rescue, Inc. Alaska Yes 2014

Regular Present

Sitka Mountain Rescue Alaska Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Allegheny Mountain Rescue Group Appalachian Yes 2014

Regular Present

Blue Knob Ski Patrol Appalachian Yes 2014

Associate Absent

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Appalachian Yes 2014

Ex-officio Absent

Knoxville Volunteer Emergency Rescue Squad, Inc.

Appalachian

Associate Absent

National Park Service Appalachian Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

New Jersey Search & Rescue Appalachian Yes 2014

Regular Present

New York State Forest Rangers Appalachian Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Ohio Special Response Team, Inc. Appalachian Yes 2014

Associate Absent

Stowe Mountain Rescue Appalachian Yes 2014

Regular Present

United States Park Police Appalachian Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

US Air Force Rescue Coordination Center Appalachian Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Vermont State Police Appalachian Yes 2014

Ex-Officio

Present

Altadena Mountain Rescue Team California Yes 2014

Regular Proxy

Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit California Yes 2014

Regular Present

California Emergency Management Agency California Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

China Lake Mountain Rescue Group California Yes 2014

Regular Proxy

Contra Costa County Sheriff's Search & Rescue Team

California Yes 2014

Regular

Proxy Douglas County Search & Rescue NV California Yes

2014 Associate

Absent Fresno County Sheriff's Search & Rescue Mountaineering Team, Inc.

California Yes 2014

Associate

Absent Inyo County Sheriff's Posse Search & Rescue California Yes

2014 Regular

Proxy Joshua Tree National Park SAR California Yes

2014 Ex-Officio

Absent Malibu Search & Rescue Team California Yes

2014 Regular

Proxy Marin County Search & Rescue California Yes

2014 Regular

Absent Mono County Sheriff Search & Rescue Team California Yes

2014 Associate

Absent Monterey County Sheriff's SAR Team California Yes

2014 Regular

Proxy Montrose Search & Rescue Team California Yes

2014 Regular

Present Placer County Mountain Rescue Team California Yes

2014 Regular

Proxy Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit California Yes

2014 Regular

Present San Bernardino Cave & Technical Rescue Team California Yes

2014 Regular

Proxy San Bernardino Mountain Search & Rescue California Yes

2014 Associate

Absent

San Diego Mountain Rescue Team California Yes 2014

Regular Present

San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team California Yes 2014

Regular Proxy

Santa Barbara County Search & Rescue California Yes 2014

Regular Proxy

Santa Clara Sheriff Search & Rescue California Yes 2014

Associate Absent

Santa Clarita Valley Search & Rescue Team California Yes 2014

Regular Proxy

Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park SAR California Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Sierra Madre Search & Rescue California Yes 2014

Regular Present

Tehachapi Mountains Search & Rescue California Yes 2014

Associate Absent

Ventura County Sheriff Search & Rescue California Yes 2014

Regular Present

West Valley Search & Rescue California Yes 2014

Regular Proxy

Wrightwood/Phelan Search & Rescue California Yes 2014

Associate Absent

Yosemite National Park California Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Arizona Dept. of Public Safety Desert Mountain

Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Arizona Division of Emergency Management Desert Mountain

Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association Desert Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Present

Coconino County Sheriff's Search & Rescue Unit Desert Mountain

Yes 2014

Associate Absent

Grand Canyon National Park Rescue Desert Mountain

Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Las Vegas Metro PD Search & Rescue Desert Mountain

Yes 2012

Regular Absent

Southern Arizona Rescue Association Desert Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Present

Tonto Rim Search and Rescue Desert Mountain

Yes 2014

Associate Absent

Bonneville County Sheriff's Search & Rescue Inter-Mountain Yes 2012

Regular Absent

Cache County Sheriff's Search & Rescue Inter-Mountain Associate Absent Davis County Sheriff's Search & Rescue Inter-Mountain Yes

2014 Regular

Absent Glacier National Park Inter-Mountain Yes

2014 Ex-Officio

Absent Idaho Mountain Search & Rescue Unit, Inc. Inter-Mountain Yes

2014 Regular

Absent

Ravalli County Search & Rescue Inter-Mountain Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Search & Rescue Inter-Mountain Yes 2014

Regular Absent

San Juan County Emergency Services Inter-Mountain Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Utah County Sheriff Search & Rescue Inter-Mountain Yes 2014

Regular Present

Weber County SAR Mountain Rescue Inter-Mountain Yes 2014

Regular Present

Zion National Park SAR Inter-Mountain Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

North Shore Rescue Team, Canada International Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Rocky Mountain House Search & Rescue International Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Corvallis Mountain Rescue Unit Oregon Yes 2014

Regular Proxy

Deschutes County Sheriff's Search & Rescue Oregon Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Eugene Mountain Rescue Team Oregon Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Hood River Crag Rats Oregon Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Portland Mountain Rescue Unit Oregon Yes 2014

Regular Present

Albuquerque Mountain Rescue Council Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Alpine Rescue Team Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Present

Atalaya Search & Rescue Team Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Proxy

Chaffee County SAR North Rocky Mountain

Associate Absent

Douglas County Search & Rescue CO Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Present

El Paso County Search & Rescue Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Proxy

Eldorado Canyon State Park Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Grand County Search & Rescue Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Grand Teton National Park Rescue Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Larimer County Search & Rescue Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Present

Mountain Rescue Aspen Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Park County Search & Rescue Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Associate Absent

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Ex-Officio Absent

Rocky Mountain Rescue Group Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Routt County Search & Rescue Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Summit County Rescue Group Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Vail Mountain Rescue Group Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular Absent

Western State Colorado University Mountain Rescue Team

Rocky Mountain

Yes 2014

Regular

Proxy Bellingham Mountain Rescue Council Washington Yes

2014 Regular

Proxy Central Washington Mountain Rescue Washington Yes

2014 Regular

Proxy Everett Mountain Rescue Unit Washington Yes

2014 Regular

Present Inland Northwest SAR Washington Yes

2014 Regular

Proxy Mt. Rainier National Park Rescue Team Washington Yes

2014 Ex-Officio

Absent North Cascades National Park Washington Yes

2014 Ex-Officio

Absent Olympic Mountain Rescue Washington Yes

2014 Regular

Proxy Olympic National Park Rescue Washington Yes

2014 Ex-Officio

Absent Seattle Mountain Rescue Washington Yes

2014 Regular

Present Skagit Mountain Rescue Unit Washington Yes

2014 Regular

Absent Tacoma Mountain Rescue Unit Washington Yes

2014 Regular

Absent Volcano Rescue Team Washington Yes

2014 Regular

Present

Additional Participants/Guests:

None

President's Report

Doug Wessen, Juneau Mountain Rescue - chair welcomes the attendees and introduces officers

Minutes

Doug McCall, Secretary/Treasurer, Seattle Mountain Rescue Council

Motion: Motion to approve the February 2014 minutes meeting minutes by John Shol

and seconded

Vote: Unanimous

Treasurer’s Report

Doug McCall, Kayley Bell

Motion: Motion to approve the Treasurer’s report Neil Van Dyke & seconded

Vote: Unanimous

NASAR Meeting 2015 Estes Park, CO

Chris Boyer discussed the 2015 NASAR meeting and the plan to get back to low key roots

MRA/NASAR meeting June 4th

Motion: MRA provide $5,000 zero interest loan to NASAR which will be paid back to the

MRA between now (June 8, 2014) and June 2015. By Monty Bell & Seconded

Motion to amend: To add the purpose of the funds to be used to secure the location

of the Spring June 2015 joint conference. By Neil Van Dyke & seconded

Vote: Unanimous

Amended Motion: MRA provide $5,000 zero interest loan to NASAR for the purpose of

the funds to be used to secure the location for the Spring June 2015 joint conference which

will be paid back to the MRA between now (June 8, 2014) and June 2015

Vote: Unanimous

Membership Committee

Monty Bell – Membership Committee Chair: San Diego Mountain Rescue Team

Delinquent Dues:

Las Vegas Metro (working through payment with the Executive Secretary)

Other teams with outstand dues balances:

Knoxville, Cache County, Chaffee County

Inter Mountain Region would like to recommend Cache County Search and Rescue

Motion: To accept Cache County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team as full member into the

MRA by Monty Bell & Seconded

Vote: Unanimous

Motion: To accept Fremont Search & Rescue team as an associate member into the MRA.

by Monty Bell & Seconded

Vote: Unanimous

Crested Butte Status

Skeet Glatterer provided a status for Crested Butte Search and Rescue and their desire to

return to an associate membership

Motion: Reinstate Crested Butte Search and Rescue and waive the application fee, simplify

the application paperwork and take the payments to date and waive the outstanding past

dues. By Art Fortini & seconded

Motion withdrawn by Art Fortini & second

Motion: To extend San Dimas Mountain Rescue reaccreditation in snow & ice through

March of 2015 by Monty Bell & seconded

Vote: Unanimous

Motion: Extend reaccreditation Search for Juneau Mountain Rescue through April 2015 by

Monty Bell & Seconded

Vote: Unanimous

ProDeals

Patagonia prodeal invite has been sent to the membership on the admin lister to sign-up

Promotive prodeal invite has been sent but will be resent in case email filters have blocked

the invite

Statistics ESRI update

John Pedder – ESRI demo of the new statistics program. John will send out invites to the teams again in case the previous email got filtered out.

IKAR 2014

John Chang provided update and information from Dan Hourihan (provided below)

IKAR 2014

Lake Tahoe, Nevada October 5-10, 2014

Update – 6/8/2014

Registration: Despite our best efforts, the portal for registration through the IKAR-CISA

site, based in Austria, has not opened. We have been working on this for nearly two months

with twice weekly phone calls and contact with the web-master. The problems relate to the

fact that the system has been set to Euros and we will be accepting US dollars only.

Additionally, we are taking credit cards for the first time. IKAR has only used PayPal with

credit cards in the past. The transition has taken time, but the bottom line is that our

schedule is not theirs.

This week, June 2, there is a test registration in operation, just to see how it works. It sends

out an activation code to continue the process and the entire process is working. Minor

informational corrections were necessary and we have been notified that all corrections

have been made. The US web site to take credit cards has been open for some time. We

hope to have registration live by June 10. All will be notified when the system is live.

US entry requirements for international visitors: Six weeks ago we posted the “special

requirements “on the IAKR site and the MRA page. This year all visitors, including those

from visa waiver countries, have to pre-register with US immigration on-line before they

commence travel.

For countries that need visas we have been providing invitation letters upon request. The

letter is not a mandatory requirement and the applicant has to independently demonstrate to

the US consular officials that they fit the requirements. MRA incurs no legal or financial

responsibility for the applicants.

Here is the status of the “non visa waiver” countries.

Poland: There are two organizations, GOPR and TOPR, two MRA invitation

letters were issued for a total of nine rescuers to the US Consulate, Krakow.

Montenegro: Letter issued for five rescuers to the US Embassy, Podgorica.

Romania: Letter issued to the US Embassy Bucharest for 28 individuals, including

six companions.

Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia rescuers also need visas and representatives have been

contacted with a copy of the form. As of today, they have not asked for invitations

from MRA. Obtaining a visa (if needed) is the applicant’s responsibility and all

MRA can do is respond if a letter is requested.

Non-conference Recreation: We have about a dozen MRA local coordinators who

volunteered to assist. You can see the web page at: http://www.mra.org/non-conference

recreation-activities Rick Lorenz will receive requests from visitors and pass them to

MRA local coordinators for any planning and execution.

Practical Day: We are in contact with Dominique Letang, President, Avalanche Rescue

Commission to provide any assistance necessary. He is working with other commissions to

establish the day’s schedule. Access to Heavenly Mountain, via the gondola, and the use of

Tamarack Lodge at the top of the gondola have been secured, at no cost, through a

sponsorship from Heavenly and Vail Resort, Inc. This sponsorship is worth approximately

10K. Coordination for helicopter involvement is being handled by Casey Ping, US Air

Rescue delegate. Local coordination with Raven, the air wing of the Washoe County

Sheriff’s Office, is ongoing.

Conference Meeting Schedule: All meeting scheduling and presentations are being

handled by the respective Commission Presidents.

Exhibitors and Sponsors: The Exhibitor Prospectus is posted on the MRA IKAR web

pages and is being coordinated and handled by Rocky Henderson. Please direct any

inquiries to him at: rockyhenderson@comcast.net

Volunteer Coordinator: Anne Harris, Douglas County SAR (NV), has graciously

volunteered to be the Volunteer Coordinator for the event. There will be a limited number

of volunteer opportunities and those interested should send an email to: ikar2014@mra.org

Respectfully Submitted,

Dan Hourihan

Motion: To authorize the officers committee to make financial decisions related to the

MRA’s obligations to the IKAR contract with Harvey’s Lake Tahoe worth $112,000. by

Art Fortini & seconded.

Vote: Unanimous

Sponsorship Committee

Rocky Henderson – update that the committee continues to add and renew new sponsors.

Safety Committee

Tom Wood - The near miss survey was presented at the NASAR conference

Education Committee

Bryan Enberg – update on the online courses

Tom Wood – commented that the webinars have received a good response and are getting

good coverage. Looking into getting the webinars stored under the MRA website.

Officer Elections

Neil Van Dyke –

Motion: to accept the nomination committee’s recommendation for Dave Clarke as

President of the MRA. By Neil Van Dyke & seconded

Vote: Unanimous

Motion: to accept the nomination committee’s recommendation for Bryan Enberg as Vice-

President of the MRA. By Neil Van Dyke & seconded

Vote: Unanimous

Motion: to close nominations for the Member At Large. By Neil Van Dyke

Vote: Unanimous

Vote for Member at Large

Secret ballot vote held for the Member at Large boad of directors position.

Votes tallied by the Executive Secretary Kayley Bell and Nominations Committee Chair

Neil Van Dyke

Ballot Results: Art Fortini is the new Member at Large

Long Range Planning

MRA Meetings planned for

2015 - Joint MRA/NASAR meeting in Estes Park, CO

2016 – Olympic Mountain Rescue

Need a spring meeting host in 2017 and 2018

2019 – Proposed to have the MRA Spring meeting at Timberline Lodge

Old Business

None noted

New Business:

Statistics

Doug Wessen – would like to see 100% reporting from both full and associate members

and investigate some form of penalty for teams that are not reporting statistics. A proposal

will be presented at the Winter 2015 Business Meeting.

Strategic Planning

Will begin looking into strategic planning at the 2015 Winter Business Meeting.

Good of the Order

Rocky Henderson welcomes Doug Wessen into the Past Presidents “club” and thanks Doug

Wessen for all of his service.

Tim Kovacs presents Doug McCall and Dave Clark

Doug Wessen passes Dave Clarke the gavel and compass for the upcoming president’s

term.

Meeting adjourned at 1:44PM (EST)

Meeting attendees:

Region Team/Unit First Name Last Name

Team - "Other" Not listed above

Alaska Alaska Mountain Rescue Group Mark Miraglia

Appalachain Allegheny Mountain Rescue Group Chris Ruch

Appalachain New Jersey Search and Rescue Rope Team Bryan Enberg

Appalachain Stowe Mountain Rescue Neil Van Dyke Vermont State Police SAR

California Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit John Chang

California Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit Glenn Henderson

California Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit Gwenda Yates

California San Diego Mountain Rescue Team Monty Bell

California San Diego Mountain Rescue Team Kayley Bell

California Ventura County Search and Rescue Team Patrick Emerson

Desert Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association Roger Yensen

Desert Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association Tim Kovacs

Desert Southern Arizona Rescue Association Jason Bowman

Inter-Mountain Other Mike Vorachek NASAR Secretary

Inter-Mountain Utah County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Jared Hansen

Oregon Portland Mountain Rescue dave clarke

Rocky Mountain Alpine Rescue Team Tom Wood

Rocky Mountain Douglas County Search and Rescue Bruce Fosdick

Rocky Mountain Larimer County Search and Rescue George Janson

Rocky Mountain Utah County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Rhett Williams

Washington Everett Mountain Rescue Unit oyvind henningsen

Washington Seattle Mountain Rescue Council Doug McCall

Washington Volcano Rescue Team Steve Reese