Newsletter: January 2007 Newsletter

Mr. Frank Roberts, Captain, USN (retired), Executive Director, Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance (HRMFFA), is scheduled to address the VSRA membership at the association's January membership meeting on Tuesday, January 16. Mr. Roberts will update us on the current and future threats to our regional government facilities posed by current events, such as BRAC. Mr. Roberts’ biography may be found at http://www.hrmffa.org/executivedirector.html.

 

The HRMFFA is an initiative of the Hampton Roads Mayors and Chairs Caucus.  The Alliance was established to collectively focus area efforts on preserving and growing Federal capabilities within the Hampton Roads region.  Through regional advocacy and influence the Alliance acts as one voice to retain and attract facilities, institutions, organizations, capabilities, and investments owned, operated or funded by the Federal government or such agencies or entities. 

 

The organization’s mission is to become fully knowledgeable about the strengths and weaknesses of major federally funded facilities in the region. This includes military bases, facilities and commands. The Alliance is managed by a thirteen member Board of Directors comprised of the Mayors of the Cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg; and the Chairs of the Boards of Supervisors of the Counties of Isle of Wight, James City, and York.  The HRMFFA Co-Chairmen are:

Joe S. Frank, Mayor of the City of Newport News

Paul D. Fraim, Mayor of the City of Norfolk

Mr. Frank Roberts, Captain, USN (retired), is the full time Executive Director, who oversees the daily operations of the Alliance and the accomplishment of goals and objectives as agreed by the Board of Directors.

 

Federal capabilities in the HRMFFA region are spread throughout eleven of the thirteen localities comprising the Alliance with impact in all communities.  The Alliance coordinates with locally elected officials, senior federal government leaders for all area facilities, commands, and organizations, the Virginia delegation to Congress, the General Assembly, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and industry to insure awareness of anticipated Federal actions with near, mid, and long term impact to the Hampton Roads region.

Every month we feature an article on one of the many active VSRA committees our members support. This month, we are featuring the Virginia Ship Repair Foundation Board of Directors. While technically, the Foundation is not a committee, it does add a great deal of value to the services provided for members. The Foundation was started in response to the VSRA strategic plan to address workforce and training issues in the ship repair industry.

 

The Foundation is led by Chairman Buck Hodges of Auxiliary Systems. Buck has put in an extraordinary amount of time over the past two years to reorganize the Foundation into a body that would set policy, explore new initiatives and pursue new lines of funding workforce and training projects. During 2006, when the Foundation was started, the Board took an aggressive stance and began several new projects. These are listed, along with the progress made on each action item:

 

1. Establish a regional standard for Fire Watch that is endorsed by NAVSEA and provides transferable certification. The course is currently being reviewed by NAVSEA.

 

2. Begin outreach activities to schools in the region at all levels and in all cities. Currently, more than 25 school visits are planned where member volunteers inform students about ship repair occupations and pass out VSRA-branded promotional items.

 

3. Start a Blueprint Course at the direction of our members’ expressed needs for training in this area. The first course began January 12, 2007.

 

4. Offer special seminars hosted by experts to give members cost-effective professional development opportunities for employees. A LEAN seminar was held in the spring of 2006, and a sales seminar was held this past fall.

 

5. Developed an incentive plan for recent technical school graduates to find employment in ship repair. Working with the Norfolk Technical Center, VSRA will be awarding tool and equipment grants to students who complete a grant application process and begin employment with a member company. This is being accomplished through a partnership with Empire Machinery and Tools.

 

The Foundation has worked hard to deliver new, innovative and valuable services to benefit VSRA members. They look forward to input from member companies that will help them establish their priorities for 2007. Please direct questions or comments to Michelle Carrera at mcarrera@virginiashiprepair.org

 

 

For the past year, the Virginia Ship Repair Foundation (VSRF) has been working on some exciting new initiatives to strengthen the visibility of ship repair in the region. Specifically, the VSRF Board made it a priority to reach out to the next generation of workers. We need your participation to make these efforts successful!

During this academic year, we expect to visit more than twenty schools to deliver occupational and career related information to elementary, middle and high schools students in seven cities across the region. We are currently building a volunteer list to give companies an opportunity to directly connect with these future workers. Our goal is to have at least three volunteers at each event.

 

For additional information or to volunteer, please call Josephine Anderson at VSRA at 233-7034 or send email to janderson@VirginiaShipRepair.org.

 

This is a pilot project of VSRF and VSRA to build awareness of ship repair among middle school students. Each school has a team that designs a portion of a ship using the LEGO digital 3-D designer software. The team also prepares a written and oral presentation on occupations involved in repairing or maintaining the ship in their design. 

 

For additional information or to volunteer, please call Josephine Anderson at VSRA at 233-7034 or send email to janderson@VirginiaShipRepair.org.

 

January 3, 2007, TSA Public Affairs: (571) 227-2829
U.S. Coast Guard Public Affairs: (202) 372-4620

 WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced the issuance of the final rule for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program, which enhances port security by checking the backgrounds of workers before they are granted unescorted access to secure areas of vessels and maritime facilities.

The rule lays out the enrollment process, disqualifying crimes, usage procedures, fees and other requirements for workers, port owners, and operators. These guidelines allow the industry, government and public to prepare for the implementation of this important security program.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the U.S. Coast Guard held four public meetings around the nation and received more than 1,900 comments regarding the initial draft of this federal rule. All comments were carefully considered in the development of the final rule.

The rule is expected to impact more than 750,000 port employees, longshoreman, mariners, truckers and others who require unescorted access to secure areas of ports and vessels. Specific measures include:

•    Security threat assessment – TWIC applicants will undergo a comprehensive background check that looks at criminal history records, terrorist watch lists, immigration status, and outstanding wants and warrants. If no adverse information is disclosed, TSA typically completes a security threat assessment in less than ten days.

•    Technology – The credential will be a Smart card containing the applicant’s photograph and name, an expiration date, and a serial number. In addition, an integrated circuit chip will store the holder’s fingerprint template, a PIN chosen by the individual, and a card holder unique identifier.

•    Eligibility – Individuals lacking lawful presence and certain immigration status in the United States, connected to terrorist activity, or convicted of certain crimes will be ineligible for a TWIC.

•    Use – During the initial rollout of TWIC workers will present their cards to authorized personnel, who will compare the holder to his or her photo, inspect security features on the TWIC and evaluate the card for signs of tampering. The Coast Guard will verify TWIC cards when conducting vessel and facility inspections and through spot checks using hand-held readers to ensure credentials are valid. Until card reader technology is tested and a regulation issued on access control, facility owners and operators will not be required to utilize TWIC readers for facility access.

•    Cost – The fee for TWIC will be between $139 and $159, and the TWIC cards will be valid for 5 years. Workers with current, comparable background checks including a HAZMAT endorsement to a commercial driver’s license, merchant mariner document or Free and Secure Trade (FAST) credential will pay a discounted fee, between $107 and $127. The exact amount of the fee will be established and published once an enrollment support contract is finalized in early 2007. A subsequent Federal Register Notice will be issued at that time.

•    Biometric data – Applicants will provide a complete set of fingerprints and sit for a digital photograph. Fingerprint checks will be used as part of the security threat assessment. Fingerprint templates extracted from the biometric data will be stored on the credential.
Specific measures include (continued from previous news article)

•    Privacy and information security – The entire enrollment record (including all fingerprints collected) will be stored in the TSA system, which is protected through role-based entry, encryption and segmentation to prevent unauthorized use. Employees of a vendor under contract to TSA known as “Trusted Agents” will undergo a TSA security threat assessment prior to collecting biometric and biographic data of TWIC enrollees. All enrollee personal data is deleted from the enrollment center work stations once the applicant completes the process.

TWIC enrollment will begin in March of 2007, initially at a small number of ports. The implementation will comply with the schedule established in the SAFE Port Act. Additional TWIC deployments will increase and continue throughout the year at ports nationwide on a phased basis. Workers will be notified of when and where to apply prior to the start of the enrollment period in their given area. After issuance of TWIC cards to a port’s workers has been accomplished, DHS will at each port establish and publish a deadline by which all port workers at that port will thereafter be required to possess a TWIC for unescorted access.

While developing the regulation for TWIC in the summer and fall of 2006, TSA completed name-based security threat assessments on port employees and longshoremen. These assessments against terrorist watch lists and immigration data sets were an interim measure and did not include the criminal history records check that will be a part of TWIC.

The final rule is available on TSA’s web site at the TSA website and more information on port security is available at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Homeport site by clicking on the Maritime Security link. The 469 page ruling document is available in PDF format at this link.