I went to SAREX 2012 in California in September. My plan was to focus on Management and GIS related classes; my passion. Myself and another member were introduced to Mission Manager at SAREX, and we were hooked. That other member, having done SAR for some 30 years, said, "This made the entire weekend worth it." Couldn't agree more! This was the answer to so many of my issues.
I have been trying for several years to advance GIS Applications in Emergency Response in my little mountain county. Our goal for years has been to build a true Incident Support Team (with GIS as the central component of the management support services we can provide). This program fits PERFECTLY into the system we are building. I immediately introduced this program to my Deputy, and from there the use of Mission Manager took off. We had planned to use it on a Mock Mission today, to integrate MM into the Incident Support Vehicle, MapSAR, and Communications technology we have also put into place. Unfortunately, the three sets of storms that hit California this weekend killed that idea. Instead, we had those same member who were going to play on the search, play with us in a classroom, where we introduced them to the many features of MM. New Members didn't seem to really understand how cool this program is. But all the seasoned members were LOVING IT! They know the real world problems that exist administratively and operationally, and saw how this program makes their life easier.
I come from a team that is (in many ways) still living in the 1980's. To get them to so quickly latch on to MM because of what it offers, and how easy many of the components are to use, ROCKS! Many of them are eager to play with it more. There are still issues to work out when it comes to getting this in place for us, but I love what we have so far.
Mission Manager is an awesome program. Thanx...
