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From
April 2005 Campbell's Corner
Update
- Mandatory Boater Education
“What
the heck are you doing?” wrote a
member last week.
He
wanted to know why we were asking
members in Washington State to contact
their State Senators to urge support
of SB 5145, the bill that would
create a Mandatory Boater Education
program.
I
called him back, as I did the other
three members who contacted me regarding
this issue. I listened to their
concerns and all of them made good
points. As the saying goes, “I understood
where they were coming from.”
While
I only heard from these few, I am
certain that there are more members
who feel the same way, but have
not contacted me. So I decided to
share with all of you how the Board
of Trustees came to the conclusion
that supporting mandatory boater
education in Washington was the
right course of action.
No
one wants to do anything to discourage
people from getting into boating.
And, the issue is complex. So, let
me take a few minutes and outline
the steps your association has taken
over the past four years to get
to the point where we support mandatory
boater education in Washington.
Before
I get started, you should know that
36 states have some form of mandatory
boater education, including Oregon
plus all of Canada.
We
started tracking this issue four
years ago when the Recreational
Boating Association of Washington
helped introduce a bill in the Legislature
that would have required mandatory
boater education. It was not a good
approach and State Parks, as well
as the Washington Marine Safety
Officers, objected to the bill.
At
that point, I knew we needed to
get in the game.
We
put a committee together in the
fall of 2001 to study the issue.
We invited all members to join the
group and got a good response including
a number of boat dealers. We held
a series of meetings for members
from Olympia to Bellingham to get
member input. The feedback we received
was clear – given the trend across
the country and in the Northwest
we should go to work creating a
bill that was “pro-boating” and
would do the least amount of damage
to our industry if passed.
A
year later, we invited every boating
related organization we could find
to attend a stakeholders meeting.
The attendees decided to work together
and formed an organization called
the Washington Alliance for Mandatory
Boater Education.
Over
the last two and a half years, WAMBE
has met virtually every month trying
to craft the best possible boater
education bill. On a regular basis,
the NMTA Board of Trustees as well
as the Government Affairs Committee
reviewed this issue. We have considered
all the options from walking away
from the issue to actively promoting
passage of a bill.
On
every one of these occasions, your
leadership has voted unanimously
to be proactive and support mandatory
boater education. This morning I
went through the back issues of
Water Life. As it turns out, I wrote
about this issue in March 2003 and
March 2004 so I hope most of you
feel that we’ve kept you informed.
By
the time you read this, SB 5145
may still be alive or it might have
died in the Legislature. Two weeks
ago, it passed in the Senate and
was on its way to the House. Using
a football analogy, the issue is
now on the 50-yard line; the bill
needs to get through the House and
then be signed by the Governor.
There is a pretty good chance we
will make it to the Red Zone, but
as we all know that’s where the
real work begins.
If it looks like the bill will get
to the floor of the House, we will
contact you and ask you to contact
your representatives in that chamber.
I hope you will support the bill.
At the end of the day, I think your
leadership came to the conclusion
that it was better to help write
a bill that we could live with rather
than waiting for a group of non-boaters
to tell us what to do. Although
none of us is seeking more rules
and regulations, SB 5145, with all
its phase-in and pro-boating provisions,
might just help people learn more
about how to safely enjoy boating.
It might even encourage more people
to get into boating or stay in boating.
As Bill Baker, the chairman of the
Board of Trustees likes to say,
“We all tend to do things we are
comfortable doing” and that probably
includes boating.
With
warm regards,
Michael
Campbell
President
michael@nmta.net
P.S.
My thanks to those who called to
express your views on this issue.
All of us on the NMTA staff are
here to serve you. Call anytime!
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