October Flotilla Meeting Highlights.

Post by FSO-PB Jonathan James

This months flotilla meeting was outstanding. We had close to 30 members and 3 guests which made for a great time for fellowship and to conduct the flotilla business.

First off, I would like to thank our visitors for joining us Wednesday night. It was nice to meet you all and I hope it was a good experience for all of you. Flotilla meetings are usually the most nitty gritty function of the auxiliary but it is vital to the success of our unit. It allows us as members of a flotilla to come together and plan for the months ahead. It also allows us to get together as friend and catch up on the going on's for the month and recognize members for their hard work.

Speaking of awards.
Paul Ploeger was awarded his 2nd Operational Service Award for more then 341 hours underway this year. That is just outstanding.

Rebecca Easton was awarded her1st Sustained Service Award for 5 years of service in the Auxiliary.

Matt Epstein was awarded his 4th Sustained Service Award for 20 years of service to the Auxiliary. BZ Matt, I know your looking forward to another 20 years of service.


Daren Lewis was officially introduced to the flotilla as District Captain elect and now represents the southern divisions. The District Captain is also responsible as a liaison for the Coast Guard Units in his area. The District Captain delegates some of this to the ASC (Auxiliary Sector Coordinator)BZ Captain Lewis on your new position.








For the program visitors, we have some PV specific materials that you may not be aware of. The most important is the CG-5093 Manufacturer ID Code System, which is the form to sign up the marine dealers as a program partner. The biggest thing this can can do for the dealer is provide them with the quickest recall updates available. There is no yearly renewal unless the business name or location changes.
ANSC 7048 PV Activity Report is another must have. You don't get credit for your visits unless this form is filled out and SENT TO THE FSO-IS.
A program partner sticker is also available for our partners to show their customers at the front door that they care and participates as a program visitor.


A FRIENDLY REMINDER: MEMBER DUES ARE PAST DUE. PLEASE GET YOUR DUES IN TO THE FSO-FN

The Flotilla COW has changed the date to 15 January 2012 due to the Division COW being held on the 7th and would require a good number of flotilla members to participate in 2 COW that weekend. Boarding time and meal cost will be available via email soon.


We voted on a couple VERY IMPORTANT motions at the meeting this month. The first of the two motions is as follows.............. Sorry I can't tell ya on the blog what the motions were. I will have the motions available soon in the flotilla meeting minutes.


Mary Magrant conducted our member training session at the meeting which covered the steps/process to becoming an instructor (IT). The first step to gaining your qualification is to study the Instructor Development Course located at http://www.cgauxed.org/elib/idc.htm
Once finished with the course you need to log onto the E-Learning site and take an openbook, none proctored test.
Once the course and test is completed you can move onto the Personal Qualification Standard (PQS) which is a book that has tasks that must be complete in the presence of a mentor. Once this is completed, your paper work is sent to district and walla. Please call Mary for a more in depth discussion on the steps required.

VE's please remember to submit any Vessel Exam paperwork that has not been entered. The leadership would like to see your numbers accounted for this year.


EVENTS TO ADD TO YOUR CALENDER:
22 OCT Sat: ECP Training Session at MSU.
02 NOV Wed: Division Meeting
09 NOV Wed: Flotilla Meeting. Elections will be held.
12 NOV Sat: HAZWOPER Training and Exercise.
19 NOV Wed: ABS Class. Contact FSO-PE for details.

Required reading: Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowing

Our fellow Guardian, Mario Vittone, has an article on gCaptain about how drowning can be a deceptively quiet event.  Please read the article - we will be incorporating this as a training topic.

To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening(source: CDC).

http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/drowning/

Naval Vessel Protection Zone PSA

Our shipmates in D13 Public Affairs have prepared a public service announcement on Naval Vessel Protection Zones.



If the video does not display please see this YouTube link.

Video: Introduction to Digital Selective Calling

Florida State College at Jacksonville has prepared an introduction to Digital Selective Calling (DSC). DSC is new to most boaters and education on Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) registration and integration with GPS systems is critical.



MMSI registration:  http://www.boatus.com/mmsi/
USCG Navigation Center on DSC: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/MARCOMMS/gmdss/dsc.htm

SafeKids Day at the Oregon Zoo

On May 2, 2009 Earl, Tim (both pictured here) and I participated in the annual SafeKids Day at the Oregon Zoo. I took some video at the event and posted a video on fitting life jackets to kids on the D13 Blog .

Yesterday I got the final zoo event numbers from our SafeKids partners:

• Zoo Attendance: 9,984 (up from 9368 last year)
  
• Safety Professionals and volunteers: 250 (up from 156) -- way to go!
  
• Due to the generous contributions of our Safe Kids partners, thousands of prizes were distributed.
  

I estimate we saw over 3,000 kids and parents at the booth and fitted many of the kids for life jackets.

Bravo Zulu Tim & Earl!

The long version of the video can be seen here (if you cannot see the video please visit the blog post directly, it may not play in your RSS reader or email client.)

Qualifications: Becoming an Auxiliary Instructor

One of the most rewarding opportunities in the Auxiliary is teaching others about recreational boating safety (RBS). To teach our public classes you need to be a qualified instructor (IT) or candidate for IT status.

Most Auxiliary qualifications, of which the instructor qualification (IT) is one, are moving to the standard for Coast Guard qualifications the Performance Qualification System (PQS). A PQS is a set of tasks and other requirements to gain a qualification. Once you have been qualified many qualifications require annual currency maintenance, which will be discussed in future posts.

How do you become an instructor?

1. You read/study the Instructor Development Course (IDC) text  found here. Note a study guide for the course can be found here .

2. You take the online IDC test at the Auxiliary National Testing Center (NTC) and pass with a score of 90% or better. Print out the email the NTC sends and keep it. (You will need to sign in and get a pasword for the NTC using your Auxiliary eDirectory password. If you don't have an eDirectory password visit the eDirectory and set one up.)

3. The student is assigned a mentor that is a currently qualified Instructor and the mentor takes the student through 19 Tasks and signs off that the student knows and understands the tasks. (IDC appendix B-4 )

4. The student then presents a 10-30 minute lesson and a 1-2 hour lesson. The mentor evaluates the presentations using the "Instructor Qualification Check List" and then the "Instructor Evaluation Sheet" (appendix C-3 thru C-7 )

4. The mentor and the Flotilla Commander then certify the process by completing the "Certification of Instructor" form on appendix B-6 .

5. The  Flotilla Commander will then submit the "Certification of Instructor form" and a copy of the email response showing the score on the test and that the member passed by 90% to the District Staff Officer for Public Education (DSO-PE) for review. The DSO-PE will then recommend to the DIRAUX that the member be qualified.

6. Your certificate and ribbon will be sent to your FC for presentation at the next Flotilla meeting.