quote:

My mom says I'm a winner...my teenage daughters have an entirely different opinion Big Grin

Rolling on the floor laughing. Simply because I have teenagers myself!!

quote:

Originally posted by MikeAux:
Well Said F&S

"Be part of the solution, not part of the problem".

Welcome aboard Jason. I hope that you will find the Aux as satisfying as I have. Good luck with your future endeavors.

I agree.. be part of the solution.. and that is to refuse to be fingerprinted, and to write letters to your lawmakers, DHS and Coast Guard as I have done.

But again, outside of the PSI, I had an extremely positive experience in the Coast Guard Auxiliary. I think it's a fabulous organization.

My goodness, when I look back at all of the unique experiences I had.. things I never would have gotten to do had I not joined. Just my experience on the cutter alone was too amazing for words. I learned so much and really enjoyed it.

I was also fortunate enough to be involved with an extremely talented PA Team. We covered OpSail, the Eagle, and all kinds of really fun and interesting events.

quote:

All they have is what happened in the past -- with no ability to participate in the present nor to direct the future

You couldn't be more wrong. I still am asked by high ranking friends in the Aux to do research for them. And I do since although I'm not in the Aux and have absolutely no faith in the current leadership - I still believe in the mission and will assist my friends who are still trying to change the organization.

quote:

all they can do is strive to keep the hurts and failures of the past alive in an effort to sooth those old personal wounds...

It also serves as a constant reminder that the incompetent and corrupt (not necessaarily one and the same but they often are) are still with you. Go back and read "Darker Shades of Blue Again. The crash pilot had a long history of roguish behavior and the higher ups not only ignored the warnings from others, they covered up for him.

And I would give a big dose of credit to FW for the changes in the "P Policy" do to her constant harping on the subject.

Folks
As of now I am personally embroiled in the process. So much so my Aux buddies have shunned me. What I have had to do is vioolate the Chain of Leadership to get my complaints heard. I did this when I recognized that the lower links on the chain was using it to block the upward motion of my complaints. I have put the COL on notice that in order to protect myself I would do it. Also if any charges get filed against me. They will be labeled retaliatory in nature.
Once this process gets started you have to stick with it and make no deals. As volunteers we are entitled to excellent leadership and the right to complain if we don't get it.
I am using this forum to gather anecdotal evedence that will find its way into this Mewmber's view of the Auxiliary. This report will go where ever necessary to get a fair hearing. For now my strategy is my own but
"Blessed be the whistle blowers for it is they that prevent the unjust from inheriting the earth"
Question for today Phony Hours
 Catch all (99)bucket is used indiscriminately more then ½ the hours recorded
 Awards given for hours not results
 Numbers of safety checks seem to be also padded Heard aabout pass/fail counting
 May be fraudulent practice to obtain higher budget allocation or awards
Any input would be appreciated...
Bruce Cohen

Wouldn't surprise me if quite a few folks had most of their hours in 99, especially those who don't do much more than attend meetings.

Many awards are given specifically for hours rather than specific actions. Need to be more specific about what you're claiming.

Reading emails and even this board can be reported as 99 hours....

Boy, if this actually was "official" Aux business I'd be on about my 5th sustained service award by now...

River,
at the change of watch for our division I was awarded a First Place Chefs Plaque. That was because I had more hours in the galley then did its rightful recipient. The head of the galley team who's leadership and vision kept it going.
He was the one who deserved it for deed not time. He was a little lax in reporting his time.
It was troubling to me to see him overlooked.
Well I took my plaque to the trophy company and had it redone with his name on it. I then presented it to him privately.
What I am saying is the award presentation has the wrong criteria. In 2005 I was awarded a First Place Career Counselor Division Award. What did I do, I went to three high school college fairs and represented the Academy Maybe 10 hours at most including travel (which is not mission time) The SO-CC at the time put in a lot of time and effort got second place. I expect he was lax and didn't record his time.
Our leadership should know who is performing and who isn't and give awards accordingly. Those who want awards need only to record hours (real or imaginary) and they will come.
Also, there are some who record enormous numbers of 99 time bordering on impossible while holding full time jobs.
My suggestion is to provide accountability on the part of the Chief of Staffs (The Vice guys) for the accuracy of the numbers. Its easy to establish and audit numbers which are reasonable for the FSOs Those positions that are mission related and those with a lot of 99 time. Also, missions must be used where appropriate. 7030 forms must be updated to allow for multiple events for ease of submission. I suspect that 7029s are used because you can put one in for the entire month.
Sorry for the long reply but yuo asked

In both your examples you use awards that are apparently based on recorded time in Auxdata. If that is the criteria for the award, so be it. If the runners-up failed to follow Aux policies by not submitting all their time, it is not Aux incompetence or corruption that denied them the award -- it is their own incompetence by not completing the mission by documenting it correctly in Aux records.

There are plenty of Aux awards for recognizing individual achievement that don't depend on hours. Have you nominated any of these people for such awards? The Aux and CG certainly aren't very stingy with them.

As to people faking time in their 7029s, I have heard (from a CG member) that there may be some people doing that and that they were investigating. I don't think it is widespread since by far the more common problem with the 7029s is that half our members don't bother to fill them out at all, much less fake time.

Maybe 10 hours at most including travel (which is not mission time)

It may not be mission time but travel time does get reported on the ANSC 7029 Member Activity Report. And that time in turn counts toward the Sustained Service Award.

Points well taken. But our leadership (depending on who they are) have been somewhat remiss in using these awards. Its easy for auxdata hours to drive the process. It seems the awards given are between the leaders and each other at for instance a District Conference.

Perhaps mission travel time should be posted on 7030. I can imagine a lot of travel associated with missions that should be reported as such. Lets say travel to a Cutter's home port for duty/training onboard.

All travel time is considered non-mission time with two exceptions.

The exceptions are:

quote:

01B TRAILERING - Time spent trailering a boat resource to a launch ramp for any authorized patrol. Indicate in the Local Notes which members were involved in the trailering mission if everyone in Section IV did not participate.

and

quote:

23A STANDBY BRAVO STATUS - Hours spent as available under Coast Guard orders with an Auxiliary Operational surface/air facility with a qualified Coxswain/Pilot and Crew. For Air, it is time spent On-Deck for picking up passengers, fueling, lunch, etc. For Vessels, it is time spent In-Port for lunch, fueling, or standby. Coxswain/Pilot hours are reported as “Lead” and Crew hours are reported on additional lines. When completing ANSC 7030, you no longer need to show the number of hours from Standby until you get underway; all will reflect Bravo Zero.

At least in AuxAir7, 23A was also used by the pilots to record their travel time to the airport. The rationale being they were on stand-by as soon as they called Flight Services from home for the required pre-flight briefing.

All other travel time is not counted as mission time but reportable on the 7029 and counts toward the sustained service award. FWIW - the travel time for surface and air, while it is reported on the 7030, the time does not count for the Annual Service Performance Award - Underway.

The exclusion of travel time makes sense. If travel time were included for cuter augmentation, many Auxies would make the required annual service time for the Cutterman Pin in travel time alone. I doubt that is the intent of the program or the service time requirement.

The cutterman pin is based on days, not hours. Unless you started your travel at 2300 for a watch starting at 0000, it wouldn't get you credit for any more days than you would have in the first place.

The real reason it makes sense to not include travel time on the mission forms is that for multi-person "crew" missions individual members will have different travel times to do the same mission and it would require some major hassle to try to record all this on the same mission form.

For examle, when I crew on a boat my travel time is often 15 minutes while the coxswain may have an hour of travel time.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RiverAux,

quote:

My suggestion is to provide accountability on the part of the Chief of Staffs (The Vice guys) for the accuracy of the numbers. Its easy to establish and audit numbers which are reasonable for the FSOs Those positions that are mission related and those with a lot of 99 time. Also, missions must be used where appropriate. 7030 forms must be updated to allow for multiple events for ease of submission. I suspect that 7029s are used because you can put one in for the entire month.

Having been the VFC and FC and 11 years as the FSO-IS all I see as the 'problem' is most folks don't report the time or do it accurately because it's a PITA.

I've had member training sessions every year near the start of our boating season on reporting time. Every meeting has a reminder to report your hours on the proper form. I don't think the high silver is doing anything wrong with hours etc, the bilge mice don't want to do the paperwork!!

In our division an innovative soul developed an input mechanism where all time can be entered electronically. She gets the submission and posts it to Auxdata check out the forms here
http://www.cgapj.com/forms.php
The paperwork was a bother but in our case its not paperwork anymore. If other divisions haven't heard of this application its our leaders fault. Best of Breed should be shared

quote:

Originally posted by Gimpycoxn:

Having been the VFC and FC and 11 years as the FSO-IS all I see as the 'problem' is most folks don't report the time or do it accurately because it's a PITA.

I've had member training sessions every year near the start of our boating season on reporting time. Every meeting has a reminder to report your hours on the proper form. I don't think the high silver is doing anything wrong with hours etc, the bilge mice don't want to do the paperwork!!

worse yet, it's an unnecessary PITA. The coxswain already inputs data to generate a 7030, why doesn't it automatically update auxdata? Instead, we have one person input the data, fight with it some more to print it out, mail, fax, or deliver it to another person who inputs it again. generating work just to document the work we generate.


--
William Baldwin, Jr
MBA HCM program Univ of Phoenix
Ground below Zero, City of New Orleans, La
on the web: www.coastguardauxiliaryslidell8cr.us

quote:

Originally posted by CervantesFan:
In our division an innovative soul developed an input mechanism where all time can be entered electronically. She gets the submission and posts it to Auxdata check out the forms here
http://www.cgapj.com/forms.php
The paperwork was a bother but in our case its not paperwork anymore. If other divisions haven't heard of this application its our leaders fault. Best of Breed should be shared

Uh, the Aux has had the electronic versions of those forms that do the same thing for at least a year or more. The only thing different I see is that they pre-filled in the recepient.

Annnd they still ned to be completed by the member

Oh my gosh... it is so much to ask for people to send the FSO-IS a form by email, snail mail, or in person... or even an email saying i did blah for blah on blah....

Lazy buggers...