I thought that would get your attention and no I'm not being vindictive.

See the letter Auxiliary taking business away from private schools in the Brick Township Bulletin. And before you pooh-poof the whole thing - this is how the Aux lost its ability to tow except for 'come-upons'.

A few quotes:

quote:

I am writing this letter to make you aware of a serious problem facing small businesses here in New Jersey. There are over 70 state approved boating schools conducting safe-boating classes. They are being forced to compete with a civilian arm of the government, the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

The Coast Guard Auxiliary is considered by the IRS to be a charitable organization, but they charge the same as the private schools and say it's for "material." They don't pay instructors or rent. Where is this money going? No one seems to be able to tell us.

Except for some very highly consolidated numbers they don't tell the members either.

quote:

Ask them to boycott the Coast Guard Auxiliary classes and support local small business in the 70 private boating schools in New Jersey.

If the End of RBS thread is anywhere near the truth then Russ will not have to worry for long.

Tough luck to the private businesses. If volunteers want to teach it for free (or for a lower cost) thats better for the consumer. I know that this view may not jibe with policy or law but its the way things SHOULD be.

I tried to get an idea of just how much of a threat the Aux presents to private enterprise in and around Brick Township. The 7 flotillas of division 16 surround Brick Township. There is one other flotilla within 10 miles in another division but I didn't track them down. The following is the tale of the tape regarding each flotilla, its membership, number of instructors, and PE Lead Time in 2006. I used zip code 08723 for Brick Township since that was given on their website.

053-16-01 GULL ISLAND FLOTILLA 2 miles
http://a0531601.uscgaux.info/
Members: 49
Instructors: 21
PE Lead Hours 2006: 42.25

053-16-03 TOMS RIVER FLOTILLA 4 miles
no website
Members: 22
Instructors: 6
PE Lead Hours 2006: 38.5

053-16-05 BRICK FLOTILLA 5 miles
no website
Members: 18
Instructors: 6
PE Lead Hours 2006: 40.25

053-16-06 DOVER/BRICK FLOTILLA 5 miles
no website
Members: 22
Instructors: 5
PE Lead Hours 2006: 33.5

053-16-07 MANASQUAN INLET FLOTILLA 2 miles
no website
Members: 36
Instructors: 17
PE Lead Hours 2006: 67.4

053-16-08 SHARK RIVER FLOTILLA 11 miles
no website
Members: 36
Instructors: 7
PE Lead Hours 2006: 65.5

053-16-10 METEDECONK RIVER FLOTILLA 2 miles
http://a0531610.uscgaux.info/
Members: 34
Instructors: 10
PE Lead Hours 2006: 92.1

Total Division Membeship: 217
Total Division Instructors: 72
Total Division PE Lead Hours 2006: 379.5

ABC was the most often taught class by every flotilla. BS&S is shown as being only taught by 2 flotilla. One for 16 hours and 1 for 4 hours. 1 flotilla taught Navigation for 20 hours. 1 flotilla taught “Other” for 7 hours. One taught Sailing for 1.5 hours. 4 flotillas taught 35 hours of “Youth” courses – one flotilla taught 20 of the 35 hours. All the remaining hours were ABC.

I have to suspect the above data is only partial since only 1 flotilla – Shark River actually reported that it completed a PE Course. None of the other flotillas show any course completions.

quote:

Originally posted by RiverAux:
Tough luck to the private businesses. If volunteers want to teach it for free (or for a lower cost) thats better for the consumer. I know that this view may not jibe with policy or law but its the way things SHOULD be.

Exactly. Part of being a successful organization is competition. Yeah, it's easier to sit back and make up rules to control the patsies who give u the money, wouldn't we all like it to be so easy? Or you can reasearch your competitors (like your supposed to), find what you have that you can capitalize on, that the competition don't, and exploit it. At a minimum, find which of the 3 Q's the competition is emphasizing and differentiate yourself. (The 3 Q's are quality-pricing, quality of product, quality of customer service). A good company can show exdellance in one, and a good showing in another. No organization can outright excel in all three.

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

Lord! I am having a Deming flashback. I thought this TQM jargon died last century. In a way, I wish it hadn't because I have seen some really promising ideas trashed on the NIH syndrome by elected leaders that consider innovation a challenge. Back when I was a leader, I noticed that boaters on the whole were a slightly impulsive bunch. They are much more likely to attend a class you are promoting if it is happening next Wednesday rather than next October. So I crafted a class that met every Wednesday and taught one course a quarter. You could start class any Wednesday, and if you felt feisty you could challenge the test after you had finished six classes over a six week period. It did really well until I tried to sell it as a going concern to my next Flotilla Commander, and then in a hailstorm of why we couldn't do it, it died. The only really positive feedback I ever had on it was from the local USPS squadron, who told me that they were really worried about the competition.

To Those Interested,

Hal Leahy (FL51D7) directs this thread to an Editorial in a free weekly established in 2002. A circulation audit in September of 2006 revealed a print run of over 27,000 (ref: http://www.njpa.org/njpa/member_newspapers/greater_media_newspapers.html). Why is this important?

First, you should be aware of the limits of an editorial in a publication. Editorials are fine, and I support any member of this community to editorialize. I do not support editorializing against the facts or perpetuating mis-information.

Second, the editorial leaves out some essential information. So here it is. New Jersey is one of the few states that require mandatory boat operator licensing. This was not always the case. New Jersey enacted these boating laws recently and have a rolling, multi-year rollout increase in the number of individuals that will require a "Boat Safety Certificate." New Jersey law requires non-residents operating a boat in the state waters to possess a state issued Boat Safety Certificate. Yes, you understand that correctly. Any resident of another state operating a vessel in the state of New Jersey must aquire a BSC obtained from a authorized boating educator. The exception would be those that have a USCG Operators License.

Nearly 1/4 of a million vessels are registered in the state and non-powered vessels are required to be numbered, registered, and titled. Courses listed online from companies in New Jersey teaching the Boating Safety Course list course at $50 to $65 dollars on average and test-out options cost $25.00.

I mention these facts because the editorial that Hal uses to support his arguement neglects to mention the activities of the United States Power Squadron or the online courses that can be taken to qualify a member for the state Boat Saftey Certificate, their form of license.

These organizations must be cutting into the 70 for-profit businesses that are attempting to reach all of the boaters in the state of New Jersey and those boaters operating in the waters of New Jersey that live in other states.

Now $50 to $65 dollars for a one day eight hour course seems like a lot of money to me. Hal, who lives in Flordia, fails to mention these facts and assumes that the Auxiliary is charging the same amount for the courses. If they are, then they are not competing in my mind. If they charge the price that National recommends, $35, then they are, of course, offering a one day course at a cost substantially lower than the for-profit amount.

Hopefully, some of these facts has placed the nature of the statements in the editorial and Hal's use of them to support his arguement against Auxiliary courses into perspective.

Hal also alludes to this being related to the lack of towing in the Auxiliary. Agree in principle that towing by the Auxiliary has been greatly reduced to prevent competing with for-profit towing agencies that charge, my opinion, excessive charges unless you happen to be insured. That aside, I suspect that if Florida suddenly enacted manadatory boat licensing for operators there would be dozens, ney hundreds of for-profit companies popping up to offer a one-day course to satisfy the state demand. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if every Flotilla in the state offered a class each day of the week to classes of 20 students we could not fulfill the demand in 3 years. So, it make sense that profitiers would jump on the opportunity to earn $65 dollars per student for an 8 hour day. By the way, 20 students at $50 each would be $1000 dollars. At 6 days of classes I would have $7000 dollars per week, and yes, I would quit my day job.

So, when profitiers started popping up offering towing services, it is no surprise that the Auxiliary would naturally end up towing less. And the same arguement posed in the editorial, that Government agencies shouldn't be competing with for-profit companies, is the one that reduced our towing demand.

So where were these companies when there was no profit in it? When all of the profit is gone where will they be then? The Auxiliary will always be here, volunteering to assist the boater with their needs, both on the water and off of it.

Sincerely and respectfully,

Todd

Actually, FL was basically saying that the "fears" of this person are groundless as the stats he presented show that the Aux isn't teaching all that many courses there in the first place...

He obviously brought it up since this same Aux is competing with business concept is why we lost the ability to tow in many situations and that we should take this as a warning that the same thing might happen in the boating education arena.

Todd:

A few facts. The link I posted in the opening post came from a Yahoo or Google alert (I have both running every day) the day I posted it. If the editorial is as old as you state, then someone only recently posted it to the net.

Nor do I agree with the editorial. PE is the original mission of the Aux. The editorial was posted as a warning. The Aux cannot ignore what is going on its market.

If they charge the price that National recommends, $35, then they are, of course, offering a one day course at a cost substantially lower than the for-profit amount.

I'm not so sure about that $35 MSRP. National has been on record for years that a flotilla should charge for PE 'whatever the market will bear'. The quote from the AuxMan (5.L.2. Course Material Fees):

quote:

Course texts, aids, and related items may be sold to students at fair market driven prices.

And a flotilla may add other fees on top of the 'material fee'.

That aside, I suspect that if Florida suddenly enacted manadatory boat licensing for operators there would be dozens, ney hundreds of for-profit companies popping up to offer a one-day course to satisfy the state demand.

Florida has had a mandatory boating eductation law since about 1999. Currently it includes only those born after a certain date (1980 I think). There is talk of the legislature changing that to a sliding scale that would eventually include everyone.

Hal also alludes to this being related to the lack of towing in the Auxiliary

That reference is related to what happened back in 1984 and the introduction of the No Towing Policy. It is well documented in Tilley's book and other places. In essence, the feds encouraged private salvors to enter the business to alleviate non-distress towing from the CG and to make a profit. The commercial salvors immediately jumped on the Aux as being unfair federally subsidized competition. And the commercial salvors pretty much won the day. That reference was a warning - it happened once and it could happen again.

The Aux didn't really react to the onslaught of the commercial salvors until it was too late. And many of the arguements it was making to the membership about the then new BCQP played against its position in defending itself against the commercial salvors. Tilley documents how the commercial salvors quoted The Navigator in support of their position during their Congressional testimony.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FL51D7,

quote:

Originally posted by FL51D7:
I tried to get an idea of just how much of a threat the Aux presents to private enterprise in and around Brick Township. The 7 flotillas of division 16 surround Brick Township. There is one other flotilla within 10 miles in another division but I didn't track them down. The following is the tale of the tape regarding each flotilla, its membership, number of instructors, and PE Lead Time in 2006. I used zip code 08723 for Brick Township since that was given on their website.

053-16-01 GULL ISLAND FLOTILLA 2 miles
http://a0531601.uscgaux.info/
Members: 49
Instructors: 21
PE Lead Hours 2006: 42.25

053-16-03 TOMS RIVER FLOTILLA 4 miles
no website
Members: 22
Instructors: 6
PE Lead Hours 2006: 38.5

053-16-05 BRICK FLOTILLA 5 miles
no website
Members: 18
Instructors: 6
PE Lead Hours 2006: 40.25

053-16-06 DOVER/BRICK FLOTILLA 5 miles
no website
Members: 22
Instructors: 5
PE Lead Hours 2006: 33.5

053-16-07 MANASQUAN INLET FLOTILLA 2 miles
no website
Members: 36
Instructors: 17
PE Lead Hours 2006: 67.4

053-16-08 SHARK RIVER FLOTILLA 11 miles
no website
Members: 36
Instructors: 7
PE Lead Hours 2006: 65.5

053-16-10 METEDECONK RIVER FLOTILLA 2 miles
http://a0531610.uscgaux.info/
Members: 34
Instructors: 10
PE Lead Hours 2006: 92.1

Total Division Membeship: 217
Total Division Instructors: 72
Total Division PE Lead Hours 2006: 379.5

ABC was the most often taught class by every flotilla. BS&S is shown as being only taught by 2 flotilla. One for 16 hours and 1 for 4 hours. 1 flotilla taught Navigation for 20 hours. 1 flotilla taught “Other” for 7 hours. One taught Sailing for 1.5 hours. 4 flotillas taught 35 hours of “Youth” courses – one flotilla taught 20 of the 35 hours. All the remaining hours were ABC.

I have to suspect the above data is only partial since only 1 flotilla – Shark River actually reported that it completed a PE Course. None of the other flotillas show any course completions.

So you posted 11 paragraphs of meaningless, unreliable data to backup that the data is unreliable and not worth posting?

Both the USCG Auxilary & US Power Squadron do a great service for those interested in boating....

http://www.usps.org/newpublic2/index.html

Despite me being in the Coast Guard, my parents were active members in the USPS until the day they died.... They both had 100 ton licenses, and were Commanders in the Ft Lauderdale USPS branch. I would encourage anyone to join or use the services of either of these two fine organizations.

Wray...

11 paragraphs of meaningless, unreliable data

The data is reliable in part and incomplete in the other.

The data on number of members and instructors is reliable. The hours of lead PE is reliable but incomplete. The flotillas taught at least that much. We know that since the Course Completion Reports are missing (hence incomplete data) that they probably taught more.

As a rule, hours in AuxData/AuxInfo are underreported - making the data incomplete but not unreliable. They are reliable as the minimum that the member/flotilla/Aux has done.

Generally the number of current members and number of qualifications is accurate. Since members who are disenrolled/resign/retire get dropped from the system any research into the past becomes an indication of the minimum that was done but not everything that was done.

The Awards cube on the other hand is noted for being inaccurate. The problem with the Awards cube is that almost no one checks it since the data in it is not used for anything - at least the member has no reason to verify it's accuracy. Whether you earned an award or not and whether it is recorded in the Awards cube or not has no bearing on whether an Auxie can "sailor on" and perform in a qualification.

quote:

Originally posted by FL51D7:
I thought that would get your attention …………………………..

Not only is Coast Boating School’s owner on a campaign to try to get the Auxiliary out of the PE public service work, the has also captured the support of West Marine in helping Coast Boating with their commercial courses.

Take a look at a partial schedule list of the West Marine stores that have been letting Coast Boating School use WM facilities to present their classes. West Marine has always been a supporter of ALL boating safety education, and of the Auxiliary and of the Auxiliary’s PE classes. This is even formalized with an MOU between WM and the CGAux.

I wonder if West Marine knows that Coast Boating School, a business they have been generous enough to let use their floor space, is now abusing that help and is greedily trying to eliminate other organizations doing safety education to the public?

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

Coast Boating School's web site shows them offering courses in NJ and PA, with a plan to move into NY. However, the NASBLA Accepted Courses site shows them with NASBLA approval thru 2009 and state acceptance only in NJ - also thru 2009. It is possible that the PA acceptance is pending since NASBLA only updates that site once a quarter.

The Aux doesn't have much to go after here however. The same NASBLA site shows BS&S as NASBLA approved thru 2009 but without any state acceptance. America's Boating Course (ABC) is NASBLA approved thru 2008 with no state acceptance. ABC is also listed under the USPS with the same NASBLA approval date and a VA state acceptance thru 2008. It specifically states it is not accepted in NH. But the Aux cannot prove that any of its courses are state accepted in NJ, NY or PA (or pretty much anywhere else).

eirikr1 mentioned the 3 Qs. Being able to prove your courses are state accepted (or your competitor's are not) could play a part in the quality game and the competition for students as well as support from government and business.

We have an update on this story, courtesy of Department of Boating Quarterly Report 30 June 2007, page 3:

quote:

Activity Detail: West Marine NJ Stores Auxiliary Discrimination - Coast Boating Schools

Business Plan: Accountability and Communications

The B Department was advised about a situation of deteriorating relationships with some West Marine stores in the New Jersey area regarding Auxiliary and a commercial entity teaching public education classes at the stores. The issue centered on several specified West Marine NJ store actions giving the appearance of prejudice against the USCG Auxiliary in favor of Coast Boating Schools, a commercial entity.

These stores in NJ reportedly allowed Coast Boating School to post ads for their classes in the front window of the stores while requiring the Auxiliary to post class ads in the back of the store near the restrooms resulting in some of the Auxiliary ads ending up missing shortly after posting. Also, the auxiliary was not being allowed to have classes in the stores but Coast Boating Schools were allowed. When West Marine Corporate was confronted about the situation by B Department, it was acknowledged to West Marine that they can have whomever they choose to hold classes in the stores, however the appearance of shutting out the Auxiliary in favor of this commercial entity was not judged to be in the spirit of the Memorandum of Agreement between the Auxiliary and West Marine.

After an investigation involving the Auxiliarist who brought this issue to B Department’s attention, West Marine corporate staff and NJ store personnel, B Department staff was able to resolve the situation in a positive way. West Marine Corporate response was very comprehensive and positive. This was a unique situation as the commercial entity was actively disparaging the quality of training provided by the Auxiliary. Indications are that the relationship with at least one of the stores has improved considerably.

CHDIRAUX office is involved in dealing with legal issues surrounding Coast Boating School asserting to legislative and NJ state entities that only private boating safety course providers, such as themselves, should be allowed to teach such courses. [CY07 Complete]

It should come as no surprise that "B" and the Aux do not mention that the Aux's course is not state accepted in NJ, while Coast Boating Schools is.

Nor is this issue likely to go away - which is why it would behoove the Aux to get its courses state accepted.

Not only will the issue not go away - it is spreading.

From 2nd Quarter 2007 Legislative Report July 2007, page 30:

quote:

HAWAII

There is a private citizen that is tying the Auxiliary’s Boating Education program as unfair competition on the part of the Coast Guard and Auxiliary and utilizes the Towing standards of “non-compete. In the past towing by the CG has always been free, which is hard for a commercial operator to compete against. That is not the case with Boating Education courses. Auxiliary units charge tuition and book fees for the courses. The Coast Guard does not give courses and only shows up as a guest speaker or presenter if invited. So, this is hardly a “non-compete” issue.

The reason the private citizen got mentioned in the report is that the Hawaii Legislature is considering a mandatory boater ed bill - HB 630. The Aux is trying to get its' and the USPS courses grandfathered into the bill and it doesn't help having a private citizen running around yelling about unfair competition.

BTW - Hawaii is another state in which the Aux's courses are not officially state accepted.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FL51D7,

Three not-so-idle questions:
1. What is Coast Boating School doing that the AUX isn't when it comes to getting NASBLA approval/state acceptance?
2. Who is licensing or monitoring these boating schools and establishing national, standard criteria and qualifications?
3. Where are CBS and other commercial outfits finding their instructors? It would be ironic if they're hiring Auxiliarists to teach these courses.

1. What is Coast Boating School doing that the AUX isn't when it comes to getting NASBLA approval/state acceptance?

Coast Boating School has fully complied with the COURSE REVIEW PROCESS (word doc) for the state of NJ. The Aux did not comply at all with the requirements for state acceptance in NJ and most of the other states.

Notice what is at the bottom of the Process Flow Chart:

quote:

 NASBLA approval is granted only after the state reviews and accepts, endorses, or recognizes a course for use in that state.

2. Who is licensing or monitoring these boating schools and establishing national, standard criteria and qualifications?

NASBLA. The link above is just the Process Flow. See NASBLA Education Standards for the whole process and requirements.

To get technical - NASBLA approves courses, the states accept them. A course is not supposed to be taught in a specific state unless it is currently NASBLA approved and state accepted - in the state where the course is taught.

The NASBLA approval is good for 5 years.

3. Where are CBS and other commercial outfits finding their instructors? It would be ironic if they're hiring Auxiliarists to teach these courses.

I would suspect you answered your own question with the last sentence.

And while we are on the subject of NASBLA the Aux and NASBLA have an MOU.

The Aux has pledged by point II of that MOU to foster mutual support for the NASBLA Education Standards - yet the Aux has ignored for years the published standard that a course must be state accepted to be legit in that state.

OTOH - it tried to take West Marine to task for supposedly violating the West Marine/USCGAux MOU. I guess the Aux believes that what is good for the goose isn't good for the gander. Or "do as I say - not as I do."