September 2007 Meeting Minutes - Atlanta, GA

Attendance:
Vince Polk, Committee Chair
Steve Boyer, Northwest Mountain Region
Gini Briggs, Central Region
Dianne Carswell, Eastern Region
Steve Hansen, Southwest Region
Brett Lystad, Alaska Region
Mike Redmond, Southern Region
Eric Carter, Western-Pacific Region
Don Schmeichel, Region X
Danny Aguerre-Bennett, Pilot-Controller Liaison
Kelly Richardson, NATCA National
Rod Hieronymus, Retired ORD Controller
Barrett Duchene, VP, ERI

Committee member duties and responsibilities: The duties of the regional reps are basically twofold: to provide guidance to and within their region and to attend all national safety meetings, including CFS and the convention. It was discussed among the committee members that a regional safety rep who does a great job for their members within their region, but doesn't attend meetings or other functions, is only doing half their job. It puts a greater burden on everyone else who does show up at meetings, convention and CFS. While there are times that each of us will have trouble getting out of work to attend a meeting or function, we should all try our best to do so. It is our responsibility as regional safety reps. During the convention, each standing committee is required to serve as sergeant at arms during one or more sessions of the general assembly.

How to handle pilot complaints: If committee members get calls from pilots with complaints about controllers, they should pass them along to the facility representative at the affected facility.

Safety manual update: Mike Redmond and Gini Briggs will continue to work on updating the manual and will present it to the committee at the November meeting.

Local Safety Rep Training: We need to check with the training department and see if it's feasible for a module to be added to facrep training on safety reps' duties and responsibilities. Gini will work on a powerpoint presentation that can be uploaded to the NATCA website for reference.

Kelly will talk to Dale about delineating OSHA Committee vs. Safety Committee responsibilities at FACREP training.

Online Resources, including:

Web page: Mike and Gini are working on updating the manual and contact information for the web page.

Hotline: Safety Hotline Repository: Should we refer to it as a Safety Issue Database and redirect them to email rather than calling it a hotline? Hotline insinuates that immediate action will be taken to alleviate a situation and that isn't always the case.

Get rid of it? Update it? Change the name? Change the way we handle it?

ASRS Link: ASRS forms may now be filed online. The web link is: http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/main.htm and this should be reflected on the website and in the manual.

UCR Database: UCRs can now be filed through the FAA intranet, but not via the internet. At some facilities, employees don't have access to the intranet so paper UCRs are still being filed. UCRs filed via the intranet still need to be entered into the database. Urge employees to print out a copy of the UCR prior to sending and fax it to NATCA.

Dale Wright is now receiving all the UCRs. They are not currently being forwarded to the safety committee. Vince will request that UCRs be forwarded to the regional reps from now on.

Make an easier searchable database of UCRs on the national website. List UCRs in order of most recent to oldest. Automated UCR process? Search process?

Regional Safety ListServe: During the November meeting, Gini will help each regional safety rep learn to manage his/her regional safety listserve. Each regional rep will be responsible for keeping their listserve up to date with changes and additions. Danny will continue to maintain the national listserve and CFS listserve.

Position Statements on Safety Issues: Vince will send out a request for specific information. It'll be put together and discussed by the whole committee. Our position statements will not be sent out until the whole committee agrees. Then they will be put out to Pat/Paul and they make the decision about what to do with them.

The committee has expressed interest in doing a position statement on ERAM. Mike will try to get some input from the controllers and Don will get the timeline from the tech ops side. To be continued in November.

Meeting/telcon minutes review, approval and posting: Telcon and meeting minutes on the website are seriously out of date. Whomever takes minutes at meetings or for telcons should forward them to Danny for posting.

Reports from committee members who attend functions as reps: If you attend any functions representing the safety committee, write up a short report for Vince to give to Pat.

Event planning for '08: First committee meeting of the year will take place at CFS in Chicago. Committee members should plan to arrive in time for meetings on the 29th and depart after April 2nd.

The second committee meeting of 2008 will take place at the convention in Miami. Plan on flying in for the convention on the 8th so we can meet on the 9th and leave after the convention. Committee members will be Sgts.-at-Arms, timekeepers, etc. as assigned.

The third meeting in 2008 will be held in conjunction with the AOPA meeting in November 6-8 in San Jose or ORL or the NBAA conference in ORL October 6-8.

2007/2008 Budget: -51 vouchers are for safety committee expenses, -54 vouchers are for CFS. Please get your CFS vouchers in to Vinnie ASAP after the end of the conference so he can get them processed.

Kelly is now assisting Vince with the budget request and maintenance of the budget. He reiterated that he isn't in charge of what we spend or how we spend it, but it will help take some of the load off of Vince to have Kelly help out. Kelly wants to be our advocate to the NEB to help us grow.

ATPAC: Vince will recommend that we have a safety committee member on the ATPAC. They hold quarterly meetings and they're all in DC now.

Does the committee want one rep from center and one from terminal to attend? We're only officially allotted one slot, but two may be more beneficial.

Permanently changing CFS to Spring: Spring rates cheaper than fall (most places) and it wouldn't conflict with other organizations' safety conferences, which are generally in the Fall.

Spring schedule starts next year and in 2012 we'll have to adjust to accommodate for the convention.

CFS '08 Panels: CFS08 panels brainstorming: start thinking about some of the subjects you want to include. Send any ideas to Danny.

Consider involving the FAA more.

Rachael Jackson: Lockheed Martin Acquisition and Transition, FSS.

IG on a panel?

Scott Chappell was injured in a horseback riding accident and won't be presenting at this CFS.

VFS: why are they not here? What do we pay them for?

CFS '09 Potential Location:
Las Vegas - well set up for conferences, but may have trouble getting people to actually show up for sessions.
Newark -
Houston- only one union hotel, expensive, COA hub
Seattle-Boeing- several union hotels, possibly expensive
Salt Lake City - restrictive alcohol laws
Phoenix - expensive, especially in the spring
Chicago - Good choice, using for 2008
Dallas - Good choice, just used in 2006
Atlanta - lack of union hotels, Delta hub, used 2007
St. Louis - central location, good union presence, but no major hubs

Committee's top three choices for '09:
1. Seattle
2. Vegas
3. Phoenix

Kelly will research those three for 2009 and report at the November meeting. Committee will determine where we want the CFS and Kelly will do coordination of contracts, etc., with hotels.

Committee Chair nominations: Every two years the committee must nominate a new chair. Will be conducted at the November meeting.

When are the rest of us supposed to be in SMS training? Vince will check with Dale.

Archie League awards: Many of the committee members feel that this is a safety award and should be presented at a dinner during CFS. Kelly and Vince will research this and see what the NEB/NLC think about this.

IFATSEA:
November 18-23, 2007 IFATSEA. Looking for a person to go. Don said our budget didn't support our participation for 2007. Region X is participating.

Minutes by Gini Briggs