The new board of directors consists of Alex Critikos, Leanne Strokov, Mickey Quigley and Derek Leyden. During the meeting, the members accepted the new constitution, bylaws and policies developed by the board of directors in 2020. Creating three documents that have the scope that these three do takes quite a while. I lost track of the amount of meetings we had but it had to be at least somewhere around 10 to 15 meetings. At a time, we would just take one segment of one of these and we would go through it, draft it, suggest revisions, take a look at how it fits our needs in the southeast and over a period of several months, we were able to put in place these draft policies. So for the directors that worked on this, thank you very much for your time and your commitment, Hardern said.
Medicine Hat s Dan Vas, who is a part of the Canadian Search Dog Association (CSDA), has been a dog handler for 20 years, and he also belongs to a Southeast Alberta search-and-rescue chapter. He will be working with canine handler teams in the Estevan area on and off for about two years. After the civilian search canine training course, the dogs will be able to try going through RCMP examination and certification. “The RCMP has released the requirements to certify a civilian search and rescue dog, so what happens is you get your dog trained to the level that … can be tested. There are several levels of testing that you have to go through to get your dog certified,” said SESK SAR president Katia Bigney.
Medicine Hat s Dan Vas, who is a part of the Canadian Search Dog Association (CSDA), has been a dog handler for 20 years, and he also belongs to a Southeast Alberta SAR chapter. He will be working with canine handler teams in the Estevan area on and off for about two years. After the civilian search canine training course, the dogs will be able to try going through RCMP examination and certification. The RCMP has released the requirements to certify a civilian search and rescue dog, so what happens is you get your dog trained to the level that … can be tested. There are several levels of testing that you have to go through to get your dog certified, said SESK SAR president Katia Bigney.
Medicine Hat s Dan Vas, who is a part of the Canadian Search Dog Association (CSDA), has been a dog handler for 20 years, and he also belongs to a Southeast Alberta SAR chapter. He will be working with canine handler teams in the Estevan area on and off for about two years. After the civilian search canine training course, the dogs will be able to try going through RCMP examination and certification. The RCMP has released the requirements to certify a civilian search and rescue dog, so what happens is you get your dog trained to the level that … can be tested. There are several levels of testing that you have to go through to get your dog certified, said SESK SAR president Katia Bigney.
Unlike many other chapters across Saskatchewan, SESKSAR is heading forward in good financial shape. The chapter was able to secure some funds for further equipment purchases as well as for finishing and packing off the incident command trailer, thanks to the generosity of the southeast, and especially the family of Ruby Barnes, who donated the trailer, the Olson family, local RMs and numerous co-op fundraisers. The funding was also generated from some other private donations and a few fundraisers held in 2019 and in 2020 before the pandemic, including the Richard Carriere Memorial Bike Ride. According to fundraising committee chair Trish Read, since its establishment, the chapter was able to raise over $40,000 in cash and non-cash donations. And even though not much could be done in a sense of fundraising since March, the organization was able to still attract some funding. It was also agreed during the meeting that SESKSAR will organize a virtual fundraiser moving forward.