Despite the team having no current membership vacancies, and therefore no recruitment intake sessions for the foreseeable future, we are still receiving regular enquiries from persons wishing to join the operational membership of the team, which must be some measure of our success.
Meanwhile our Probationary members taken on during our November 2010 recruitment intake, are now nearing the end of their ’Probationary membership period,’ and will shortly face interviews and selection to go forward for acceptance as Trainee Call Out List members.
We now have twelve remaining Probationary members from the fifteen who originally started with us in November, inevitable ’losses’ occurring as they have begun to fully realise the commitment, dedication and time required to continue being a member of the Bolton Mountain Rescue Team.
On Wednesday 12th January, (Last night) eleven of our Probationary members took part in a search and rescue exercise alongside twenty eight call Out list members, in the Piccadilly Farm / Spitlers Edge area overlooking the A675 Belmont to Abbey Village main road. Not that anyone saw much of the road in the nil visibility misty conditions on the very wet and boggy moor.
A group of experienced team members including Mike Marsh, Mark Scott, Gill Leigh, Chris Tennant, Steve Nelson and Steve Fletcher showed the other members present that they had lost none of their ’old fashioned’ map and compass skills by successfully navigating via the ’leap frog’ method across featureless moorland. (Somewhat perversely ’high tech GPS gizmo’s revealed how accurate their navigation had actually been!)
Next week the entire team operational membership commences our MREW Casualty Care Certificate Course, which will take place over a minimum twelve sessions, culminating in a very stringent written examination, oral examination and practical examinations.
Carried out to a nationally recognised syllabus, the MREW Casualty Care Certificate has to be renewed every three years, which places quite a training commitment on the team membership and the course instructors we utilise to deliver the course.
