2006 IOGA Life Flight Group Membership Program. In 2005, IOGA initiated a new benefit with St. Alphonsus Hospital, providing discounted enrollment in the Life Flight Membership program to IOGA members. The primary benefit of Life Flight Membership is no out-of-pocket expense for emergency air transportation by St. Alphonsus, as well as with several neighboring emergency providers in Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and California. For 2006, IOGA members (in all four membership categories) may enroll themselves and their legal dependents for $8 per individual. IOGA Business members may extend this benefit to their employees for $10 per employee. IOGA Outfitter Members may enroll extended family, employees and clients for $10 per person. Remind your guides that new IOGA Guide Members will receive this benefit FREE for the first year. If you participated in the program in 2005, you will be receiving renewal information via e-mail in the coming month. If your payment is received by June 15th, there will be no lapse in membership, even if you enrolled in March, April, or May of 2005. Please contact Alison Steen to enroll or for more information: Alison@yjriverguides.com or (928)773-9372.Heart Association Offers New CPR Guidelines. Putting the emphasis on chest compressions instead of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the American Heart Association now urges people to give 30 compressions instead of 15 for every two rescue breaths. Earlier rules were different for adults and for children and called on untrained rescuers to stop pushing the chest periodically to check for signs of circulation. Now, the advice is the same for all ages 30 compressions and you don't have to stop to check for improvement. What's important is to keep the blood flowing. Check out article from American Heart Association publication "Currents" that summarizes the new guidelines with comparison to old ones at http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1132621842912Winter2005.pdf
Register Now for 2006 Governor's Conference on Recreation and Tourism, May 18-19, 2006, Red Lion Hotel. Lewiston. Barbara Steinfeld, director of Tourism Development for the Portland Visitors Association will deliver the keynote address, "Park Your Ego at the Door: Cultural Tourism Partnerships" following the opening ceremonies on Thursday, May 18. Steinfeld has 20 years of tourism marketing experience and is current chair of the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Alliance. Adam Sacks, leading tourism economist and author of the Global Insights study on economic impact of tourism in Idaho will be the keynote speaker for the Thursday lunch session. Conference workshops will address topics such as creating cultural-heritage events, identifying resources, recruiting-training volunteers and making the media work for you. A CEO Roundtable on Friday morning will include Wally Huffman, Sun Valley Company; Gary Norton, Silverwood Theme Park; Carl Wilgus, administrator, Idaho Tourism Development Division and other leading figures from the tourism industry in Idaho. The conference wraps on Friday afternoon following presentation of the Take Pride in Idaho Awards and a Nez Perce Tribal presentation. Please register online and encourage others in tourism-related businesses to do the same. Visit www.visitidaho.org and click on the Governor's Conference logo on the lower right.
Discovery Channel Looking for Survival Stories. Darlow Smithson Productions, www.darlowsmithson.com, are the producers of a series for the Discovery Channel, 'I Shouldn't be Alive' about extreme stories of survival. They are looking for stories for the new series and we are doing a search of America's national parks and wilderness areas for stories of ordinary people on trips to the wild who find themselves in extraordinary situations. The kind of stories we are looking for are people who get lost/injured/stranded in the wil