HALF-YEARLY MEETING
Tilsworth Golf Centre. Thursday, November 16th 2000

The meeting was attended by about 45 Rotarians from all corners of the District including D.G. Derek Adams, Past D.G. Paul Denton, D.G. Designate Mike Gardner; and R.l.B.l. Committee Member Dick Nathan.

Proceedings were opened by Les Lee, DISC Chairman, who provided the background for the theme of this year's DISC Half-Yearly Meeting - Disaster Relief. During his inaugural speech, Frank Devlyn, R. I. President, proposed the setting-up of twenty Rotary Task Forces, one of which is 'Rapid Disaster Relief Task Force'. It is in response to this initiative that District 1260 has published a draft booklet on the subject.

In support of the theme of the meeting we had the privilege of being addressed by two top professionals from the world of disaster relief. Firstly Willie McMartin MBE of The International Rescue Corps (IRC), who had flown down from Scotland to be with us for the evening. IRC is a charity made-up of volunteers drawn mainly from the fire, police and ambulance emergency services, started in 1981, with the primary mission 'To provide a fast response search and rescue service to any country, individual or victims of disasters, natural or man-made, here in the UK and anywhere else in the world regardless of race, religion or any other consideration'.

Backed-up by slides, Willie provided the audience with a vivid description of the chaos normally encountered by the IRC when they first arrive at a scene. And their expectation is to be anywhere in the world within 24 hours! Naturally the local emergency services are the first on the scene, but as Willie pointed-out, they and their families are often victims, so their effectiveness is generally limited. However, IRC is clear with its message - 'they are there to support the local services, not take-over from them'. We heard about earthquakes, mudslides, tornadoes, train crashes, and flooding amongst the long list of disasters tackled, in Afghanistan, Iran, Mexico, Turkey, Nicaragua, Rwanda, plus 14 other countries including the UK. (They were recently called to assist with the floods in Yorkshire)

About 46 of the 400 members of the IRC are able to travel at a moments notice, with the understanding of their employer. However, the time they are away from work is either taken from their annual holiday entitlement, or goes unpaid! That's commitment. But it's not just commitment, compassion and bravery that are needed to be in the Corps, you also need to be a bit of a technocrat. On arrival at a destination they set-up their Inmarsat Communication System - that cuts telephone call rates from £10 /min by about 90% - before Inmarsat their telephone bill in Nicaragua was £7,000. They also use a Global Positioning Satellite System to develop maps, which for remote parts of the world often do not exist. Then there is the need to set up water supplies (which as firemen, Willie confirmed they all know something about); sanitation facilities; sources of wood for fires are needed for cooking and to provide warmth; the list of skills seemed endless.

Our second guest speaker was Mike Goodhand, Logistics Manager, of the British Red Cross (BRC). It was heartening to hear that the IRC and BRC work closely together. In order to prevent duplication, Mike dispensed with a slide presentation that would have been very similar to that given by Willie, though as Mike explained the BRC arrive on the scene a day or few after IRC. Mike instead described how the Red Cross Emergency Response System operates, with its terms of reference being 'Needs Assessment' for long-term solutions to the problems created by the disaster, complimenting the initial task for IRC, which is 'Search and Rescue'. The attached flow diagram is fairly self-explanatory.                                                    MORE...