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National Commodore Jim Vass presiding |
January 28, St. Louis: Per Standing Rules a semi-official meeting, the Committee of the Whole, is convened a day before the meeting of the General Assembly. No votes or actions are take; rather it is an opportunity to consider and discuss the issues and recommendations that will come before the Board during the official General Meeting. The General Meeting will take place on Saturday, January 29.
The meeting was called to order by National Commodore Jim Vass and Executive Assistant Anne Lockwood called the roll. The official representatives to the meeting are the members of the National Bridge, District Commodores and the President of the National Association of Commodores.
Vice National Commodore Tom Mallison delivered remarks based on recent meetings with senior Coast Guard officers. “The Coast Guard continues to promote and improve recreational boating safety,” he said. “We are to continue to provide trained crews and manned facilities to support Coast Guard operations, Our assets are there and robust,” he said.
Commodore Mallison presented statistics showing peaks and valleys in our recreational boating safety programs pointing out area where we were excelling, holding our own, or starting to fall. He was greatly encouraged by the membership statistics that showed the overall Auxiliary membership has rebounded from “the decline of 2005-06 to a 100% improvement in 2010,” he said.
Chief Director of Auxiliary Captain Mark Rizzo, USCG, delivered remarks concerning improvements to existing programs. He encouraged the Auxiliary to maximize their patrol time and efficiency. He announced that the new version of Team Coordination Training (TCT) is being rolled out this weekend with the training of 30 new facilitators (see SITREP coverage of TCT at NTrain). The new version now includes Operational Readiness (ORM) and the new program is called TCT-ORM. Over the next two or three years more facilitators will be added to provide workshops.
The Deputy National Commodores, Donald Frasch, Mark Simoni, Marie Scholle and Bruce Miller reported on the progress and exception activity within their respective areas of responsibility.
President of the National Association of Commodores, Commodore Rick Ives, discussed the ongoing projects of the organization. The organization is comprised of Past Commodores, current Commodores and Appointed Commodores. They support many Auxiliary and Auxiliary Association projects and provide support in areas on request.
Mr. Martin L. Phillips, Executive Director of the Auxiliary Association, Inc. remarked about financial concerns and uniform availability.
There were no recommendations brought before the Board and no further business was discussed.
~MG 01-28-11