The role of a backcountry SAR team PIO is critical to helping teams fundraise, recruit new members, educate the public to decrease the team’s mission load, and create general public awareness of what we do. They also help us advance our state-wide legislative agenda.  While there are good courses available for emergency services PIOs from DHSEM and FEMA, they address a world quite different from ours.  Fire, EMS and law enforcement PIOs focus most of their time on preventative activities rather than incident response, and when they do have an incident it tends to be large-scale rather than small-scale.  Their world is also different because they are generally paid professionals, while most of us are volunteers juggling PIO duties with our rescue roles, day jobs and family responsibilities.  These differences led CSAR’s Public Information and Education (PIE) committee to create our own customized, hybrid course for current and aspiring BSAR team PIOs. 

You may sign up for one, several or all of these classes.  Those who sign up for all of them will receive a discounted rate of $200 for the series and a certificate of completion from CSAR.  You will have two years in which to complete the series, which we intend to offer again in 2024 on a similar schedule to this one.   If you can commit to attending all 5 PIO sessions, the link above is the opportunity to sign up once, for the entire seminar (virtual and in-person), instead of each individual session.  The links below are for signing up for an individual session(s).

All virtual sessions begin at 6:00 pm and end no later than 9:00 pm. The in-person final session will be a full-day workshop.