Dave Shuster, Flotilla Commander

It’s the time of year when our northern dwelling snowbirds return to Florida for the winter..  I welcome those members back and we all look forward to renewing our friendships and catching up with each other’s activities.

Summer activities kept us busy.  New vessel examiners and program visitors were certified. Another TCO course was completed, adding to our list of watchstanders.  We continued training for re-qualification QEs.  We faced a tropical storm event.  Our flotilla building was modernized. Many of us attended DTRAIN events. John Tyson was chosen to be the next Commodore for 7^th District, and Larry Urbanek as the Division Commander for Division 9.

Our flotilla dashboard shows areas of success and others needing more work to reach our goals.  Program visitation is now at 122% of our annual goal of 250, with a total of 350 visits. We’re now working on higher goals for the remainder of the year; another 100 or so are doable. 

Public Education is at 90% of our annual goal of a 120 class graduates.  We should easily train an additional 50 to 75 by the end of the year. 

Vessel examinations are now at 342. Our current projection will take us short of our annual goal, so we plan to be out three or four Saturdays a month and at additional locations. Neil Arnal’s team will need our experienced vessel examiners to step up and manage those additional Saturdays.  This is a priority request if we are to meet our VE goal.

The last area that needs improvement is our membership goal of 15 new members for the year.  We started out strong but our prospects slowed down in June. Some prospects that appeared ready to begin the application process did not carry through. We will discuss this at the next staff officers meeting and make the changes needed to assure a strong finish. 

Our speaking engagements continue at an active pace.  Last week we spoke at the Southwest Florida Marine Industries Association. About 150 representatives from the marine industry attended.  An excellent presentation by the president of the Marine Dealers Association revealed big opportunities

for partnership between the Auxiliary and the marine industry in boating education and vessel examination.  One of the obstacles to customer purchase of boats is the prospective owner’s lack of confidence about boat handling and about  the ability to assess the boat’s safety at sea.

We will conduct elections at our next membership meeting for the flotilla leadership for next year.  Let’s have a full house at that meeting.  Although I will be moving to the position of Division Vice Commander, I plan to remain active in the flotilla and support the new leadership.  As always, we are semper paratus.