Boater Education Center at SBS07

The 2007 Seattle Boat Show is less than three months away and I want to telll you about a new feature for the show. We are creating a Boater Education Center to help people be safer and more confident when they go boating. I also hope it will encourage new people to get started in boating, which is what the whole Grow Boating campaign is all about.

Last year, Washington’s Governor signed into law a mandatory boater education bill, which our association supported. It will be phased in over an eight-year period beginning in January of 2008. But the good news is that the State is already issuing cards on a voluntary basis so we can start telling boaters, as well as would-be boaters about how to get “educated.”

That is where the Boater Education Center comes in.

From the beginning, our mantra has been something like this: people tend to do things more if they are comfortable doing them and, they are comfortable doing things if they know what they are doing. We think this applies to all sorts of activities from skiing to skydiving and mountain climbing to boating. So let’s help them get educated and into boating.

We hope that our Boater Education Center will be a magnet for everyone attending the show who wants to learn more about getting out on the water with confidence. We have developed the Center in consultation with one of our members, Kurt Kalkomey from Boat Ed out of Dallas, Texas and in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Power Squadron, the Recreational Boating Association of Washington, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. We also have worked with one of our newest members from Canada, BoaterExam.com.

Current plans are for the Boater Education Center to be on the Club Level. We are inviting all organizations involved with Boater Education to have their booth within the Center. With the combined resources of all these exhibitors, I am confident that they will be able to answer any questions that attendees have about the program. We are also hoping to produce a short video that could loop in a small theater within the Boater Education Center for those who prefer to learn that way.

We plan on printing up a wallet card for every exhibitor at the show that will summarize the key facts on boater education, where to find boating courses, how you get a card, when you have to get it, costs and so on. Our hope is that every exhibitor at the show will at least know the basics and be able to answer the basic questions as well as pointing people to the Boater Education Center for additional information.

At this point, any of us can get a Washington Boater Education card and I encourage all of you to do so. It is easy and the cost is only $10 if you have already taken a certified boater education course. All you do is mail a copy showing the course that you have taken and the Boating Education Card application form to Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, Boating Programs, P.O. Box 34333, Seattle, WA 98124-1333 along with your check. Your lifetime boater education card will be mailed to you. The Boater Education application form is available online http://www.parks.wa.gov/boating

If you have never taken a boater education course, or can not find your certificate of completion then you can take the test online from our member Boat Ed. Click on www.boat-ed.com. They currently charge $15 to take the test; practice tests are free. Our other member who does online instruction and testing is waiting for final certification from the Washington State Parks, which should be coming shortly. Their web address is www.boaterexam.com.

Exhibitors who have their boater education cards from any State or Canada will have a special ribbon on their Exhibitor Badge starting with this year’s show. I think it is really important for those of us in the industry to “walk the walk.” I also think we have a great opportunity to focus on efforts on the youngest amongst us who are open to learning. As an industry, we should look for every opportunity possible to pass on a very simple message “Life Just Gets Better on a Boat… and now there are easy ways to learn about how to operate a boat safely and with confidence.”

Let’s go Grow Boating!

Michael Campbell
President
michael@nmta.net