--SCUTTLEBUTT-J JA AN NU UA AR RY Y2 20 00 05 5

U.S. COAST GUARD AUXILIARY FLOTILLA 12-8, 7TH DISTRICT CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA Vol. 31 No. 1 MEMBERSHIP MEETING JANUARY 12 1900 AT THE BASE
HFull Flotilla ScheduleH
Most of the new business portion of the meeting will be solicited from the floor. Anyone who wishes to express an idea, need, suggestion, etc., should feel free to do so then. While this open forum approach will be very fruitful, it can be excessively time consuming if not managed properly. I am asking each of you to jot down a single remark to be made, if you have one, and then condense your thoughts so that they can delivered in a couple (2) minutes. The purpose of this forum will be to get your expressions and record them, but not to try to address them to a satisfactory conclusion during the open session. Are you asking yourselves, where is Tom heading? I am asking you (the membership) to identify and share with the Flotilla Officers and Membership information that will hopefully lead to increasing the personal value of your membership in Flotilla 12-8, thereby systemically increasing the overall value of our Flotilla and in turn its value to the Auxiliary and to the United States Coast Guard. I thank you in advance. Please be prepared for the eventuality that our meeting on the 12th will run well over an hour, but will be concluded before 2100 hours. This somewhat longer than usual meeting will be fun and productive, especially when we gather a critical mass and all participate freely. It is very important that we have a good attendance at this directionfinding meeting. I look forward to seeing you on the 12th.

PHOTO IDs REQUIRED VOLUNTEERS FOR WINTER BOAT SHOW STANDBY IS THE SCUTTLEBUTT MR. GUTENBERGS LEGACY?
FLOTILLA COMMANDER
Thomas Schmidt FC I am looking forward to serving as Flotilla Commander and would like to start, not with a bang, but rather with an ear. Listening is a major part of leadership! Our first Membership Meeting of the new year (Happy New Year) will be held on Wednesday, January 12, 2005, immediately following the staff meeting, which convenes at 1830 hours. After introductions of the newly appointed staff officers, Followed by a few bows from the survivors of the last regime, we will all have an opportunity to hear any plans and/or remarks that the individuals comprising our Flotilla Management care to make...briefly. We have some old business to address. The most prominent item is getting ID cards for those who do not yet have one!

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Scuttlebutt

JANUARY 2005
Even as our time has been cut short, we will remain able to contribute to the Gold Side's request.

Vice Flotilla Commander

Allen James VFC All FSOs will receive guidelines with respect to our tasks and reporting on our effectiveness. The key is to get as involved as we can with our members and your staff responsibilities so we can increase members involvement. The lack of participation is obvious, How to correct it is a MAJOR effort for us. I am here to assist and help in every way possible. Think of your annual plan, (which you will submit by months end), and how that plan will maximize membership participation.

Barbara Yeatman FSO-PV Once again, I am tapped to run Marine Visitors ragged. Dont you love it? We had a decent year in 2004, not spectacular as in previous years, but good nonetheless. I believe folks spent a lot of their would be boating time worrying about impending hurricanes. Do we have to leave? Can we stay? Are we gonna get it this time? The last thing on peoples' minds was boating in potential hurricane tossed waters. Let's hope this upcoming boating season, and year, for that matter, will see many more people educating themselves in the art of SAFE, SOBER AND COURTEOUS BOATING. The MV Department will surely continue to go the extra mile to encourage this behavior by all. As usual, I never overlook an opportunity to put in my bid for MORE MV's. So, "all a y'all" who can't make up your minds which wonderful program to explore first try the MV program. I AM WAITING FOR YOU!! Come get your feet wet with us. Do a great service for boaters and feel satisfied that you ARE doing an important "job."

Partner Visitation

Robert H. Mathewes FSO-MT

Member Training

Here we go again. It seems that we just started 2004 and here we are in 2005. Thanks to your efforts and participation, we had a great year in member training last year. Last month I named those who, so diligently, worked to make 2004 a successful year. This month I would like to show you how your efforts compared wit the division as a whole. Our membership makes up 30.8% of the division. During 2004, we produced 35.3% of the new Patrols specialists; 66.7% of the new Navigation specialists; 33.3% of the new SAR specialists; and 42.8% of the new Weather specialists. There were forty-four specialty courses passed by Division 12 and our Flotilla passed sixteen of them for an overall 36.4% of the total. Since the percentage of the specialty courses passed exceeded our percentage of the total membership, I would say you did a great job. I extend my thanks to all of those who worked so hard to make 2004 a good year. We will begin AUXACN classes on 24 January. Later in the year, I hope to offer classes on two additional specialty courses. The will probably be seamanship and SAR. The more you increase your knowledge and skills, the better able you are to assist the Coast Guard and the boating public. Lets work to make 2005 an even more successful year.

Richard Daniels FSO-AN

Aids to Navigation

PATONS 2005 We put together a schedule of nine PATON Patrols for 2005. We will make every effort to check all our private aids and check for any problems with the Federal Aids in our Area of Responsibility (AOR.) Our goal for 2005 is to use as many different facilities as possible and to accommodate as many coxswains as possible so they can get their on the water time in for 2005. Listed below is our intended schedule. We would like as many people to crew and coxswain as possible. If you are interested in helping in 2005 please let me know so we can the schedule crews. This is a very worthwhile on the water activity, packed with enjoyment. Please consider helping us this year. My email address is in the directory at the end of the Scuttlebutt and on our fine web site. I hope to hear from all of you soon,

Allen James FSO-OP January's patrol started with a beautiful day on the water and no dry suit since the air temperature was in the 70's. We will be operating a patrol each week for Air Station Savannah to maintain currency of their aircrews.

Operations

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Scuttlebutt

JANUARY 2005
In particular, we need input from staff officers regarding scheduled activities in their specific areas, especially concerning such items as public education classes and other activities that concern our members. The calendar can be a useful tool to convey information to members. The most recent course we know of that has been scheduled is the ACN/AUXACN course that will begin on 24 January. Our web hosting company, which is located in California, has provided excellent services to us including statistics by month. We have tried sharing some of this information through our articles and would be happy to provide a copy to anyone who might be interested. We shall attempt to keep changes up to date for the coming year and urge our members to bookmark the site, http://www.uscgauxcharleston.org, in their browsers.

DATE 26Mar 16Apr 14May 11Jun

DAY

AREA COOPER RIVER COOPER RIVER

TYPE

ORDERS

SATURDAY

DAY NONPATROL REIMBURSED NIGHT NONPATROL REIMBURSED

SATURDAY

DAY NONSATURDAY OFFSHORE PATROL REIMBURSED STONO SATURDAY RIVER STONO RIVER DAY NONPATROL REIMBURSED NIGHT NONPATROL REIMBURSED DAY NONPATROL REIMBURSED NIGHT NONPATROL REIMBURSED DAY NONPATROL REIMBURSED NIGHT NONPATROL REIMBURSED

9-Jul SATURDAY 13Aug

Vessel Examination
Joseph Fleming FSO-VE

COOPER SATURDAY RIVER

11COOPER Sep SATURDAY RIVER STONO RIVER STONO RIVER

9-Oct SATURDAY

6-Nov SATURDAY

Communication Services
John L. Sikes FSO-CS

Hello to all members of 12-8. I hope your Holidays were rewarding. I am honored to be serving as your FSO-VE and will strive to fill the shoes of Bob Orenstein. This is a rewarding job and my goal will be to educate the public on vessel safety and equipment. This year I will also encourage all VE's to get involved with this important task. Having just completed the UPV qualification for MSO Charleston, I hope to recruit others to join. In 2005, I would like to schedule more boat ramp VE's with, possibly, a cookout lunch for those attending. I have 2005 decals, forms, waterway watch decals and pamphlets that will be available at our next meeting. I always welcome any suggestions and hope my enthusiasm with VE's will be contagious. I will do my best to fulfill the position. .

I would like to start the New Year by thanking all those who have given criticism, constructive and otherwise, concerning the flotilla's web site over the past year. Many have provided input for the various pages in which we have tried to provide useful information to our members and others that visit the site. During the year, we have had more than 7,500 visitors to the site. Many have come to our pages through various search engines, but many have followed links that were directing them to our flotilla's excellent publication, The Scuttlebutt, as well as other pages. I'd like to stress that, like our newsletter editor, we could use input from members and staff officers as to what improvements they feel could be made, what pages could be added, and what may no longer be necessary.

Public Education
Bob Lovinger FSO-PE

This will be necessarily short because we are on a cruise & email time is expensive, but this is my PE report. The fall class in BS & S finished with the two people who started the class and both passed. One of the two class members is interested in the joining the Flotilla and he seems like he should be a very good addition. I believe he is now in Peter Chylko s able hands and I look forward to seeing him at meetings. Once the winter boat show has started, we should have new public members interested in Auxiliary services including PE and I expect to be calling on y'all for your expert help in teaching various

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Scuttlebutt

JANUARY 2005
Frank Leister FSO-PB
Printing and publishing are the worlds second oldest profession. Mr. Gutenbergs 1452 invention clearly made the craft practical. The tendency, the natural path, is to continue publishing as if nothing had happened since Mr. Gutenberg printed his first Bible. That may not be smart. We are aware that communications today rely less on the printed word than the electronic one. That includes the Scuttlebutt. Around 80 copies of the Scuttlebutt are published each month electronically. Ten go out in the mail and most of those are to archives and repositories. The Scuttlebutts format mimics a newspaper. It is published on a monthly schedule like a monthly magazine. You can see where I am going with this. Is the Scuttlebutt, in its present format and schedule, still useful in todays environment? That is not a rhetorical question. Please send me your answer and accompanying views by email at fcl@lwinslow.com. Let me present a few thoughts to consider in your email. We have a marvelous web site that contains the calendar for operations, classes and events. The Scuttlebutt leads its readers to that site rather than duplicate the same information. Everyone who can get the emailed Scuttlebutt can get the schedule on the web site. The message the FSOs contribute each month, (no member in two years has contributed one), either relate to what happened in the last 45 days, announce a future that is so close to the Scuttlebutts publication date as to be obsolete before it is read and when the timing is perfect announce a future event in time to solicit participation. If the FSO does not have the details, (see this months Up Periscope on the Winter Boat Show) then the message goes out incomplete and is not actionable. That requires another communication when the details are available. Would you think it useful to publish shorter bulletins of articles, events, schedules, and requests for crew and so on a on demand basis? When the Flotilla is active, these electronic notes might go out frequently -- when things are, slow, less so. Clearly, the publishing business is much transformed since Mr. Gutenbergs discovery. Is it now time to transform the Scuttlebutt to take advantage of the technology and use this publication to keep up the pace of an active, modern Flotilla? What do you say? Email your response to fcl@lwinslow.com. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Scuttlebutt needs photographers! As you go on patrol or man any event, take your digital camera with you and document the work you are doing. Then just email me what

sections. I hope the season is treating you well and look forward to seeing you soon. (Editors Note: FSO Lovinger emailed this at great personal expense from his cruise ship while transiting the Big Ditch.

Publications

Barney Holt FSO-PA My agenda for 2005 as the Public Affairs Officer will be to support the FC's goals of feeding the courses and attratch new members. By raising public awareness of our Flotilla, our boating courses, the Coast Guard and our public boating safety support mission, we will grow our capacity to execute our mission. That is the PA objective for 2005details to follow.

Public Affairs

Career Counselor
Brent Hepburn FSO-CC

I hope everyone had a great holiday. We are still seeking applicants for next year's class to the U S Coast Guard Academy. Send me the names and numbers of anyone you know who would like to be contacted, and I will do my best to help them through the long application process. In addition, we are now officially taking applications for this summer's AIM program. I am looking for outstanding high school juniors who would like to spend a week at the Academy, living the life of a cadet. This gives them the opportunity to see if they can hack it and if they might be right for the Academy. Please contact me at 884-6625 or by email. My email address is in the directory at the end of the Scuttlebutt.

Information Services
Diane Schmidt FSO-IS Just a short note to introduce myself - I am the 2005 FSO-IS for 12-8. I want to thank Dean Creed, our past FSO-IS for his years of dedication and service in keeping our information flowing smoothly. He is a hard act to follow, but with his help, I will do my best. Great Work Dean and Thank You!!!! If there is information to be updated, I can be contacted at wdianeschmidt@comcast.net. Happy New Year to all!

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you have. I will work with you to smooth out any of the technical aspects of doing that.

Scuttlebutt

JANUARY 2005
booth is important to our success. FSO-OS, Hap James will be requesting your support as soon as he has the details. Please be ready to jump in and help. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Secretary/Records Shirley Wolf FSO-SR In December, Flotilla 12-8 had a fellowship event in lieu of a membership meeting. Thus, there are no minutes to report.

Photo ID Requests
If you do not have a photo ID, it is vital that you send an email to FC Tom Schmidt immediately. His email address is Beach-cat@att.net. Just click on the address to let him know you need a photo ID. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following was posted on the national web site yesterday. All members are encouraged to take this online survey at their earliest convenience. John Sikes, FSO-CS 12-8 D7 fso-cs@uscgauxcharleston.org Flotilla web site: www.uscgauxcharleston.org 2004 Member Survey -- The electronic version of the 2004 Member Survey is now online. Please take a moment to reply so that the national staff can continue to assess progress in meeting your needs. This survey will also be published in The Navigator (Spring edition) for those who do not have electronic access.

Time to look around and see what is happening around you maintain situational awareness so to speak.

UP PERISCOPE!

Boat Show Needs Volunteers

The Boat Show to be held at the Coliseum on the 28, 29 & 30 of January. There is, of course, a need for volunteers to operate the booth. The Boat Show is a primary source for our PE students and for new members. A well turned our CREW to operate the

--KEY SOURCES FOR INFORMATION-Following is a list of web sites of value to us all. Please keep abreast of news and directives by checking these sources on a regular basis. >USCG Aux Info Tracking Progress http://www.cgaux.info/g_ocx/auxdata/auxinfohelp.htm USCG Aux What's New Page http://www.cgaux.org/cgauxweb/memtable.shtml > USCG Aux On-line Testing Page http://cgexams.info/testing/ > USCG Aux AuxInfo http://www.auxinfo.uscg.gov/ > USCG Aux e-Train http://www.auxetrain.org/ > USCG Aux Forms & Manuals Page http://www.cgaux.org/cgauxweb/tbforms.shtml > 7th District DirAux West http://www.dirauxwest.org/ > ChDirAux Items of Interest Page http://www.cgaux.info/g_ocx/ > DIRAUX District 7 Homepage http://www.d7oax3.net/ > DIRAUX District 7 Directives http://www.d7oax3.net/pol_dir.htm > USCG Aux D7 Member Page http://www.cgaux7.org/index_members.asp > Division 12 Website http://www.uscgaux.org/~07012/ > Flotilla Website http://www.uscgauxcharleston.org/

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Scuttlebutt

November 2004

Flotilla 12-8 Officers

Click on Name to send an e-mail message

Flotilla 12-8 Elected Officers: Position

FC - Flotilla Commander VFC - Flotilla Vice Commander

Name
Thomas A. Schmidt Allen N. James

Web Page
Welcome

Flotilla 12-8 Staff Officers: Position

FSO-AN - Aids to Navigation FSO-AV - Aviation Coordinator FSO-CC - Career Counselor FSO-CM - Communications FSO-CS - Communications Services FSO-FN - Finance FSO-IS - Information Services FSO-MA - Materials FSO-MS - Marine Safety FSO-MT - Member Training FSO-OP - Operations FSO-PA - Public Affairs FSO-PB - Publications FSO-PE - Public Education FSO-PS - Personnel Services FSO-PV - Partner Visitation FSO-SR - Secretary/Records FSO-VE - Vessel Examination IPFC - Immediate Past Flotilla Commander

Name
Richard B. Daniel Terry Heinz W. Brent Hepburn Richard R. Clarke John L. Sikes Joseph H. Bokern, IV Diane Schmidt Henry Wolf Louis C. Mintz Robert H. Mathewes Allen James W. Barney Holt Frank C. Leister Robert J. Lovinger Thomas A. Schmidt Barbara Yeatman Shirley A. Wolf Joseph L. Fleming Robert L. Kreiling

Web Page
Air Operations Academy Introduction Mission (AIM)

Materials

Surface Operations Newsletters Public Courses Join The Auxiliary

Safety Checks