Northern Association of Boating Administrators
2005 NABA Conference Report
The 2005 NABA Conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Wichita, KS on June 11-15, 2005. Out of the 21 States that are members of NABA, eleven State Boating Law Administrators attended the conference.
The following states were represented:
- Delaware
- Kansas
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- New York
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- South Dakota
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
Randy Edwards, President of NASBLA's Executive Board, presented the proposed reorganization plans. This reorganization would remove the three regional ABA presidents from the NASBLA Executive Board and add one additional Member-at-Large (for a total of three) to the Board. The term of office of the Members-at-Large would consist of a staggered three-year term.
NABA endorsed the NASBLA restructuring proposal.
In addition, NABA cancelled plans for a 2006 Conference in favor of adding a one or two day workshop to the NASBLA National Meeting. It is planned to identify the separate session as a NABA Strategic Planning Conference. Also, I was lead to believe that SSBLA had also cancelled its Conference for 2006.
NASBLA has engaged the services of Ms. Gail Kulp. She will serve as the Education Director at NASBLA's Headquarters in Lexington, KY. The Education Director is a staff position. Ms. Kulp has streamline the NASBLA approval process for NASBLA Certification of Boating Education Courses.
Mr. Jeff Hoedt, Acting Chief, Office of Boating Safety, USCG, discussed the major reorganization of the USCG Headquarters. Headquarters if organizing itself into two sections: Prevention and Response. His office is expected to be moved to the Prevention side of the organization. In addition, the current department identification method using alpha characters will be replace by numerical designations conforming to the system in use by the US Navy.
Cdr. Suzanne Englebert, MSO St..Louis, MO, discussed Homeland Security issues on the Upper Mississippi Riverl Most notable, she stressed the importance of the Maritime Security Committees (Harbor Safety Councils) and their importance to the recreational boating community. She emphasized the fact that participation of the recreational boating community in these committees, as they are the only opportunity for input to the Captains of the Ports.
From presentations of three RBS Specialists (Recreational Boating Safety Specialists) I became aware that each CG District has one such civilian employee. They appear to be retired CG personnel. Each of them pursues an independent course of action without coordination between the nine RBS Specialists. Of interest was the presentation given by Al Johnson, RBS Specialist for CG District 1, Boston. He made it his mission to attempt to reduce the accidents and fatalities associated with Sea Kayaking. District 1 has prepared several pieces of literature on this topic. I will forward these brochures to Margot Brown for her perusal.
Several scheduled sessions were cancelled. These sessions were the presentation by Mark Rosenker, NTSB, and update on Wallace/Breaux.
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