New to PSD forum, saying hello

[carolinadivebabe]

Hello. I'm new to this site, and relatively new to diving compared to most of you. I've been certified for a little over a year, but before that was on groundcrew with my local volunteer dive team in South Carolina. Now I am one of the divers and secretary of the team.
Our team consists of 8 certified divers, all volunteer. We provide our own equipment, and receive no funding. We are working on a few grants, but at this moment we do not even have team insurance (a top priority for us) making our relationships with the local police and fire departments a little (!) strained.
We are also working to improve our bylaws and create our SOP. Our team has been around for a few years, but has had some difficulties and turnover. Now that we have people practicing and attending meetings again we are hoping to organize more, and make ourselves more respected and legit.
As far as training goes, we practice search patterns normally once a month. We generally meet once a month too for business. Primarily our calls are to retrieve a vehicle from the river. It's been three summers since we've had a drowning in our own county (knock on wood), but our divers have responded to other counties to assist in recoveries.
Anyway, I am searching for direction. Lol. If anyone would like to share SOPs, budgets or training agendas or anything with us, I'd appreciate it. Even just websites so I can be nosey. We are 501c3 nonprofit and if anyone knows of grants available that would also help.
As you can see I'm very new to this, but a very good listener/learner and I'd appreciate any guidance anyone wants to give.
Thank you thank you thank you!
Tara

 

[BigJetDriver]

Carolina,

Welcome to the PSD forum. As an IANTD PSD Instructor Trainer, I am always interested in the work of the volunteer teams. It is always a struggle to organize and fund a team in any area. I am currently teaching an instructor and team in my area.

The stats show that 98% of the recovery diving is done by volunteer teams, and so I say: "Thank God for the volunteers!"

I do have some copies of SOP's, and other material you might find interesting. If you like you can e-mail me at: airlandseatrng AT sbcglobal.net (use symbol), and I will be happy to help if I can.

Rob Davie

 

[bridgediver]

Hi Tara
If you can keep all of your members enthusiastic that's half the battle - it sounds like you've got a committed group there. Do a serch of the forum and you may find some useful bits. If you're looking for something specific, ask away.

Good luck with the team

Mark

 

[Gary D.]

Welcome aboard.

One thing to stress at your meetings and training is Peer Pressure. Make sure everyone on the team understands that Peer Pressure kills people. Stress the point that anyone, anytime, for any reason (no reason) can call a dive or refuse to dive with NO QUESTIONS ASKED!

Not feeling good about a dive and staying dry is not going to get one laughed at or talked about behind their back. What it will do is help keep a team accident free.

Gary D.

 

[Boater Dan]

Tara:

Welcome to the PSD site. Hope this forum provides you with some good information.

We too are a volunteer team and have limited funding access. However, we have been somewhat more successful at acquiring some funding from the Assistance to Fire Fighter Grant program. In addition, you may wish to check with your State Representatives. In Pennsylvania, our Representatives have access to some funding for personal projects in their home regions. SC may be the same.

If you can send me a direct e-mail address on a PM, I will send you a Power Point presentation I had put together for our team. It is a take off from the "Everybody Goes Home" initiative from roots in the fire service. We had an unfortunate death of one of our divers in a training class this year and although we had always focused on safety, we are stressing it in all of our training and operations. It may be of interest to your team.

While there is absolutely no substitute for training, if funding simply does not permit you to access training, at least procure the book, Public Safety Diving by Butch Hendricks. It is not a substitute by any means for training, but it will expose you to more of the techniques, concepts, and information regarding this type of diving. Whether you learn it in a class or from reading, learning to have a safety diver and a 90% ready diver for each person in the water is just common sense. Learning to have 3 means of cutting in your body triangle is simply good safety practice. There is a wealth of information in this book.

There is a tremendous amount to be learned from this forum and others, from reading reference materials, from asking questions, and from accessing training. Take advantage of them all.

Good luck and dive safely.

Dan

 

[SheriffMedic]

I too am intrested in grant funding sources for our team, any information you guys and gals can share would be greatly appreciatted.

 

[Boater Dan]

Being that you are with a Sheriffs department, that opens up the area of DHS funding. I know that there is money available through their grants, but being FD, I do not know what is available. The other key area to check is with your state legislators. I believe that most states have "slush funds" for the representatives to hand out in their districts. Pursue that avenue as well. Finally, if you happen to have an large industry in your area, approach them as well. Most Corporations have some form of public funding made available.

Good luck.

Dan

 

[carolinadivebabe]

Wow, thank you for all the responses. I'm sorry I've taken so long to respond back.
Boater Dan, I would love to see that power point presentation, and I'm also interested in the grants through the Asst. to Firefighters Fund. We've discussed that, but ended up thinking we wouldn't be able to access those grants because we weren't affiliated with a FD.
Dan, I've also got some information for our next meeting on training that I think we might be able to fund, but if not I will definitely look into that book also.
Also, I never thought to ask our state legislators for help in funding (our county politicians said they would try to fit it into the budget, but then, surprise, didn't).
We do have some large businesses like Alcoa in our town and they provide community grants. I've spoken with the respresentative there and she thinks we would have a very good chance at receiving funds. (So, things are looking up.)
My email address for Dan and Big Jet Driver, and anyone else who has information they think I could use, is carolinadivebabe at yahoo dot com.
I really do appreciate all of your responses, thank you so much. You have definitely given me lots of ideas.
If anyone wants to check us out, our web address is emsdiveteam dot com. (We do receive some, not much, funding from the hospital, but we are very thankful for what we get.)
Thanks again,
Tara