(ARLINGTON, Va.) — Over the past two months, the American Waterways Operators (AWO) conducted four online listening sessions to better understand member needs, concerns and priorities. The four sessions were geared toward small, medium and large carriers and affiliate members, respectively.
The organization heard several common themes throughout the listening sessions:
• AWO should continue to prioritize improving the productivity of the industry’s relationship with the U.S. Coast Guard. Whether on harassment, sexual harassment and sexual assault; mariner credentialing delays; vessel inspection policy and scheduling; or other issues, members need AWO to advocate for more efficient and practical approaches from the industry’s most important regulatory agency.
• AWO should be proactive and engage in ongoing dialogue with members and policymakers to anticipate and stay ahead of emerging issues; remain focused on board-approved advocacy priorities; and aim to communicate issues to members when they first arise.
• AWO is hitting the mark with communication, appropriately timing alerts and emails, and providing quality content.
Encouragingly, the four sessions showed a commonality of thinking among members of different sizes, with no significant differences among member categories and small members expressing appreciation for AWO’s efforts to reach out, include and represent their perspective.
Additional comments can be sent to Caitlin Kidd at ckidd@americanwaterways.com.
– American Waterways Operators
