The Mountain Rescue Association, of which SMR is a member, has an International Exchange Program and an International Partnership Program which you can read all about at their websites shown below. If you take a look at our European and other counterparts you will see that they are not exclusively “mountain rescue” but are units specializing in terrain rescue, ski patrolling, avalanche rescue, search dogs, and much more which almost includes the entire gamut of KCSARA. Maybe some other KCSARA members have connections or relations with overseas SAR groups or would like to do so. I know SPART has Milan from Slovakia, 4×4 has someone from Israel, and I hear some British accents here and there! Please take a look at these programs and consider some participation at whatever level you feel comfortable with.
Art, MRA Intl Committee

International Exchange. MRA teams and individuals have participated in a number of exchanges with international teams, see the page http://www.mra.org/international/exchange.php. We hope to have more write-ups from past programs, similar to the ones for Norway and Ireland listed on this page. Anyone who has photos or information from past programs, please send them to a committee member.

Partnership Program. See the page at http://www.mra.org/international/partnership.php with all the details. Although this program has been in place for three or four years, we have had few MRA teams actively participate. Some people think they need the approval of their board members, others may be reluctant to send an e-mail to someone they have never met overseas. As a way to get the process moving we have been posting “profiles” from international teams interested in participating, we now have seven profiles posted.

Argentina G.O.E.R: Our First Team from South America is now profiled on our partnership page, see the team and contact information. Two other teams listed, the Bosnians and the Serbs (they fought a war not too long ago) are interested in hearing from teams or individuals in the US.

Each year MRA sends representatives to the IKAR annual meeting, this year it will be in Pontresina, Switzerland October 16-20. We file detailed reports after each meeting, check the 2006 reports on http://www.mra.org/training/ikar.php Those of us who have been fortunate to participate in IKAR feel that we can learn much from our international counterparts, and we will do our best to pass the information on to the MRA membership.