Section Chief and Patrol Director Meeting
1 May 1999

Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 21:58:29 -0400

Subject: Exchange of Ideas Meeting

From: Guy Lombardo, Region Director

To all of you that attended our second "Exchange of Ideas" meeting, I want to thank you.. This was started last year from an idea by John Clark. He planted the "so called " seed, and I watered it. It is not growing as large as I would like to see it but it has not died.

For those of you that were there, I feel your input is something this Region has needed years ago. Just because the season is over does not mean we should forget about patrolling. People of your caliber are hard to come by in an volunteer organization.

There were many good suggestions discussed today. We know there has been a problem with the way some patrollers go through the annual OEC refreshers. They do not seem to realize that those of us that are not connected with the medical field during the summer need to get our brains back to thinking how to work on an injured person and possibly save a life. We are in a very serious type of work. I think we should keep up our skills and even learn additional skills whenever possible.

John brought up an interesting problem: how to evac an infant held in the arms of an adult? Since a lot of the areas are running their lifts during the Summer, we are getting non-skiers that will take a small child or an infant for a chair lift ride. They are also dressed lightly. What would (should) the patrol do if they had to evac the above people? Some food for thought. This is a problem we will soon have to address.

Thanks again for making my job as RD so much easier. The only way we can improve is getting together as we did today and talk. I'm very fortunate to have people of your dedication. With your help I know I will be able to revitalize the Region back to the high standards it once held.

Very Sincerely ,

Guy