Fellow MRA Members,
I want to thank the Marin County SAR members who made the Spring SAR Exercise such a successful event. It was a lovely venue with many different tracks of interest to all. I would have liked to clone myself to attend all the field and class sessions – which is why it can be beneficial to have several members of your team attend in order to participate in many different tracks and collaborate with each other afterward.
The bylaws of June 2024 as amended were approved at the Sunday Membership meeting on June 15 and are posted on the MRA website under the Members Only page, Member Services. Also on that page are the updated Policies approved by the board on 5/28/2025. These should be the final changes to both documents for a while.
As mentioned at the membership meeting, OSHA has taken all the comments and testimony from their Public Comment Hearing in December under review. They now realize there would be significant financial impact to volunteer organizations in both fire departments and SAR teams. It is possible that they will rewrite the proposed rule and leave SAR out of the final version.
At the meeting, Antonio Arizo asked new scholarship recipients attending the conference to stand, which was a great visualization of the impacts of scholarships, as it appeared as though a third of the room stood. It is great to see the success this program has had over the years, bringing in new leaders to the MRA as these folks take an interest in the management of the organization.
The membership voted on ICAR delegates for the Medical and Avalanche commissions. Alison Sheets was elected to serve another term as primary and Christopher Van Tilburg as alternate to the MedCom commission. Heiko Stopsack was elected to serve as primary and Stephanie Jones as alternate to the Avalanche Commission. Congratulations to all of you. There were quite a few members running for the Avalanche delegate positions. Thank you for your interest in representing the MRA at ICAR.
Some significant awards were made at Saturday evening’s event. The Life Saving Award was given to Alison Sheets and Dale Wang of Rocky Mountain Rescue Group and Herb Dorn and Mike Everist of Alpine Rescue Team and Colorado Hoist Rescue Team for a mission on Mt. Toll. Matt Jacobs was honored with the the Industry Sponsor award for all that CalTopo has provided to the MRA and SAR in general. Rod Knopp of Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue was honored for his 60 years of unwavering service. Kyle Nordfors was honored for his Outstanding Contribution to Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
As summer seems to be a busier season for SAR in many areas, I wish for the safety of you and your teammates as you go about the lifesaving missions that are so important to our communities. During your off-duty time, make sure you get out and enjoy yourselves.
Cheers, Mark
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