The Marine Rescue Squadrons aren't new, they have been around in GA and SC for about 20 years. I just didn't know how good at fund-raising (COMO Klaus take note) they are. The Aux usually scoffs at bake sales but this is something else.

Marine Rescue Squadron Barbecue

quote:

The Coffee Bluff Marine Rescue Squadron cooked more than 3,000 pounds of barbecue for their annual fundraiser.

The squadron is a non-profit marine search and rescue operation. Every year they spend more than a thousand hours helping stranded boaters and searching for missing people.

Now they're hoping their home cooking will bring in $8,000 to $10,000 to keep their rescue squadron afloat.

I don't understand why we aren't more like the RNLI in the UK. Their fundraising provides them with equipment, boats and stations. They aren't just volunteer support for the Coast Guard they ARE the Coast Guard, their members are on call 24/7 and respond day or night fair or foul to any shout.

There's no real reason I can think of why we shouldn't be able to do the same. Look at the Patrolman Walburger group. They run a non-profit to keep that facility running, and components for its refit were donated from industry.

LifeboatsUSA

COMO Klaus of Lifeboats also is an Auxie.

--Knee-jerk removed.

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

So rather than improve the existing organization he's looking for fame and fortune by starting his own?

First of all, COMO Klaus, is still an active member of Nat Aux staff and his local unit. Second, what he is doing is something the CGAuxAssInc should be doing and has failed for years to do - raise money for the local units. As has been stated here before, CGAuxAssInc did not even live up to its promises to deliver PowerPoint equipment to the flotillas. What makes anyone think they do the fund raising to build a station, buy the boats to put in it and properly equip both.

For background stuff that even Klaus might not know I have, his original intent was to build the station for Auxie use. He really had no intent to set-up a completely different organization. LifeboatsUSA original intent was to raise the funds to build the station and buy the boats. It would also raise the funds to keep both in operation. However, the finished product would have been an All-Aux run affair. However, that was not to be and COMO Klaus had to take a different tack.

There are various and sundry organizational and political reasons why it was better to approach the problem that way then try and do it thru the Aux and CGAuxAssInc and/or the District Corp. There are other posters here who could tell you what those problems would be. But one is that the District Corporation, or a wholly owned subsidary, would get to own the boats and the station. And once that happens all local control and sense of local ownership is lost - as well as the boats and stations if the district corporation changes its mind about owning it or where the boats should be.

COMO Klaus, still has a problem IMHO. If you read his qualification criteria, only currently qualified Aux or CG coxswains and boat crew can serve on the boats. No one else can. So he is limited in his crew and coxswains to current Auxies or those who are out one year at best - sinc after one year out, the ex-Auxie cannot claim to be current.

It is his organization but IMHO, COMO Klaus needs to find a way to qualify and re-cert his own boat crews and coxswains without reliance on outside organizatons. The Marine Rescue Squadrons have managed to do this for 20 years.

That may be a little unfair of me but it frustrates me to see people running off in all directions so they can do their own thing rather than come together and get the job done.

I understand the feeling but my best guess is that there was no one for COMO Klaus to "come together" with to "get the job done". He firmly believes and I would have to agree with him, that a strong flotilla needs a permanent home. There is none in St Augustine. No one at Nat Aux or D7 was going to help him build one for the local flotilla. So he could sit back and work on someone else's agenda, which he has done for many years at Nat Aux - or he could take the bull by the horns and see if he could "get'er done" and in doing so, show the Aux how things can be done and should be done.

If he fails, the failure is all his and the rest of you and the Aux can laugh your proverbials off all day long at him. But at least he isn't sitting at home crying in his white wine, bemoaning the sudden discovery that Auxies aren't getting qualified anymore.

quote:

There are other posters here who could tell you what those problems would be. But one is that the District Corporation, or a wholly owned subsidary, would get to own the boats and the station. And once that happens all local control and sense of local ownership is lost - as well as the boats and stations if the district corporation changes its mind about owning it or where the boats should be.

I'll have to see how the RNLI deals with this... you can look around their sites and see the pride all the stations take in their facilities. I would doubt that there is even a policy for such things there though.

I strongly suspect that there is much more to this Lifeboats-usa project than meets the eye. I saw on the message traffic where STAMAYPORT is manning their SARDET in St. Augustine starting on Memorial Day and continuing a 24/7 watch until 24AUG08. With a crew of three (3) and a 27' Safeboat available B-0 24/7 I think the AOR would be well taken care of plus the presence of a BO and two (2) BTMs for LE operations. I also know that the Auxiliary in that area will get underway at the drop of a hat for emergent sar, day or night, rain or shine. One of the Auxiliary coxswains in that area is somewhat of a legend in the Northeast Florida area and I understand that he has prosecuted three or four hundred SAR cases.

Do you have any idea how long STAMAYPORT has had that SARDET? I know COMO Klaus has had his station dream for a long time. Also the SARDET, according to your post, is only open 3 months a year. That still leaves 9 monthts uncovered.

I also know that the Auxiliary in that area will get underway at the drop of a hat for emergent sar, day or night, rain or shine.

And that niether supports nor refutes the need for a permanent home. The proposed station would also support PE and other RBS activities - so the Ugly Red Haired Step Child would have a permanent location.

One of the Auxiliary coxswains in that area is somewhat of a legend in the Northeast Florida area and I understand that he has prosecuted three or four hundred SAR cases.

Unless there are two like him, I think you are referring to "Pelican Bob". A great Auxie, but one Auxie doesn't make a flotilla or a home.

To put that member's efforts in perspective. He did 300-400 cases. He does that just about every year. In 2007, the Aux recorded 4,998 SAR cases from a boat (Mission Count - Lead Only). So that one member is doing close to 10% of all reported SAR cases. What a guy!!

I do not know how long that Mayport has been running a SARDET down there as I just saw some message traffic. The Auxiliarist that I heard about down there is "Bob" something so we probably are talking about the same person. I do not have a problem with Lifeboats-USA opening up a station somewhere but I can name quite a few places where it would be needed more according to some figures that I have researched.

Note on Pelican Bob: He used to cuss at the mess that the pelicans did to his boat dock. Being a good and imaganative cook he developed a recipe for Pulled Pelican.

I don't recall the number of SAR cases he had but his save rate was outstanding!!

I looked thru AuxInfo and could not find Pelican Bob in any of the Jax/St Aug area flotilas. A friend did an email directory search and Pelican Bob is not to be found in the Aux.

That is a real loss to the Aux. He was one of, if not the top SAR responder in the Aux. I wonder why he left.

Note on Pelican Bob: He used to cuss at the mess that the pelicans did to his boat dock.

He earned the name when he posted on the old Member Forum that during an o'dark thirty SAR call he ran out to his boat and slipped and went down in a big pile of pelican poo. The war on the pelican began that day in earnest. I think that is when Pulled Pelican got invented.

This isn't verified but one of my crew that has a friend at Mayport said that Bob O. went to Iraq with the guard back in 2006.

Fundraising via fishing, the MRS way.

I have heard of local CG Morale Funds doing something similar. I have never heard of an Aux flotilla doing it.