Joe Direnzo CG( Retired), RDC Public Affairs Officer
HIS IS A STORY of how ideas can be realized in the Coast Guard through teamwork and effective communications. It begins with the CG Ideas- @ Work initiative and two industrious Auxiliarists COMO Vin Pica( D1SR) and Clint O’ Connor( D7). Both with an idea on how to modernize an annual CG support mission that requires the inspection of designated private aids to navigation( PATON) and report any discrepancies to the CG, as part of their overall responsibility of keeping our waterways safe and navigable.
CG Ideas @ Work is a“ crowdsourcing” platform that allows Coast Guard service members, civilian employees and Auxiliarists to propose innovative ideas that impact safety and / or performance. Users can post their ideas and vote or comment on others.
One of the recent crowd-sourcing challenges from CG Ideas team asked the Coast Guard workforce, how they could utilize mobile computing in the execution of their missions.
Both Commodore Pica and Clint O’ Connor have been Auxiliary qualified aids to navigation verifiers for many years. Both submi�ed to Ideas- @ Work, individual innovation ideas that recognized that the current manual and paper intensive inspection and reporting process for the PATON support mission could be dramatically improved using cell phones and / or tablets as data collection devices while PATON inspections.
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