News and Announcements

 

Materials and Exam Orders

The Standard Order Form (SOF) for materials orders and ED-33 for exam and sight folder orders have been taken off the drop down "Order Course Materials" menu from all EdDept web pages. Please use the On-Line Catalog and Shopping Cart for materials orders and the On-Line Exam Ordering drop down menu for exam orders effective immediately. Errors on manually completed forms cause added work for Headquarters personnel and can be avoided by using the on-line processes. (11 Nov 09)

Weems and Plath Discount

Weems and Plath is offering USPS members a 25% discount on anything ordered via their web site. Check out the details at the Weems and Plath store. (11 Nov 09)

Two New Seminars Now Available

Partner in Command and Mastering the Rules of the Road seminars are now available from Headquarters using the On-Line Catalog and Shopping Cart. (11 Nov 09)

Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary Course Credits

Did you know that members who have certain Coast Guard or Coast Guard Auxiliary certificates can get credit as having passed USPS courses? Check out the Frequently Asked Questions page for details. (11 Nov 09)

Seminar Student Notes and Instructor Manual Changes

Evaluating our education materials and considering what we were handing out to our students, we have decided to change several things. Starting with the Rules of the Road seminar, some student notebooks will take on a new look—in color with slide notes. The new look in the student manual is more professional, in color, and has greater value as a take home. With this change, some instructor manuals will be eliminated since the information is part of the slide presentation. The decision to eliminate the instructor manuals was one of eliminating duplication. The IM material was already part of the Power Point Presentation. So it made sense to reduce duplication where possible. Using Slide Presenter mode instructors will have access to the slides and notes as well as the students seeing the slide. This may require instructors to check out their computer and projectors to gain experience in using the dual screen options so that the projector shows the slide as you see the slide and notes on the computer screen. This is another good application of our technology to support education. (11 Nov 09)

Spanish Translations of ABC3 Exams

The ABC3 Exam #1 and Exam #2 exams have been translated into Spanish. The catalogue numbers are 02-73-121 for the ABC3 Spanish Final Exam 1 and 02-73-122 for the ABC3 Spanish Final Exam 2. The old Form A exam is already available in Spanish. The Spanish translations are available in the on-line Materials Catalog right after the English exams. (28 Oct 09)

Check Status of On-Line Orders

Thanks to the efforts of P/C Dan Bartell, a new capability to check the status of on-line Educational Department material and exam orders is in place.  Using a web browser, authorized members who can order educational materials can now check the status of their material and exam orders that were submitted on-line.  Just use the new pull-down menu selection "Check On-Line Order Status" under "Order Course Materials" on any EdDept web page.  Note that this capability does NOT allow checking of orders placed by hard copy means (postal mail or faxes). (14 Sep 09)

America's Boating Course, 3rd Edition, Computer Settings

New instructions for setting your computer options to run America's Boating Course, 3rd Edition, using Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Shockwave Player are available on the ABC3 web page. (01 Sep 09)

New On-Line Materials and Exams Ordering Processes Available

Thanks to the efforts of P/C Dan Bartell, a new on-line ordering system is in place. Authorized members can order Educational Department materials and exams using a web browser. No need to use item numbers when ordering materials, and no need to look up certificate numbers for exam orders. Just use the new pull-down menu selections under "Order Course Materials" on any EdDept web page. There are Help menus for both material and exam orders, and we recommend that you read these Help pages when you first use the on-line processes. Both the existing SOF and ED-33 forms will remain available should you need to use them. (05 Aug 09)

Take a Course and Maybe Win a Prize!

The Educational Department has received a grant from the USPS Educational Fund that rewards squadron members for taking advanced courses.  A competition in each of several course categories is being offered and prizes will be awarded via a drawing of all students that successfully complete the course by passing the final exam.  The contest began July 1, 2009 and ends June 30, 2010.  The awards will be announced and presented at the Seattle Governing Board, August 30 – September 4, 2010.

Bob Sweet, National Educational Officer, urges all squadrons to schedule these courses in the next year and encourage all members to enroll.  Bob also said that squadrons could “team up” by offering the courses at centralized locations. See the flyer (PDF, 300KB) for more information. (04 Aug 09)

Presentations to Promote Seminars

Two PowerPoint presentations are available to help promote USPS seminars. The Train-the-Trainer presentation (488KB) was provided at the 4-district conference in Hampton, NH.  It goes through the process and provides tips for planning and delivering seminars.  It also links to the second "Have Fun" presentation (6823KB) which can be used before each seminar to showcase USPS. (03 Jan 09)

Detroit Governing Board Presentations

Three presentations given at the Detroit Governing Board meeting in September are now available. The first is a slightly modified version of the EdDept Overview briefing given at the Open EdDept meeting (PPT, 6790KB), the second is the On The Water (OTW) presentation given by D/6 (PPT, 368KB), and the last is the insurance update presentation (PPT, 120KB). This version of the EdDept Overview briefing is the preferred presentation that DEOs might give to a Fall Conference audience beyond the SEOs. (07 Oct 08)

Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) Registrations

United States Power Squadrons is now offering MMSI registrations to most recreational boaters. Get more detailed information from the Marine Electronics web page or the USPS MMSI web page. (17 Jun 08)

Educational Department Presentations from the Annual Meeting, February 2008

Presentations on EPIRBs (PPT, 6643KB) and the status of the USCG Rescue 21 (PPT, 4626KB) were provided by the Coast Guard to the DEOs and the Open EdDept meeting in Dallas. (10 Mar 08)

A PowerPoint presentation (5592KB), tailored for the Spring District Conferences, has been prepared based on what was presented at the Dallas Annual Meeting.  It includes narrative notes to go with the slides. (28 Feb 08)

Exam Ordering Problems

Since the new courses have become available and students are getting ready to take the exams, we have noticed that some squadrons are getting the wrong exams.
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Running the Old Maptech Digital Chart Training CD under Vista

Please note that the following instructions apply to a previous version (5.07d) of the Maptech CD. The latest version (5.08 for Windows XP/Vista) works fine under Vista without any special procedures. (Updated 09 Mar 08)

Maptech's Offshore Navigator (and related products, such as Offshore Navigator Lite and Chart Navigator Viewer) was created long before Microsoft Windows Vista was released. As you may be aware, Microsoft Vista is designed to restrict access to certain core components of the operating system, in order to make the system more robust and secure. Unfortunately, by doing this, older applications must be run "As Administrator" and in "Windows XP Compatibility Mode" in order to function correctly.  Click on this Maptech link to get instructions for how to do this.  Just a reminder, once you have this Chart Navigator software on this CD loaded and operating, you can download and use any charts you would like from Maptech following the “Download - Free NOAA Charts” link on this page.

Boating Course Assistant

Major changes have been made to this program so it is very important for all BCA users to switch to this revision. Older versions do not support the new ED27 data reporting standards, so the data will not get to where it is required and worse, the course graduates may not get credit for taking the course. The new version also manages Seminars and supports importing student data from the email generated by the online pre-registration form.
For more information and to download the new version, please visit: BCA Download.

Boat U.S. Hurricane Resource Center

Be prepared for hurricane season with tips from the Boat U.S. Hurricane Resource Center.
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