Any Search and Rescue organization has a need for volunteers of differing skills and not all involve going out in the field participating in a search or rescue; if you do not want to be out in the field do not think this means we do not need you. Also if you are a seasonal visitor but return each year and have experience for that season you may still be of use to us.

The requirement of any volunteer is to be able to give up their free time to help with the locating and recovery of others, more often than not we are called out at inconvenient times and at short notice but we do not call all the volunteers out initially as this is unmanageable. As some searches can last many hours and many days we need volunteers available at all times of the day so again if you are not available through the night then we can always make use of you through the day.

In exchange for your free time we can offer you a broad spectrum of training directly or by paying for you to attend courses including

• First Aid.
• Survival skills.
• Equipment and its use (e.g. transceiver, GPS).
• Navigation skills.
• All PEP courses (e.g. GSAR, Rope Rescue, Swift Water Rescue etc...).
• Radio use.

We hold a training session the first Wednesday of every month and for those of you who want to attend courses especially where our time or cost is involved (e.g. PEP courses) we would expect you to be regular attendees of these sessions.

Below we have listed in brief the types of volunteer we require and the level of experience and availability required, if after reading you still feel you can be useful to the organization then press the continue button at the end of this page to complete our registration form.

At Base volunteer

These volunteers will spend all their time in and around the Search Hall and will never go out into the field actively searching, for this role you need have no specific experience as there are many jobs that need to be carried out at base as follows

• Signing in and out searchers.
• Manning the radio.
• Scribes (we need to write down all radio communications).
• Answering the phones.
• Calling up more volunteers.
• Transporting searchers to and from the search site/staging area.
• Checking in and out equipment allocated to the searchers.
• Collecting food and supplies from local businesses.
• Demobilization, in other words at the end of a search readying the equipment for the next search.

Initial Response Team volunteer

This is the most time consuming level of volunteer as you will be called out as soon as a search is activated. Primarily you will have knowledge of how to survive in the conditions of the season and an Initial Response volunteer in the winter may not necessarily be an Initial Response volunteer in the summer, you must satisfy the following requirements

• Have or be training for your Ground Search And Rescue certificate.
• First Aid certificate to at least OFA-3 level or equivalent.
• Be extremely fit.
• High level of map and navigation skills.
• Have a ready pack for the season that contains enough equipment to be able to spend at least one night in the outdoors.
• Be available at any time and can arrange for time off work and family commitments at short notice quite often at inconvenient times of the day.

Second Wave volunteer

Once the Initial Response Team has gone out and performed a preliminary search and we know that the search is going to need to cover a wide area and last many hours we will start to call out more volunteers to replace those in the Initial Response Team and also to enable us to perform a more detailed search of a wider area. The requirements of such a volunteer are as follows

• Have or be training for your Ground Search And Rescue certificate.
• First Aid certificate to at least OFA-1 level or equivalent.
• Be relatively fit.
• Have a day pack for the season.
• Be available for many hours at a time but not necessarily through the night or at short notice.

Third Wave volunteer

This volunteer would only be called as a last resort when we need to flood a search with volunteers (e.g. missing child in town). Your commitment would be minimal and is unlikely to interfere with work or family life. You do not need any specific experience and we would decide whether to call you based on the search we are conducting and your skill level.