Name: John Role: Team Leader and Bike Team Joined SusSAR: Spring 2006

Employment
I work within our family Precision Engineering business based in Brighton. We manufacture drill bushes, which are primarily used in the Aerospace industry, although an increasing amount of our trade is now coming from the Formula One Motor Racing Teams. Having said we manufacture engineering products, I'm more the office type and primarily deal with the accounts side of the company, but being a family business we all tend to muck in with doing a bit of everything.

Background & Outdoor Experiences
With the exception of a year spent living and working in Paris, I have lived in Eastbourne all my life and currently live on the new harbour development. Being a 'townie' I have not had an awful lot of outdoor experience that compares with what we do as a team. Many moons ago as a kid I was in the Scouts and RAF cadets, so I guess I can handle a map, putting up a tent, navigation and orienteering etc!

Why I joined SusSAR
I stumbled across SusSAR really, rather than actively going out in search (excuse the pun!) of the Unit. For a while I had been considering becoming involved with some kind of volunteer organisation but hadn't found the right challenge. I was then visiting the 999 Emergency Services show in Eastbourne when I got chatting to the guys on the SusSAR stand. They spoke about what the team did and invited me along if I was interested to one of the regular training sessions.

Steps to become operational
As mentioned above, I was invited along to a new member's evening (technical term for a 'pie and pint') where some of the members of the unit came along to give an overview of what roles they played within the team and their experiences. Following that evening, I was invited along to attend the monthly training evening  as a probationary member. After I had attended 3 of these evenings, I was invited to attend the search technician's training course, which is an assessment weekend at the UK Lowland Search Institute, based in rural Wiltshire. Having successfully completed this training and assessment weekend, I then became an operational member within the team.

The time commitment and what I've enjoyed
There is one monthly training evening, which is hardly a great deal of time for someone to commit to, plus obviously any time that we spend out on a search. Also, from time to time we will carry out search exercises to keep our search skills fine-tuned. Since joining the team I have thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie and banter within the unit. There are also a number of fund-raising events we attend throughout the year which is another good opportunity to catch up with others in the team. In short, as with many things, what you get out of it depends on how much you put in.