Who, What Where, When, and Why of the United States Power, Squadron

Before 1900, most recreational boats were sail-powered; everything relating to recreational boating was geared to sailing. There were a few steam-powered boats, but they required large crews. Shortly after the turn of the century, gasoline-powered craft became available and many boaters bought them: power boating became a popular activity.

Since skills and education all were directed to sailing at that time, power boaters found themselves with a skill and knowledge gap. In 1912, Roger Upton decided to fill that gap by forming an unofficial Power Boat Division of the Boston Yacht Club. A year later, that division became ''The Power Squadron."

The Power Squadron received considerable media attention. Interest began to spread. During 1913, over 70 power-boat clubs and owners' associations met at the New York Yacht Club. At the second meeting of this group, the United States Power Squadrons was officially formed.

Desiring some unique identification, this new group designed the ensign including a fouled anchor, encircled by 13 stars on a red field with 13 vertical, blue and white stripes, as shown here. To protect the USPS Ensign, Roger Upton applied for and received a United States design patent, number 48,803, issued in April, 1914, which expired in 1928. To permanently protect the flag, however, trademark and copyright registrations were obtained, both of which have been maintained ever since.

On 6 April 1917, Charles F. Chapman sent a letter to the Navy Department, offering the services of the USPS instructional program to train men for the Naval Coastal Defense. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, formally accepted the offer. Over 5,000 students attended these classes and entered the military. As a result of their USPS training, many earned commissions in the U. S. Navy. During both World War I and World War II, USPS supported the war efforts by training many naval navigators.

Originally, USPS was an all-male organization. Women were eligible to take our courses, but were issued ''Woman's Certificates'' to show their affiliation with the organization. Then, in 1982, a special ''meeting of delegates'' adopted changes to the USPS Constitution and By-Laws to make our membership ''genderless.''

Thus, from its club-within-a-club beginning at the start of the 20th century, USPS has evolved into the largest private, fraternal, self-supporting, non-profit, non-governmental, and non-military organization of power boaters and sail boaters in the world.

Over the years, USPS has expanded throughout the United States and the Caribbean. We even have a squadron in Tokyo, Japan. Now, you are one of 600,000 members in 450 squadrons. We work, study, and play with members of our neighboring squadrons. Our squadron and several nearby squadrons are joined together into a ''district,'' one of 33 geographically-related districts in USPS.

Our educational courses have been continuously developed, improved and expanded since USPS' early days so they remain current and up-to-date. Each of those courses is available for you to take when and where you choose: with members of your own squadron, members of other squadrons, or independently.

In addition to our educational program, we take cruises together, we perform a host of civic services, and we have all sorts of fun: picnics, parties, etc. Don't miss out on these!

Enhancements to Your Membership

USPS^® has expanded services for its members over the years. One of the most important enhancements to your membership today is our boat insurance program. Special terms, coverage for older boats, and personal service are just some of the benefits of the USPS Insurance Program. Refer to the members section of the national USPS web site (http://www.usps.org) for details on the insurance program, information on discounts for airline reservations and auto rentals, the USPS^® credit card and other programs for members.

Web Sites

The Mid-Coast Sail and Power Squadron, District 19, and the National USPS organization each have web sites, which you should view as primary information resources.

· www.midcoastsailandpowersquadron.org is the hyperlink for the Mid-Coast Sail and Power Squadron web site. You will want to bookmark this, as it is cumbersome to type. This site has information about the Mid-Coast squadron: its activities, course offering, and membership. You will need your certificate number to log into the members' pages.

· The District 19 web site is www.usps.org/localusps/d19. This site has information about our northern New England district and the other squadrons in the district.

· The national USPS Web site is www.usps.org. This contains information about the national USPS program, the educational courses, National Committees, upcoming National Meetings and much more.

A Short History of Mid-Coast Sail and Power Squadron

Our Squadron was incorporated in 1992 and our first Commander was George R. Fricke, JN. Before that time we were in the Wawenock Squadron in the Damariscotta, Maine area, but because of distance, our Mid-Coast members split off and with Wawenock's assistance became an independent Squadron. We started with 50 members and have grown since to about 125. The Maine Midcoast region has about 3000 registered boats, so we have plenty of room to grow.

To show who we are, we designed our own burgee, a triangular identification flag, usually flown from the fore staff or from the spreader below the USPS ensign. The burgee shows three views typical for this area: the sky, the ocean and the Maine spruce trees. All members can buy this flag to fly on their boat or mount on the wall.

Like all USPS Squadrons, our main activity is education. Each year we conduct at least three basic boating courses for the general public and most of our new members join the Squadron from these courses. We are also active in advanced education for our members. These courses are described in a subsequent section.

Socially we meet every month for dinner or lunch, enjoy the camaraderie of fellow boaters and have a speaker who talks to us about a nautical subject. We also have at least one rendezvous in the summer, get together for a picnic and have a Christmas party in December.

And finally, we take part in USCG and NOAA related projects, like "Adopt a Chart'' and “Co-op Charting.” This way we can help these organizations to update sailing charts in our area. We offer free boating safety surveys with our own Coast Guard approved inspectors.

Every member is kept up to date on Squadron activities by reading our monthly newsletter, "Prevailing Winds." and by browsing our web site (www.midcoastsailandpowersquadron.org). We like participation by as many members as possible sending in stories about their boat trips, safety information, and experiences with boats and gear, including tales of blunders and mistakes we all make and from which we can all learn.

Our Membership Roster is published each year after membership dues have been paid. Printed copies are typically available around July 1st. An up-to-date membership roster can also be printed at any time from the member section of the Squadron’s web site. The Roster contains the name, address, contact (phone and email) and boat information for each member, and also has listings of Bridge and Executive Committee members and Squadron Committee Chairpersons. The web site roster pages also have photos of members and their boats.

Of course, a volunteer organization like the Power Squadron relies on the participation of many. Every member is encouraged to become a member of a committee. In our Roster is a list of these committees and also the name of the Member Involvement Chair, who will be delighted to help you find a position you will like.

How Our Squadron is Organized

The Squadron Organization Chart

The organization chart depicts the organization structure of the Mid-Coast Sail & Power Squadron. The squadron membership box at the top corresponds to the position of the stockholders in the typical corporation.

At the right in the yellow boxes we have the squadron commander and his staff, generally referred to as “The Bridge.” The bridge officers are all elected by the squadron membership at a change of watch ceremony held in the spring of each year. All bridge officers are collectively responsible for the operations of the squadron.

The executive committee comprises the 6 bridge officers and three elected members at large. Several standing committees report to this executive committee.

On the left we have several general committees that report directly to the squadron membership. These are tasked with 1) making sure that the squadron is operated in accordance with proper USPS procedures and the Bylaws of the Mid-Coast Squadron, 2) ensuring that the financial accounts are properly maintained, and 3) selecting candidates for each elective office on an annual basis.

The Executive Committee

Nearly every corporation has a board of directors that oversees the managers who actually conduct the day-to-day business. Ours does too, but we call it our Executive Committee. This Committee, which includes our elected officers and several elected Directors, meets regularly to review and approve everything our squadron does.

The Executive Committee is responsible to all of our members to see that things are done properly. Its meetings are announced in our newsletter, and we encourage you to attend them. They're open to all members. When you attend, your questions and suggestions will be welcomed. Remember - we're all volunteers and can use all the input and help we can get!

The Bridge

The day-to-day management of our squadron is accomplished by a group of officers called the Bridge. These officers are elected by, and are responsible to all of the members. The Bridge consists of:

Commander

One officer presides over all of our membership and Executive Committee meetings and performs all of the other tasks normally accomplished by the president of any corporation or similar group. To provide a nautical sort of recognition and honor to the office of our chief executive, he or she holds the rank of "Commander,'' (Cdr) and receives a special flag to fly. The flag includes three tridents with short staffs on a blue field, as shown here.

Each of the following officers gets lots of help from the rest of us through the various committees to which we belong. Their areas of responsibility are generally described below.

Executive Officer

The Executive Officer is our senior vice president,'' second in command. The XO performs the Commander's duties when the Commander is unavailable. This member is responsible for the external functions of the squadron, including public relations, cooperative charting, boat show booths, legislation of interest to us as boaters, radio technical information, and safety issues.

Educational Officer

The SEO (Squadron Educational Officer) is responsible for the entire educational program of our squadron. This officer may well be our busiest member (having the most fun), because he or she supervises our busy educational program, both the courses offered to the public and those for our members only.

Administrative Officer

The Administrative Officer (AO) is responsible for all of the internal functions of the squadron, (as opposed to the XO's external functions). The AO's tasks include recruiting and retaining members; keeping us involved in squadron activities; arranging for membership meetings, programs and entertainment; and setting up cruises.

Secretary

This officer is our records-keeper, an essential role in any organization. This officer records and keeps minutes of all of our meetings and safeguards our legal documents. Our Secretary also maintains the squadron membership records, and is responsible for publishing our newsletter, membership roster, and for maintaining the squadron web site.

Treasurer

This is our "show me the money'' officer. The treasurer manages all of the financial transactions of the squadron.

Each of the Executive, Educational, and Administrative officers, as well as the Secretary and Treasurer, is a Lieutenant Commander (Lt/C). The flag of a Lt/C has two short-staffed tridents on a red field, as shown here.

The Bridge officers are elected at our annual meeting, installed at our Change of Watch (a big party you won't want to miss! and serve until our next Change of Watch. Usually, our SEO serves for three consecutive one-year terms, but our other Bridge members usually serve for only one or two one-year terms.

On the following pages, you will read about some of the committees in our squadron. There are several not listed due to space limitations, but you should be aware that we have an Audit Committee to verify the Treasurer's work; a Nominating Committee to propose candidates for squadron offices, a Rules Committee to ensure that we adopt, amend, and follow our Bylaws correctly; a Planning Committee to help us project what our squadron will be in the future and propose steps that will help us to attain our goals; a Law Officer who helps us meet legal requirements, and a Property Officer who maintains the inventory of squadron property.

Executive Department

The activities for which Executive Officer is responsible primarily relate to events that affect our relations with the public.

Boat Shows

Each year, companies that build and sell boats and related boating equipment put on one or more exhibits to display and sell their products to the public. These are wonderful opportunities to tell people about the squadron and our motto: “Safe Boating through Education.” We cooperate with our neighboring squadrons to set up and staffs booth at the shows to distribute our literature, talk to boaters and prospective boaters about safety and education, and publicize our Boat Smart and The Squadron Boating Course classes.

Cooperative Charting

Our squadron provides a civic service by helping to maintain the accuracy of the charts, light lists, survey markers, etc., in our area. Since charts and related publications are important safety and information items, this is an important activity.

More than that, however, it's a lot of fun; it's like an adult scavenger hunt. We have water and land cruises to search outs find and report discrepancies or errors on the charts to the National Ocean Survey (NOS), the Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and/or local agencies.

Legislative

Many laws, rules, and regulations affect our |recreation and boating safety. These are proposed and enacted by federal, state and municipal authorities. This committee is responsible for maintaining our awareness of these bills and laws so that we can comply with them and, where necessary, contact our elected and administrative officials with comments and suggestions.

Public Relations

We present solid educational and informational opportunities to the public. But, if we don't tell them why, where, and when, we're wasting our time. Public Relations, which include getting the word out about our classes, are critical. PR directly promotes boating safety.

PR indirectly promotes boating safety by informing the public about USPS, our activities, and opportunities for membership. Our members are our squadron. Unless we continue to attract new members, we cannot continue to promote boating safety. Effective Public Relations is critical to our goals.

Radio Technical

As boaters, we need someone to be aware of the technical matters and regulations relating to the installation and operation of marine electronic equipment. Usually this is done for our squadron by someone appointed as our Radio Technical Officer. Our RTO monitors FCC regulations and other information published by various marine electronics and telecommunications organizations.

The RTO helps us to be aware of and in compliance with the rules and regulations relating to our boating activities, and helps our instructors to present accurate and current electronic equipment information in our courses and programs.

Safety

Our Safety Officer is selected on the basis of an interest in marine safety. He or she helps to present informative programs throughout the year during our meetings, classes, and cruises. S/he distributes safety bulletins, posters, and literature.

Each year our country observes National Safe Boating Week, and a major task for this officer or committee is to help us observe and promote it to the public as another form of our civic service.

Educational Department

The Squadron Officer (SEO) is responsible for all public and member courses and programs. As a result, the Educational Department is fairly large and involves a number of our members.

The SEO has an Assistant Squadron Educational Officer (ASEO) who helps guide this department's work.

Courses vs. Programs

What's the difference between courses and programs? Courses present specific material to students over a period of some time. Usually, students do homework, and courses always end with a proctored examination. Programs are relatively short presentations. They are usually given over a few hours or a day or two. Most use USPS Learning Guides and there is no homework or exam.

Public Courses

Public courses and programs include the Squadron Boating Course, Boat Smart, Jet Smart, Chart Smart and Boating Safety for Kids. These are all taught free of charge to everyone, though there are typically minimal fees for course materials, administering the proctored exam, and usage of classroom facilities.

Member Courses

Member courses are far more extensive, and you will undoubtedly want to begin taking them soon after you join our squadron. The two categories of these courses are: Elective Courses and Advanced Grades.

Elective Courses

Elective Courses may be taken at any time and in any order you choose. These courses are:

· Cruise Planning (CP)

· Instructor Qualification (IQ)

· Engine Maintenance (EM)

· Marine Electronics (ME)

· Sail (Sa)

· Weather (Wx)

Cruise Planning (CP)

Cruise Planning discusses everything you need to know about planning for a cruise, whether it will last hours, days, months, or years. Take CP with your Family Members with whom you will cruise; including them will be fun and informative for all of you.

Instructor Qualification (IQ)

Instructor Qualification is a misnomer. The name sells short what this course teaches. Instructor Qualification You will learn how to make an effective presentation to other people in every part of your life: at work, at home, in any public or private gathering, as well as in a classroom. The course covers preparation of your presentation and use of aids to help you make your point.

Engine Maintenance (EM)

Engine Maintenance will teach you how to do routine maintenance on a boat's engine and related equipment. Equally important, it will teach you how to be a problem detective. You will learn how to diagnose problems so that you can more intelligently assess the work that needs to be done and discuss it with those you select to do it.

Marine Electronics (ME)

Today there is more electronic equipment aboard small boats than on large naval ships a half century ago: radios, radar, loran, global positioning systems, electronic chart systems, weather fax systems, and many others. We need to know a little about how they work and a lot about how to use them. Marine Electronics is the course that provides this information to you.

Sail (Sa)

There's more to going for a sail than simply hauling them up the mast and letting go the dock lines. When you take Sail, you'll learn about different kinds of wind - true, apparent, boat - and different kinds of sailboats - sloops, ketches, yawls, etc. You will also learn how to make the wind, sail configuration, and weight of your boat produce the fastest and/or most comfortable ride for you and your passengers.

Weather (Wx)

Is the weather forecaster on your favorite TV station right - ever? Here's your opportunity to become familiar with the problems meteorologists encounter. Learn how they determine what the weather is most likely to be at some time in the future - tonight, tomorrow, next week, or next month. Boating is really a "know before you go'' activity, and knowing what the weather will be doing can be critical to your fun and safety. Don't miss Weather; it's a terrific course.

When to Take Elective Courses

The Elective Courses may be taken in any order you wish. You can self-study any or all of these courses, and challenge any course’s examination to obtain permanent credit, but we encourage you to take them with other student-members. Students always bring their own experiences to the classes and share them, so you will learn things not found in the texts. You will also develop lifelong friendship with your fellow students due to the love for boating we share.

Advanced Grades Courses

Major elements of safe boating include learning your responsibilities as a skipper and understanding how to move your boat from one place to another, whether across the marina or around the world. Many people think that anyone can get into a boat and drive it with no special training. Perhaps they can. But, they won't be safe-nor will anyone else on the water at the same time they are.

Our Advanced Grades courses present a series of information that is important for you to know to be safe and to get where you're going with the least trouble. We recommend that you take them in the following order, but you may take them as they become available, if the instructor approves. The instructor will ensue that you have sufficient background to absorb the material without delaying the progress of other students in the class.

Our Advanced Grades Courses are:

· Seamanship (S)

· Piloting (P)

· Advanced Piloting (AP)

· Junior Navigation (JN)

· Navigation (N)

Seamanship

Seamanship is our boat-handling course. It covers your responsibilities as a Seamanship skipper. You will learn the basics of anchoring, line handling, rules of the road, and marlinspike seamanship, i.e. some basic knots, bends, and hitches - more than those taught in our public courses.

Your accomplishment in completing Seamanship is recognized by all of us, with our sincerest congratulations, by awarding you the right to attach the suffix “S” after your name. In addition, if you have a uniform (you don't have to have one), and/or if you have a blazer (you don't have to have one of these, either), you may display the award shown at the right on its breast pocket.

Piloting

Your primary course in navigating your boat within sight of land, Piloting will show you how to get from where you are to where you want to go, safely and directly. You will learn how to plot your course and position on a chart, the various types of charts available, the different types of aides to navigation, and how to use a compass effectively.

As a sign of having completed Piloting, you may add the grade designator “P” after your name and wear the breast-pocket emblem shown here.

Advanced Piloting

After completing Seamanship and Piloting, you'll want to take Advanced Piloting to complete your near-shore cruising education. You will learn sophisticated methods of finding and plotting your position. You'll also learn how to avoid dangerous water conditions, figure out if there'll be enough water to enter your marina, too much water to get under the bridge, or if the current is too strong for your boat to get through the pass quickly. You'll also learn how to determine your compass' deviation and to prepare a deviation table for your boat.

If you have the background and skills to do the work, you may study and complete Advanced Piloting before you take Seamanship and/or Piloting. However, if you do, you will not have earned the “AP” grade designator until all three of those courses are successfully completed. Upon completion of all three, you will have earned that privilege and may use the emblem at the left on your breast pocket.

Members who compile Seamanship, Piloting, Advanced Piloting and any three Elective Courses have earned the Educational Proficiency Award. Your breast-pocket grade designator may be underscored, as shown here, to display your award.

Junior Navigation

When you've completed your near-shore cruising education, it will be time to learn how the more a venturous seamen travel the high seas. Junior Navigation is the course that will tell you everything you've wanted to know about electronic navigation, and will also introduce you to celestial navigation - finding your way using only the stars and planets. While modern electronic charting obviates the need for much of this, it is nice to know what to do when the equipment fails or the batteries die.

Once again, if you're able, you may take JN before completing the earlier courses, but your grade designator will not be "JN" until Seamanship, Piloting, Advanced Piloting, and Junior Navigation have all been completed. And, as you may have guessed by now, when you complete these four courses, you will have earned the right to change your name's suffix to “JN,” and display the breast pocket emblem shown at the left.

Navigation

And now, the full dose of celestial navigation! In N you will learn nearly everything there is to know about finding your way using only a sextant and celestial bodies. In fact, you'll even learn how to find where you are in emergency, lost-at-sea situations when you don't even have a sextant. When you take navigation, you will learn not only how to use celestial Navigation, but its theory - why it works.

When you've completed all of Seamanship, Piloting, Advanced Piloting, Junior Navigation, and Navigation, once more you are entitled to change the suffix used with your name to “N” and display the breast pocket emblem shown here.

When to Take Elective Courses

Advanced Grades courses may be taken in any order you wish, but, as described above, your grade designator will always depend upon which courses you have completed. Although you can self-study any or all of these courses and challenge any course's examination to obtain permanent credit, we encourage you to take them with other student members. Students always bring their own experiences to the classes and share them, so you will learn things not found in the texts. You will also develop lifelong friendships with your fellow students due to the love for boating we all share.

When you complete all of the Advanced Grades and Elective Courses, you will have earned the Educational Achievement Award and have acquired a classroom-level nautical education equal to that from any military or service academy. Is there more to learn? You bet! Where do you go to learn it? Out on the water: put what you've learned to use and go out and practice it.

In the meantime, however, you have earned the privilege of showing the symbol “N” as a suffix to your name and displaying the emblem shown to the right on your breast pocket. Just for practice, and to see how it looks, fill in your name in the blank space to the right. Then - go for it!

Is the use of these grade-designator suffixes bragging? Maybe, but there really are two important reasons we use them. First they help us to inspire our friends and fellow-members to "be all they can be," and absorb as much education as they can.

Second, when you go out in public with your grade-designator emblem on your breast pocket, non-members often ask you what it means. Tell them, and tell them what USPS does for the public, and how we do it. We want everyone to be the safest boater possible. Safe Boating Through Education!

Educational Department Staff

So, how do we accomplish all this education? Clearly, it takes a lot of work. We're all unpaid volunteers, so the only way it's humanly possible to put on all these courses and create so many educated safe-boaters, is with a lot of help.

Member-volunteers plan, teach, and proctor our courses; build teaching aids; distribute information about our classes to members so they know when and where to show up; and encourage them to attend.

Our Educational Department staff includes:

· Chairman of the Local Boards for Boating, Elective Courses, and Advanced Grades

· A Course Chairman for each course

· A Class Chairman for each term of each course (this person is often the course chairman)

· Instructors for some or all of the topics in each course (sometimes, these persons include the course class chairmen)

· Proctors who aid instructors by helping the students; grading homework; arranging teaching aids and ensuring the aids are ready and operable; setting up and breaking down classrooms. etc.

· Teaching Aids Chairman, who works with course instructional teams to think up and build aids to clarify information taught to students to help the students better understand the subject matter and quickly progress through our courses.

As you become more familiar with our squadron, we hope that you'll not only agree to help when you're asked, but will call and volunteer when you hear or read that someone needs help. Be there!

Administrative Department

The activities for which the Administrative Officer is responsible: primarily relate to events that affect our relationships with and services to our members.

Boating Activities

Here comes the fun! Let's go boating! This is the committee that arranges our squadron's cruises and rendezvous. We try to do several each year, setting our destinations for locations that are fairly easy and fun to go to. These events always involve social activities, especially those that involve meals. Sometimes we do raft-ups, so be prepared to learn and use new skills for anchoring and tying up to the boats of your fellow members. This committee also matches up skippers and crew for those who don't own a boat.

Port Captains

USPS has set up a very special network of individuals in each squadron who are ready and willing to provide information about their squadron's area to USPS members from other parts of the country. The list of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of these Port Captains is free for the asking to all members.

Our Port Captain learns as much as possible about our area: marinas, fuel docks, pump out stations, good restaurants, and so on, and is then ready to tell anyone who is everything he wants to know. He or she also stays aware of our squadron events in order to invite any travelers to join us and make new boating friends.

Meetings and Entertainment

Since all of us are pretty busy, we make a special effort to get together on a regular basis and spend time with our friends and fellow members. At meetings this committee arranges, our Bridge officers tell us about their respective departments' activities, giving the rest of us an opportunity to question, suggest, and vote on things that need membership approval. That's the business part.

But, there's a fun part too. Usually, our meetings include lunch or dinner, often with a cocktail hour, and often with a speaker, display, or something else that's interesting and entertaining. It's impossible to list all the things we've done in the past and may do in the future, so be sure to read your newsletter and other announcements. You won't want to miss out.

Membership

Without members, there's no squadron. Without the squadron, the safety of boaters is impaired. This means there's exceptionally important work to be done: locate, recruit, and propose new members, and retain current members.

This committee submits membership applications to our Executive Committee for approval, and then forwards the paperwork to USPS headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, for assignment of certificate numbers and issuance of membership certificates. The committee also encourages current members to renew their memberships to continue promoting safe boating now and in the future.

Our Membership Committee is directly or indirectly involved in nearly everything the squadron does that, in any way, has a possible effect on membership. For example, when you were taking the Squadron Boating Course or Boat Smart, you met one or more members of this committee. Your instructors were part of our Membership Committee. And, when you filled out your application for membership, you turned it in to a member of the committee.

You may not have realized that the people you were talking to were Membership Committee members, because they probably forgot to tell you that they were. They may not have even thought about it themselves.

You see, every member of our squadron is part of our Membership Committee. You are on our Membership Committee. We need as many members as possible to effectively promote Safe Boating through Education, and we need your help to do this committee's important work.

Talk about our squadron with your friends and other water-enthusiasts you meet. Tell them about our public courses and recommend that they take them as soon as possible. Then, pick up your roster and call our Membership Committee chairman. Give him or her name and phone number of these prospective members, so we can help you get them signed up for our next Squadron boating course.

Member Involvement

When was the last time you went out and looked for something to do? Maybe when you were 12 or 13? We're all so busy now with just the business of living that it's hard to juggle our schedules and find time to do the things we should do, much less the things we want to do. We don't go looking for work - we make it come and find us.

Even so, there are a lot of things that need to be done to keep the squadron fun, interesting, and worthwhile, and that can only happen if each of us is willing to do just a little bit to help out. T.E.A.M. stands for “Together Everyone Accomplishes More.” No one can - or should - do it all, but if everyone does just a little, the job will get done, no one will be burned out, and everyone will have fun.

The Member lnvolvement Committee helps distribute the tasks that need doing among our members. This committee is like a "help wanted'' agency. Its goal is to ask each of us contribute at least a little time and effort to something that's worthwhile to all of us. When you get a call, we hope you'll be ready to respond and pitch in.

All that having been said, we sincerely hope you won't wait to be called. When you hear about something that interests you, or think of a new project that could promote boating safety, don't hesitate: pitch in and help. We guarantee no one will object when you do!