From owner-usna-net@usna.org Thu May 1 20:35:50 2008 Received: from navy1.usna.org (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by navy1.usna.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id m421Zoaq015261; Thu, 1 May 2008 20:35:50 -0500 Received: (from root@localhost) by navy1.usna.org (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id m421ZoEr015260; Thu, 1 May 2008 20:35:50 -0500 Received: from Orion (c-24-3-9-150.hsd1.pa.comcast.net [24.3.9.150]) (authenticated bits=0) by navy1.usna.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id m421Znkc015254 for ; Thu, 1 May 2008 20:35:50 -0500 Message-ID: <05c501c8abfc$c5e2e9f0$6701a8c0@Orion> From: "Mike Zets" To: "" Subject: usna-net Safe Harbor Program Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 22:32:31 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138 Sender: owner-usna-net@usna.org Reply-To: "Mike Zets" A special message from your USNA-Net Moderators... ================================================== The toll free number for our Safe Harbor Program had to be disconnected due to our moving from Cleveland, OH to Pittsburgh, PA. It went out of service earlier today and will be out for 5 to 7 days while AT&T moves it to our new location. The program is NOT being discontinued and the toll free number WILL NOT CHANGE so tell your Mids to keep those cards in their wallets. All will be working again in no time. Meanwhile, Sandi and I are both living out of boxes, in a temporary apartment. The movers will deliver all our stuff tomorrow morning and we should be reading/writing email regularly again by Sunday. So if our mail seems slow or unresponsive, give us a day or two to get unpacked before you write asking where we are. Meanwhile, USNA.org's website is still working 100% and is totally unaffected by this move. Our mail server is also UNAFFECTED and our lists should continue without serious interruption. Please remember that messages which contain copies of previous messages require special forwarding by the Moderators so DON'T quote a previous message in your response. Otherwise it will wait in limbo until your Moderators strip off the previous message and forward it along. Also, changes of address and other administrative work will wait until the move is complete and we can find our toothbrushes again. :>) Go Navy - Be Patient! Mike Zets Westlake, OH Moderator - USNA-Net Listservers Lt. Michael Stoker USN '00 Engineering Officer USS Reuben James FFG 57, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii *** USNA-Net List message from: "Mike Zets" ========================================= This Message may not be shared with any non-member! Remember, your Mid is NOT a member of this list. ========================================= Unsubscribe? Send an email to Moderator@usna.org From owner-usna-net@usna.org Sun May 4 18:03:43 2008 Received: from navy1.usna.org (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by navy1.usna.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id m44N3hQd008839; Sun, 4 May 2008 18:03:43 -0500 Received: (from root@localhost) by navy1.usna.org (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id m44N3hUJ008838; Sun, 4 May 2008 18:03:43 -0500 Received: from Orion (c-71-61-96-132.hsd1.pa.comcast.net [71.61.96.132]) (authenticated bits=0) by navy1.usna.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id m44N3gi8008834 for ; Sun, 4 May 2008 18:03:43 -0500 Message-ID: <048901c8ae43$1d17f3d0$6701a8c0@Orion> From: "Mike Zets" To: "" Subject: usna-net USNA.org's Safe Harbor Program - Some Details... Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 20:01:04 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138 Sender: owner-usna-net@usna.org Reply-To: "Mike Zets" A special message from your USNA-Net Moderators... ================================================== It appears that it's again time to explain the USNA.org Safe Harbor Program. Safe Harbor began when one of our members lamented in private message to Sandi that she envied all of the local Annapolis volunteers involved in the "Sponsor Parent" program operated by the Academy but she lived too far from the Academy to ever imagine being in a position to help Mids on a regular basis. It was that germ of an idea back in March 2002 that got us thinking about just how we could help Mids in emergency situations find parents of other Mids who would be ready and willing to provide assistance. Our Board of Advisors decided against publishing volunteer's names, addresses and phone numbers on our website as was originally suggested. This would have been a maintenance nightmare plus it would have exposed our membership to all sorts of undesirable junk mail and contacts. We then considered just allowing members to post a request for assistance to our lists but who reads their email at 0300 in the morning when a Mid in California needs help at midnight local time??? Using email lists for this just isn't immediate enough to be any good!!! After all, you could live next door to the place where assistance is needed on Sunday afternoon but if you don't read your email until you get to work on Monday, what good would that be? What was needed was a way for Mids to contact other parents, across the country, 24/7/365. What was needed was a central clearing house with a database of volunteer parents who would render emergency assistance via a toll free number that was answered 24/7. Safe Harbor was born. USNA.org placed a volunteer registration form on our website which must be submitted with complete information on the volunteer. Name, address, work, home and cell phone numbers, relationship to the Academy plus location information on where they live and how far they are from major highways, airports, other cities. etc. We get an entire dossier on each and every volunteer family. How does it work? A Mid in trouble calls our toll free 800 number. Either Sandi or I answer the phone personally. ("Call Forwarding" keeps us in touch all the time regardless of where we go or what time it is.) We determine the nature of the emergency and get the Mid's name and contact info. We then go to our computer (a laptop goes with us everywhere with this info inside) and we find a parent near the Mid in trouble. We then contact the volunteer family and confirm that they can be of assistance. At times it takes a few calls before we get a good match but once a parent is located who will be of assistance, we provide the volunteer family with the Mid's name and contact info and they contact the Mid directly to obtain specific location information and directions to come to the Mid's assistance. It usually takes LESS THAN 15 MINUTES for the Mid to get a return phone call from a volunteer parent who will come to the Mid's rescue. How do the Mids know our toll free number? There are free wallet cards on our website at www.USNA.org which you (or they) can print out and put in their wallet. The number is right there. Who can call? Any Midshipman or recent Grad who finds themselves away from the Yard and in need of assistance - maybe a place to stay for the night or a ride to a different airport when a flight is canceled or help with any of a number of things that most parents would jump at the chance to do for their own Mid. Do their parents need to be members of Safe Harbor or USNA.org? NO. Any Mid or recent Grad can use the service. Is there ever a charge for the assistance? NO. Mids/Grads are NEVER charged for this service. The toll free number is provided as part of our annual budget at USNA.org and volunteer parents are never permitted to accept money for providing help. It's all 100% volunteer. Does the Academy endorse USNA.org's Safe Harbor Program? In March of 2003, Captain Gregory S. Parker, the then Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen, visited NEONAP (The Northeast Ohio Naval Academy Parents Club) as speaker at our club's Candidates' Dinner. Afterward, Captain Parker met for over two hours with Sandi and me to discuss USNA-Net and all things related. He very specifically stated at that time that the Academy was well aware of USNA.org and it's now 1 year old Safe Harbor program and felt it was a great help to Mids when traveling away from the Academy. The Commandant as well as Captain Parker wished they could formally endorse the program but reluctantly declined because of the huge burden of red tape involved with programs such as this, run by "outside" agencies such as USNA.org. We were unofficially encouraged at the time to continue our efforts on behalf of Mids and recent Grads. Nothing has changed since. Is Safe Harbor safe to use? Only USNA.org members may volunteer. Complete information is recorded and verified on each volunteer family including REAL names, addresses, phone numbers, location info, Mid's full name, Graduating Class, Company and the volunteer's relationship to the Mid. In some cases, recent grads volunteer as well. Our volunteer parents (over 2,100 to date) aren't anonymous email addresses on some mailing list where no info is required to join or verified to become members. They are REAL parents just like YOU! Willing to help, 24/7! Is there a potential for a problem? Certainly, but crossing the street is dangerous these days, too. Sandi or I actually know and speak with each volunteer BEFORE they know who the Mid is or where they are. We certainly aren't going to carelessly put your Mid in harms way. Think about it. You'll agree that the benefits of this program (We've helped hundreds of Mids in the past six years) far outweigh any potential for harm coming to a Mid from another parent. After all, we KNOW who the volunteers are, who their Mid is and where they live!! How do I volunteer to be a Safe Harbor family? It simple. Go to www.USNA.org and click on the Safe Harbor Life Preserver in the upper right of the main page. Scroll down and follow the "Instructions for Volunteers." Fill out the form and when there is a Mid in need in your area, we'll know where to find you. While you're there, print out several wallet cards so your Mid and his companymates will have contact info handy when they find themselves stranded in Denver without a place to sleep due to the snowstorm. And to those who have made a recent point of slamming the program, I quote General Tony McAuliffe who said on December 22, 1944... "Nuts!" Go Navy... Mike Zets Westlake, OH Moderator - USNA-Net Listservers Lt. Michael Stoker USN '00 Engineering Officer USS Reuben James FFG 57, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii *** USNA-Net List message from: "Mike Zets" ========================================= This Message may not be shared with any non-member! Remember, your Mid is NOT a member of this list. ========================================= Unsubscribe? Send an email to Moderator@usna.org From owner-usna-net@usna.org Mon May 5 19:49:23 2008 Received: from navy1.usna.org (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by navy1.usna.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id m460nMim006032; Mon, 5 May 2008 19:49:22 -0500 Received: (from root@localhost) by navy1.usna.org (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id m460nM72006031; Mon, 5 May 2008 19:49:22 -0500 Received: from Orion (c-71-61-96-132.hsd1.pa.comcast.net [71.61.96.132]) (authenticated bits=0) by navy1.usna.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id m460nMCn006027 for ; Mon, 5 May 2008 19:49:22 -0500 Message-ID: <07c101c8af1a$e0bca8d0$6701a8c0@Orion> From: "Mike Zets" To: "" Subject: usna-net Safe Harbor UPDATE... Date: Mon, 5 May 2008 21:45:35 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138 Sender: owner-usna-net@usna.org Reply-To: "Mike Zets" A special message from your USNA-Net Moderators... ================================================== Just in time for Zero Block travel and Intercessionals, our Safe Harbor Toll Free Telephone Number is back in service. To their credit the phone company took one business day to reconnect service at our new Pittsburgh location rather than the 5 to 7 days they predicted. THE TELEPHONE NUMBER REMAINS THE SAME - 1 800 320-5373 (Pin #01) All those wallet cards that you printed for your Mids are STILL VALID and Sandi and I will still be answering that line 24/7. To print a wallet card for YOUR Mid, visit our website at www.USNA.org and click on the Safe Harbor Life Preserver in the upper right of the main page. While your there, printing out those wallet cards, be sure to sign up to be a Safe Harbor volunteer. If you already signed up, PLEASE DON'T SIGN UP AGAIN. You're still in our system. If your information has changed, PLEASE SEND IN A NEW REGISTRATION. And thanks to all of you who have volunteered to help other Mids if they find themselves in trouble in your area. Go Navy. Mike Zets Westlake, OH Moderator - USNA-Net Listservers Lt. Michael Stoker USN '00 Engineering Officer USS Reuben James FFG 57, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii *** USNA-Net List message from: "Mike Zets" ========================================= This Message may not be shared with any non-member! Remember, your Mid is NOT a member of this list. ========================================= Unsubscribe? Send an email to Moderator@usna.org