January 14th EYO Virtual Meeting Come Meet Mark Blace

[mjsouleman]

January 14th EYO Virtual Meeting
Special Guest Speaker Mark Blace

The Chesapeake Bay Ericson Club (CBEC) is hosting special guest speaker Mark Blace, Retired Coast Guard Commander. All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker.

Agenda

• Moderator Introductions
• Meet the Special Guest
• Open discussion

Meeting Duration: 40 minutes
Date: January 14, 2021
Time (EST): 07:00 PM Eastern Time,
Time: (PST): 04:00 PM Pacific Standard Time

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Meeting ID: 818 5214 8630
Passcode: 4KjtDm

 

[Mblace]

Looking forward to it! Just a bit on my background - I graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1979. While there as a cadet I spent 18 weeks sailing Eagle, including OPSAIL '76 (bicentennial). I spent 2 years on a cutter patrolling the Gulf of Alaska and Bering sea out of Seattle, then 4 years training recruits at Cape May, NJ. I was Group Operations Officer in Milwaukee (attended SAR school in 1985) managing crew training, SAR, law enforcement and aids to navigation, then graduate school at Marquette University, then CG HQ on the Commandant's staff. Next was Deputy Commander at Group Galveston, TX, back to HQ in DC doing planning & budgeting, and as deputy chief of Civil Rights. Final tour was as Group Commander in New Orleans. I retired as a Captain in 2005 from New Orleans - my change of command was 3 weeks before Katrina! My operational specialty was coastal SAR, LE and ATON, and included managing local CG Auxiliary ops as well as coordination with the local law enforcement and maritime communities. I also did a couple special assignments, one as a drug interdiction team leader onboard the Battleship Iowa in 1986 (on a Caribbean deployment with other Navy ships), and as an anti-smuggling and law enforcement advisor to NATO in Naples, Italy during the war in former Yugoslavia in 1995. Lots of interesting experiences, loved every day of it... I've been a recreational sailor since 1976, and own a E-25CB and a 14' Nomad.

 

[mjsouleman]

Hello Mark

You should save this message for the meeting for your introduction. I will open the meeting at 1855 and see you then.

Mark "Souleman" Soule

Looking forward to it! Just a bit on my background - I graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1979. While there as a cadet I spent 18 weeks sailing Eagle, including OPSAIL '76 (bicentennial). I spent 2 years on a cutter patrolling the Gulf of Alaska and Bering sea out of Seattle, then 4 years training recruits at Cape May, NJ. I was Group Operations Officer in Milwaukee (attended SAR school in 1985) managing crew training, SAR, law enforcement and aids to navigation, then graduate school at Marquette University, then CG HQ on the Commandant's staff. Next was Deputy Commander at Group Galveston, TX, back to HQ in DC doing planning & budgeting, and as deputy chief of Civil Rights. Final tour was as Group Commander in New Orleans. I retired as a Captain in 2005 from New Orleans - my change of command was 3 weeks before Katrina! My operational specialty was coastal SAR, LE and ATON, and included managing local CG Auxiliary ops as well as coordination with the local law enforcement and maritime communities. I also did a couple special assignments, one as a drug interdiction team leader onboard the Battleship Iowa in 1986 (on a Caribbean deployment with other Navy ships), and as an anti-smuggling and law enforcement advisor to NATO in Naples, Italy during the war in former Yugoslavia in 1995. Lots of interesting experiences, loved every day of it... I've been a recreational sailor since 1976, and own a E-25CB and a 14' Nomad.

 

[Alan Gomes]

My gosh, that was an excellent meeting! So good! Thanks for your time, Mark B. That was truly outstanding.

A couple of suggestions for you, Mark S:

• The free Zoom account with the 40-min. time limit is a real negative, especially with such quality speakers. (I would have enjoyed hearing more from Martin King as well.) An hour might be better (IMHO), and not getting unceremoniously dumped at the end would be a nice touch also. If the meeting is on a day and time when I can make it, I'd be willing to host it through my University account, which has no time limit. Let me know if you are interested.
• If the guest speakers and participants are not opposed to the idea, perhaps the meetings could be recorded and made available to others who were not able to attend. Mark B's presentation today was so good, and I think there would be others who couldn't make it who would greatly benefit from what he had to share. Perhaps Sean could host the video recording on the EYO site (the file sizes tend to be small), or if not, one of us could put it on our Google Drive for a period of time with a link. Just a thought. The advantage to putting it on the EYO site would be that it could be kept in perpetuity, but obviously that would be Sean's call.

Thanks again, Mark S., for your good work in setting up these meetings and broadening the invitations to the members of this forum.

 

[mjsouleman]

EYO Community,
First, I want to thank last evenings guest speaker, Retired Coast Guard Command Mark Blace, for sharing his experiences and safety tips.
Second, I want to provide the community with a status report of the virtual meetings.

The Experiment
In the beginning, the monthly virtual meetings began as an experiment designed to enhance the EYO community experience.
Two metrics were used to measure success/failure;

1. Community involvement
2. Community response

I set a 6 month evaluation period for this experiment that expires in February.

Results

1. Monthly attendance average: 7
2. Community response: Positive

Phase 2 Development

1. Expand meeting duration
2. Expand topics
3. Record meetings

The community has verified the goals of the experiment and therefore phase 2 plans of action are being implemented.

Phase 2 Tasks

1. Purchase virtual meeting license
2. Identify topics of community interest
3. Identify Repository to store recorded meetings

Mark "Souleman" Soule

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Donna and I enjoyed the meeting as well. Not sure if I will be able to attend future meetings as on Fridays I usually don't get home and settled until more like 8pm. Thanks for the initiative. It was fun to see the people who have been so helpful as we begin working on our boat.

 

[mjsouleman]

Jeff/Donna,

Thank you for your input.

I will ask for scheduling opinions during February meeting introductions. If you are available, please attend and help us find best meeting times.

Mark "Souleman" Soule

 

[Frank Langer]

Mark,
Thanks for your leadership on this! The sessions are interesting and it's so nice to put faces to names that we see often on this site.
Frank

 

[Loren Beach]

Thanks Again to Captain (Ret) Mark!
That's quite an interesting career.

When I was stationed at a (small) naval communicaiton station on Guam in the late 60's, our base commander was an LCDR.
OTOH I was only a petty officer, and word does indeed mean small and insignificant.

 

[mjsouleman]

Frank,

I was wondering when a fellow E-30+ owner would show up to support our team .

I am currently seeking input for maintenance topics and guest speakers to address the meeting on the topic (Hint).

Mark