NATCA Updates

Hi C Area,

I know a lot of info has come out in the past week, especially today.

Read the emails from NATCA National. There are a lot of important links in these emails that will answer a lot of your questions.

If you can’t find them, please reach out with your email address so I have fast access and I will forward whatever you need.

Regardless of what happens tonight, remember we are all in this together. Thank you for your continued dedication to our job and mission to keep the flying public safe.

In Solidarity,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Happy December

Hi C Area,

First - a big ol’ CONGRATS to Robert for certifying on D47/48! Well done to everyone involved in his success!

Some updates for you…

Overtime - the list that is in Webscheduler reflects the preferences for the new leave year. There is no way to set a future date, and so it was updated to get the correct overtime sequence set for the assignments in the new pay periods. I have updated the sups and OM about this and careful attention is being paid to the overtime lists when it is called out. I will keep tabs on this until overtime is reset.

Leave - I will be on leave starting Monday for the week, but I am in town and available if you are in need of anything.

C-Cret Santa - If you are participating, please get your gift in and under the tree as soon as possible. Thank you!

Spot leave - Entering spot leave requests became available starting last week, so please feel free to put your requests in for the 2025 leave year.

A Big thank you to you all for your kindness and encouragement this year, especially with the new Fatigue MOU changes. There has been a lot of effort put into everything done for our area this past year and especially lately with the SGET changes, 3120.4 requirements, SOP and airspace changes, and all the updates. I appreciate everyone who has stepped up to help the area out with their time and knowledge, and I look forward to all the amazing things the C Area will accomplish in the year to come.

I am and will continue to be available to you, and a very Happy Holiday season to you all.

For the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

2025 Spot Leave

Hello C Area,

You may have already seen this in TEAM or posted in the area. Spot Leave for the 2025 Leave Year will be opening on Thursday December, 12th at 1 AM. Any leave requests stamped by Web Schedule before that date and time will be removed.

Devin

What's up with the Slots?

Hey C Area,

Some of you noticed that we ended bidding with 30 SLOTS “Remaining”. I assure you that we did bid all our accrued HOURS of leave. The discrepancy is because we have so many 4/10 lines. 2 of our 4/10s earn 5 weeks of leave (25 slots) but bid those week in 20 slots, Similarly the other 4/10s bid their 4 weeks with 4 slots less than an 5/8 schedule. So you have 2 people leaving 10 slots and 5 people leaving 20 slots, presto, you have 30 slots left unbid. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

Devin

Round 5

Hey there,

Reminders on Round 5 -

You can bid up to 5 days provided you have the leave amount for it, this includes your accumulated leave. Your leave balance should reflect if you have enough to select 5 days this round in BidATC. If there is a discrepancy with this, please reach out.

There are 48 slots left after bidding the past 4 rounds from the original 790.

Devin will be conducting Round 5 after tomorrow and will be following up with you on your overtime preferences.

AWS - please get your sheets into my headset box if you have a request. I was hoping to address them before I left, but Stan is gone the rest of this week so we will look them over when I get back.

Have a great Thanksgiving! Thank you for all you do.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Overtime

Because you didn’t think you’d hear from me again this week….

The overtime briefings have started - please attend one.

I will be contacting you in order of seniority to get 2 things - your yes/no status and your available/limited status.

There is a copy of what weekends are protected on what lines in the green folder in the area. This is not the master sheet, nor is it where you sign up for these things. It will be filled out for area awareness, please don’t fill it out.

The email to change your status after you select it initially - AJT-ZSE-CScheduling@faa.gov

I will have this available if you need it in the future.

Trainees - Your weeks are already kind of pre-determined since there are 1 of you per crew. There will be a trainee line sheet in the area for your reference as well.

I will be happy to go over any questions with you to get all of this accomplished. Please be patient with me, I will not skip you but please get back to me timely so we can get through everyone.

You guys are awesome, thank you for your help getting through bidding!

Happy week to you,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

I forgot.........

Reminder for round 4!

You can bid 6 days. If you want to bid 6, you must “add week” before you submit your bid so you can select that last day.

Happy Bidding!

Crumbley

Round 4 and OT

Hi C Area,

We finished round 3 today and I have given Stan all the leave that we requested. I will start round 4 tonight that will include the 8 hour earners only. Trainees - you folks will not bid round 4 but you will have an opportunity to bid round 5 with any accumulated leave you may have, up to 5 days.

Overtime - You all should have received the email from Drew. If you did not receive Drews email or can’t find it, please let me know so I can send you a copy of the new OT MOU. Briefings will being 11/25 (Monday) and I highly encourage you to go to one. I will give you all an opportunity to get briefed on this and ask any questions to me or during the briefing before I start contacting people in order of seniority. I will need to know if you want to be on the “yes” (volunteer) list or the “no” (non-volunteer) list. The other thing I will need to know is if you want to be in “limited” status (where every 3rd week you will not be contacted for overtime) or the “available” list where you will be open to overtime any weekend. I am hoping to have a copy of what the facility tracking outline will look like by tomorrow (Monday) morning and have it in the area for you to review. You will need to select a line that will rotate through every 3 weeks for the year and will not change, regardless of when you are assigned overtime or if you change between “available” and “limited” status. Again - please try to attend a briefing this week or reach out with questions. I would be happy to go over it with you.

AWS Request Sheets - So, I put a stack of them in the green folder and they are all gone, so I put another stack in there today. Please have these done by Thursday 11/28 and in my headset box.

C-Cret Santa - They will be collected Wednesday afternoon and distributed in headset boxes on Thursday. This is a fun way to get to know your coworkers and spread a little bit of kindness and cheer to the area! Please consider playing :)

I will be available all week until I leave Friday, and then Devin will be here for you until I return 12/6. Thank you for all you do, and I hope you have an excellent week and a blessed Thanksgiving.

For you all in the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

AWS/Dream Sheets

Hi C Area,

I got AWS sheets out to the area, they’re in the green folder with our schedule at the desk.

If you would like to fill one out, please do so and have it in my headset box by Thanksgiving. If you’re out of town and have a request, please email or text me and I’ll fill one out for you. Remember - we still need to abide by the new Fatigue MOU and have 10 hours between shifts. Please do this math so you’re not requesting something that will have to be denied right off the bat.

I’m sorry for the haste, I should have had them out earlier and it just feels like I’ve been running amuck. So, please accept my apology for being slow to get these out.

Thank you for all you do, and I’m always available if you have any questions about any of this.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Round 3

Hi C Area,

I’m about to hit start on round 3. This is the “shotgun” round where you can bid any 5 days.

The website seems to be having some issue getting notifications out to people when they’re up to bid. To keep it moving, you can anticipate that you will be hearing from me when you’re up. Please try to keep an eye on where the bid is at so you know when you’re going to be up and can look over what days you want to take.

I will be out of the country 11/29-12/6. Devin will be available in my absence for any bidding or general questions that can’t wait for my return (which I’m pretty sure they all can’t wait, so please reach out to him any time). His number is 619-818-5335.

Hope everyone stayed safe and did not incur that much damage from the wind last night!

C-Cret Santa deadline is 11/27 - if you don’t know what to say on the little survey (which is just to help folks have a good idea of your interests and stuff if they don’t know you well), feel free to just put your name down and I’m sure Santa will figure it out (yes, Devin, we all know Santa isn’t real, this is just a fun game).

Thanks for all you do, and please reach out if you need anything, any time (except 11/29-12/6).

Have a great rest of your week! And give JT a little grace as he turns 50 tomorrow. You don’t look a day over 49, dude!

Always for the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Updates

Hi C Area,

We’re moving through bidding well, thank you for that!

Reviewing what pay period comes out next, we will need to look into blocking off January 12-25 so we can get the transitional pay period published with this upcoming one. The new rest requirements make it difficult to just work on one pay period without incorporating it into the next. If this time is important to you, please bid it the next available opportunity you have. The schedule will start getting built a week from today (Nov 24th) so if we can finish round 2 and 3 by then, everyone will have had an opportunity to bid those days. Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

C-Cret Santa! I’m putting C-Cret Santa Surveys in the area. This is voluntary but a lot of fun! Please consider participating, filling out a survey and putting it in the “Completed Surveys” envelope. They will be collected Wednesday 11/27 and distributed to headset boxes in sealed envelopes on 11/28. Please have your gift under the tree by 12/15. Remember - Be nice! and Have fun! There is no official limit, but something around the $25-$30 mark is a reasonable amount to share some holiday spirit with your co-workers.

Remember - Open season is now until December 9th. Make sure to review your plan info on benefeds.gov.

Have a good rest of your week and please reach out with any questions, comments or concerns.

For the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Round 2!

Hi C Area,

Thank you for your patience. I have been waiting to meet with Stan to go over reallocation since Sunday, but we got it done today and I am about to hit START.

There are some added slots on Saturdays in the summer, around mid-winter and spring breaks, and Thanksgiving and Christmas. As promised, slots reduced during IST and area refresher/OCP. The only other area we saw reduction was at the end of September.

Round 2 consists of 1 week, bidding around RDOs. Make sure you select each day so your initials are showing in each day you bid.

I am available if you are in need of anything, otherwise happy bidding!

For the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Great job!

C Area - you guys rock! We got through bidding days off and Round 1 leave in less than 30 hours, being the first area to get that all done!

I’m sorry I didn’t get this out before we started, things got busy, but I did get feedback that folks wanted to start bidding leave at the same time as RDOs so we went for it.

We will work on getting Trainee lines set up so you folks can start bidding soon, and I will meet with Stan tomorrow (Sunday) to talk about leave slots. I will let you know when we start Round 2.

Reminders -

• Round 2 will be 1 week of leave, can be bid around your RDOs.

• Select every day you want to take off for your week. Verify those dates are correct before hitting “Submit Bid”. It will list each individual day, and if there is only 1 day in your cart, then that’s what you bid.

• I will put “Dream sheets” in the area soon. We will review them all, but please remember that we need to preserve the new fatigue hours and there are still a lot of things that may come up in the future. We will do what we can with the guidelines we have. I will do like last year and contact you individually after we are done with them.

• I have not heard when the OT MOU will be completed, but we will be updated as soon as it is, of this I have no doubt.

Once again, great job and please reach out with any additional questions.

Crumbley

360-635-8244

REMINDER!

Hi C Area,

Open season begins 11/11 and goes until 12/9.

FSAFEDS - If you would like to sign up for this, it’s a great opportunity to have some money available for medical expenses. Check out the website if you would like information on this option.

BENEFEDS - This is the website to visit to review available health plans and sign up or change them.

One thing to review - some health plans offer incentives or reduced prices for things like gym memberships. An example - BCBS offers a Wellness Program, where you complete their “challenges” and they send you a debit card (that they will reload in the future) with money you can spend on medical expenses.

I will let you know when we begin bidding, hoping by the end of the week.

Question - We will begin RDO selection as soon as we can, leave can be started right away or after we get RDO’s going. Any thoughts on this…? Please let me know if you’d like to do them concurrently, start bidding leave once RDOs are progressing, or if you’d like to wait until RDO selection is completed.

Overtime - We are still waiting on the overtime MOU to be completed locally. In short, you will select, in order of seniority, what rotation you would like for the 3rd week to be protected from being eligible to work overtime. I wish we would be able to start this selection process once you pick out RDOs, but until the MOU is finished, we can’t. There are examples in the area of what that would look like. I’ll keep you posted when we know more.

Thank you for all you do! I appreciate you

Crumbley

360-635-8244

2 more things...

1 - A big ol’ congrats to Logan for finishing up his D side training with a certification on D07/11! Well done to all who helped in his success!

2 - The area is in need of a Training Rep, please let me know if you would be interested in this or would like more information about what it would entail.

Thank you!

Crumbley

360-635-8244

November

Hi C Area,

First - a big ol’ congrats to Miguel for completing his D side training in the C Area, as he got certified on D8/18/9, and to Christopher for certifying on D47/48! Well done to you both and to everyone involved in their success!

In conjunction with Miguel’s certification, there is an opportunity for an Article 5 from 1/21-3/20. This will be for 1 R side. Please let me or your sup know by 11/15 if you are interested in this.

Bidding briefings are happening this week - please take the opportunity to attend one of them, and I am available if you have any questions on anything.

Thank you for all you do, I appreciate you

Crumbley

360-635-8244

October Updates

C Area -

There has been a lot of info floating around lately and although I haven’t had a lot to catch you up on, I thought I’d review a few things for ya.

First - a big ol CONGRATS to Logan for certifying on D07/11, and Alex Fontaine for certifying on D47/48!! Well done to everyone involved in their success!

Bidding - The schedule that is in the area is the one that management and NATCA have agreed to. This was decided based on input from the floor from the surveys I sent out a while ago. After reviewing all the options based on the new Fatigue MOU, this was the most simple way to ensure even coverage throughout our shifts. Also, we are bidding 35 CPCs, 7 R-Side trainees, 2 D-Side trainees.

Overtime - the new Overtime Tracking MOU is out, Amy sent it a while ago. I attended a briefing to go over how Overtime will be tracked next year, which basically has a guideline for tracking that allows for controllers to be in an “available” or “limited” status, on top of the “Yes” and “No” lists. You can expect to be briefed on this when MOU briefings begin. I am more than happy to review this further with you in person if you have more questions.

If you would like to review any of the new MOUs regarding Fatigue or Overtime, I’ve included them here for you:

Fatigue MOU Overtime Implementation Guide Joint Guidance Overtime

Contact info - based on recent events, I thought it would be a good idea to pass along some contact numbers that you can use.

• CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) - this is a team of your NATCA peers available 24/7 if you need someone to talk to in the wake of a stressful situation. This is confidential and isn’t just for work situations. Please use this service! The phone number is 202-505-2476. I encourage you to save this number in your phone.

• AMAS (Aviation Medicine Advisory Service) - This team is an aeromedical service provider for NATCA, who is available to guide you through medical situations, help you deal with the flight surgeon, and give aeromedical advice. If you have a question on a prescription, call them and ask about it - they are here to help and are MUCH faster at getting back to us than the flight surgeon. Remember - if you are prescribed a medication, you are required to call it in. AMAS phone number is 720-857-6117. Their hours are M-F 0830 - 1600 (MDT). The flight surgeon phone number is 206-231-4002 and you can call them directly to report a prescription. Again, I encourage you to save these phone numbers if you haven’t already.

NUW is moving forward with airspace to the west of DIABLO, called MAZAMA. As of now, it is a little box that extends out to the west from DIABLO a little ways and goes up to FL250. We still need to develop procedures for it, but they are super excited about this since we took away the corner of DIABLO FL230 and below. Once we have more info, I will share it with you.

SAVE THESE DATES - We had the yearly training scheduling meeting last week. If the following dates are important for you to bid, do it the first round.

• IST - 5/4-5/17

• Area Refresher/OCP Training - 10/19-11/1

• IST - 11/30-12/13

Other dates of potential interest….

• OJTI Refresher - 2/2-2/8

• CIC Refresher - 3/16-3/21

• New CIC Class - 2/22

• ZSE Hosting a TRB Class - 8/26-8/28

• New OJTI Class - 10/2-10/4

*If you are interested in attending any of the upcoming classes, please let me know.

OCP Training - (Operational Contingency Plan) Training is a new requirement of the 3120.4S. It is required that we attend classroom and simulation training (no less than 1 hour of simulation training). Our area will have 1 week of Area Refresher training, then 1 week of OCP training. Every area in the building will be doing the same in their time frames throughout the year. I tell you this so you know it’s coming and what it means. As it gets closer to next summer, we will be needing a volunteer to help facilitate these trainings.

BidATC - Please go online to bid.natca.org and sign in, verify your contact information is correct and review the functionality of the website. If you have any questions about this, please let me know.

Thank you for all you do. As always, I am here for you any time, and am happy to answer any questions you may have on the above or any other topics.

For all in the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Input

Hi C Area,

Here’s hoping this finds you well. I have been in the Dysim the past month or so working with our new trainees, Scotty & Robert. They are progressing well and will be done around 10/12. I am still available via phone, email, or visit to the training department!

The schedule in the area is the best draft we have come up with so far that offers the most consistent coverage and keeps things basic with our new criteria laid out by the Fatigue MOU. The Facility MOU negotiations are going well from what I’m hearing, and the hope is they will be done soon so we can brief the workforce and start bidding! My favorite season…..

There has been a request from the training department for ideas and things you would like to see for Dysim scenarios for the C Area. If you have a specific situation you would like built for training, available for SDT or anything, please let me know ASAP (maybe by this Friday, 10/20). We have some time coming up where our SGET volunteers will be getting time to work on our area scenarios.

Friendly reminder - as we get into winter guides, please double check your schedule as there might be more shift balancing instead of overtime assignments. Carly has put a graph of who has been shift balanced in the back of the area if you are wondering how your shift changes compare with the rest of the area.

VOTE - please get your ballots in! This is your voice, use it!

We have guides agreed upon for the area. (Will be day of the week day/swing guide number)

Jan 12-Mar 08

Sunday 8/8

M-F 10/9

Saturday 8/8

Mar 09-Jun 01

Sunday 9/9

M-F 10/9

Saturday 10/8

Jun 02-Oct 04

Sunday 10/9

M-F 11/9

Saturday 10/8

Oct 05-Nov 15

Sunday 9/9

M-F 10/9

Saturday 10/8

Nov 16-Jan 10

Sunday 9/8

M-F 10/9

Saturday 9/8

More shift guidance will come out once we have facility MOUs.

Thank you for all you do! Have a good rest of the week, C Area Folks

C-Ya,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Happy Labor Day C Area!

In appreciation for all you do, especially on Labor Day, ZSE NATCA will be providing you lunch (sandwiches & chips) on the day and the swing shift. Thank you for being here!

This is a friendly reminder to VOTE in this run-off election. If you would prefer to mail it from the facility, there is a mail bin in the cut out near the stairs to the cafeteria you may drop off your outgoing mail in. Please make your voice heard, and know the FAA is watching to see how many of us are participating in this election. We need to keep our NATCA voices and presence strong! Please get your ballot in ASAP, if you have any questions or concerns about this, please let me know.

Thank you again for all you do! Happy Labor Day!

For the love of the C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244

Thank you!

Awesome job, C Area! There were 32 responses to that survey (though there are not 32 answers to every question…) - thank you for taking the time to complete it!

Here are the results of it….

*I would like straight swings

• Yes - 3

• No - 15

• If it alternated with straight days - 2

• If it alternated with straight mids - 2

• I would rather 4 swings and 1 day - 9

* I would be willing to work a double mid

• Yes - 13

• No - 18

*I would like to work as close to a rattler schedule as possible

• Yes with mids - 6

• Yes with no mids - 11

• No - 13

*I would be willing to work 10 hour mids

• Yes - 21

• No - 10

*I would like straight mids

• Yes - 3

• No - 23

• If it alternated with straight days - 3

• If it alternated with straight swings - 2

*I would like straight days

• Yes - 16

• No - 13

• If it alternated with straight mids - 2

• If it alternated with straight swings - 0

I think we got an overall good consensus of what the area prefers, so thanks again.

There is a copy of the 4/10 split RDO with mids in the area for you to look at. The other option that has been asked about is the 9-9-8-6-8 and I have made a very rudimentary version of this schedule if you would like to see it.

Pros of the 4/10 line:

• Only 7 people working mids

• Better coverage later in the evening

• More consistent schedules = better rest opportunities (for the 8 hour and 10 hour shifts)

• (Mids) same work week length as working a rattler with a mid

• 10 hours of Sunday/Holiday pay

• Prepares us for when (or if they decide to keep the 6 hour or change our rest parameters in the future) the 6 hour shift is no longer available

• Swing/Mid lines back up the mid lines, reducing shift balancing to the mids

Cons of the 4/10 line:

• Need to use 10 hours of leave to take a day off instead of 8

• 10 hour mids

• If a 4/10 line takes leave, the others will cover those mids, creating a potential for straight mids for that week

• Leaves the schedule short by 1 body during our highest guides (until R side certification)

Pros of the 9-9-8-6-8

• Closest option to what we currently are working

• Potential to earn 9 hours of Sunday/Holiday pay

• Only work a 6 hour shift before a mid

Cons of the 9-9-8-6-8

• Earn 6 hours (instead of 8) of Sunday/Holiday pay

• Need 14 people to cover for the mid

• Coverage for a mid adjusts 3-4 shifts instead of 1

• A lot of manual monitoring to ensure 40 hours are met during the 7 day administrative work week; potential for paycheck errors

• Creates a lot of ancillary shifts to ensure coverage when the day shift leaves at 11am, and additional shifts that are 9, 8, 7 & 6 hours in length

• Potential to use more leave than planned if shifts are changed to cover for a mid

I’ve attached a proposed 4/10 line schedule. This is not set in stone and guides and shifts have not been agreed upon yet. If you have any further concerns or think of any pros and cons to any of these proposals, please let me know.

Thank you again for your input and your time! I will let you know when talks begin with management and what we are looking at.

Have a great week!

C,

Crumbley

360-635-8244