4.8.24 Meeting Minutes

NRAC Meeting: 04/08/2024

Meeting begins at 6:06PM PST

Going over the agenda: what happened this season, what we want to see next year, what we can

accomplish over the summer.

1. Review of Whitefish dog day:

-Guest speakers on avalanche rescue incident. Fernie present as a positive cross-training

experience

-Ideas to use next year—CRAD speakers, guest speakers, Lloyd offers to share guest

speaker resources. Bringing in grant resources and fundraising ideas from Keagan.

-Ideas from Lloyd: evaluator criteria written down, avy tech's responsibilities outlined, and

some testing changes.

-Jeff's ideas for testing changes: include an evaluator to an evaluator at the tests? Write

down a list of pre-requisites for the evaluators: Pro 1, witnessed a specific number of tests.

-Avy Tech qualifications: we may not be able to iron out exact details because of

the differing county/legal parameters we operate in. Outlining that an avy tech

should always be present for a rescue as part of the dog team. Discussion of the

costs/benefits of writing down clear qualifications. Agreement between Jeff and

Lloyd on keeping a basic skeleton written down, but not making it too

exclusionary or specific. Jeff mentioned using techs as the shovelers in tests.

-Goal to roll out the Avy tech program next fall with a clear outline for the

program. Lloyd volunteers to be the committee lead, requests contact

information for point people at Schweitzer and Silver to help build the program.

2. Celebrate the new NRAC certified dog teams: Kate/Skook, Keagan/Cleo, Galen/Maisie,

Katie/Murphy

-Drew's plan is to add those teams to the website.

-Meet in the fall at NRSAW and get a little time together at the Pro night and

address the group to update the community. Our goal is to get the website up by

that time and some kind of press release to distribute if people request more

information.

3. Develop a “call-out” protocol. We need to write down what our plan is to deploy. Develop a

one page document to distribute to sheriff's offices and establish the criteria for that.

- Develop a shared forum for details, Erica suggests meeting in May to get more

details outlined. Jeff, Erica and Kate will start developing MOUs.

4. Feedback on dog tests: anything we want to change for future tests. Steve says he liked having

the “number out of the hat” for number of burials. Wants to make sure in the future that the

number of burials isn't too clear to the shoveler. We're hoping to do these tests in drier snow, but

it does seem like spring is the only available time to get the tests done! Fingers crossed in the

future we get more wintery conditions.

-Erica suggests throwing together a list of evaluators now. Schweitzer: Jeff, Steve,

Galen, Leigh, Katie. Silver: Drew, Erica, and Izzy. Whitefish: Lloyd, Kate, Keagan

5.Are we in favor of Jeff's modified evaluator sheets? Unanimous agreement.

6. Date of next meeting? May 6, 6pm PST. Erica plans to move forward establishing a non-profit

by gathering resources/advice. Meeting adjourned at 6:48PM PST.