The first thing a Wood Acquisition Rescue Program (WARP) needs is people. People are the heart, muscle and brains of the program. Under ideal conditions the people that fill this role, particularly the Leaders, should be experienced in woodworking, and should be volunteers. In our experience, volunteers are often more dedicated and thoughtful to the system.
To operate a Wood Rescue Program, we recommend the following roles:
#1 - Contacts (three required)
These people will be responsible for receiving the initial message that there is an opportunity for rescue wood. The "contact" people should be club members who do much of their work on computers that are connected to the Internet. The reason for this is that Woodworkweb will be sending emails, with detailed information to EACH of the three contacts. These emails could arrive at any time during the day or night so it is imperative that these people consciously read their emails a few times each day.
We have selected the number of three contacts to ensure we double up on getting this information to the clubs as quickly as we can.
It will be the role of the contacts to inform the Leader (and the Vice Leaders) of a WARP opportunity.
#2 - Leader (one required)
This person will be responsible for coordinating the entire program, which is not as ominous as it sounds. Primarily the Leader should be someone who can delegate activities to others. It will be up to the Leader to ensure that both of the Vice-Leaders are well informed on all aspects of the program so that either one of the Vice-Leaders can take over in place of the Leader should the need arise. The Leader should also delegate someone to keep track of any costs incurred during the WARP process.
#3 - Vice Leaders (two recommended)
These people will need to be as familiar with the wood recovery program as the Leader. One of the primary roles of a Vice Leader is to take over the wood recovery program in the event the leader is unable to fulfill their role. The secondary duties of the Vice Leaders are to support the Leader by being of special help to the Leader as needed, and as delegated by the Leader.
#4 - One Safety Patrol Leader (one recommended)
This person is assigned the role of ensuring everyone involved in the WARP is performing their duties in the safest way possible, including the wearing of safety gear as needed. It is not necessary that this person know First Aid or have taken any safety courses (but it is recommended), their main roles is checking and instilling everyone's common sense to safety. We recommend this person wear some forms of safety gear (hard hat, vest etc.) to help identify them to the group and as a constant visual reminder to the work party.
#5 - Workers (minimum of 10 workers suggested)
Workers will be responsible for a variety of duties throughout the WARP. They may be called upon to assist in moving wood, cleaning up site during and after the activities, sorting / marking / grading wood. It may be helpful to have a few workers with their own chain saws, as these can come in handy from time to time for "delimbing" some trees.
Note: It is a good idea to involve different woodworker types in your program. For example those who are furniture makers will often use different parts of a tree than would woodturners or carvers. Having different people interested in different parts of the tree will help make better use of the trees and provide a guideline on how it is to be milled.
