Mel's Update
I believe by the time this goes
out the door (or off into cyberspace as the case may be) there will be about 8
days to Christmas. We have had a mad couple of months! Let me recap the
madness…
The forum was a great event and
you all really made it fantastic. It was so great to have so many engaged
tutors in one room. Don’t forget to send in suggestions of what you want to
discuss next year, and I mean discuss! We slightly missed the mark this year,
again too much talking and not enough question/answer time. We will make sure that
at next year’s forum actually has question time in the workshops so we can share
ideas. Please think about topics for discussion! Oh and people to
present those topics of discussion.
The Auckland On Water Boat Show
had a fantastic feel to it this year. We were tucked in between Hutchwilco and
Naiad, both staunch supporters of Coastguard and CBE, and we presented the
public with the Boaties Pack – a combination of membership, courses and callsigns
that offered boaties a full starter pack of information. It was a hit! The
public were so enthusiastic which is always a good thing.
October brought with it the major
influx of callsign applications, lots of people wanting to attend courses and
all before Labour Weekend. Safer Boating Week was deemed a success and the Old
for New Life Jacket campaign was promoted and kicked off 1st
December.
Course numbers have definitely increased in October and coming into December we have seen a number of venues at maximum capacity.
Having the calendar full with
courses advertised 6 months in advance has definitely seen an increase in
numbers. There are still a number of areas that we would love to see course
dates on the web. Please send me some dates of proposed courses! It doesn’t
matter if you only want to run 2 Day Skipper courses a year, let’s show the
general public we do hold courses nationwide. We can always change the date if necessary;
it is great for Nelson people to see we hold courses in Nelson, even if one is
in April and one in September for instance. This way regions and towns stay on
the website, otherwise it is just boring
old Auckland there and we KNOW that Canterbury, Marlborough and even Taranaki
have big boating populations, so let’s make sure we make the most of the
opportunities and keep your town on the map.
We already have a number of course
enrolments for January, February and March, which of course means we can plan
and organise.
I pray you all have a safe, fun and laughter filled Christmas. May your holidays be filled with the sound of “Row Row Row Your Boat” and my all-time favourite for road trips: “The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round” and now that you can’t get those songs out of your head… Merry Christmas from Mel and Tracy, your National Education team.