E-Mail Newsletter from the National Coop Charting Committee
December 2008

R/C Richard White
Chair Cooperative Charting Committee
SPREADING THE WORD
One of the most difficult things we as a committee have to do is making sure information, changes and updates and the like, get to the squadrons and the individual members who are the ones that do the reporting. We have tried putting it on the Coop Chart web page, the CC Web Home page, Coop Chart mail list with only fair success. Stf/C Jim Strothers came up with the idea to try a newsletter that, at this writing, will contain any new requests from our partners, NOAA and/or USACOE. It will also be a venue where anyone can offer suggestion and things that can be reported i.e.’ the Coast Pilot or the Light List.

Jim and Horst are working very hard trying to keep each of you informed so the reporting process is as easy as we can make it; after all, its fun to go out in the boat gather the information. Then comes the frustrating part; that’s the filling out of the “paper work”. Jim hopes that if you are informed, that process will be easier. So with all that having been said, look forward to this new source of information and save the material for reference.

Thank you for your continued support of the Cooperative Charting effort and your help keeping our Nautical charts accurate and up-to-date

Let’s all go out and do at least one report next week, OK?

From Stf/C Horst Boettge:
Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA - 18–22 February 2009
This is just a friendly reminder to plan your attendance at your committee’s meetings in sunny Southern California. Our NOAA and USACE partners again plan to attend the meetings to bring us up-to-date what is going on.

The closed meeting is scheduled on Thursday, 19 February from 0800 – 1130 in Garden 1. District Chairmen are again invited to attend this meeting. Also on Thursday, the display tables are open until 1600. Besides being updated what is going on in the co-op charting world, your input and suggestions are very important to all of us during this.

On Friday, 20 February the EXPO is scheduled from 0900 – 1500, followed by the open meeting until 1700.

As you can see, there is a lot on our plate with opportunities to interact with our fellow co-op charters to get our message out.

Looking forward to see you there.

From Stf/C Jim Strothers:
One of the biggest issues we are confronted with is why Coop Charting activity is dropping off. At first glance we assumed this was due to the drop in USPS membership and the discontinuance of the Geodetic program. While this has accounted for some inactivity we are still searching for more reasons.

Recently at my District 22 Coop Charting roundtable at the fall conference I opened up a can of worms by asking the local Squadrons for their input into this matter. The answers I received brought to home some perhaps more underlying reasons for the drop off that need to be addressed.

The following are some of the reasons and comments mentioned:
  1. The need to feel our work is worthwhile
  2. The feeling that NOS needs to advertise more of the importance of our efforts.
  3. Make the charts better for the average recreational boater.
  4. In areas that are only covered by larger charts that primarily focus on commercial operations provide smaller charts geared to the smaller boaters.
  5. What would happen if USPS did not do ANY Coop Charting for one year?
    Would there be a negative impact on the boating community?
I have also heard that there is concern that we are “nit-picking” the reports. Most of you should realize by now that NOS has tightened some of the requirements that most be included in the reports. As such the Area Reps are taking a harder look at the quality of the data being submitted by to passing the information to NOS. We need to keep on top of this. If not your report will be more than likely returned to you anyway.

In order to make the reviews more consistent we are developing a standard Guideline and Checklist to be used by everyone. Our hope is to include this guide in a revision to the Coop Charting manual as well as posting it on the CCWEB. Since this guide will get into a new area there may be areas that will need “tweaking” once it is in place. I would encourage everyone to be patient when this happens and not to jump up and down if things keep changing until all the bugs are worked out.

As you can see the National Committee is working to address the issues raised by the people in the field. This however does take time to explore the problem and come up with a method to resolve it. In order for us to help you we need to know specific items and procedures you are having problems with. It does us no good just to hear people are complaining about the program with no information as to what the problem is. If you have suggestions or concerns PLEASE contact us. Please provide complete information on your issues so that we can get a clear picture as to what the problems are.

Are you having trouble logging on the CCWEB?
If you are experiencing problems with your passwords trying to log on the web site is you password current? If you remember, the government has made changes to the CCWEB for which you must have a new password every ninety (90) days. When you log on and find this is necessary you will directed to another menu. In that menu you must enter your old password and a new password. Please be sure to follow the specific requirements for the password.

Now if for some reason you have forgotten your old password there are steps to go through to get a temporary one. The old generic password of “test” is no longer valid. You must contact the Area Representative for your area. This can be done by e-mail or telephone. The Area Rep will need your name and certification number.

Keeping your e-mail current
If you are able to log on by keeping your password current but have not been getting reports returned to you for corrections is your e-mail current? If you have changed your e-mail address lately and not changed your profile in the CCWEB guess what. Your report went to the old address. If you no longer have access to that your report is now somewhere in cyber space. It may be possible to retrieve it if you look in the queue of reports waiting to be submitted. You will not have received the e-mail notice that the report was returned but hopefully it can still be recovered. Your Area Representative should be able to assist you. Please do not hesitate to contact him or her as the case may be.

Editor's Note This is the first of a series of CoCh Newsletters. They will be posted in this space as they become available. Also, either an announcement or the letter itself will be distributed via the CoCh mailing list. If you are not already on the list, you may subscribe by going to www.usps.org/mailman/listinfo/coch and following the prompts.

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