Interesting Letter from "Gulf Chat" forum

**Jeffrox** · February 10th, 2009, 06:11 PM

From: Raymond Butler [mailto:info@gicaonline.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 8:39 PM
To: Raymond Butler
Subject: License Renewal Issues Update from Capt. Stalfort Today

Friends,
I met one of our industry wheelmen helping us out with the Lake Borgne Floodgate simulations in Vicksburg yesterday. He was a bright young professional, on his third issue, and representing our industry very well at ERDC. I am thankful for his company sending him. He was telling me that he has not been able to hold a watch since January 14 due to license renewal issues since submitting his paperwork in October of last year. I tried to imagine myself in his predicament, and it was not a pleasant feeling at all. I was being prevented from earning my living in a position that I had worked hard for, by a "process system" of paperwork review. Anyway...a series of emails resulted today, and Capt. Dave Stalfort, Commander of the NMC, responded with the below (after 2100 hours his time, I might add!). I know Dave and his folks are trying very hard to address this huge problem, so I wanted to share his remarks below with you all.
It seems to me that some sort of interim, simple document could be issued immediately upon receiving the renewal paperwork, that would allow an "IN PROCESS" mariner the ability to continue to work until his processing had been completed by the system? I'm sure this idea has been vetted before, but I've not followed this to know well enough. The induced "risk" in this would seem to be minimal. I really feel for those guys who have been kept from working during the worst crewing crisis our industry has seen in years.
Raymond

I want to let you know what the Coast Guard is doing about the current delays. I'll be disributing this information shortly through our email subscription service and web site.

Over the past 6 months, NMC has issued over 36,000 credentials. 18,000 of those credentials were issued in less than 30 days. Unfortunately, the NMC's average overall processing time of 80 days is not yet where we want it to be. While a portion of delays in processing is attributable to waiting for mariners to submit additional information, the delay for 16% of mariners is primarily the result of production bottlenecks in the medical evaluation stage of the credential evaluation process due to insufficient capacity in our medical evaluations branch. This is unacceptable and we are taking the following actions to immediately remedy the problem and ensure it does not occur in the future.

Immediate Process Changes: NMC has implemented enhanced risk-based screening procedures to streamline the medical evaluation process and is prioritizing all credential renewals in inventory to focus on current credentials that have expired or are near expiration. This process is specifically designed to keep working mariners employed. 950 credentials have been produced and mailed out over the last two days as a result of this change, and we're on track to issue another 500 tomorrow.

Surging Resources Now: The Coast Guard is surging a full range of national resources to assist us with medical screenings and evaluations including: medically trained Coast Guard Auxiliary members; Coast Guard active duty medical staff from around the country; and Public Health Service personal. NMC has also increased the medical staffing contract in our Medical Evaluations Branch to provide additional capacity.

Building Long Term Capabilities: The Coast Guard is taking measures to expand the size of the medical evaluation branch to ensure long-term capacity to meet the medical evaluation demand and ensure efficient processing. The Coast Guard is also looking to enhance the credentialing database to enable electronic workflow to improve both the efficiency and quality of the screening and evaluation process.

Our January report, which is posted on our web site at www.uscg.mil/nmc has additional information on processing time and other actions we're taking to reduce processing time.

I'll keep you informed of progress.

Regards,
Dave

CAPT David C. Stalfort
Commanding Officer
National Maritime Center

**anchorman** · February 11th, 2009, 03:49 AM

That speaks volumes.

The Captain on my vessel just got his renewal in the mail yesterday. It took him five weeks, and he had borderline blood pressure. I hope I get the same (or less) turn-around when I apply for my Master license in April. Clearly, a good person is seeing to the process as overbearing as the process must be. Nice letter Dave.

**rwleo** · February 11th, 2009, 06:01 AM

I have had my MMD/ STCW in for renewal since November. Having been out of work since October my bank account is draining to alarming low levels. Last week I emailed Capt. Stalfort directly and explained to him that this delay was forcing me into near bankruptcy. I sent my email at 1300 on Friday afternoon, and by 1630 I received a call from the NMC saying it was ready to print. I just needed to provide a letter on company letterhead in regards to my tankerman assist endorsement. I got that in on Monday afternoon, and yesterday morning at 0830 I received another call from the NMC and was told my credentials had been overnighted.

I have been very critical of the NMC over the last 3 months, but I was impressed with the helping hand that was extended to me this week. To be honest I dont know what I would have done without it. I was wrong to think the problems at the NMC are largely due to apathy. I'm glad to see they are pushing through all these applications. I'm not against stricter medical standards or the new system to process applications, but I strongly believe it should not be done at the expense of so many mariners livelihoods. Apparently, the NMC is starting to feel the same way.

**jdcavo** · February 11th, 2009, 09:02 AM

The text of that message is part of the attached NMC Information Bulleting on this issue.

**Robert** · February 11th, 2009, 09:13 AM

It is great to see NMC working so diligently to resolve the problems. It probably would have been more helpful if they could have put that sort of information out much sooner.

Glad to hear that they were so responsive for you rwleo!