New Training and Proficiency Standards Highlight the NLSARA AGM

The NLSARA annual general meeting was held in St. John’s, March 18-19, 2005. 22 of the 27 provincial teams had representatives in attendance.

The morning session of the meeting involved the discussion of Association business. During these discussions a motion was made to create a new Director position for the Northern Coast of Labrador. The motion was accepted and Sid Pain, the coordinator for Nain SAR was named director.

All the Director positions were up for election this year. Bob Cull of Deer Lake SAR was voted in as the new Director for the Western District. Perry Bowering will represent Eastern, Dave Jenkins will represent Central and Craig Porter will represent Central Labrador.

A motion was also made to cancel the individual team grants for 2005 only. However, any team that requires financial assistance may apply in writing to the Association for help. The monies from these grants will be used by the Association for training purposes. The motion was carried by all in attendance.

In view of the fact that the team grants will not be issued this year. The Association Executive has agreed to waive the team membership fees for 2005.

The Afternoon session was devoted to the unveiling and presentation to all teams of the new Training Standards and the formalized Boating Safety Partnership Delivery Model. The Program Development Officer gave an overview of the entire training package and new training and reporting procedures. The Program Development Officer also gave an overview and tour of the newly developed NLSARA webpage.

The presentation on the new training and proficiency standards, the OBS partnership model, and the newly developed webpage was well accepted by all in attendance and received good reviews.