Welcome to the first Friday Interview.

The idea is to "interview" important or well-known SAR personalities every week, get to know them a little better and maybe start to understand where they are "coming from". For the first interview it seemed only right to interview Kris Manning, our "technical director" here at SARworld (read webmaster!)

I have known Kris for ten years or so and I'm very pleased that he has returned to the SAR fold after a few years in the policing wilderness. I'm also very pleased that he has come on board and done so much to get SARworld going.

So Kris, over to you...

Tell us a bit about yourself, your work, your SAR role, hobbies etc.

I’m 39 with 2 kids the eldest of which just turned 17. My day job is in IT where I specialise in OSS (Operational Support Systems) Integration, website design and development.

I am warranted Police Officer (S/Chief Inspector) with Thames Valley Police where I have served for the last 10years and responsible for over 130 officers, and I also founded and run a national online forum for Autistic Spectrum Disorders, now the largest forum in the country of its kind.

My hobbies are SAR, Policing, Motorbiking, Flight Simulation and computing.

I have been a member of SEBEV Search & Rescue since 1987 though I had 4.5 yrs off to progress through the ranks of TVP and returned back to the team in October 2009. I've held various roles within SEBEV and am a trustee of the charity and as of last night I am now Chairman of the team, which was a very proud moment for me.

How did you get into SAR?

SEBEV Search & Rescue started life in 1980 as a Civil Defence team working for Berkshire County Council. In 1987 as a council employee I heard about the team and joined up. However as the cold war threat reduced there was less and less call for Civil Defence skills and SEBEV were looking at other areas to expand into.

One afternoon in 1993 I was reading a magazine that carried an article about a SAR team in Milton Keynes (they are sadly no more) Having read that we met with the MK team and made some enquires with Thames Valley Police and having established a need we approached the SEBEV management committee with the idea of taking SEBEV fully into Search & Rescue. SEBEV Search & Rescue went fully live in 1994..

It all sort of grew from there. SEBEV became a founding team of ALSAR (originally called NALSAR) and developed a training package called “Basic SAR Techniques” which I am pleased to see is still the basis for Lowland SAR training. We trained most of the original team members around the UK, I love teaching SAR. I qualified as a Search Manager on the Bangor course which I was later lucky enough to be asked to teach on. I have also lectured/presented at the Police National Search Centre. I have been the Chairman of ALSAR for 2 terms and Secretary for 1 term, I managed to avoid treasurer :)

What was your most memorable SAR moment?

There have been many but I remember in particular the adrenaline rush when the pagers went off for the very first time in 1994. Strange but that hasn’t left me even after all these years.

What would you most like to see change?

I’d love to see ALSAR more established nationally and using its voice more. It doesn’t seem to me to have come far enough in the time. I’m not arguing the rights and wrongs of that; after all it’s our organisation and therefore our responsibility to drive it forwards.

What piece(s) of kit couldn’t you do without?

The walking boots I use specifically for SAR. When it comes to boots I’m a Berghaus man through and through and they are worth every penny. They never let me down.

What is/are your favourite SAR websites?

SARworld of course.

But……. The Search & Rescue Society of British Columbia website (www.sarbc.org) was always the source for SAR info when we first started the team up. We learnt so much from this site, much of which made its way into the courses.

What is your favourite website/piece of software/app?

I'm a total geek and gadget freak, my IT toolkit is full of applications and websites.

Well SEBEV uses Decisions for Heroes. I know it’s not a cheap option for UK charity teams but the application is second to none in terms of the management facilities and analytics that it gives us. Personally I love it but I understand why other ALSAR teams don’t use it.

We use Atlas Ops for mapping (Thames Valley Police give us the software and maps) but we are waiting to see SARMAN from Mapyx in action very soon. Let’s see what happens!

I must mention SMS Responder – The guys there built an SMS app that is truly bulletproof and has run our callouts for many years. I hear it’s being developed into something bigger and better – Looking forward to seeing that.

Who inspires you?

Everyone. I meet people all the time who inspire me in some way. I’m thankful for the opportunity to meet these people through SAR and policing and I hope I’ll spend years meeting many others. SAR people are the best!

Anything else you’d like to add…

As the years roll on it's easy to forget some people who, without their involvement, Lowland SAR would not be as advanced as it is:-

Sara Farr – Developed almost all of the original Lowland SAR Op forms, her misper questionaire was used as a template for Police Services in the UK

Gordon Farr – Ex-chairman of ALSAR and SEBEV member - You wouldnt believe the politics he dealt with for ALSAR in the early days

Rob Bradley – SEBEV (and various teams) – Numerous services to SAR, SARworld director and SAR trainer to the stars

Dr Anthony ASG Jones (Tony) - MREW - A friend and stalwart supporter of everything we were doing. The original 'voice of reason'

Andy Williamson – SEBEV, we delivered Basic SAR Tech courses together for years all over the UK, happy days.

Roger Waghorn – Milton Keynes SART – The man who started it all

And the 1993 committee of SEBEV (sadly of which I think I’m the only one left) who agreed to let us take SEBEV in a new direction, and we never looked back.