Season’s Greetings.
I hope everyone has had an enjoyable holiday. Now it’s back to the grind of our workaday world. Your board has been working on several projects over the last few months. We are looking into the feasibility of creating regional FEMA response teams. These teams would be made up of members from various regional teams who would respond when called upon by FEMA. We don’t have any details worked out yet and I don’t foresee this happening in the near future but perhaps down the road.
Chris Ruch is updating Policy 103.1 to align it with our Evaluator Application. In addition, he is creating an MRA Evaluator Training Program. This is a long-term project, and specifics have not been identified. Existing Evaluators will be grandfathered in but will be required to complete recurrent training as will all new evaluators in a time frame to be determined.
The Medical Committee is developing additional medical information to be collected in the Survey 123 data app.
We were made aware of another infringement upon our trademark by a commercial training company. We contacted the website owner and they removed our logo.
Justin Bern is creating a survey for the membership to list any impacts a change in the BLM Public Lands Rule would have on their area of operation. The Department of Interior is proposing to rescind the 2024 Public Lands Rule which made conservation (no use) an official use of public lands. This could open up public lands to a variety of commercial uses that might impact member teams use of land for training.
In preparation for the Winter Business Meeting a SWOT Analysis survey was sent to the membership December 1st. Member answers will help the board determine the direction of the MRA for the next few years.
Cheers, Mark
