Good afternoon, fellow NOAA Corps officers,
I had a recent conversation with a fellow captain regarding some of the challenges we face both in the organization and in the world and he noted that you can't treat adaptive challenges like technical problems. To help illustrate this point, take the issue of high blood pressure. The technical solution would be to take medication prescribed by a doctor to safely lower the pressure. Conversely, the adaptive solution would be to change your lifestyle to eat healthy, get more exercise and lower your stress, thereby lowering blood pressure. As a society, and as humans, we seem to gravitate towards the 'easier' solution of simply taking a pill vice putting in a lot more effort for a much greater response (the benefits of the healthy lifestyle go far beyond blood pressure). Technical problems are often easy to identify and can usually be solved by an authority/expert. Adaptive challenges, however, can be much more difficult to identify and it is often the people with the problem who do the work of solving it. So my request for you today is to think about some of the challenges you are facing, understand that there are things you can control and many others that you can't, and try to view them in the adaptive lens. This might just spark some innovative solutions and I'll leave you with a quote attributed to Henry Ford (although I have been unable to substantiate this):
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
-(maybe)Henry Ford
Stay healthy,
CAPT Douglas MacIntyre, NOAA
Director, Commissioned Personnel Center
| 06 Apr 2022 | Officer Assignment Board |
| 13 May 2022 | ACO Award Nomination Deadline |
| LT Kelsey Jeffers | 01 May 2022 |
| LT Anna-Elizabeth Villard-Howe | 01 May 2022 |
| ENS Christine Sealing | 01 May 2022 |
| LCDR Lindsey Norman | 18 May 2022 |
| LTJG Anna Hallingstad | 01 Jun 2022 |
| LT Alyssa Thompson | 31 Aug 2022 |
BOTC 139 is currently aboard the USCGC EAGLE with their USCG OCS 2-22 shipmates. Upon docking at Town Point Park, Downtown Waterfront in Norfolk, VA on Friday the 18th, tours of the vessel will be available to the public. The schedule is Friday: 1200-1700, Saturday: 1100-1900, and Sunday: 1100-1900. If you are in the area, come out and meet the newest NOAA Corps Officers and tour the U.S. Coast Guard's Flagship.
Following their two week training cruise, BOTC 139 will begin classwork in Rules of the Road and Navigation 2. Billet Night will be the evening of March 31st! A link to the livestream will be made public closer to the event date.
The National Association of Commissioned Officers (ACO) administers the annual Junior Officer of the Year, Science, and Engineering awards, and encourages all commands to consider nominating officers for these honors.
The National ACO will select the nominee. In addition, this officer's name will be entered in the Reserve Officers Association Junior Officer of the Year selection. The selection will be completed at the ROA mid-winter conference this January in Washington, D.C. Our NOAA Corps nominee will be invited to attend the Conference if they are available. Nominations for these awards are due by Friday, 13 May 2022.
Eligibility
Nomination Procedure
Submit nominations to noaacorpsdcaco@gmail.com, by COB Friday 13 May 2022. In the nomination email please have the supporting files attached as .PDF.
The subject line of the nomination email should be "Junior Officer of the Year Nomination", "Science Award", or "Engineering Award" as appropriate. Junior officers with civilian supervisors are encouraged to forward them this information. For more information on the awards, please refer to the NOAA Corps Directives on Awards (Chapter 12 part 7).
To recap the CPC Director's message, 7MAR2022, CPC will upload NRDM/SR memos to recipient officers' Officer Personnel Folders (OPFs). CPC contracted a backorder for NRDM and NRSR sets with anticipated distribution to recipients in the coming months. Upon receiving the sets from the manufacturer, CPC will distribute the award hardware, including the award certificates, and upload them to OPFs.
For those officers looking to purchase directly, as opposed to waiting on contracts, the deployment medal (ribbon only) and response service ribbons are now available through UltraThin. They are working on updating their website to show the complete NOAA Corps listing of ribbons available for purchase, including the NRDM/SR. In the meantime, to purchase, officers can order them by name through their website (https://www.ultrathin.com/ultrathin/orderform_update.htm), via email, or with one of their customer service reps. Any officers wanting slide-on ribbons will need to specify that they are ordering slide-on; otherwise, UltraThin defaults to building the order as an UltraThin set.
NRDM sets are not yet available for officers to purchase directly until CPC's vendors complete the order. Please contact LT Moulton for any additional questions or concerns.
As of 2/9/2022 all NOAA Corps Officers were required to receive a booster against the virus that causes COVID-19, in order to be considered in compliance with immunization specifications.
In an attempt to reduce the task burden on the officer, NOAA Corps officers now need only submit their proof of vaccination to one online location via the NOAA Vaccine Reporting System. Medical Affairs will be granted access to the NOAA Vaccine Reporting System in order to verify vaccination status. This means that officers no longer need to also submit to their eOPF unless they would like a physical copy maintained in their medical record. Through the NOAA Vaccine Reporting System Medical Affairs will have access to view a physical copy of an officer's vaccine card, and will continue to update compliance via our Human Resources Management System. Please note, however, we will not be downloading copies of vaccine cards into officers' eOPF.
Please note Medical Affairs is utilizing the Vaccine Reporting System as the primary source for tracking your vaccine status.
If an officer has already uploaded an image of their vaccine card to their eOPF, they are still required to upload it to the NOAA Vaccine Reporting System.
If the officer would like to have a copy of their vaccine card maintained in their permanent medical record, they must submit it to their eOPF.
If you have questions please reach out to noaacorps.medical@noaa.gov
The current tenure of the Uniform and Awards Board (UAB) is coming to an end and they are seeking new Co-Chairs and membership for the next cohort of the UAB (July 2022-December 2023).
Co-Chairs Officers in the rank of O-5 or O-6 who wish to lead the 2022-2023 UAB are encouraged to submit a statement of interest by 8 April. Statements of interest can be in the body of the email and should not exceed a paragraph. The new co-chairs will have the opportunity to sit in on the May and June board meetings while assisting in the selection process of the next board membership.
Membership Officers in the rank of O-2 to O-5 interested in serving on the next UAB are also requested to send a statement of interest by 31 April in order to be considered for the next board cohort. For those who have already expressed interest, we ask that you please re-affirm and re-submit your request.
Statements of interest for either the Co-Chair or Membership positions should be sent to the current co-chairs, CDR Hector Casanova and CDR Rebecca Waddington, through the UAB email address: noaacorps.uab@noaa.gov.
Serving on the Uniform and Awards Board is a great way to help ensure that your fellow officers are recognized for the good work they’re doing for NOAA and the nation. All officers are encouraged to consider volunteering. If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to CDR Hector Casanova and CDR Rebecca Waddington
Curious about what sets an award apart? Check out the Uniform & Awards Board’s “How-To” document for nomination procedures and tips to increase the chances of your nomination being recommended for approval.