December, 2009 edition #10

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What the heck do we do now...?

Have you ever arrived at a hut and found one of your group is missing? Have you ever been in charge of a group that has split? Have you ever wondered why it happens just before dark and when the weather is packing up?

Most of us in our outdoor careers have been in these situations and will remember that sinking feeling of despair and wondered "What the heck do we do now?"

SARINZ has developed a course to upskill and empower people such as outdoor guides, instructors and teachers to take initial action. This will often resolve situations or prevent them from getting worse because time is critical.

Learning these skills means a smoother transition between an emergency event and when SAR arrives. It does not turn people into SAR experts but it does give them some worthwhile skills such as preserving footprints.

The training combines content from existing SAR courses, lessons learned from operational SAR, and selected Lost Person Behaviour research all rolled together into a practical course to focus on "what you can do initially " and when and how to call for help. A practical example is that approximately 60% of trampers get lost at decision points.

Course participants learn to identify decision points and the hands-on group management necessary to reduce the likelihood of a "lost" incident occurring. If someone still goes missing then they can check decision points and apply some practical initial search methods to try and find them quickly.

SARINZ ran the first course in September for the Canterbury branch of Education Outdoors New Zealand (EONZ). The participants were mostly outdoor education teachers; one commented "Thank you so much for the weekend at Castle Hill, it was a great turn out and enjoyable weekend. Professional development like this is invaluable, allowing theory to blend with practice through participation in practical activities that upskill and empower educators. From here there are ideas for programmes, messages and practices I can take home to my students."

In reality this means the teacher learnt the importance of paying attention near decision points, preserving sign when someone goes missing, and calling for help early. They would also have developed skills to quickly implement a sound light line and teach their class that if you go missing you will most likely hear whistles and see lights.

Other skills include how to attract the attention of a helicopter or search teams, and the use of beacons, radios and other technology. Since September additional courses have been run for a tourist company that takes people on multi-day guided walks, and for an outdoor organisation that takes youth at risk into the outdoors for weeks at a time.

We foresee a time when this course will become recommended for most outdoor leaders and instructors. If you want to explore a customised course for your industry or group please contact course leaders: tony@sarinz.com or ross@sarinz.com.

Growing at 38% in a "recession"!

As the end of the year approaches, we can see that SARINZ is excelling in its SAR education mission -- despite the "R".

One of SARINZ's core measures on whether we are saving lives is how many people have attended our training. The rationale being that the more people that attend our training, the more skilled SAR practitioners will be, the better the SAR operational performance thus increased probability of lives saved.

In 2009 our training participation goal was 1800. To date we have had almost 2300 attendees, not including all those folks who are receiving correspondence and newsletters, seeing the TV programme The Missing and taking part in workshops, conferences etc.

Since 2006 our course participation numbers have increased by 27% (on average) each year. In 4 years we have doubled our reach - which we are justifiable proud of.

Change is Good

David Shearer - CEO SARINZ

Christmas is a time to celebrate. And for both the SAR sector and SARINZ it is time to reflect on a highly successful year.

Nationally the SAR sector is rapidly evolving into a unified body. We are seeing that with the developments coming out of the SAR Secretariat, along with the initiatives and actions put in place by LandSAR, Coast Guard and Surf Lifesaving.

One of the real benefits of this inclusive SAR is greater collaboration and co-operation leading to the reduction of duplication of training. It is counter-productive for any person to be receiving the same training from more than one provider. Improving inter-agency co-ordination and training can only be a good thing and we look forward to advancing these causes with our SAR colleagues.

From an organisational point of view, SARINZ continued to grow and extend our reach -- rapidly. We will continue this growth as we move into a new era, new office space, new clients, increased national and international recognition and most importantly more projects designed with one purpose in mind -- to improve operational performance of SAR practitioners. The future is always exciting and next year's projects will build on 2009 and more. So watch this space!

Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and happy festive season.

Comments, criticisms or congratulations are welcome dave@sarinz.com

From the Chairman

Mike Sheridan - Chairman

As reported elsewhere in this newsletter, SARINZ is having a fantastic year. This success is no accident and is a reflection of the foundations that we have been building since our inception. Investment in our people and the continuing development of our courses to meet the needs of the New Zealand SAR community are the cornerstone of our business model. The record numbers receiving training, plus the positive feedback we receive tell us we are heading in the right direction.

I am also pleased to see the research initiative highlighted in this issue, a very welcome sign that our research partnership with New Zealand Oil & Gas Limited is producing an early dividend.

These developments are significant. SARINZ has matured into an effective, confident and commercially sustainable organisation that is a key contributor to the New Zealand SAR community.

The board is confident we are on the right track with the foundations in place. In 2010 we will be seeking stakeholder feedback on how we can leverage this secured capability in order that we can make an even greater contribution to SAR in future years.

This is an exciting prospect.

Industry accolades for SARINZ Director & Trustee

At its September AGM LandSAR awarded SARINZ Ltd Director and former Chair Tom Clarkson, honorary membership of LandSAR. Tom is only one of three honorary members - the other two being Roscoe Tait (SARINZ Director) and Roger Barrowclough (SARINZ Trustee). In addition, SARINZ Trustee Jack McConchie was awarded life membership by Mountain Safety Council at its September AGM.

Congratulations Tom and Jack, you should be duly proud of your achievements and from all of us at SARINZ and the wider SAR/outdoor community thank you for your unwavering commitment to search and rescue and the outdoors.

SAR Training: efficient & effective

A man much wiser than myself once said "... around 60% of the skills and knowledge required in the workplace are not gained through attendance at training programmes. The training may provide the basic fundamentals of a job or profession, but the way in which these must be applied on the job are only learned in the workplace, and quite often long after the training programme has been completed." (quote - Dr P H Rutherford, who was actively involved in the development of Australia's national competency-based training system.)

I couldn't agree more and it is SARINZ's role to assist SAR agencies to advance skills learnt on a course into the operational environment.

Training courses do not capture the full range of the task management skills, job/role environment skills or show real understanding of utilising those skills in a SAR operational environment with all its pressures and risks. Most of these skills are learnt on the job and through experience.

The purpose of all SARINZ training is to develop, in individuals and groups, the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for successful performance on SAR operations. Training beyond the workshop must be effective and efficient. SARINZ training is.

The skills taught are those needed in SAR operations. This ensures training is job-relevant and therefore effective. To be effective, training must simulate operational conditions. While safety is always an important consideration, training must be realistic and rigorous, mentally and physically demanding, and operationally relevant. Managers, team leaders and team members will face situations not experienced in training, but effective, task-orientated training will enable them to cope.

A great example of this approach in practice was the Incident Management Team Exercise (IMTEX) held in Christchurch over the weekend of 5-6 December 2009. A collaborative effort between SARINZ, LandSAR and Police where 20 search and rescue practitioners spent a weekend grappling with the complexities of multi-period operational planning, it involved scenario based table top exercises where the theory was applied in a real world context.

In the end training must be efficient by making best use of available resources while achieving training effectiveness. SARINZ has a system that ensures all its training is effective and efficient.

We have the resources to assist you and your group to ensure training beyond the substantive workshop is effective and efficient. If you want assistance and don't want to plan alone, let us know.

Email carl@sarinz.com

Important research initiative

SARINZ has commissioned research into the impact population predictions will have on SAR resources and operations in the next 20 years.

Behind this initiative is the fact SARINZ is committed to assisting SAR agencies to improve operational performance through training and research. To understand the dynamics, future demands and expectations of the sector (and hence its training requirements) further investigation is required into how the size and composition of the New Zealand population will change SAR response capabilities and operations over the next 20 years. This project has become possible through the SARINZ research partnership with New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd.

This important research will help set the scene for the future of New Zealand's SAR operations and response to 2030.

New Zealand's SAR community has been consulted during the project development and support has been provided by key SAR agencies. Tenders closed early December with the research expected to start mid-January and be completed by June 2010. For more information visit SARINZ website.

Staff profile

Grant Prattley

Programme Manager -- Rescue

Originally from Gore, Grant is a graduate of Lincoln University's Parks and Recreation Management diploma course.

While at university he was actively engaged in the alpine club and its tramping and skiing activities. He subsequently took his new qualification to Aoraki/Mt Cook where he spent 14 years with the rescue team there -- "Living in a National Park is pretty special."

His last six months in that (DoC) role were part-time as he embarked on the SARINZ project (Grant Prattley and Ross Gordon founded SARINZ in 2002). In early 2004 he became the first and, at that time, only employee of SARINZ. By then Grant, Tessa and their three children had moved to Geraldine.

As a founding father of SARINZ Grant shared the longterm vision that the fledging organisation of one would be sustainable from the personnel and financial points of view, but in the early years had to rely on the generosity of a number of people who volunteered their time and expertise. Without the support of people like Tom Clarkson, Ross Coker, Trevor and Margaret Burgess amongst many other keen and passionate practitioners SARINZ would never have achieved what it has to date.

Grant obviously draws a sense of deep satisfaction that SARINZ is now on a solid commercial footing. It employs a good number of instructors and it is selling its services to the SAR sector and, perhaps more importantly, beyond.

"I think another key thing is that we've become recognised nationally and internationally. That was always part of our long-term goal as well -- to become recognised for what we do."

Grant now divides his time between what he calls sales and marketing -- talking to groups around the country to establish what courses they need and then managing the implementation of those requirements --  and training and mentoring 10 instructors.

"I also do quite a bit of contract project work for organisations like Antarctica New Zealand and Department of Conservation. We've developed training manuals, incident management pre-plans and so on. That now forms quite a big part of my job."

In reality this outside work occupies a good 50% of Grant's time and it is significant in that it is taking SAR skills and sharing them with organisations that we would not traditionally associate with search and rescue -- Fonterra and the Fire Service are examples.

"We've always wanted to get into that broader emergency response area but you have to establish yourself in one area first. In doing so, we're still sticking to our knitting; we are just delivering the same product to different audiences. The environments and the applications might be different but the skills we're delivering remain the same."

New approach to team leadership training

After extensive industry consultation the SARINZ Team Leadership course has been revamped into something more flexible for existing and new audiences.

SAR leadership & management programme manager Pete Corbett says a thorough review of existing SAR team leadership skills training revealed it wasn't really meeting the needs of the SAR practitioner.

"One of the things we quickly identified was that the completion rate was low. The main impediment to completion appeared to be using reflective practice as a main means of assessment.

"Although it is a valid learning tool, reflective practice doesn't always work in the context of the volunteer environment."

Pete and training designer Carl McOnie consulted a number of organisations -- LandSAR, Coast Guard, Surf Lifesaving and the Rescue Co-ordination Centre -- but also outside agencies such as Rural Fire, Civil Defence and some of the outdoor pursuits outfits, notably Auckland University, as to their team leadership training needs.

Gap in New Zealand leadership training

"We identified a gap in existing leadership training in New Zealand. There's an absolute plethora of first-line management training which is perceived to be outdoor leadership training but it didn't actually address the needs of what we've termed 'action-orientated leadership'."

Pete explained that the SARINZ approach to team leadership training is aimed at action-orientated environments where effective functional leadership is required to achieve critical or reactive tasks by small teams deployed into the field. In other words: leadership of small groups often created to respond to a situation or critical incident.

In most cases these teams are tasked to operate in remote and changeable environments with limited support or backup. Leadership of people in these environments requires a different set of skills to that of traditional leadership training. These leaders must effectively operate remotely and negotiate both the needs of the individual, team and task in a changeable environment.

The new course emerging from this review was first delivered in mid-November to Civil Defence practitioners in Invercargill, with Carl McOnie as the lead instructor. "The feedback was very positive," says Pete.

"One of the big changes that SAR practitioners will notice is that we've completely scrapped reflective practice. Instead we are providing a range of assessment options.

"They can do it by way of a written assignment, they can get on-the-job attestation from their colleagues and peers, or they can take a further two-day workshop where the theory is applied in a very practical way -- in most cases for SAR people it will be a little bit of theory for the first couple of hours and then apply leadership in situational exercises.

"Participants will be put into leadership roles and scenarios created for them in which they have apply their theory of leadership. The Civil Defence people have opted to do this one."

Exciting new course

Buoyed by their early success with this new approach, SARINZ are now working with LandSAR to develop a premium five-day team leadership course in collaboration with Outward Bound at Anakiwa. This will include theory, practice and assessment all rolled into one course. They hope to offer two of these courses annually.

"We are going through some of the funding options now, but looking at offering the first one in April next year. We are determined that this will be a course of value that all aspiring team leaders want to attend."

Email pete@sarinz.com for more details.

Instructor profile

Ed Halson

Ed Halson has been a SARINZ instructor for a couple of years. A resident of Queenstown, he is a member of both the Wakatipu and Wanaka SAR groups, the former for about 15 years, serving on its committee for two years. In Wanaka he is strictly LandSAR, but in Wakatipu he is involved in fundraising, purchasing and maintaining equipment and helping co-ordinate ACR (Alpine Cliff Rescue) logistically.

It goes without saying that he knows that part of the countryside pretty well -- and he's also operated as a fly-fishing guide for the last ten years. Fishing, hunting and climbing are his passions. He'll take on anything -- when we caught up with him, he said he was practising with his bow-hunting equipment.

Ed is a trained teacher who also has a background in the hotel business. He became an instructor when he "... asked Ross (Gordon) about what course in America he should do and Ross said 'Instead of doing that why don't you become an instructor for SARINZ?'"

So now he teaches search methods, TCA (Tracking Clue Awareness) and tracking all over the country.

"I love it. Meeting people -- trying to get them as enthused as I am, seeing that enthusiasm carry through. Ultimately, if it helps just one lost subject along the way, then it's all been worthwhile."

Our Brain's Cognitive Map: Use It or Lose It

Neuropsychologists in Canada have described a new disorder called "developmental topographical disorientation," in which a person is unable to build a cognitive map in their brain, specifically in the hippocampus, which is also associated with Alzheimer's disease. The cognitive map is what allows us to navigate our surroundings by learning spatial relationships between landmarks. An article in The Walrus, a Canadian magazine, poses an intriguing question about how our changing society and new technologies, such as GPS, could affect our navigational strategies. If we let the GPS unit in our cars and cell phones do all of our work for us, our brains may lose the ability to build the cognitive map that enables us to find our way on our own.

www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2009.11-health-global-impositioning-systems/1/

Admin Update

As reported elsewhere in this newsletter, it has been a busy year for SARINZ with a record number of courses and students. It has been a successful year in all areas really but in the administration team we have had our work cut out for us.

We are particularly pleased with how well the booking system has been received. Course coordinators have been great at getting participant lists back so we can check enrolment eligibility. Thank you all. We will continue to work on making this process easier for everyone.

SARINZ is presently upgrading its database and will soon have much better reporting facilities, enabling data to be provided to SAR agencies, training coordinators and individual students more easily.

To ensure our data is correct and students' details are up-to-date we will be doing a mail-out to all students in January with the courses they have attended to date. This will be an annual process and at the end of each year students will receive a record of all courses attended that year.

It has taken some time to get to where we are now but we appreciate your patience. We are working hard to improve our systems and ensure that we offer the best service we can to students and all the organisations we work closely with.

Margie, Lynne and Toni wish you a safe and happy Christmas/New Year and we look forward to working with you all again in the New Year.

Email margie@sarinz.com for more details.

Psst -- we've moved

SARINZ has moved offices and can now be found at 68 Mandeville St, Riccarton, Christchurch. Phone 03 348 6654

Competition

What does IMTEX stand for?

When will the student mail-out occur?

Answer these questions correctly (the answers are in this edition of HeadsUp) and be in to win one of five Initial Response Search Guides.

Send your answers to headsup@sarinz.com by 30th January. Well done Unn West who noted that it takes 60 days to forget 75% of what you learn on a training course from the last edition. Your prize (Bob Koester's Lost Person Behaviour book) has been sent to you.