If you look on one of the site's 'News' items against 16 Jan, you will see an article on the voluntary MRT cash crisis which particularly affects the not-so-busy and the not-always-in-the-news teams, teams which nevertheless form a vital part in the SAR infrastructure of England and Wales. Scottish teams now attract central Scottish Executive funding, controversial in some quarters, but capable of taking the edge off the typical member's considerable outlay for equipment, etc. The country benefits hugely from the efforts of SAR volunteers, but puts little in the way of real resouces towards funding them. Thus, the team members not only have to do the job, but have to spend a lot of time and effort on fund-raising. When you're a member of a quietish team which is not in the headlines every other week, charity funding can be a real problem. A point may be reached when a lot of team members feel that they're being taken advantage of, and pack it in. That will overload the remaining teams and before long, the system could be in free-fall. Should that happen, very costly insurance might have to fund SAR services - popular with virtually nobody who loves the outdoors - or the government might find that they have to pay out very much more to fund professional teams. Professional teams would 'cherry-pick' the quick and easy rescue jobs, but who is going to do the searches? If the Professionals do the interesting and often survivable jobs, any volunteers are quickly going to lose interest if they are only left with the occasional lengthy search or two. Professionals can only be in one place at a time and have only one set of eyes like everyone else. The country cannot even approach funding anything like as many Professional team members as the professional (with a small 'p') amateurs that we now have - and need.. Food for thought ? Send your thoughts to me and I'll collate them here, with proper attribution to you - tom.rafmra@googlemail.com