KEG Mission Statement ...

[Tony Anders]

I have just wrote a mission statement so to speak in trying to establish the grotto and wanted to input.

One are we biting off more than we can chew 'so to speak' with this mission statement.

Several members or prospective members have previous emergency service background. It is for this reason I decided to add aiding emergency agencies to our mission statements.

I am asking for peoples experience and valuable input on how I have written these bylaws and please tell me if I should possible delete or add anything else from them.

Kentucky Explorers Grotto
Mission Statement

The Kentucky Explorers Grotto of the National Speleological Society (NSS) was established to organize cavers of south central Kentucky area to better promote objectives of the NSS as well as to promote the educational opportunities of cave conservation, biology, and hydrology for youth in area schools and churches through organized field trip activities and /or class room presentations

It will be the intent of Kentucky Explorers Grotto (KEG) to educate all members in cave conservation, cave safety, and cave rescue.

It is also the intent of Kentucky Explorers Grotto (KEG) to work with area emergency management agencies to render aid in the time of emergency situations.

Such aid shall be, but not limited to, resource material such as maps, locations and strategic planning needed for a safe efficient rescue of person(s) in distress in area caves. In the event rescue personnel shall need extra personnel or guides inside the cave system Kentucky Explorers Grotto (KEG) may fill, upon request, in these areas as well.
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Any input will be appreciated as it always has been.

thanks again in advance

[Azurerana]

Looks good. One quibble: most caving grottos I know of cooperate fully with local authorities when requested, but only provide cave locations on a need to know basis. That is: they do not hand over a cave survey location book 'just in case'-- lines of communication are always open 24/7, and the agency people know who to call to get a location on a specific cave within minutes. Also, in the case of say, a missing child in an area with numerous caves, and no specific known location, the cavers often will often provide manpower to search all the caves in an area, thus expediting the search, they are often NCRC trained, etc., etc.

It's always good for cavers to draw up a Memorandum of Understanding between them and any agency in regards to cave data, just as SAR, police and fire have mutual aid agreements. People in Missouri are currently working on a licensing agreement with one state agency,and has MOUs with others--this ensures the data remains the property of the cavers, but gives the agency the right to use it in certain ways and not in others. We've got members in both the cave group and the agencies--mostly everything is on a friendly basis-- but the MOU is what governs behavior, and can be used when other cavers or agency members try to assert authority beyond what the document says.

I know you are just getting started--don't expect you to start out with full blown mutual aid agreements and MOUs. But might as well get off on the right foot. The approach I've outlined can save you piles of future grief from the cave secrecy extremists, as well as balancing protecting the caves, with the reasonable expectation of emergency personnel to get some help from the caving community. I realize most emergency personnel are fine upstanding folk, but it only takes one yahoo volunteer ff or police auxiliary member to get hold of a cave location databook at the station or firehouse and wreak havoc in terms of publicizing cave locations.

[Tony Anders]

O.K.

Sounds good, yea, I don't plan on allowing ever Tom, Dick and Harry access to our locations. They are far to precious for us to just up and give away to anyone.

I will fine tune or tweak the Mission Statement.

I know the area EM pretty good, and have helped in some land searches. I will probably run this by him and have him just contact us when they need us. I do not intend on giving up locations and especially maps until we are needed.