VSRA News

Your New VSRA Admin Team

July 14, 2006 The new VSRA Administrative Team is now in place. It is our goal to provide our members great value each day. They are in place to meet your needs. This experienced administrative team is dedicated to that goal. Now, an introduction to the team members. Josephine Anderson is our new Administrative Manager. She brings significant experience and skills to the position gained by over 20 years of administrative positions, all with non-profits in Hampton Roads. Born in Portsmouth and raised in Virginia Beach, she is a native of our area. No stranger to the Navy or the ship repair industry as her father had a full career in the Navy, retiring as a Chief Boatswain. He then had a career as a civil servant rigger. Josephine’s brother is a machinist at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. She enjoys softball, beach volleyball, ocean kayaking, camping and time with her family. Robert Pillers has been with the team for about a year. He has been a stalwart in both keeping our accounting in order and supporting our standing committees. Robert will be moving to a full time accounting position, but will continue to serve VSRA on a part time basis keeping our books and finances in “ship-shape” condition. Born and raised in Iowa, he brings public accounting experience, as well as 25 years of running a family pottery business. He is married to Beverly, who is also an accountant. Daughter Loerhl recently graduated from Randolph-Macon and is off to the Peace Corps. Robert’s main hobby is maintaining a collection of antique Studebakers. Please help us welcome your new VSRA Administrative Team.

Standards of Conduct Seminar - Nauticus on July 12th

June 14, 2006 Join Standards of Conduct Experts in an important, timely symposium. For those involved in government contracts, Department of Defense Regulations (DFARS) require that your company have a strong ethics and standards of conduct program. The experts will conduct a "Train the Trainer" session, followed by an actual Standards of Conduct presentation and panel discussion. Attendees will leave with all the materials on disc, including the presentation. The presenting experts include: Mike Gardner, Esq, Troutman Sanders - specializes in government contract advice and litigation; Chairman, VSRA Contracts Committee. Kevin Cosgrove, Esq, Hunton & Williams - specializes in business and government contracts advise and litigation. Steven Solow, Esq, Hunton & Williams DC Office - former chief of the Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section, now counsels businesses on regulatory obligations and develops compliance programs. Bill Dozier, Esq, Vandeventer, Black - specializes in government contract advice and litigation. Michael Torrech, President, TECNICO The symposium will be held Wednesday, July 12th, at the Nauticus - The National Maritime Center, beginning at 8:00 AM. Please contact Josephine Anderson at janderson@VirginiaShipRepair.org or (757) 233-7034 for reservations or more information. Don miss this important symposium. Cost: VSRA Members $50.00; Non-members $95.00.

Opportunity Inc. Summer Youth Employment Program

June 09, 2006 Opportunity Inc. – the workforce development board for South and Western Hampton Roads is seeking employers willing to participate in our Summer Youth Employment Program. We have high school students between the ages of 16 and 18 who have participated in an in-school year-long program that provided them among many things some workplace readiness training. We want as many of them as possible to work full-time for six weeks beginning June 26th. We’d like employers to assign sufficient projects to the youth to keep them active throughout the work day. This Workforce Investment Act funded program enables Opportunity Inc. to pay the salaries of these students while they work for the employer at no cost to the employer. The employer gets the opportunity to positively impact on the community by helping develop responsible, well trained Hampton Roads young adults to enter the business world. OppInc. will enter into a formal agreement with all participating employers. If you’re interested, please contact Ken Durham at (757) 455-9022 or at kendurham@arboret.com.

ICAM 2006 - July 18-21 in Norfolk

June 01, 2006 The International Conference of Agile Manufacturing ICAM 2006 will be held July 18-21, 2006 at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott. ICAM 2006 is the largest conference on Agile/Lean Manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region. It will include both academic and industry tracks, panel discussions, as well as national and international speakers. The conference is organized by the Lean Institute of Old Dominion University and co-sponsored by the International Society of Agile Manufacturing, Northrop Grumman Newport News, and Virginia's Philpot Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The conference will feature both academic and industry tracks. National and international speakers will present keynote addresses. One of those speakers is Jim Brice, NAVSEA's Task Force Lean Director, who was a features speaker at the VSRA Lean Conference in March. Registration and detailed program information can be found at the conference website: ICAM 2006.

FY2007 National Defense Authorization Bill (S. 2766 / H.R. 5122)

May 26, 2006 While attending the National Ship Repair Conference (May 23-25), attendees representing ship repair companies from all over the country learned of several key provisions in HR 5122 that address significant challenges to Navy ship repair. These provisions are NOT currently included in the Senate's version of the bill (S. 2766). They are: Section 345 – Prioritization of Navy Funding – Fund Maintenance and Operations First. Requires the Navy to fund 100% of operational and maintenance requirements before funds are spent on the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command. In short, before funding “new” Navy missions, critical “core” Navy missions must be fully funded. This will provide an additional $250 million in Navy maintenance funding for FY 2007. Section 1012 and Section 3503 – Repair America – Keep work in the United States. Makes all United States commonwealths and possessions qualify as U.S. homeports for Navy warships, Military Sealift Command ships and Maritime Administration Ready Reserve Fleet vessels. This will put between 100,000 to 120,000 mandays of work back into our American shipyards. That means the work that has been going to ports like Singapore will be coming to our facilities. Section 1017 – Defense Preference Cargo Restrictions – Keep work in the United States. This would prohibit the Secretary of Defense from awarding any contract for the carriage of defense cargo by a vessel unless the contract includes a requirement that the contractor ensure that all repair, overhaul and maintenance work is done in a U.S. shipyard. Section 1014 – Shipbuilding Industrial Base Improvement Program – Modernize Facilities. Establishes a program to provide grants and loan guarantees to U.S. shipbuilders to make capital investment to processes and facilities in order to improve cost effectiveness and quality of ship construction as well as promote international competitiveness. Section 333 – Sea Swap (Policy) Sea Swap is designed to keep a warship on station for 24 to 36 months at time. Then, the Navy sends crews to the ship on six month rotations. This section prohibits further “testing” that keeps warships deployed in foreign waters for years at time. By flying crews to and from ships, routine maintenance is accomplished in overseas facilities as “emergency repairs.” Section 332 – Fleet Response Plan (Policy) The Fleet Response Plan was implemented two years ago for Carrier Strike Groups to improve the surge capability of our 12 aircraft carriers. Concerns have been raised that the Fleet Response Plan has negatively impacted the material condition of the aircraft carriers as well as degraded the quality of routine maintenance. This section puts a hold on the Navy’s plan to expand this program to Expeditionary Combat Groups until a comprehensive study is completed by both the GAO and Navy. Section 331 – Attack Submarine Depot Maintenance (Policy) This section requires a report on the criteria used to send a nuclear attack submarine for short-term CNO schedule maintenance, for example a three month Selected Restrictive Availability, to a facility other than a facility located at the homeport of the submarine. This section prohibits the practice of separating sailors from their families if their homeport facility can execute the maintenance in FY 2007. It is vital to our national security that the ship repair industrial base be preserved and remain vibrant. The House provisions target important areas which support the industry maintaining its critical national security posture. Efforts must be made to encourage the Senate to include these provisions in their version of the FY2007 National Defense Authorization bill (S. 2766).

Summer JINII Date Set

May 23, 2006 The following imformation was received from Fleet Forces Command. Please mark your calendar: The next JINII meeting will be held in the Norfolk area on Monday, 24 July 2006, 0800-1630. The location will be the Carrier Planning Activity at 510 Independence Blvd., Suite 500, Chesapeake, VA 23320. Agenda, read ahead and administrative details will be provided in subsequent emails. I anticipate that coffee, breakfast pastries and a box lunch selection will be provided with a conference fee of about $25. If you plan to attend the meeting, request that you send an email to fred.lutz@navy.mil and add “I will attend JINII” to the subject line. Fred can be reached at (757) 836-3750 should you have any questions. We will post the agenda when it becomes available.

VSRA Explores Collaboration with Norfolk Public Schools

May 18, 2006 On May 11, 2006, Ken Newman of Metro Machine, Buck Hodges of Auxiliary Systems, and Mal Branch and Michelle Carrera, both from VSRA, met with educational leaders of the Norfolk Public School System. These leaders included: Dr. Stephen Jones, Superintendent, and William David, Principal, and Tyrone Goodman, Senior Coordinator of the Norfolk Technical Center. An introduction to the facility was presented by Mr. Davis and a historical analysis of the marine related welding and technical curriculum was reviewed. Mr. Newman and Mr. Branch reviewed the pertinence of ship repair related occupations to both the local economy and as a vehicle for individual self-support. Mr. Hodges explained the diverse array of career opportunities offered in the ship repair industry, and explained that the industry involves a much broader spectrum of occupations overall than just those offered through the Newport News facility. The ship repair representatives sought advisement on how the industry could be more closely affiliated with the school system and what opportunities exist to expand the branding capability of the industry in the schools. Dr. Jones suggested that tours of ship repair facilities offered to faculty, especially curriculum leaders, would be more effective than those for guidance counselors. He and his team offered to bring faculty meetings to a ship repair company location in the future. They also agreed to promote the ship repair presence through career days and offered some opportunity to link SOL standards with ship repair related in-class activities. Finally, Mr. Tyrone Goodman agreed to meet with Michelle Carrera to establish a plan for piloting a Lego competition in ship building at the middle school level. Dr. Jones is also interested in exploring a “static site” ship repair classroom that can be used for training, field activity and special projects with students. He referred to the Boston Schooner project as an example of the type of alternate education platform he would like to see brought to Norfolk. They are also exploring a tracking software tool that would allow educators and industry to track students by courses to target career opportunities and specific learning components to the children who demonstrate aptitude in certain field specific areas. Currently, Mr. Hodges is planning a tour of the Norfolk Technical School facility; anyone interested can reach him at: bhodges@auxsysinc.com

Preliminary Agenda - National Ship Repair Conference

May 17, 2006 This year's conference will be held at the Marriott Crystal City Hotel at Reagan Nat'l Airport, 1999 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Arlington, VA 22202 Preliminary Agenda: Tuesday, May 23rd 4:00 PM Hotel Check In 6:00 - 8:00 Welcome Reception/Registration -- Hosted by the Port of San Diego Ship Repair Association Crystal City Marriott: Monticello Ballroom 8:00 PM dinner - members on their own Wednesday, May 24 (Capitol Hill Day) 8:00-9:00 am Breakfast - industry attendees only Crystal City Marriott: Potomac Ballroom, Salon D 10:00-1:00 Congressional Meetings with Q&A Rayburn House Building #2247 Speakers to include: Rep. Abercrombie 1:00 PM Rep. Drake 1:30 PM 12:00-1:00 Lunch with Speaker Duncan Hunter Rayburn House Building #2247 1:00-3:00 Senate Speakers with Q&A TBD 6:00-8:00 Capitol Hill Reception (with industry, Navy, and Congressional guests attend) -- Hosted by VSRA Bullfeather's Restaurant: 410 First St, SE *Other Members still confirming schedules: Forbes (VA), Crenshaw (FL), Skelton (MO), Taylor (MS) Thursday, May 25 (Navy Day) 8:00-12:00 Navy Speakers with Q&A (breakfast served at 8am) Crystal City Marriott: Potomac Salons D-E Speakers to Include: Mr. Bill Ryzewic 9:00 RADM Mark Hugel 9:30 AM Mr. Alan Weyman 11:30 AM 12:00-1:00 Luncheon Speaker (targeting CNO) with Q&A Crystal City Marriott: Crystal City Pub Conference wrap up immediately following luncheon address. Our goal is to adjourn by 1:30. A conference packet and agenda will be available at the Welcome Reception

Lyon Shipyard wins SCA Award of Excellence in Safety

May 16, 2006 Washington, DC – April 19, 2006 -- The Shipbuilders Council of America presented its annual Safety Awards today during the 2006 Spring Meeting in Seattle, WA. Each year, SCA issues the Award for Excellence in Safety to member shipyards based on their total recordable incidence rate (TRIR). SCA's data is compiled through a quarterly injury and illness survey conducted by the Council and distributed to member shipyards. For the year 2005, awards went to Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., Lockport, LA, Conrad Industries, Inc., Morgan City, LA, Lyon Shipyard Inc., Norfolk, VA, and Signal International, Pascagoula, MS. SCA is the largest and most broadly-based national trade association representing the U.S. shipyard industry. SCA members build, repair and service America's fleet of commercial vessels. SCA members constitute the shipyard industrial base that maintains and repairs Navy combatant ships and other government craft, as well as builds small and midsized vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and other government agencies. The Council represents 43 companies that own and operate over 100 shipyards, with facilities on all three U.S. coasts, the Great Lakes, the inland waterways system and Hawaii. SCA also represents 27 affiliate members that provide goods and services to the shipyard industry.

Jon Jorgenson Honored

May 11, 2006 The Virginia Ship Repair Foundation honored Jon Jorgenson for his many years of service on the former TMTI Board, both as a member and in his final year as Chairman.