AEMA FESTI
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(New page: ~~~~~: On behalf on Pincher Creek SAR, I attended the Alberta Emergency Management Agency and SAR Alberta consultation in Lethbridge today (Sat 2008-11-22). The meeting was well attended...)
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Revision as of 23:00, 22 November 2008
23:00, 22 November 2008 (UTC):
On behalf on Pincher Creek SAR, I attended the Alberta Emergency Management Agency and SAR Alberta consultation in Lethbridge today (Sat 2008-11-22). The meeting was well attended, with about 20 people there from LASARA, CSDA, Vulcan SAR, SEASAR, ACRO, SAR Alberta and AEMA.
This meeting had very short notice, in part because of deadlines they are facing and their desire to accommodate SAR Alberta. They committed to better notice in the future.
AEMA has been looking at several disciplines: Fire, Emergency Management/Disaster Services, Disaster Social Services, SAR, and Emergency Amateur Radio. For each one it wants to develop a process that provides accreditation, certification and standards. And it wants to support delivery of training.
The meeting was facilitated by Fred Tyrell, on secondment from Community Development and was very well handled. Fred led us through a discussion of
- the strengths of the current training
- the weaknesses
- how it can be improved
- what we want from SAR Alberta related to training, operations, and admin
There were many good ideas that came from this discussion. Meeting notes will be distributed in a couple of weeks. I'll forward them when I get them.
SAR Alberta will be using the input in its Standards Committee and hopefully the board.
AEMA expects to establish a working group in February to plan how accreditation and certification would work for SAR. Spence Sample will begin compiling his report in the summer and deliver it in the fall of 2009. At that point it will go before the provincial cabinet for approval.
The meeting was well worth attending for its own sake. Several of the ideas generated can be undertaken without government support. The facilitation that supported this discussion was excellent. AEMA, a reformulated organization of about a year and half, has yet to deliver much new to the SAR community. It's unclear whether these consultations will have a real impact. However there is potential for very good things. I recommend Pincher SAR stays involved.
