Discussion: Search procedures
in: Get Lost!! in Black Diamond (Mar 18, 2012 - Antioch, CA, US)
Mar 13, 2012 11:08 PM
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I love that you have a pre-defined and publicly announced procedure for what to do in the case of overtime participants. Firstly, this will give the event director peace of mind at the end of the race--s/he will not need to fret over what to do, but will simply need to follow this procedure. I have staffed many events where I've observed the event director, at event's end, to say vague things like, "Hmm, we have a few people still out there. I guess I'll wait a while ... they'll probably be in soon." In some of these cases, that event director has been me. I've also observed event directors allow friends/relatives of missing people to go out searching without a plan.
Second, it sounds like a solid plan.
Third, the publicizing of the plan may influence participants to make extra effort to be on time.
Second, it sounds like a solid plan.
Third, the publicizing of the plan may influence participants to make extra effort to be on time.
Mar 13, 2012 11:39 PM
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Yep it is nice to have a plan. I tell you what, I was pretty stressed when one team was over 2 hours late returning to the last mini-rogaine I organized. I had a similar plan, but it was harder to follow than I expected.
The registration folks left early and took all the registration forms with them (we didn't have license plates on hand anymore). We almost lost the intention sheets for a similar reason, but managed to grab those before they left.
We had a barebones crew for control pickup: not really enough to mount a search, and it took ages to pull the checkpoints back in for query. I also had to beg the epunch team to stay around, so we could use the download hardware.
I was so glad it was a warm sunny day, and the late people were in a pair. (I figured things couldn't be too bad). Also glad that the team had my cell number, and I eventually received a voice-mail telling me they were OK and on the way back. Once I got that phone call, I felt OK letting the epunch hardware go.
The registration folks left early and took all the registration forms with them (we didn't have license plates on hand anymore). We almost lost the intention sheets for a similar reason, but managed to grab those before they left.
We had a barebones crew for control pickup: not really enough to mount a search, and it took ages to pull the checkpoints back in for query. I also had to beg the epunch team to stay around, so we could use the download hardware.
I was so glad it was a warm sunny day, and the late people were in a pair. (I figured things couldn't be too bad). Also glad that the team had my cell number, and I eventually received a voice-mail telling me they were OK and on the way back. Once I got that phone call, I felt OK letting the epunch hardware go.
Mar 15, 2012 2:20 AM
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Anyone willing to take over writing 20+ -page plans for each of our wilderness events? For most of them, we are required to do so by the jurisdiction, in this much verbiage.
Event-day notes are now posted.
Event-day notes are now posted.
This discussion thread is closed.