b'LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENTAT THE HELM PVA/Coast Guard Quality Partnership ProcessJIM SWINDLER // PRESIDENTT his month the PVA Board of Directors and PVA staff met inmeetings have at times been held virtually. However, my personal Washington, D.C., for a board meeting and Quality Partner- view on this matter is the virtual option is not nearly as effective as ship (QP) meeting with the U.S. Coast Guard leadership. Forthe in-person approach. I say this because the QP in-person approach this months presidents column I thought I would focus on the topicsalso affords an opportunity, similar to PVA regional meetings, Coast and issues discussed during the Quality Partnership meeting and my ob- Guard industry days, and the MariTrends convention, for a more per-servations about the QP process in general. Before I do that, I felt somesonal interaction with senior Coast Guard personnel who are directly of you might be interested in a little history of the Quality Partnershipinvolved in and working on issues mentioned above such as plate as-between PVA and the Coast Guard tosessment, fire safety, etc. It also allows give you a broader understanding of thePVAtobuildrelationshipswiththe important role that it plays in not onlyHaving this sort of informalpeople making daily decisions that af-building relationships between our twofect our industry and our members.organizations, but in solving problemsdialogue goes a long way in a non-regulatory manner. Im not sure the founders envisioned to getting to know onethattheQualityPartnershipwould The QP, as its known today, began inalsoserveasarelationship-building 1996.ItscharterwassignedbyViceanother, therefore makingopportunitybetweenindustryand Admiral James Card and PVA PresidentCoast Guard staff, but I personally be-Rick Mosteller. There were many PVAthe difficult discussions justlieve it has done just that. For instance, members, past and present, who were in- a little bit easier. the day before the recent QP meeting strumental in the formation and evolu- several of us got to spend a couple of tion of the QP; to mention a few: Rogerhours with key Coast Guard staff in an Murphy, Alan Bernstein, Terry Wirgi- casual setting. Having this sort of in-nis, and Terry MacRae. However, without strong support from the Coastformal dialogue goes a long way to getting to know one another, there-Guard and Admiral Card, Im not sure there we would have a QP today. fore making the difficult discussions just a little bit easier.Admiral Card was a strong believer in prevention through people.Were also lucky to have two PVA staff with many years of experience Simply put, the idea behind the QP was to identify difficult, importantand history with the QP.Pete Lauridsen, PVA regulatory consultant, issues, and put together action teams (working groups) made up of sub- has been involved in the QP since its beginning and was very helpful to ject matter experts from the passenger vessel industry and the Coastme in providing history.Guard to work the issue and come up with a non-regulatory resolution. Such resolutions often resulted in a Navigation and Vessel InspectionI would be remiss if I didnt mention that Eric Christensen, PVAs di-Circular (NVIC). This approach has been extremely successful and isrector of regulatory affairs and risk management, was also involved the same today as it was then. with the QP in its early days. Interestingly enough, Eric was with the Coast Guard at the time and played a key role in development of agen-While there are many successes to point to, one of the early ones wasdas and content and keeping things going, similar to what he does for NVIC 5-01, Guidance for Enhancing the Operational Safety of Domes- PVA now.tic High-Speed Vessels. Some of you may remember that IMO manning rules were being considered by the Coast Guard for domestic high-speedA full report of this May QP meeting will be communicated withpassenger vessels. Through the efforts of the QP working group, an as- PVA members.sessment tool was developed to look at each domestic high-speed vessel and route to determine minimum manning requirements to safely oper- I hope you have found this information interesting and useful. As al-ate those ships. Had the Coast Guard simply adopted the internationalways, should you wish to be more involved in PVA, I encourage you to rules, manning on those vessels would look very different today. sign up for a committee, there are always openings.This months QP meeting focused largely on fire safety on domestic ves- Sincerely,sels, the plate assessment working group headed by Captain Bob Bijur and Coast Guard CAPT Cost, and illegal passenger vessel operations.Some of you may ask, why travel to Washington, D.C., for this meet- James P. Swindlering, why not hold it virtually? Largely as a result of the pandemic, thePVA President, 2023FOGHORN 4'