New meeting date &  location:  Effective March 2008 our new meeting location will be 183 Placerville Drive, Placerville.  The Western Foothill Mortgage offices' conference room.  Please go to the rear of the building, enter downstairs.  6:00 o'clock p.m.- 7:30 p.m, the SECOND Thursday each month.|

If you are new to our group, you will find that our meetings include discussions of business items, followed by a training presentation on a topic that is important to our organization's mission.  We look forward to having you join us! 

2008 Sees new additions to our board.  Complimenting the existing contingent of  Margaret W., Frann K., Eve S.  we welcome Loring H. as our Training Officer and Karen D. as our Secretary.

Each Board Member is encouraged to appoint up to three "Members at Large" to help them with their various functions and  tasks.  We are so pleased to have  Nancy K.  assisting Eve with Treasury duties.

There are now 10 Sclar Hamsters on the loose in El Dorado County.  We will try very hard to make Ken proud of us and not get into any trouble.  We are so impressed with the Ham community and their generosity.   What a wonderful group of people.  They all donated their time and were so extremely helpful in getting us licensed.  If you even THINK you might like to get a ham license, we urge you to look into it further.

It's not so much: "Who you gonna call!"  It's HOW you gonna call for help or communicate during a disaster.  Ham licensing classes will be offered again in 2008 to interested persons.  Please contact info@sclar.org for additional information.  Amateur Radio Technician Class instructor, Kenneth W. Vogele, W6KWV has graciously agreed to help get more persons licensed.

• Books for the class are Gordon West Technician Class Book.  Price of the books are $18.95,

• These books may be purchased at www.w5yi.org, look at the products catalog. 

• The course will take about 3-6 weeks in which we will go through the book to get us ready for the test. 

• Practice test sites:  www.qrz.com and www.aa9pw.com  Look for the Technician Class test.

• If you want to enroll in a future class, please send your information to us and we'll put you on the list.

Horse Basics & Beyond 2007 was a huge success!!  This year, we opted to have lectures and vendors indoors, so it was a RAIN OR SHINE event.  Our sincere thanks to all participants, clinicians, volunteers and vendors.  If you have any suggestions for the 2008 event, please feel free to e-mail us.    If you are a Sclar member and would like to join the HB&B 2008 committee, please be sure to sign up.

The Annual Member Meeting for 2007 was held on Saturday, June 23, at Placerville Town Hall.  Despite missing some of our members who were volunteers for the Western States Endurance Run, we had a good group of core Sclar members present.  Photos were taken for the 2007 Sclar ID badges that should be used in an emergency, updated information was collected on members and on their animals, new volunteer contract forms were signed for 2007, and orders were taken for the mandatory flame-resistant shirts and the mandatory Compass Atlas maps that will allow us to have a common geographic point of reference during an emergency.  A new tabletop training exercise, focused on decisions affecting members’ responses to an emergency call-out, created lots of discussion and within 4 days we were putting our training exercise into practice! (Angora Fire).  If you were unable to attend this meeting, notify us at info@sclar.org or call 530-Sclar to arrange completing your 2007 paperwork.

Our group is a County-wide operation and we all feel it is vital to attend meetings, and participate in exercises and clinics.  Our Board Members are from various parts of the county, including Shingle Springs/Rescue and South County.  Meetings are the 2nd Thursday of each month (excluding November & December) in the evenings.    Every endeavor has been  made to accommodate member's ease of access to meeting places.    Check Calendar page of the web site to confirm meeting locations and times or as always, feel free to contact us info@sclar.org . 

Name change.  With the filing of corporate papers, we have concurred that retaining the "SCLAR" portion of our name is important, although it will no longer represent the acronym  for South County Large Animal Rescue.  It is just a name, since it is already recognized within the county and by members. 

Membership requirements:  Because potential members (and existing members for that matter) have a valid concern that they actually have the time and resources needed to join, we have outlined some rudimentary membership requirements.  These include  minimum meeting attendance requirements, and minimum participation requirements.  Attendance requirements are  reasonable, at 6 meetings a year (also, allowances are provided for in by-laws for reasonable absences), and probably ask 20 to 30 hours a year from volunteers for their participation in clinics, exercises, etc. 

Some of the latest headlines from Sclar and other relevant local news and events. Please let us know if you have news items you'd like to see posted here.

Ham Operators Sought and Found! and we welcome additions.  We know how vital communications during a disaster or exercise is.  Sclar boasts several licensed Hams:  Kathy, Rho, Wayne, Eve, Karen, Melanie, Phil; Sandy, A.J., Lindsay, Randy, and Aimee. 

During an emergency of any kind (9/11, the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989, the Hurricane Katrina disaster), normal means of communication failed. All land lines were busy and cell phone communication was impossible.

Ham radios are the only reliable communications devices in emergencies (as long as the broadcasting towers are standing). Ham operators can help the Incident Commander in keeping track of rescue operations and allow communications between the rescue teams. We currently have just two operators, but we need hams for all of our trailer teams or convoys.

The study program is simple, and with daily study times of just half an hour for two or three weeks, should allow people to easily pass the "technician" test. Later on, hams may want to learn Morse code and pass the next level of test, but what we need requires just the basic technician license.   Please contact us if we can help you facilitate your licensing process. 

Sunday, November 5, 2006 we had our first TABLETOP EXERCISE.    Lt. Marty H.  was kind enough to give us an O.E.S. primer and swear in members as Registered Disaster Service Workers, after which our exercise commenced.  A lot of thought and work went into the preparation of scenarios and resolutions by Ryn.  Member participation was excellent.  The Tabletop Exercises present, in a classroom format, several scenarios evoking member resolutions and discussions.