SPECIAL NOTICE
Effective for the balance of the remaining Co-op Charting year 2011-2112 the National Cooperative Charting Committee in conjunction with NOAA has removed all credits obtained by mileage. It was found that there was a disproportionately large amount of credits being issued for mileage as compared to the credits being issued by the information the report contained. Generally it was felt the amount of credits for mileage should not exceed the amount of credits from within the report. This elimination of mileage will affect all reports with the exception of the few reports that have already been fully processed by NOAA as of May 1, 2011. It is felt this decision was necessary to allow all reports to be more evenly based upon the quality of the information they contain without the highly variable credits due to mileage. In order to maintain the same basic credit level necessary to achieve Honor Roll recognition the base report credits have been increased by an amount established by Ken Forster. It is felt this increase will generally balance the average amount of credits lost by mileage. The amount of time involved will also be closely monitored by the Area Representatives. The general rule shall be to limit the total amount of time per report to a maximum of 14 hours. This allows for a maximum of up to 8 hours field time and 6 hours processing time. The only except at this time would be if there is a request made by a District Chairman, National Committee member or NOAA to obtain additional field data to verify a questionable area of a Depth Survey. However this additional time shall not exceed the original amount.
An additional category has been added to encourage Inland Squadron participation. They are able to receive additional credits after the reports have been found to have met certain specified criteria. This again is to compensate for removal of the mileage.
The Committee did not take coming to this decision lightly. Many hours were spent over the past weeks discussing and reviewing many different ideas on the best way to address the issue. Unfortunately many of the ideas involved making substantial changes to the CCWEB which could not be implemented at this time. The route chosen was determined to be the best and most practical method to make the adjustments.
The Committee is aware of the fact this decision will have an impact on some Squadrons and Districts. However we feel this decision was in the best interest of the overall Co-op Charting Program. The main goal of the program is to provide quality data to NOAA to keep our Nautical charts updated with everyone evenly recognized for their participation. The Committee will continue to work during this year to find ways to further refine the credit system to allow us to achieve this goal equably.
More Detail
Classification of Reports
Determination of Inland Squadron
Allocation of Time
|