No. 61, March 14, 2001

I apologize for the delay in the HQ Updates. Unfortunately I've been out of commission for the past three weeks with back trouble that resulted in surgery last Friday. I expect to return to NAATS Headquarters by March 26. I'll promptly begin the updates just as soon as I get back. 

In the interim I want to reassure everyone that there has been no interruption in our efforts. NAATS Administrator Ward Simpson is coordinating all headquarters issues and EA Regional Director Ron Maisel is handling our congressional concerns and meetings.

Please remember that you can always contact your Regional Directors with any questions or concerns; they are knowledgeable on all of our national issues. 

Wally Pike

No. 62, March 30, 2001

As you may already know, the Bush administration is supporting privatization of the ATC system. Both DOT Secretary Mineta and Administrator Garvey are opposed to privatization. NAATS as well as the other FAA unions are also opposed to this approach. We�ll keep a close eye on this as events develop.

The appropriations hearings are in full swing and we�ll be submitting our testimony next week. Expect us to focus on staffing, OASIS and personnel reform, including pay negotiations. Once the testimony is finalized a copy will be posted on the NAATS web page.

The NAATS PAC Poster is being mailed to the FacReps at their facilities this week. The poster accurately portrays the way business is done on Capitol Hill and is appropriate for posting on the NAATS bulletin boards. Obviously we need to raise more money in our PAC fund if we�re going to be as effective as we want in this forum.

Nine NAATS representatives attended arbitration advocacy training in Kansas City this week. The idea is to train a cadre of advocates who can conduct arbitration hearings for NAATS. Once these advocates are up to speed we�ll be able to conduct many more arbitrations, both regionally and nationally, than we�ve done in the past.

Our Public Relations Team (PRT) is continuing its work on educating the aviation public on who we are and the services we provide. For more information on PRT contact Chairman John Dibble or visit the NAATS Web page.

We are soliciting interest from members who would like to serve as NAATS representatives to workgroups or for one-year details to FAA HQ. If you are interested please forward your name and a brief resume to NAATS Headquarters. It would also be helpful if you would indicate your specific area of interest (e.g. operations, labor management relations, equipment, etc.)

Our next pay negotiations meeting with the FAA is scheduled for April 17. Once again we will meet at the offices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services. Our proposal has not changed.

Wally Pike

I attended a meeting this week on the Proposal for Safety Oversight of the Performance-Based Air Traffic Organization. This deals with congressional direction regarding separating the safety and regulatory functions of the FAA. The proposal appears to be mostly transparent to us but we do have a commitment that we will be involved in the development at the pre-decisional stage. At this meeting I talked briefly with NATCA President John Carr and we agreed to meet again in the near future. 

We have finalized the next round of arbitration advocacy training. The session will be held June 11-12 in St. Louis at the conclusion of the FacRep/manager conference and the BOD business meeting. Again, the purpose of this training is to allow our advocates to conduct their own arbitrations thereby allowing us to arbitrate more of our grievances. If you have any questions regarding this please contact your regional representatives. 

For the past several weeks we've been trying to get the dual traffic count stopped. As you know, the management pay team has no intentions of entertaining any form of true reclassification so NAATS changed its pay proposal to retain the current architecture. Since both teams agree on that point, it makes no sense to continue to dual count. Although we have heard that Air Traffic agrees with us, the matter seems to be temporarily stuck in ATX. I've asked our ATX Liaison Kate Breen to give a priority to moving this along. If you have any questions or comments regarding this please contact Kate directly at 202-267-8028. 

I meet with Deputy Administrator Monte Belger next week to attempt to get the pay negotiations jump-started. Secretary Mineta has requested a meeting and this is the number one issue I'll talk with him about. 

NAATS lost 59 members during the drop period this year. Historically, this is about half the number we usually see. Your support of our union during these challenging times is essential and very much appreciated. Of particular note is the fact that SW Region only lost two members. Congratulations to that region and to Regional Director Ron Dawson. 

I've received invitations to visit both MIA and BDR. I plan to make both those trips as soon as possible. A special pat on the back to BDR AFSS and the NE Region for their contributions to the PAC fund drive. Thanks also to NE Regional Director Kurt Comisky for all his work on this. 

I've attached an OASIS status report from NAATS National OASIS Representative Jeff Barnes. Jeff can be reached at 703-582-6616.

Wally Pike

---

OASIS Status Report

Jeff Barnes 

April 20, 2001 � I completed a couple meetings with Harris Corporation on OASIS this week. Next week we will be testing the software upgrade due to be loaded at Seattle on June 1. The following week the OASIS Human Factors Team will be meeting at Harris to continue our work of identifying solutions to problems with the system. 

For the May newsletter Guylan Roberts and I will be writing an article about the human factors team, but a brief overview is that the OASIS Human Factors Team was chartered by NAATS and the FAA for the purpose of resolving issues that arise during the development of OASIS. This team does not work only in classical human factors areas, but also resolves issues in any area of OASIS that are brought to it. That team is composed of members from the union and management representing the controllers in the field and the interests of the headquarters lines of business that are involved in OASIS.

The members of the Team and who they represent are: 

•  

• Jeff Barnes, BNA AFSS � Co-lead and NAATS OASIS National Rep

• Dave Hoover, GNV AFSS � Alternate Co-lead and NAATS Southern Region Coordinator

• Dennis Detrow, ABQ AFSS � Team member and ABQ FacRep

• Alice Haines, SEA AFSS � Team member and SEA FacRep

• Arnie Holmes, IPT AFSS � Team member and IPT Alternate FacRep

• Guylan Roberts, JNU AFSS � Team member and NAATS Acting Alaskan Region Director

• Cindy Moran, ARU-300 � Co-lead and Acting Integrated Requirements Team Lead

• Scott Chapman, ARU-300 � Alternate Co-lead

• Tim Trudgeon, RDU AFSS � Team member, RDU Supervisor, SUPCOM Rep

• Tess Gilliam, AOS-540 � Team member and AF issues focal

• Barbara Jackson, ATP-420 � Team member

• Dino Piccione, AUA-400 � Team member and Human Factors expert

• Alfred Moosakhanian, AUA-400 � Team member

This Team has faced a great challenge to turn a system that was basically unusable into something that will not only meet our needs today, but also into our future. Their work has been excellent and they have much more to do before they get to rest. Lately they have been faced with two telcons per week and a face-to-face meeting each month grappling with OASIS issues. They have made considerable personal sacrifices to see this through, and I for one owe them a big debt of gratitude for what they have meant in making my job manageable. 

The OASIS system has changed hugely over the last two years that I have been the Rep. It has been a troubled program from the time I took the position, but it improves continually. With continued commitment from the Agency it will be a great success for us. If you saw OASIS two years ago much of it would be unrecognizable. In a lot of areas it has undergone a complete redesign to make it comply with the needs of controllers, not the perceptions of programmers. At the same time, continued interaction between the human factors team and the Harris programmers has led to a better understanding of our needs so that the time needed to resolve problems has decreased. 

In his testimony to Congress Wally stated that we considered the Seattle prototype system a success. However, the Independent Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E. Performed by a team led by ATQ, the FAA�s independent test organization.) Early Operational Assessment (EOA) labeled the OASIS a failure. I have been asked how can those two statements be resolved. 

There are two elements to this. First, we agreed to the Seattle installation under an MOU with strictly defined contingencies in case our controllers there encountered difficulties. This MOU enabled us to unilaterally halt the operation of OASIS if we had to, without agreement by management. These protections and the desire of the controllers in Seattle to work on this system gave us the comfort level needed to go forward with an operational prototype at Seattle. Some in management don�t like the term prototype, but that is what the Seattle system is. Out there to prove that the system can be used operationally. Not well on some positions, and missing some key parts, but usable with workarounds and backups to cover the deficient areas. One of our key goals of this was to develop good information on problems in the system. Sure it can do the job in most areas, but it has impediments to efficiency in it that we can correct if we find them. Well, it�s hard to find much more than the glaring errors in a two-week test even by people fresh from the field. Seattle controllers using the OASIS system day in and day out were able to identify the more subtle issues that the standard testing overlooked. These were written up and forwarded to the human factors team. I could not put a number to it, but I am confident that the human factors team through its life has evaluated well over a thousand problems with the system. These range from obvious personal preferences to problems so significant they held up the program in the first place. 

The second part is what the failure on the EOA report meant. We knew that the IOT&E Team would find problems sufficient to label this system a failure. If they hadn�t it would have meant that the system WAS operationally suitable which could be interpreted to mean that full installation could begin (with some exceptions). Say hello to Model One all over again in that case. Instead the report identified critical problem areas. Areas that could be worked around on the prototype, but would have to be fixed in some cases before summer traffic increased at Seattle, much less before another system could be installed. I was surprised by the priority placed on some of the items, but not surprised by the items themselves. The EOA Report has been a valuable tool in making sure that we take care of the big issues first and not get too lost in the weeds with the smaller stuff to the detriment of critical problems. 

That is how the Seattle prototype can be a failure and a success at the same time. 

When an FAA procurement overruns either cost or schedule by more than fifty percent it is slated for automatic termination by law. The OASIS program overran both. The law says that this can only be disregarded if the FAA Administrator defends the program to the Congress. In mid-December Jane Garvey sent a letter to Congress defending the OASIS program, saving it from termination, so the program has been defended at the highest level. However, time and money have been set for this year�s budget. We are working to develop an MOU with the Agency that will allow the program to go forward and stay within that time and budget constraint, shifting some of the program activities out to later years. There is a lot involved in this MOU and we have not yet begun to work it with the Agency. To accommodate their goals we anticipate that we will benefit from this MOU. I will not speculate further on it other than to say that the NAATS members of the human factors team will have input into it. We had a rough start with that due to communications disconnects mainly on my part, but we are working on the framework by which the human factors team members will contribute to the development. Their OASIS expertise will be critical to addressing the operational aspects of the MOU. 

I will be at Harris corporation next week to observe testing of the software upgrade scheduled for Seattle in June. In addition to this new software overtime money has been provided, and two controllers from MMV will be TDY�d to SEA to work through the increased summertime traffic. Not an ideal situation for reducing the per controller workload through the summer, but it will hopefully work. We will watch this closely. 

Also there is a planned software upgrade for Seattle in September. Between these two upgrades the most critical areas identified in the EOA Report will have been addressed with the possible exception of a portion of the Search And Rescue function which is undergoing further redesign right now. Mixed in with this is continued enhancement of the weather graphics capabilities and improved functionality and performance of the system. 

I intend to have the OASIS on display by remote workstations at least twice this year. The system with the June software upgrade will be available at the Manager-FacRep Conference and GA Summit in June, and with the September software upgrade at the NAATS National Meeting in October. There are still some details to work out, so these are not yet set in concrete, but I am confident they will be resolved for both events. I want to get more exposure for the system, but I�m not sure how much money will be available to get it out there. 

I would like to thank the NAATS members who participated in the OASIS ICAO assessment in Seattle a couple weeks ago. Their input regarding OASIS ICAO functionality will be forwarded to the Human Factors Team for disposition. The NAATS members on the assessment were 

• Guylan Roberts � JNU AFSS

• Tom Forte � MIA AFSS

• Mike Salimbene � ISP AFSS

• Major Miller � SJU AFSS

• Dominic Cunningham � HNL AFSS

As I always seem to say, there are still plenty of issues to work. The Human Factors Team is going to remain very active for a while, and it is our intent that it remain in existence throughout the life cycle of OASIS so that there will be an established forum for addressing system issues. I thank the Human Factors Team and the controllers of Seattle AFSS for their hard work and dedication to reshaping OASIS into a tool that we can be proud of. As long as the Agency continues to support the work we are doing and continues to understand the dedication and seriousness with which we are doing it we have a good future with OASIS. 

Jeff Barnes 

NAATS National OASIS Representative

NAATS EA Regional Director Ron Maisel and I met with Deputy Administrator Monte Belger this past week. We made a presentation to him on the current status of our pay negotiations and concluded with two recommendations.

1. We asked that the FAA change the mindset of its negotiations team and begin treating us as air traffic controllers in these pay negotiations;

2. That we initiate a joint management/NAATS team to identify the true costs and savings of the NAATS comparability proposal.

No commitments were made at the meeting however we expect to get a response within two weeks. A copy of our presentation is available on the NAATS website.

Ron Maisel and I also met with our congressional lobbyist. Now is the time for an all out effort to convince our congressional representatives to pressure the FAA into treating us fairly. This will require a massive congressional letter-writing campaign. By Tuesday we will have the talking points developed and distributed to you but expect the above theme. The timetable of events then indicates that the next 7-10 day period will be critical to our ultimate success. Again, our goal is to get sufficient pressure on Administrator Garvey requiring her to treat us in the same manner as the other air traffic controllers. Please note -- our lobbyist believes we will achieve the desired end result if we just do our part. We're asking that everyone his or her individual congressional representatives. If you need the names and addresses of your representatives they are available on our website.

I want to emphasize that now is the time for action. If you believe that we should be treated as air traffic controllers then please write congress. Posted on our website is a letter from House Member Connie Morella to Jane Garvey. This letter is an example of the type of congressional pressure we must have in order to be successful. Your help is essential and appreciated.

In closing, we've had numerous requests for recognition for those who have made an extra contribution to the NAATS PAC during our drive. I plan to include a listing of contributors and amounts in the Spring Edition of the NAATS Bulletin, which is due out next month. If you are one of these and do not want your name listed please let us know.


Wally Pike

No. 67, May 11, 2001

Thanks to all of you who have written your congressional letters. The response has been very gratifying and we fully expect it to be effective. A special note of recognition is due to our Alaskan Region members and Acting Regional Director Guylan Roberts for exceeding our expectations. If you haven�t contacted your congressional representatives I urge you to do so at the earliest possible time. These letters are the second step in a process that will culminate in our goal being achieved by October. It�s essential that we continue to do our part according to the timetable set out by our congressional lobbyist. 

Again, thanks to all of you who are contributing to our PAC fund. Whether we approve of the system or not, it is the way business is done on Capitol Hill. 

The Spring edition of the NAATS Bulletin is at the printers. We expect it to be mailed sometime next week. If you haven�t received your copy at your mailing address by June 1 please contact Gretna at NAATS Headquarters (email [email protected]). 

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) notified the FAA this week that they are rejecting the tentative agreement between AFSCME and the FAA. Details are scarce but our understanding is that OMB is concerned about pay disparity between similar job classifications. If this were correct then it would only serve to strengthen our comparability proposal. AFSCME has already filed an unfair labor practice over the failure of the FAA Administrator to sign the tentative agreement. We�ll provide more details as we get them. 

The next Board of Directors� meeting will be held June 9-10 in conjunction with the FacRep/manager meeting. If you have any items for the agenda please contact your regional representatives. 

We will also be conducting the next round of arbitration advocacy training in June. Our goal is to make each region self sufficient in addressing their grievances all the way through arbitration hearings. For more details contact your Regional Director. 

A reminder that if you want to serve as a NAATS representative at FAA Headquarters please send us your name and a short resume. Your area of interest (operations, equipment, LMR) would also be helpful. The positions are details not to exceed one year in length. We also have occasional opportunities for those who would like to serve on workgroups/committees. These are not details but they do involve occasional travel. 

Wally Pike

No. 68, May 25, 2001

As a direct result of your letters to congress we have been extremely busy this week with meetings and telephone calls. Particularly well represented were Alaska, New Mexico, Vermont and New Jersey. Please continue to contact your congressional representatives and ask for their support. Our lobbyist has asked that you forward any information to NAATS HQ documenting SAR resulting in flight assists or saves. We remain on schedule to obtain our goals; if you have any questions please feel free to contact your Regional Director or me. Again, thanks for all your work and we'll keep you advised of our progress.

Last week all of our FacReps, Regional Directors, AFSS managers and some Regional Office personnel were in STL for the General Aviation Summit. The following is a brief note from NAATS GA Summit Representative Ward Simpson:

The largest gathering of Flight Service FacReps and Managers, in probably the last 25 years, took place in STL from June 4th through June 8th. The event kicked off with the General Aviation Summit starting around 1pm on Monday June 4th and ending Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday morning the FacReps and Union had the main conference room while Management visited STL AFSS, in the afternoon, the union visited the facility while managers used the conference room. Thursday there was an open question and answer period with Friday being a "brief out" to Jeff Griffith, service director for FAA's Air Traffic Procedures Branch.

Some of the topics briefed and discussed during the week included, recommendations from the VNR workgroup, Customer Service workgroup recommendations, status of the 7110.10 rewrite, Remote Airport Advisory Service (RAA), the possible procurement of the ACE - IDS display for all AFSSs, as well as SUA-ISE looking to be a reality to name just a few. Please do not hesitate to talk with your FacRep, or his or her designee who attended the meeting to get more details. Also, look for more details in the upcoming NAATS news additions. 

We received notification yesterday that we won the CPP arbitration conducted last January. Copies have been sent to all the Regional Directors and Coordinators and I've asked Webmaster John Dibble to post it on our webpage. This makes us two for two on arbitrations concerning that MOU. The FAA will now be required to negotiate with NAATS over the distribution of bargaining unit employees to the regions, regardless of whether they're transfers or newly hired. This was certainly our intent when we negotiated the CPP MOU and it's unfortunate we had to go to arbitration to force the FAA to live up to its part of the agreement.

Speaking of the need to enforce our contract�the first part of this week we held our second arbitration advocacy training class. By all accounts it went well and we're now prepared to conduct our own arbitrations in every region as well as nationally. The BOD has approved continuing classes in arbitration training so that our advocates are continually trained. The next one will be sometime in the September/October timeframe.

I met this week with Steve Brown the Associate Administrator for Air Traffic Services, ATS-1. We discussed the staffing shortage and our training requirements at the Aeronautical Center for CY02. We agreed that the classes identified (7 classes with 14 students each) would not keep up with attrition and that night classes would be necessary. He will talk with Bill Peacock, AAT-1, and I'll follow-up. We also discussed the impasse on our pay negotiations; he is well aware of our comparability position. Again, he said he would talk with AAT-1 and the management team Chief Negotiator.

The BOD meeting was held June 9-10. A summary of the meeting will be published in the Summer Bulletin but I do want to tell you of one of the BOD decisions. Darrell Mounts, DEN FacRep, made a suggestion through ANM Regional Director Don McLennan. The suggestion resulted in a motion, the wording of which is reproduced below:

"I move that NAATS adopt immediately, a new budget line item, of a policy to reimburse all elected Facility Representatives, or Alternate Facility Representatives (subject to Regional Director approval) for their full room rate who attend the annual, national meeting. The motion concerns only those individuals who actually are the elected Facility Representatives, or Alternate Facility Representatives (subject to Regional Director approval) and staying at the hotel NAATS contracted for, at the hotel contract rate. If, however, an elected Facility Representatives, or Alternate Facility Representatives (subject to Regional Director approval) chooses to stay elsewhere, they will be reimbursed up to a maximum of one/half of whatever the NAATS hotel contracted rate is or their actual room rate, whichever is lower. In no event will there be a reimbursement for Facility Representatives, or Alternate Facility Representatives (subject to Regional Director approval) who are staying at the city location of the meeting but who are not attending the national meeting throughout the days they may voucher for."

The BOD passed this motion. The intent is to reward, in some small way, the efforts of our FacReps. Any questions or comments should be directed to your Regional Director or NAATS Headquarters.

Wally Pike

Attached is the MOA regarding presidential FDC NOTAMS with a rationale from NAATS Chief Negotiator Bill Dolan.

MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT
BETWEEN THE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AIR TRAFFIC SPECIALISTS
AND THE
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

NAATS rationale and comments in bold!!!

This agreement is made and entered into by the National Association of Air Traffic Specialists (NAATS or the Union) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA or the Agency) collectively referred to as "the Parties". The purpose of this agreement is to address issues regarding GENOT number 1/21, Presidential FDC NOTAMS. The Agency agrees to place a copy of this MOA in the Read and Initial (R&I) Binder at all facilities where NAATS bargaining unit members are employed immediately upon receipt. Note: All facilities should have received this MOU by 6/13/01.

Section 1. The procedures contained in this GENOT are being implemented to address inadequacies in the Agency's NOTAM dissemination system. The intent of this GENOT is to insure that this information is provided to facilities and individuals in need of it in the performance of their duties. Self explanatory.

Section 2. Events leading to the recognition of the system's deficiencies shall not result in any formal disciplinary measure or adverse action against any Bargaining Unit Employee (BUE). No formal action may be taken against any BUE that did not issue presidential TFR information prior to the issuance of Genot 1/21 and this MOU. Formal disciplinary actions are anything more than an oral or written admonishment. Informal disciplinary actions are local in nature and are not a part of your official personnel record

Section 3. Issuance of Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) Presidential FDC NOTAMS shall generate a M1FC "B" flag. Self explanatory. 

Section 4. If no supervisory personnel are on duty and a Controller-in-Charge (CIC) is assigned to these duties, emergency situations and/or in-flight services as defined in FAA Order 7110.10 shall take precedence over compliance with the supervisory duties contained in the GENOT. Self explanatory.

Section 5. The Agency shall insure that any BUE assigned CIC duties receives a thorough personal briefing from a management official detailing their responsibilities in regard to the GENOT and this Agreement. This is a very high profile issue receiving Secret Service and Secretary of Transportation attention. If you are a CIC make sure you thoroughly understand your responsibilities.

Section 6. Presidential FDC NOTAMS shall be posted on all operational positions. They shall be clearly written or typed and annotated with the date, time, and posting supervisors initials. Self explanatory.

Section 7. It is the Parties understanding that most presidential movement is scheduled in advance. The Agency shall make every reasonable effort to transmit these NOTAMS to the AFSSs between 11 am and 8 pm. eastern standard/daylight time. It is understood that there may be occasions where the unscheduled presidential movement does not allow these requirements to be met. This was intended to insure that the majority of this activity happened during hours in which a supervisor is normally on duty.

Section 8. The parties agree that this is intended to be a short term, temporary fix for this specific issue. The Agency agrees to pursue a permanent solution to correct the deficiencies in the National NOTAM System as an extremely high priority. The Parties agree to work collaboratively to determine what this solution will be. The Agency knows this system has problems. They have known for years. Now it's time for us to turn up the heat and get it corrected. No more band-aids, we need a new system that works. 

Section 9. This Agreement does not constitute a waiver of any right guaranteed by law, rule, regulation, or collective bargaining agreement on behalf of either party. The Parties at the appropriate level shall address issues not specifically covered by this agreement.

Section 10. This agreement shall remain in effect unless re-negotiated or cancelled by mutual agreement of the parties. 

For The Agency	For the Union
Original Signed	Original Signed
Jeff Griffith, ATP-1	Bill Dolan, Chief Negotiator
___________________________________	___________________________________

 
 

__________6/12/01______________
Date

No. 71, June 22, 2001

Our lobbyist is continuing her talks with Chairman Don Young and we're hopeful of a breakthrough soon. She's also pressing his staffers in Anchorage to schedule our meeting in Alaska. We've also sent a similar invitation to Ted Stevens. You're certainly doing your part in the field and we're very grateful for all of your efforts. I hope to have more details next week. In the meantime we're staying fairly busy talking with the various congressional offices and gathering support for our issues.

NAATS Chief Negotiator Bill Dolan, ATX Liaison Kate Breen and I met with AT-2 Jeff Griffith yesterday. Purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Aeronautical Center training schedule for FY02. The classes scheduled so far can only train 98 students during that time. Attrition estimates vary but we're concerned that we may not be able to maintain the current FSS controller workforce (2,206 bargaining unit employees) without scheduling night classes. This is further exacerbated by the fact that we're already critically staffed at our facilities. Of course our staffing number is part of the pay negotiations but we can't afford to get any further behind the hiring power curve. We'll continue to keep you briefed on these talks and any developments.

AT-1 Bill Peacock and I completed our video Monday. It should be out to the field shortly.

I plan to meet with the members in MIA on July 18. The other invitations I have are DEN, SEA and the Alaska stations. I'll coordinate those meetings with the appropriate Regional Directors as workload allows.

Wally Pike

 

An OASIS update from NAATS National Representative Jeff Barnes follows:

07/12/01 - Activities in the OASIS program have been a bit slower for the last couple weeks due to vacations (including a short one for me). The Human Factors Team continues to work with Harris via telcon to identify solutions to problems. 

A training meeting was held recently to discuss how to conduct the training to best effect once OASIS goes into full deployment. There is a significant change in the training philosophy which should benefit us greatly by making training work much more smoothly in the field. There is still a lot of development to be done on this. I will let Bill Dolan and Donna Holmes brief you on this as the details are worked out. 

Next week I will be traveling with representatives from headquarters to AND AFSS to brief them on what lies ahead for them. We will also answer any questions that come up there, so I invite you AND specialists to ask any questions you might have about the program and what is in your future. In August we will be getting our first look at the next software upgrade for SEA and we will be testing it at the Tech Center in the latter part of September. I will also be working to ensure we have remote workstations at the National Meeting in Las Vegas in October so that anyone interested can see what OASIS can do right now. Those of you who saw it in St. Louis will be able to see changes made by the new software package which will be running at that time.

Jeff Barnes

 

The following is from NAATS ATP Liaison Donna Holmes and Chief Negotiator Bill Dolan:

Bill Dolan and I met with ATP-1 and ATP-300 on several issues.

1. TFR NOTAMs- There has been a lot of discussion on local times in the TFR NOTAMs. They will be updating the procedure to include UTC times in addition to local times in the TFR NOTAM.
   Several facilities thought the paper posing of TFR NOTAMs was overkill. The TFR MOU will be amended this week to include that the TFR NOTAMs shall be posted in the SIA and parties at the local level will determine if any additional postings are necessary.

2. NOTAM workgroup and recommendations- ATP is compiling a list of recommendations and possible action items from the last NOTAM meeting that NAATS was not a part of. We have requested a copy of these so NAATS can review and comment on all recommendations. I will send these out to our current NAATS NOTAM workgroup participants for comment. Once we review the list ATP and NAATS will determine the need for workgroup participants on specific issues and action plan items. 

3. ASOS augmentation- The facilities that are being considered for augmentation are CLE, ICT, BTV and ABQ. BUF is not being considered due to an unsuitable location. A message is going out to the regions that they shall get together with their NAATS regional directors and first determine if the facilities are suitably sited. Then parties at the local level will have to determine availability of staffing, watch schedule impact etc. ATP has said there is no additional staffing to allocate. After ATP receives this info they will determine if it's feasible for those faculties to augment the ASOS. 

We have also requested a copy of the current training plan and the time line of how it can be accomplished. If all other issues are resolved we may have to implement a short term contract until we have all training completed to do the wx obs augmentation. 
If it is NAATS position not to do the obs augmentation due to staffing we need to consolidate our concerns and advise ATP. 
Any questions??? Give me a call

Donna 

And this from NAATS GA Summit Representative Ward Simpson:

The 71110.10 rewrite draft went to all the Regional 530s Thursday. They will forward it to each AFSS Facility for all employees (journeypersons, sups, staff etc.) to review and comment. It should be at your facility sometime next week, probably Friday at the latest. If you have not received a copy please call Ward Simpson, our GA Summit Rep at NAATS Hdqrs., and let him know of any problems you are experiencing. Additionally, please E-mail ([email protected]) or Fax (301-933-3902) Ward with your suggestions, changes, deletions or additions to the 7110.10.