ISSAR

Idaho State

Search And Rescue

2004 Winter Membership Minutes

Feb. 21, 2004

Hayden, ID - Hosted by Kootenai Co.

The meeting was called to order at 1:40 by commander JD Drury.

Invocation was given by Craig King.

Pledge of allegiance was lead by Jerry Lemm, National SAR commander.

Roll call

Officers present: Commander JD Drury; 2nd Vice-Rick Pruett; Treasurer/ Quartermaster-Olivia Giannasi; Secretary Sandra Drury; with 1st Vice-Walt Rhodes being excused.

Past State Commanders present were Dale Crowther, Stan Fenn and Brent Lewis.

Past National Commanders present were Brent Lewis, JD Drury, Sandra Drury, C Lemm, Ot Lemm and present commander Jerry Lemm. Excused were Gordon and Marie Wothe.

Sheriffs present Rocky Watson (Kootenai); Chuck Reynolds (Shoshone); George Voyles (Boundary); Steve Southwick (Lincoln);  Larry Dasenbrock (Idaho Co.); Craig King (Clark); Elaine Savage, Under-Sheriff (Boundary); Charles Dennis, Under-Sheriff; Deputies Jan Crowther, Andy Boyle, Jim Gay, & Mitch Hensen.

Seriously ill members included Walt Rhodes and Mike Graham.

Hosting unit remarks were given by Skip Raff.

Officers Reports

Commander, JD Drury- Since the last meeting, I attended the National S&R meeting and training in Logan Utah, attended the Idaho Sheriffs Association meeting in Idaho Falls, attended the Montana Sate S&R meeting in Anaconda Montana. Organized a Wilderness First Aid course for our unit and others we invited. I have been in contact with a lot of members of ISSAR. I was also contacted by some units from other states regarding training and certification.

1st Vice, Walt Rhodes- Excused - Going in for surgery next week; wishes he could be here and wishes everybody well.

2nd Vice, Rick Pruett- Started calling some of the units about dues and the upcoming meeting. Then things got heated up with telemarketing that is in progress in several parts of the state. I have been in contact with many units to advise them so they could get word out. I called and advised TV stations in Southern Idaho and over in the Treasure Valley area. I stated that ISSAR does not use the phone to solicit funds.

Treasurer/Quartermaster, Olivia Giannasi - Financial Report, currently we are at $5,295.39, as of today we have $3,062 in the training fund. I have passed out training fund spread sheets. Currently it is the treasurers responsibility to work with the IRS currently we have 3 units that will be dropped from the 501c3 status, they are Valley, Twin Falls, & Bonner. There has to be a current list, I can add or delete with just a phone call. If there are any physical unit address changes you need to let Olivia now what those changes are (physical address for group exemption only). Training fund, I have the guideline papers and the application if you need one. Banking check charge of $88.00, refunded $79.50 trying to get the rest back.

Secretary, Sandra Drury- Since the last meeting, I attended the National S&R meeting in Logan Utah. I attended the Idaho Sheriffs Association meeting in Idaho Falls, helped organize and attended a Wilderness First Aid Course. Typed around 750 membership cards, I will hand them out later today to save on postage.

Unit Reports -  18 counties being represented.

Franklin, JD Drury- Our unit had 1 call out for 2 snowmobiles that failed to return. This was a joint search with Bear Lake county.

Fremont, Brett Mackert- Since the snow started to fall, Search and Rescue has been involved in 31 searches, 24 which ended up being call outs. 4 hunters lost or overdue, 3 back country accidents, 11 lost snowmobilers, 1 stranded on ice with snowmobile, 4 stuck on snowmobiles, 1 back country death caused by heart attack or stroke.

Custer, Chuck Felton- Deputy wrecked on snow machine, had to get him out. We had Wilderness Packing training. Body retrieval in the wilderness area, lost hunter for 2 days walked out, lost hunter for 4 nights. 2 rafters lost, 1 body retrieval, other one still missing.

Bear Lake, Brent Lewis- 9 callouts, one with Bear Lake & Franklin Co assist was a total white out and ended up being very expensive on equipment. Lost the oil pan on the snow cat, $700 to repair and also the transfer case on the Franklin Co. suburban. We need to turn in actual cost of the search, this is so we can get additional money for funds. Need all information for legislative purposes.

Salmon, Rick Pruitt- Things were quiet up until about a month ago. We had three lost hunters, three extrication calls, one injured hunter and 2 snowmobile calls. For the year, we had 32 calls and logged almost 10,000 miles with 1300 man hours. We had 50 hours with the dogs and 150 hours on ATVs. We did medical and safety for the snowmobile club fun run, over 80 riders with no problems.

Committee Reports-

Sheriff's Association, Sheriff Steve Southwick- It is a privilege to represent this organization for the past 13 years. We have approximately $54,000 in the fund, there are 4 separate funds. Search cost reimbursement up to $4,000 per search per unit. Actual search: additional costs to the county, reimbursement for personal use vehicles, (not county). Plan to increase fees that would raise more money per year. Cost sharing each county can put in for $2,000 worth of cost sharing for equipment with 35/65 match you pay 35% and you can be reimbursed up to $2,000 dollars per year. Training Fund: Can be reimbursed up to $2,000 per training, training funds can be in advance or as reimbursements. Catastrophic Fund: if you have a search where your reimbursement amount is more than $4,000 that amount automatically goes into the cat fund, if there are funds there they are reimbursed quarterly and in the order received. All current forms are on the Idaho Sheriffs Association web site, under "Links". Web site is  www.idahosheriffs.org  . All forms need to go to Steve. We need to turn in all searches, whether they need to be reimbursed or not. Fill out and send papers so it can be added to the statistical information and we know what search and rescue is costing the counties in the state of Idaho.

Sheriff is in command of all Search and Rescue within his county. There is a problem with the wording Senate bill 1317 in Idaho EMS, as it states right now any licensed EMS unit can do rescue without the command of the sheriff. They are working on getting the wording changed. Have had some questions about insurance. Some primary insurances are not covering liability for volunteers. Steve recommended that each unit check with their insurance carrier to check their status of liability for volunteer work. Steve had a copy from State Farm stating that as long as the volunteers are not getting paid they will be covered.

Everett Bogart Award- Brent Lewis went over details of the Everett Bogart award and told everyone to get their entries submitted. There are exceptional people in the state that are very deserving of this award.

Unfinished Business

Minutes are typed and passed around the room. Minutes were reviewed with a few corrections being made. John Davis made a motion that we accept the minutes as corrected; Scott Sharp 2nd the vote. Motion passed.

Bylaws -It was brought up and moved by Brent Lewis that we not un-table the bylaw proposal until a later time in this agenda, seconded by John Davis, motion carried. Make sure you sign the roll so we have a record of who was here. Break at 4:00 pm, meeting was brought back to order at 4:20.

New Business

Fund Raising / Telephone Solicitation: Address is mail delivery only. This person is out of Washington and stated he is raising money for Idaho State Search & Rescue Council. He was invited to this meeting. Attorney General has been contacted. Do not pay any money to this until the legitimacy is proven. If you have already paid money, contact the Attorney Generals office. Numerous telephone calls have been made and ads have been put in the paper to warn people of this. When we have issues like this we can use Yahoo groups to get the word out.

Bylaw Amendment changes- Steve Southwick moved that we bring the bylaw revisions back to the table, seconded by Brent Lewis. Amendments will be voted on individually. Sheriff Steve Southwick and National Commander Jerry Lemm will count the votes. Motion was made to accept vote of bylaw change by secret ballot by Remy Newcombe, seconded by Brett Mackert. Motion passed.

Results:

Amendment 1- Passed

Amendment 2- Passed

Amendment 3- Passed

John Davis made a motion to not have a secret ballot for amendment 4; Brent Lewis seconded. Motion passed.

Amendment 4- Passed

Geoff Billing made a motion to not have a secret ballot for amendment 5; seconded by Steve Southwick.

Amendment 5- Passed

Tom Green made a motion to amend proposal 6 and accept the proposal with the change to reflect 30 days written notice of changes; seconded Dareld Hazelton. Motion passed

Amendment 6- Passed

Tom Green made a motion to not have a secret ballot for amendment 7; Brett Mackert seconded; motion passed.

Amendment 7- Passed

It was brought up and discussed that we need to look at the bylaws and make the appropriate changes to change the executive board to board of directors where appropriate. These changes will be voted on at the summer convention. Brent Lewis made a motion to destroy the secret ballots, 2nd by Warney May, motion carried.

Future meetings-

Bonneville County offered to put on 2004 Summer Convention. Marsha Davis made a motion to accept Bonneville for summer convention. Marvin Fenn seconded the motion. Motion passed. Stan will let us know on a date and it will be put on the web page and Yahoo.

2004 Fall Trailride- no one yet

2005 Winter Meet bid was put in by Power County

Commander Drury thanked everyone for their support.

Ot Lemm congratulated Idaho on a great organization and was impressed with all the support and representation of the sheriffs.

Tom Green moved to adjourn; seconded by Rick Pruett; passed unanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 4:50

JD Drury, Commander

Sandra M Drury, Secretary