Input to Federal Policy—Consensus Recommendations on Incident Reporting and Initial Responses from CG-BSX
Recreational Boating Incident Reporting Policy Project "Phase One": A collaboration between the U.S. Coast Guard, States, and NASBLA/ERAC that was set in motion in November 2017 resulted in comprehensive recommendations to inform the development of national reporting policies and procedures. NASBLA membership voted in July 2020 to accept the recommendations package and approved its delivery to the Coast Guard Office of Auxiliary & Boating Safety in early August 2020.
In 2021, some elements of the Coast Guard's initial response were discussed with NASBLA members during information sharing/refresher webinars conducted on Aug. 26 and Sept. 16 in advance of NASBLA's 2021 annual conference. At an annual conference session on Sept. 27, Verne Gifford, Chief of the Boating Safety Division, provided additional detail on his areas of concurrence and disagreement. Go to NASBLA’s eLearning Center for recordings of both webinars and the conference session.
In March 2022, Mr. Gifford provided members of the NASBLA Executive Board with a draft policy letter addressing the reportability of certain types of incidents. The letter also was circulated as part of the CG-BSX report to attendees of the State RBS Workshop, and subsequently distributed to ERAC members and the original project workgroup. Since then, there have been follow-up discussions between CG-BSX and the Executive Board and further reviews and modifications by the Coast Guard to the original draft. As of January 2023, a final version of the policy was undergoing review before sign-off. Further updates and information on the policy letter as well as next steps in this multi-year project will be posted here and in NASBLA Connect.
----Consensus Recommendations to the U.S. Coast Guard (June 2020, accepted by vote of NASBLA membership July 31, 2020). PDF package includes items incorporated into the consensus recommendations document by reference---reporting decision matrix, summary chart of recommended report data elements, and updates of five report categories' terms and definitions originally developed in the USCG/ERAC Accident Reporting Terms and Definitions Project (2012-2013).
----Resource Document (v. June 2020): Extensive detail on the policy project and the process of developing the consensus recommendations
In the Federal Register
See Advocacy - Policy - Federal Register for a list and descriptions of recently-closed notices and final rules related to recreational boating and RBS programs.