State SAR Coordinators Council Meeting (SSARCC)

05-06 June, 2012

Stateline, NV

  1. 05 June, 2012 at 0820: Chairman Burke gave a call to order. 0821Motion made by Cole Brown (MD) to open the 2012 State Search and Rescue Coordinators Council (SSARCC) annual meeting. Motion was seconded by Matt Sharper (CA). No discussion and the motioned passed 20 yeas & 0 nays.
  1. Cole Brown (MD) motioned to accept the 2011 SSARCC meeting minutes, motion was seconded by Chris Long (WA). Motioned was carried 20 yeas, & 0 nays.
  1. Roll call was performed and the following States were in attendance: AK – Dianna Darnell, AR – John Luther & Fred Mullen, AZ – James Langston, CA – Matt Sharper, CO – Mike McDonald & Bruce Fosdick, ID – John Lorbeck, IA –Dan Dall, ME – Kevin Adam, MD – Cole Brown, MS – Byron Thompson, NV – Paul Burke, NJ – Douglas Lemanowic, NM - Bob Rodgers, NC – Todd Brown & Brian Barnes, ND – Sean Johnson, OR – Georges Kleinbaum, VT – SGT Bob Cushing and Sean Selby, WA – Chris Long,VA – Mark Eggemanvia phone bridge, and IN – Lillian Hardy via phone bridge. The following Non-voting members were also present: Dan Hourihan – National Association for Search & Rescue; LTC Russell & Dan Conley Air Force Rescue Coordination Center; Anthony Cornett –NORTHCOM Joint Personel Recovery Comman; Rick Button US Coast Guard & National SAR Committee; Joe Sokol, US NORTHCOM; AL Knox USAF Air Combat Cmd HQ; Dr Lisa Mazzuca, NASA. Paul O’Brien, National Guard Bureau, Pat Merrigan US NORTHCOM, Dean Ross – NPS, Ken Phillips NPS, Andrew Goodrich NPS. Greg Highfield fm Navy/Marine mountain warfare training center. Bernard Fontaine & Monty Bell fm NASAR Board of Directors.
  1. LTC Russell fm ARFCC & Mr Anthony Cornett fm JPRC provided update to SSARCC on AFRCC & JRPC year in review and new trends. Provided an over view of CISAR & DoD organization and concept of Ops. LTC Russell& Mr Cornett stressed the desire of ARFCC/JPRC to partner with States to formalize plans, procedures, and requirements prior to actual need for assistance typically for CISAR & ESF9. FEMA will designate the lead Federal Agency based upon the type of incident that generated the SAR incident.
  1. Joe Sokol from US NORTHCOM. Provided an overview of US NORTHCOM’s mission which covers homeland defense & SAR. CDR US NORTHCOM designated as Inland SAR Coordinator for the contiguous 48 states. Intention is to be executing SAR within 24 hours of notification. Will pre-deploy to a Federal site prior to a request so that DoD assets are available at the earliest possible moment.
  1. Rick Button from the USCG & NSARC provided an overview of planned addendums to the National SAR Plan and that will complement the Critical Incident Search & Rescue (CISAR) addendum. Mr Button emphasized that the Federal Government’s role is to support the States and the addendums to the National SAR Plan are intended to improve that way Federal assets respond to assist the States. Please check the updated NSARC website at which has a tremendous amount of up to date contact information and organizational structures for Federal SAR response. CISAR addendum 3.0 will be out soon and represents an extensive re-write of the addendum. FSARCG – Federal SAR Coordinating Group determines where requested resource will be pulled from within the Federal system. A SAR Legal addendum is in the development process with hopes of having it published by the end of 2012.
  1. Al Knox fm the US Air Force Air Combat Command HQ an update on MEOSAR (mid-earth orbiting and distress alerting satellites). The Hawaii MEOLUT site is completed and the Miami MEOLUT construction should begin in 2013. International Development & Evaluation scheduled to start in 2013 and will be a multi-year evaluation. The planned MEOSAR operational system will consist of 72 satellites capable of generating a beacon notification within 5 seconds of activation and within 30 minutes obtain an accuracy of 100m. US position is that beacons manufactured with the US will no longer include nor support 121.5 MHz homing signals, the 406MHz homing signal will be the baseline for future beacons. FAA has agreed that no new 121.5 ELTs will be certified, ultimately ending the supply chain for 121.5 MHz ELTs.
  1. Dr Lisa Mazzuca from NASA provided an overview of NASA’s SAR activities. NASA has 30 plus years of involvement with SAR & SARSAT, including involvement with user interface, ground segment, & space segments of the system. Additional information about COSPAS-SARSAT system can be found at NASA’s role within the National SAR structure research & development of SAR systems.
  1. LTC O’Brien from the National Guard Bureau spoke to National Guard support to Civil SAR.
  1. Dean Ross from the US National Park Service provided a briefing on the NPS/DOI’s SAR Incident Certification and Qualification System(ICQS). The SAR ICQS is being rolled out to the Tribal Nations to build their capabilities. This system parallels the wildfire administrative pay system so that individuals can “hired” to perform SAR positions. The Basic on-line SAR course at NPS’ National Search & Rescue Academy designed to professionalize the SAR Responder. A 6 week program for NPS employees.
  1. Georges Kleinbaum – Oregon State SAR Coordinator introduced his project combining GIS mapping and SAR data. His project graphically displays SAR data over-laid onto a GIS map and he spoke of the different insight he has gained through his mapping project.
  1. Paul Burke (NV State SAR Coordinator) and Robin Blanford (D4H) provided a presentation on National SAR statistics database. The D4H program is web-based and can be accessed via smart-phones or computers. Additional information can be found at or
  1. SSARCC Chairman Burke led a quick recap of the day and conducted a quick poll of the State’s concerns so as to identify the most common and look to address these concerns.
  2. Typing & Credentialing CA, MS, VA, WA, MD, IA– it has been 7 years since FEMA posted the “Draft” typing & credentialing standards – it is time for FEMA to adopt and finalize this process.
  3. 406 MHz DF for inland SAR – CO
  4. Local LE coordination with Emergency Management (State & Local) for SAR – ND
  5. US National Grid – Who has adopted it and how have you gone about adopting statewide. – IA
  6. SAR Statistics – National SAR statistical database with State statistics collated, consistently reported, and validated. – AK, NV
  7. SEND Devices – CA
  8. Renegade SAR Teams – CA
  9. No Charge for SAR – US National Guard aviation units charging counties for use of their aircraft – CO
  10. Review of ARFCC standards for coordinates and datum - CA
  11. Collaborative SAR planning between DoD and States to detail DoD posture within State SAR plans
  12. UAV usage – AFRCC
  13. Airspace coordination and management – AFRCC & MS
  14. Location & date of 2013 Federal/State SAR Coordinators meeting & quarterly teleconference
  15. Election of Vice Chairman
  1. 1645 MD made a motion to recess the meeting until 0830 6 June, 2012, the motion was seconded by MS, and the motion to recess passed 20-0.
  1. 0837 6 June, 2012 Chairman Burke gave a call to order. MD made a motion to resume the meeting, motioned seconded by CA, motion passed 20-0. 2012 SSARCC meeting resumed.
  1. Sean Johnson fm North Dakota gave a presentation on North Dakota’s Federal/State Unified Response Coordination – Planning & Operations. Center of gravity for success was pre-planning & spirit of cooperation & unsurpassed collaboration. Everyone had a “spot at the table” and everyone’s opinion mattered.
  1. Bruce Fosdick fm CO gave a power-point presentation on the results of his State SAR Organization questionnaire. He reviewed the data/responses from an overall view, and then compared response from east to west of the Mississippi to se if there were significant differences between the eastern & western US.
  1. Matt Scharper – CA provided an presentation on the status of credentialing & typing project and what FEMA has told the working group about the prospects of FEMA finalizing typing and credentialing. FEMA dissolved the SAR Working Group and has stated that they (FEMA) will not use the WG’s documents and FEMA will not remove the current typing & credentialing documents from the FEMA website.
  1. Matt Scharper – CA wanted clarification of ARFCC coordinates and datums. This information is in the Land SAR addendum and CISAR addendum but for Lat/Long the coordinates for air search are Degrees, minutes, and decimal minutes.
  1. Chairman Burke asked that the SSARCC Declarative Statement on Typing & Credentialing be read to the assembled Council. Cole Brown – MD read the Declarative Statement and Chairman Burke sought a motion to open discussion as to the SSARCC’s course of action given FEMA’s seeming indifference to resolve the issues of Typing and Credentialing. Cole Brown – MD made a motion to discussion SSARCC’s course of action, the motion was seconded by Chris Long – WA. Discussion ensued that the SSARCC needed to move beyond making another Declarative Statement and develop a Resolution to address FEMA’s indifference to the Typing and Credentialing.
  1. A Resolution was develop (attached to the minutes). Paul Burke – NV made a motion to adopt the Resolution as written, motion was seconded by Byron Thompson – MS. Motion carried on the SSARCC Resolution on Typing and Credentialing with 20 yeas and 0 nays.
  1. Dan Hourihan – NASAR President informed the SSARCC that the Boys Scouts of America would be unveiling the new Search & Rescue merit badge during the NASAR opening ceremonies Thursday morning 7 June, 2012.
  1. Paul Burke – NV, Provided a presentation on the SSARCC working group he is leading to develop a SAR Coordinators 101 (SARC 101) training course. Working Group recognized that the SAR-C 101 course was very generic in it’s approach because each State has different responsibilities and challenges within their State. Signed up to assist with the SAR-C 101 course development are Chris Long – WA, John Luther – AR, Cole Brown – MD, Georges Klienbaum – OR, Joe Sokol – US NORTHCOM, LTC Robert Russell – ARFCC.
  1. Mike McDonald – CO led discussion of DF issues with 406MHz during ground searches. Airborne DF units are available and outfitted on Civil Air Patrol aircraft, but hand held 406 MHz DF units are not currently commercially available – all land based, hand-held units are running in excess of $20K and most are only considered prototypes and there is not currently a NSARC recommended/approved for 406MHz. A real need exits for an inexpensive land-based, hand-held 406MHz DF unit and States would like to see the Federal Government to continue to encourage manufacturers to seek development of a hand-held 406MHz DF.
  1. Sean Johnson – ND talked about the difficulty in getting Sheriffs to report missing persons in a timely manner. SSARCC members said they all have or have had similar issues and the best advice was face to face meeting with Sheriffs and to develop a basic SAR management relationship and training for a Deputy within each Sheriff’s Office.
  1. Matt Scharper – CA, California is being pounded by SENDS/SPOTTS devise alerts. CA contemplating legislation which could charge the service providers with false/non-emergent alerts. CA is seeking input from other States on how they are handling SPOTTS. AR spoke to the fact that AR is considering SPOTTS/SENDs devises as a 911 alerting device 911 fees apply. Rick Button fm USCG/NSAR Coffered to take States concerns directly to the manufacturers.
  1. Matt Scharper – CA, growing problem with “Renegade SAR Teams”. These teams can not or do not want to be certified are coming in behind searches and in many cases interfering with searches. Groups are raising money and have become a media darling.
  1. UAV utilization – DoD faces large legal issues if asked to deploy a UAV, great concern not to violate law prohibiting DoD from “spying” on US Citizen in the Homeland. Have a some recent success in deploying UAV and cooperation from FAA if UAV mission is directly tied to saving of life or limb. Best bet is to request capability and let DoD choose the resource.
  1. Byron Thompson – MS, en-view of restricted Federal and State travel budgets, site of SSARCC & Federal Coord meeting needs to be in a location that is easily accessible to all members. Federal & State Coordinators felt that 2013 NASAR Conference site would meet the SSARCC needs. Motioned made for 2013 SSARCC & Federal Coordinators conference would be in conjunction with NASAR. Motioned made by AR, seconded by WA, motion was carried 20 yeas and 0 nays.
  1. SSARCC Vice Chairman position is up for re-election. Mark Eggeman nominated by MD and seconded by CA. CO motioned that nominations be closed, seconded by AR. Mark Eggeman was elected with 10 yeas and 0 nays. – VA abstained.
  1. Cole Brown – MD gave a brief overview an demonstration of the SSARCC website.
  1. SSARCC puts forth the following Resolution: In recognition of Matt Scharper’s upcoming retirement as the CA State SAR Coordinator, the SSARCC would like to recognize his contribution to Search & Rescue not only in California but his tireless efforts to advance SAR organization and training throughout the Nation. His efforts have resulted in thousands of saved lives and positively impacted SAR operations at every level. Motion made by Byron Thompson – MS, motion seconded by Cole Brown MD. Motioned carried 18 yeas and 0 nays.
  1. James Langston – AZ put forth that he is appalled at FEMA’s lack of interest and respect towards those individuals that execute SAR from the ground level up through the States Coordinators. FEMA has become a barrier to progress and not a partner in moving forward.
  1. At 1620 on 06 June, 2012 Paul Burke (NV) motioned to adjourn the 2012 meeting of the State SAR Coordinators Council, the motion was seconded by Cole Brown (MD). No discussion followed and the motion to adjourn was approved with 18 yeas and 0 nays. The meeting was closed by Chairman Burke at 1621.