From The President

Sarah Babbitt

Summer 2002

It is my honor and privilege to serve as your elected president. I will do my very best to respond to the needs and desires of LCSAR and its members. It is my hope that you will feel free to call, email me or catch me at a meeting to bend my ear on any subject!

I would like to acknowledge and thank the other members of the Executive Board. Leigh Rhynalds, James Mackler, Dave Frank and George Janson who will all return this year for another round of exciting EB meetings and long hours and tough (and occasionally easy) decisions. Dutch Flahavn has shown himself to be both generous and brave in jumping into the VP spot after having only just joined the team. Thanks also go to Jamie Baker for taking on the large task of PSAR coordination. And many thanks to Jim Powers (BASART Coordinator,) Mike Fink (Fundraising, pagers, databases,) Mark Sheets (communications,) Rita Stern (medical) and Don Davis (databases, web site) for their continued efforts in their respective positions. All these people put in countless hours to ensure that our team can run smoothly and efficiently (heck, to be sure it can run at all!) They don't ask for anything in return for their work, but I'd bet that they'd all be delighted if you felt like thanking them!

As I have gotten to know some of you better in the months since I took on this job, I have been struck repeatedly by the love, intelligence and integrity of the people who make up this team. However, I occasionally hear comments---judgments---about how little we've been seeing of one person or another, and that is disturbing to me. If you haven't seen someone around much lately, maybe it’s time to give them a call and see how they're doing. There are going to be times when you are able to offer a lot of time to the team, and times when each of us has to put other things far ahead of our SAR work. But whether you are able to devote many hours per week or only a few this month, always know this:

Every minute that you give to this team is a gift.

It is a gift not only to our community and the subjects of our missions, past and future. It is a gift to the person sitting beside you in a classroom training, a gift to the person hiking next to you at 2:00 AM on a dark, exhausting search.

Like any family we are gifts to one another. If we can keep that in sight perhaps we'll be able to treat one another more gently, and be more cognizant of and thankful for the time we can spend together. We are each others teachers, friends, and gifts. Thank you all.