Skip to main content

Monitoring, SOS Handling, and Ending Location Sharing

On the event day, organizers watch the safety monitoring screen and confirm participant status.

What should be checked first?​

In day-of-event monitoring, the following order is usually the most practical.

  1. Check whether any participant is in SOS or Warning state
  2. Check whether anyone has had no location update for a long time
  3. Check whether anyone may have gone off course or entered a dangerous area
  4. Check whether any participant battery is getting low
  5. Check whether anyone forgot to stop sharing after finishing

In a Safety Tracking Event, it is more realistic to confirm participants in priority order than to watch every participant with the same depth all the time.

Things to watch during the activity​

  • Current participant location
  • Last transmission time
  • Battery level
  • GPS accuracy
  • Whether SOS is active
  • Whether the participant is still sharing or already finished
  • Whether they appear far outside dangerous areas or the intended course

Points worth checking on the live map​

  • Whether someone is clearly moving to an unexpected place
  • Whether someone is staying in the same place for a long time
  • If patrol staff also share location, who is nearest to the participant

The live map is useful not only to identify a current location but also to decide which participant should be checked first.

When you receive an SOS​

  1. Confirm the SOS message
  2. Confirm the current location or the location at send time
  3. Coordinate by phone contact or with patrol staff
  4. Mark it resolved after the response is complete

Things to keep in mind in the first response​

  • First confirm the location and time, and check that the information is not already old
  • If communication is unstable, also look at the last received location
  • Reassess the priority depending on whether phone contact is possible
  • Separate who makes contact and who moves on site between HQ and field staff

What to record after the response​

  • SOS content
  • Response start time
  • Contact method and outcome
  • Whether on-site confirmation was performed
  • Time when the case was marked resolved

Keeping these records helps later review and handover between multiple staff members.

Checking overdue-return candidates​

  • Confirm the last location and last transmission time
  • Consider the possibility of communication trouble, battery loss, or device trouble
  • Do not conclude from the app display alone. Combine it with phone contact or field confirmation

For the broader thinking behind overdue-return response itself, see Operations Guide - Safety checks and return confirmation.

Confirm that participants ended sharing​

After the activity ends, ask participants to end location sharing by long-pressing the Stop button.

Things to check at the end​

  • Whether anyone has already finished but still appears as sharing
  • Whether battery loss or communication trouble caused the stop operation to be missed
  • Whether there is any mismatch with reception-side or HQ-side return confirmation

The organizer quick guide also recommends guiding participants to stop sharing after the finish. Before closing the event, it is safer to check once whether anyone still remains active.

Participant-side stop operation​

Participants end sharing by long-pressing the Stop button after they finish.

Organizer-side force stop​

When necessary, the organizer app can also end a participant's sharing state.

Typical cases for organizer-side ending​

  • The participant forgot to stop sharing
  • The participant cannot stop from their own device because of trouble
  • Return confirmation is complete and only the sharing state remains active

This is convenient, but it does not mean you can skip actual return confirmation. Make the decision together with face-to-face or phone confirmation.

Things that are easy to miss in play slots and event-day operation​

  • Whether enough play slots are prepared for the expected number of users
  • Whether the start guidance has reached all participants
  • Whether patrol staff should also use location sharing

If you may run short of play slots during the event, additional purchase may be needed on the organizer side. If participant numbers may grow, it is safer to confirm this with some margin.