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How To Join OLAFR, Inc.

The OKMRC

OLAFR is a first responder resource unit of the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps (OKMRC). It operates under the umbrella of the Oklahoma State Animal Response Team (SART). The very first thing that people wishing to become involved with us need to do therefore, is become a member of the OKMRC. You can do this on-line by going to their website at http://www.okmrc.org - there are several links on their page indicating "Join MRC". You will have to complete an on-line form - be sure to check the "Animal Response Team - Oklahoma Large Animal First Responders" and "Animal Response Team - Large Animal" categories under "skills" in the questionnaire or your on-line OKMRC profile. Once you have complete and submitted the questionnaire, OKMRC may contact you for more information, and they will conduct a background check. Once you have cleared all of that, you will then be required to complete some basic on-line courses (again on the OKMRC website), which primarily deal with the Incident Command System (under which all emergency operations are run in the USA). With those completed, you will be an accredited OKMRC member. You can now proceed to the OLAFR membership.

Next step - OLAFR

To become an OLAFR Credentialed Team Member, once your OKMRC membership is confirmed, go to http://www.olafr.org/members This URL will redirect to a Google Document Questionnaire which when completed will place your information directly into our database. You may not have all the information immediately available - for example, you may not yet have received your OKMRC badge, so will not know the badge number. You can let us know that information later and we can update your database entry as required. Please be assured that this information will be directly entered into our database, will not be made available to any group other than OLAFR Inc. and will be used solely by us to record your volunteer status. Providing us with as much information as possible is helpful to us in determining who may be most suitable to call upon for assistance in the case of an emergency. Please note that your membership will require final approval by our Board, however unless otherwise notified, once both OKMRC and OLAFR memberships are activated, you will be considered a Credentialed Team Member.

Deployment

In the case of a deployment, we have a core group who will initially proceed to the incident location to evaluate and commence rescue or evacuation efforts. Additional resources and personnel are called in as needed, usually starting with Credentialed Members local and/or most suitable for the identified need. You are NOT permitted to self-deploy under any circumstances and must wait for a notification contact from OLAFR dispatch prior to deployment. Deployment requests to personnel are most commonly made by 'phone or text message. Facebook is never used for deployment purposes. If you are not a Credentialed Team Member, you will not be permitted into the incident location or allowed direct contact with animals, however there may be Support Staff positions with which you can provide assistance.

Additional Training

Obviously, the more applicable training you have, the more helpful you are likely to be. The OKMRC membership requires completion of 4 free on-line training programs, including FEMA IS-100.c and IS-700.b. For fully-deployed personnel, OLAFR also likes members to have IS-10.a - "Animals in Disasters: Awareness and Preparedness", IS-11.a - "Animals in Disasters: Community Planning" and IS-111.a - "Livestock in Disasters" in place, as well as two courses which explain the ICS system in greater detail - IS-200.c and IS-800.d. It should be noted that these are not mandatory, however they will assist you greatly in understanding what is happening in a disaster deployment, and again, all of these courses are free. There are other free FEMA courses available on their course listing page. Make sure you obtain a FEMA Student ID and use it to register when you take the test at the end of the course. This will allow you to receive a certificate upon passing, which you can then upload to your OKMRC profile, allowing confirmation in event of deployment.

There are many other training courses which may prove helpful provided by private entities, some of which are hands-on. Usually, there is a course fee associated with these, and they may include, but are not limited to training from: Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue, Inc.; Code3 Associates; or ASAR Training. Another useful on-line educational location for Facebook users is the TLAER Discussion Group.

Summary of Steps:

* Go to the OKMRC website and sign up to join OKMRC;
* OKMRC will process a background check;
* Once you are confirmed as cleared and approved by OKMRC, complete their on-line training (it is on their website);
* Once you have completed the required OKMRC training, go to our OLAFR, Inc. database page and fill out the questionnaire;
* Unless otherwise notified, you are now a Credentialed OLAFR Team Member!
* Add more training to your experience!
* Update any information later by contacting us and adding it to your OKMRC profile!

Thank you for your interest in and support of the Oklahoma Large Animal First Responders Inc. group!