First, I want to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to serve as your President. I will strive to live up to the standards set by our previous leaders. Second, I want to thank Alison for her service during the past two years and her guidance in preparing me for the role.
In addition, I want to thank the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team for putting on a fantastic Spring Conference at the Solitude Mountain Resort in Salt Lake City’s Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch. There was beautiful weather, interesting and informative classroom and field events, and, as usual, the enjoyable camaraderie with our fellow MRA members. I also want to thank our Sponsors and Vendors who took the time to travel, set up and display all their latest SAR-related equipment.
As explained in an earlier article, we now have a full 12-member board in place. We are
continuing the monthly board meetings just as the Officer’s Committee has done. We’ve gone through a major change in our organizational structure and will need to work through any unforeseen issues that might arise as we move forward with this smaller board.
Of immediate concern has been the proposed OSHA Emergency Response Standard. The board has prepared a policy statement and will be forwarding it to OSHA. There is an informal
virtual public hearing scheduled for November 12, which we will attend.
The next organizational task the board is undertaking is updating the MRA Policies to align with the new Bylaws. We intend to accomplish this prior to the Winter Business Meeting.
Speaking of the Winter Business Meeting it will be a bit different this year. Prior to our Bylaw change, the Membership and Board meetings consisted of the same voting members. At the February meeting, the typical discussion of the budget and other items will occur amongst all attendees but the voting will be conducted by the twelve-member board only.
At the October board meeting we will discuss how best to manage the Winter Business meeting. To get input from the membership on agenda items, we might consider a city council meeting style of timed Saturday individual presentations. We will discuss ways to better engage the membership throughout the year. This might include posting approved meeting minutes in the Meridian or on the admin lister. We might also have the regional directors seek input from their local teams on specific board discussion topics.
I expect to have the meeting agenda out by January 1 to all members. If the board decides to conduct a city council-style meeting on Saturday, then the membership will be able to sign up after reviewing the agenda and notifying the board of their intention to speak.
I look forward to seeing all of you in February.
Cheers, Mark
