Minutes of the May BAMSAR meeting at Westhampton Beach.

Thanks to Tim Dahlen for hosting us.

Present: Westhampton Beach, Westhampton Ambulance, Eastport, Southampton Town Chiefs, Bellport, Bayport,
Brookhaven, and Center Moriches. Excused: Coast Guard Group Moriches.

Old Business:

Dive Rescue class: We have 11 people in the class, and we need a minimum of 15. Attendees need not be divers. If we
don't get the required 15, we will have to cover the lost revenue out of our treasury. We cannot cancel this class, as we're beyond the cutoff date for doing that. If any unit can send one or two people, it would be appreciated.

Further discussion was held on the incident in East Quogue. It was decided that, in future, we will offer our services to the
Police/ Coast Guard to continue a search in order to locate the victim. We would start by bringing witnesses back to the
scene to establish a last- known/seen- position, and continue recovery operations from there. This will not only assist in the recovery, but put the victim's relatives at ease, knowing that we are there to bring closure to them.

New Business:

Westhampton War Memorial Ambulance was accepted as a member unit.

Anyone who tried to access the website on 8, 9 and 10 May, probably was denied entry. The reason was that Chinese
hackers had gotten into our site, as well as most .org and .gov sites and taken them down. The FBI is investigating this.
We're happy to report that the interruption was only temporary, as the site is back up and running, as of 1900, 10 May.

There will be a meeting at County on Monday, 21 May, at 1930, for all Departments/ Companies/ units having water rescue capabilities. The purpose of the meeting is to establish a county-wide water rescue plan. At the request of the County, please limit your attendance to one Chief Officer, and one Water Rescue Supervisor from each unit.

Standardization: A recommendation was made by Mike Buckheit and Bob Jaeger, that we come up with a standardized
form for all units to use at a water rescue. This would be a slate, green on one side (to indicate we were working in the
"Rescue" mode), and red (to indicate "stop/ slow down- we are in "Recovery" mode."), and contain blocks and headings
for vital information such as: diver name, pressure, time in, time out, pressure out, equipment checklist, last-seen point, a
small scene diagram, witness' names, etc. The color of the slate would be shown to all members operating at a scene to
indicate what mode we were in without tipping off the victim's family or bystanders when we went from rescue to recovery.

Changes were made to the BAMSAR call-out procedures to reflect the addition of Sag Harbor FD and Westhampton Ambulance, and activation of the nearest units to the east and west of the incident first. The BAMSAR Coordinator would
then report to the Command Post and request additional BAMSAR resources, as needed, following as closely as possible,
that east-west pattern. Xerox copies of this procedure will be available shortly.

The next meeting will be held at Bellport Fire Department, on Thursday, 14 June, at 1930. Anyone needing directions to Bellport, please e-mail the Secretary at o_foghladha@yahoo.com, or call him at 878-9217(H), or 344-2350(W).

Any additions, corrections, or comments, please contact the Secretary.

John Foley
Secretary