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Welcome Letter
Spring 2002
It
is with much pride and honor that I assume the duties of President of the
National Water Safety Congress. My
pride is for the goals and accomplishments the Congress, as an organization, has
achieved throughout its fifty-one year history; the honor is the Board of
Directors selecting me to lead the organization over the next two years.
I
want to thank my predecessor, Steve Fairbanks, for the outstanding job he did in
the past two years as President. Through
much dedication and effort, Steve has positioned the Congress to reap many
positive gains in future years by streamlining operations and creating a more
efficient organization. I hope I
can be as successful as Steve in moving the Congress forward.
As
one of my first official acts, I am pleased to report the progress the National
Water Safety Congress recently made. The
Congress has a “new look” to it; specifically, new officers, new board
members, and a revised Constitution and By-Laws.
As
part of our recent strategic planning process, a revised Constitution and
By-Laws were approved on April 27. The
major highlights of the revised By-Laws call for a reduction in the overall size
of the Board of Directors, changes in our regional state jurisdictions, and the
establishment of seven standing committees.
The Board now consists of 21 members, including 10 officers, 10 members
at large, and the past President. Two
Regional Vice President positions were eliminated along with 2 members at large
positions. The intent of this
action was to align the Congress with one of our partnering organizations, the
National Association of State Boating Laws Administrators (NASBLA) in order to
achieve greater operating efficiencies as we co-operate in future endeavors.
On
May 2, the Board of Directors elected new officers to key positions.
Bill Gossard was chosen as the new Executive Vice President, Russ Minton
was selected for Executive Secretary, and Toni Rushing was tapped to continue on
as Executive Treasurer.
Elected
to serve as Region 1 Vice-President is new Board Member
Cecilia Duer.
Cecilia's region encompasses the states of: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island, and Vermont.
Region
2 Vice President is new Board member Tom Plante.
Tom’s region includes: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan,
Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
Region
3 Vice President is Mac Wimbish. Mac
is rejoining the Board of Directors after several years’ absence.
Mac’s region consists of: Alabama,
District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The
new Region 4 Vice President is Bob Pharr. Bob’s
area of jurisdiction is: Arkansas,
Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Region
5 Vice President will continue to be Paul Crawford.
Paul’s area of concentration will be:
Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.
Region
6 Vice President is again Ann Van Buren. Ann’s
region consists of: Alaska,
Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.
Please
feel free to contact your Regional Vice President regarding any questions,
concerns, or comments you may have.
On
other matters, we just concluded our 6th annual International Boating
and Water Safety Summit, held April 28th to May 1 in Daytona Beach,
Florida. In conjunction with our
partner, the National Safe Boating Council (NSBC), the Summit continues to grow
and prosper each year. Over 450
boating and water safety specialists participated in this year’s event.
And it truly is an International Summit, as representatives from seven
countries were in attendance!
Highlights
from the Summit include general sessions focusing on carbon monoxide poisoning,
a Wallop-Breaux funding update, the proposed Lewis and Clarke Celebration
Expedition, and a light hearted “team trivia” challenge.
Breakout track sessions focused on Education Outreach and Awareness,
Boating Safety Education, Risk Management, Communications and Law Enforcement
Issues. The program Emcee was
“the always popular” John Blaicher, of the Canadian Safe Boating Council.
I
was extremely impressed with the dedicated effort all participants put forth to
learn and gain as much knowledge and information from the Summit as possible.
You are truly professionals furthering the cause of boating and water
safety. My thanks to the Summit planning committee for continuing to
put together an outstanding program year after year.
The
National Water Safety Congress has much work before it over the next several
years. We intend to continue
bringing you an outstanding Summit each year.
A new publication planned for this fall is an update to our popular “A
Guide for Multiple Use Waterway Management” originally published in 1996.
Next year, we intend to offer a one-day training course on our recently
published “Guidelines for the Safe Operation and Maintenance of
Marinas.” More information will be forthcoming as we finalize the course
content. Several new water safety
education projects are under development for future training needs, along with a
new version of our newsletter later this year.
As you see, we have an ambitious agenda ahead of us.
I
will continue to communicate with you our progress through this website and
prospective newsletter. In the
meantime, have an enjoyable start to your summer recreation season and, please,
continue to be safe out there.
Ronald
J. Riberich,
President,
National Water Safety Congress
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