*** Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) SAR Forum ***

Fri Nov  8 12:23:12 1996
Letter  : 14420496    From: Andy Hiltz
Address : AHiltz@bbn.com
Subject : PATC Starting New World-Wide SAR Forum

As a service to the international SAR community, the Potomac Appalachian
Trail Club (PATC), in cooperation of the Shenandoah Mountain Rescue
Group (a section of the PATC), will be starting a new International SAR
Forum for the use of ALL SAR organizations world-wide. This Forum is
specifically designed to support the efforts of your SAR page,
and provide a place for ALL individuals interested in SAR to post
information, requests, questions, and resources in >real time<.

If you would like an example of how the SAR Forum will work, please take
a look at PATC's existing Trails Forum, which I've been managing the
past year.  You can find it at:

http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/trails/PATC.html

The PATC Trails Forum has been a HUGE success, and was used successfully
and effectively to locate information sources following the hiker murders
that occurred in Shenandoah National Park earlier this year. But it's
been used for much, much more as well, making it possible for anyone
visiting the site to post questions and get answers to those question
in real time.

The site will be "managed" by a member of PATC's SMRG organization. In
the event that this individual is not able to do a proper job of
managing the Forum, I will be more than happy to turn this responsibility
over to someone else in the SAR community.  Regardless of who manages the
SAR Forum, I will maintain ultimate authority and management of the site
in the event there are problems the existing site manager can not handle.

The site will appear shortly (possibley as early as today), and I will
provide you with complete details, along with the URL, Forum
Administrator, and official announcement when things are ready to go.
PATC/SMRG place a high priority on SAR activities, and we are deeply
pleased to be able to provide this unique resource to the SAR community.
I can already tell you know that it will be put to very good use by all
those interested in SAR activities.

Here is the forum's new URL:

   http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/trails/SAR.html

best wishes,

Andy Hiltz
PATC Webmaster
Vienna, VA  USA
http://io.datasys.swri.edu/PATC/patc.html

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