Weekly Update 10/29

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  I know that you are all probably wondering what the hell is going on with the bid.  Well I share your frustrations with the delay and I wanted to give you an update on that right off the bat.

2019 Bid

We have discovered a conflict in the 2019 Leave MOU.  At the conclusion of round 1 we are supposed to reduce the available leave slots to the maximum amount allowed for our area based off of what everyone earns.  That number is 700 slots.  The scheduling department had a very different number but I think we managed to get that squared away.  So, in round 1, the D area bid 281 of our total allowed 700 slots.  That means we have 419 slots left that we can bid.  The leave calendar with 3 slots per day totals 1,089 slots.  So to reduce down the actual total of leave our area will earn, we need to remove 389 slots to get our total leave available down to 700 total slots.

Here is where the challenge comes in…in round 2, the MOU guarantees that everyone will have an opportunity to bid 5 consecutive days.  Well if we reduce by 389 slots, it becomes almost impossible to guarantee that everyone will have that opportunity.  While it is technically possible for it to happen, it would require a little luck.  If someone bid in an abnormal way, for example, if their RDOs are Mon/Tues and they bid Sat, Sun, Wed, Thurs, Fri they will have wiped out a whole section of days which could prevent someone from being able to bid 5 consecutive days.  This is a gamble that I am not willing to take.  If we take this gamble and then person number 30 in seniority is unable to find 5 consecutive days then what?  A re bid?  Not acceptable to me.

So…until we can come up with a way to rectify this, the bid is on hold UFN.  Alex is going to be meeting with Don Hill today to try to see what we can figure out and I will let you all know as soon as I hear anything.

AWS Requests (Dream Sheets)

Make sure you get these in to me no later than Wednesday 10/31 or, as it is known, All Hallows’ Eve.  Place them either in my mail slot by the lockers or directly into my hands.

Break Policy

Rumor has it that mgmt is looking to institute some type of break policy.  Unfortunately, I think this is the type of behavior we have to look forward to now that the higher levels of mgmt know they have support from an administration that does not support labor unions.  Any instituting of a break policy would be a change in working conditions and hopefully we would be able to come up with some sort of mitigation for it if they try to do that.  Usually when they try this type of thing it is because they are unwilling to actually manage their resources and pay attention to what is going on in the operation.  So just keep in mind that if your 1+10 break pushes someone over 2 hours, that is going to be scrutinized.  As long as we are being reasonable and looking out for each other, they have no reason to pick this fight with us.  As always, please let me know if you catch even a whiff of them actually implementing a break policy.

That’s all I have this week.  Don’t hesitate to contact me directly with any issues or questions.

In Solidarity,

Drew

503.593.8178

AWS Requests ("Dream Lines") Due in 1 Week -- 10/31

All,

Some of you were very diligent and got your AWS requests turned in during the window stated in the MOU.  However, I doubt that all of you were as studious as you should have been with the MOU deadline so I am extending it by one week.  The forms that you submit can be found in the area either on the table or hanging by the bay headers.  If you cannot find one, please ask me when you see me or any NATCA rep and they should be able to help.

You have one week from today to turn them in.  They are due on 10/31.

Please place them in my mail slot by the lockers.  

Also, the developmental bid should be starting tomorrow.  Just putting some final touches on that book.

Drew

Weekly Update 10/22

All,

I have been on leave seeing family for the last week but I have spent some of that time working to try to make our round 2 bid work. Lee Kramer and I have been communicating about this and we are working to try to figure out the best way we can get the most leave slots while still complying with the MOU/Contract. We are making progress but it is still going to be a bit. I really want to stretch our leave availability to the max extent possible. So I apologize for the delay but thank you for being patient and trusting that I am doing everything I can to get us the best deal possible.

Cascade LOA

Garret and I have been working with Cascade on this and we proposed doing a trial period with the ideas that were in the previous email and in slack. For some reason, Cascade is unwilling to even do a trial period with the ideas we proposed. Apparently what we have offered isn’t enough. So those negotiations will be handled another way. More to follow on that as I have it.

Thanks again for your patience with the bid. We will make it happen soon.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Bidding Update (Enter your own bids)

So it looks like my plans of only having the only the designees write in the book is gonna slow us down too much. So feel free to write your own bid, just make sure you ask any questions if you’re not sure how to do it.  

If mistakes are made, we will have to back up and correct them which is very undesirable. Bids will not technically be official until the designee initials for it.  As long as you bid correctly, the designee will initial it. 

As always, hit me up with any questions.  

Drew

Weekly Update 10/15 (Biddin' Time!!!)

All,

Bidding day is finally here!!  I am out of town but accessible if you need me.  Otherwise you will have Angie, Amy, and Trevor to help you with the bidding process.  Remember, they are the only ones that should be writing in the books.  This way we can ensure that it gets done correctly.  Amy is there today for the OJTI class and she is going to do her best to take bids throughout the day.  If it is your turn to bid and you are having trouble finding someone to enter it in to the books, please let me know and I will do my best to help.  I’m in FL right now (🤮) but I will do my best to make myself accessible.

A few notes on the BWS for 2019.  After listening to and living through all of the feedback on last year’s schedule, I was able to make a few changes that I think will make you all happy.  1330NFs, 1530s, and 0630s are gone.  Those are no longer assignable shifts.  All mids except Sunday are 2300 mids as will.  The agency does have the ability to assign a 2230 mid as it was one of their non-negotiable ancillary shifts but that shift is not part of our schedule so if they do assign it, they have to have a reason why.  1100s are also an ancillary that should only be used for coverage when people are on leave.  1000s and 1200s are no longer assignable shifts either.  You can request to work any shift, but mgmt can only assign what is listed in the BWS.

You will see this as you get into the bidding but the AWS have conversion lines attached to them.  This is only there because we cannot force someone to work an AWS.  Those conversion lines will become available to be bid if the AWS lines go unselected and the bottom people in seniority are the only ones left to bid.  I find this extremely unlikely to happen though because many of you have expressed interest in those AWS lines.

Here is the link you will need to access all of the bidding documents:

BID STUFF

The password for most things on the website is “zse”, the password specifically for the bid stuff is 2152.

Let me or any of the designees know if you have any questions.

Drew

Quick Update

All,

Just a few quick things that couldn’t wait until the scheduled Monday update.

New OM

Effective Sunday 10/14 Lee Kramer is our OM. He and I met today and we seem to have a pretty good understanding of what we expect from each other. As always, let me know if you run into any issues with him or the supes as the changeover happens.

Bidding!

We will finally begin bidding this coming Monday (10/15). I would expect that to happen no later than 10am. I apologize for not being able to share the schedule until then, I know that is not ideal. There are a lot of things still in flux and I just ask for your patience and to trust me as we sort the last few things out. Please be accessible and plan to have your bid ready even if it is your day off. We want to get this done ASAP so we can open up the webscheduler to requests ASAP as well.

MOU Briefings

Hopefully by now most of you have attended an MOU briefing. If something comes up at those briefings that you didn’t get a clear answer on please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you may have.

Cascade LOA

We will be working out some details on doing a 30 day trial run of altitude restrictions going into EUG and MFR. This will be for us to be able to see if it is something we can handle long term and if it accomplishes what Cascade needs. More on that to follow as we have it.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 10/8

All,

This update is gonna be a doozy so pour yourself a cup of coffee and set aside some time to read it if you can.

2019 Schedule

The 2019 Schedule is completed! The only reason I haven’t sent it out to you guys yet is that there are still a few things that need resolution before we know for sure which version of it we are using. But the hard work is done. BIG thanks to Angie for all her hard work on it. She built a million different schedules and put up with me saying no to 999,999 of them. She logged a lot of her own personal time on weekends and stuff to helping us out with this. We are lucky to have her. Also big shout to Chico to for being a sounding board on schedule stuff as well. I definitely couldn’t do schedule stuff all on my own and thanks to those two I don’t have to. Anyway, schedule will be out soon. Just waiting to hear back on a few details.

2019 MOUs

The 2019 MOUs are also done! They are up on the website. Click here to view them. That link will be updated as we get the bid going as well so feel free to bookmark it to check back, eventually it will have the google doc up there too. If it asks for a password, the password is “ZSE”. We are trying to get bidding started ASAP. Hopefully within a week or so. Prior to the bid, there will be a round of briefings provided on the MOUs so that we all know how to properly bid. As these briefings are going, please ask as many questions as possible. There are significant changes from last year that will be discussed in the briefings so be prepared for that as well. I am always available to answer your questions as well.

Designees for bid taking will be myself, Amy, Angie, and Trevor. Only those 4 people can enter bids into the bid book. So when you decide what you want, just tell them and they will put it in. The less people we have entering bids, the less likely we are to have mistakes made.

Leave Requests Outside of the Bid

A question was asked to me about requesting leave up to a year out in webscheduler and I wanted to clarify that in case I haven’t been clear in the past. You cannot request leave for next year outside of the 2019 bid until it has been completed. So after the bid is complete you may enter your requests. If you put them in before the bid, they will be deleted.

LMT

Responses to the idea of using the radar for down times at LMT were all negative so we won’t be pursuing that. LMT has asked to put it in our LOA that we switch VFR fighters to them by 20 miles out. I see no issue with this and unless anyone can make a good argument against it, it will be in the next iteration of the letter.

Visual Separation at LMT and OTH

Airspace discovered inconsistencies between the 7110 and our LOAs with LMT and OTH regarding visual separation. These are being cleaned up and soon you will see a more clearly defined process for visual separation at these airports. Expect a briefing when the LOA is finished.

S05 Closure

So this has been a real goat rope. The NOTAMs for the Bandon closure were horribly written and incredibly confusing. It should be corrected now but the general gist of it is that Bandon is only open during these times:

Friday from 2359Z-Sunset

Saturday and Sunday sunrise to sunset.

I filed an ATSAP on the poorly worded NOTAMs and if you had issues with it, I would recommend you do the same.

Cascade LOA

Garret and I were on a TelCon last Friday with Cascade about the LOA. They still want us to create some sort of restriction to make sure aircraft get down for both MFR and EUG. After talking to them and getting more perspective from them, I am starting to open up a little to the idea. I just want to make sure what we are doing isn’t too extreme of an inconvenience for the aircraft but also accomplishes what they need. Garret and I will be working on ideas to make this work with minimal impact on us. One of the ideas floated was to just have MFR and EUG tell us when they are in a north flow and then we can do with that information what we want to. I would imagine more of us would be more likely to assign a normal descent as opposed to a PD descent. Feel free to jump in on slack to discuss this or email me directly if you have ideas or concerns.

HAWKZ ROUTING CHANGES

There has been a great deal of talk in the recent months about finding a more efficient routing for aircraft on the HAWKZ arrival. Like I have said many times before, routing over LMT and LKV was never intended to be permanent. Ultimately, we would like to change the arrival to move the fixes BLYTZ and KINGDM over to the west to help deconflict traffic. However, airspace recently learned that due to the backlog created by the national datacomm rollout, it could be 4 years before we can get any significant changes made to the HAWKZ arrival.  Garret is proposing these routes instead as a mitigation until that can be accomplished.  I agree 100% with this idea. It is understood that by taking aircraft off the LMT/LKV transitions we lose the ability to quickly issue the published holding if necessary.  This is unfortunate but it does not outweigh the overall benefits that these routes could provide to everyone (including the airlines).  If holding does become necessary, pilots should already have the HAWKZ arrival on hand and controllers could easily re-clear to KNGDM or BLYTZ to hold as published if they desired.

We will be proposing these routings instead of LMT/LKV, for the SEA HAWKZ turbo-jets.  These two fixes (KNZIE & KAATH) already exist in the NAS and our high maps.  They provide almost the same routing proposed by the B-Area last month to help deconflict with opposite direction traffic in Sector 46 and near the boundary with the D-Area.  The green dashed lines around the routes represents 5 nautical miles on either side.  The proximity shown to the 13/14 boundary is approximately 4 nautical miles.

CLICK THIS TEXT TO SEE THE PROPOSED ROUTES.

If anyone thinks this is a bad idea, please let me know ASAP. We plan to move forward quickly on our side of this since we never know how long the bureaucratic side of this will take.

One more thing that I would think goes without saying but just in case. Don’t consume any products with hemp or CBD oils. In addition to the existing guidance on the use of hemp foods, the NATCA Drug and Alcohol Committee (DAC) also strongly advises that TDP employees avoid using products containing CBD. Even if CBD or hemp products are sold legally, these products may contain trace amounts of THC due to wide variance in manufacturing processes. The Agency will not consider the use of any of these products as a defense to a positive drug test.

I guess that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! Have a good week everyone!

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 10/1

All,

Hopefully everyone is having a good week.  Lots going on right now.  I would encourage you to come talk to me if you have any questions about anything you think you might have heard or want to know about.  Be careful not to speculate about things or buy into the rumor mill.  Please come talk to me if you have any questions or concerns.  Anyway, here’s the update!

ZLC LOA

We are in the process of putting the finishing touches on some minor changes to the ZLC LOA.  This process was started back in January and is just now seeing some resolution.  ZLC is trying to make the flash through doable for climbers and descenders.  Initially I wanted to just do away with the AIT altogether because automated point outs render it obsolete but they want to keep it for whatever reason and it is hard to make the argument that we should take it away as a tool.  We should also be getting control from ZLC41 on RDM landers.  Not sure when this will take effect but I will share that info when I have it.

Leave Requests prior to posting  

So Angie usually has the schedule done by the Tuesday before posting. Leave requests made between her finishing it and it publishing may fall between the cracks. This is always something that we can fix after the fact but it would help streamline things a bit if you send a quick text/email to me or Angie if you put in a leave request between Tuesday and Sunday on publishing weeks. Again, not huge deal, but it would help us to make sure the right moves are made.

LMT Cancellations

We are currently looking into the possibility of using the radar for cancellations at LMT.  By that I mean we would wait until the aircraft indicates 4100ft and over the runway then we would consider that a cancellation.  I have some ambivalence towards this idea.  In some ways it would make our job easier but I do have safety concerns due to the way LMT handles the traffic at times.

A situation that would concern me is when we coordinate a full stop but only the lead lands and the dash 2 goes missed.  Tower would have to be very quick to let us know about that. This may be an “abnormal” situation but it does happen often enough that it is worth being concerned over.  I am sure there are numerous other wacky things that could happen that would be concerning if this were in place.

Let me know your thoughts on this.  It is already done at SLE and RDM but I see those airports as having a very different traffic flow.

ARINC Frequencies

Last week our ARINC frequencies were updated to get rid of 10057 and 2869.  This caused me to do a little research on how all that is determined and I think I know less now than I did when I started looking into it.  However, it seems like in a perfect world we wouldn’t be assigning frequencies at all.  There is a VHF network that a/c should be checking on to for frequency assignment prior to passing boundary with ZOA Oceanic.  That way when we say “frequency change approved” they already know where to go.  The thing is, we can’t assign that VHF frequency at the boundary because the aircraft might be out of range by then.  So instead, we “assign” the HF frequency.  Anyway, that’s all I know about that.  Maybe someday we can stop having to tell a/c the HF frequencies.  But until then, here are the new ones (also posted on sector 14/15):

0500Z - 1400Z: 5547/6673

1400Z - 1700Z: 5547/11282

1700Z - 0500Z: 11282/5547

ERIDs has one of them listed as 11281 which is wrong.  Still working on getting that corrected.

2019 MOUs

Alex and Derek and I are meeting with mgmt today to discuss these.  I am unclear as to what caused such a long delay on these.  Hopefully we will be able to pass along more information after our meeting tomorrow.

That’s it for now.  I just want to stress again to you guys that I would really appreciate it if you would bring any concerns/complaints/rumors directly to me.  If I don’t know what people are whining about, I can’t fix it.  Or at least try to fix it.

HAWKZ Routing Changes

Click here to see the proposed routing.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 9/24

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week. Does anyone know when the 2019 NFL draft is? 🤠 Anyway, here is the update.

New OM

I have been told that Lee Kramer will be our new OM effective 10/28. I was told that by Lee Kramer so we will have to wait and see if that happens. I will keep you guys posted on that.

New Trainee

We are getting a new trainee fresh from the academy arriving this week. I am going to try to go say hi later this week. His name is Jeremy Papa.  

Metering Issues

We have been seeing some issues where an aircraft will jump from one sector’s list to another or sometimes just drop out entirely. TMU says that the drop on 9/20 should  have fixed that. Please take notes and send me the details when it inevitably happens again. 

Lost Link UAV

We have had a few issues come up where we didn’t have lost link procedures for a UAV that we were either working or had a point out on. There was some confusion as to who should have that info and where it should be.  

Greg Bean ran this whole thing down and discovered that the Mission Desk has been receiving the e-mails from the military for these ops.  For whatever reason, the STMCs have not been consistently checking that inbox and/or understanding the significance of the information. The STMCs have been reminded of the importance of checking for them routinely and forwarding the info to the floor.

If you find yourself working one of these operations, make sure you ask the CiC/FLM for the briefing sheets. As CiC, if you don’t have the info, mission desk should. Please let me know if you run into any issues with this.

That’s it for this week! 

In Solidarity, 

Drew

Weekly Update 9/17

All,

Hopefully everyone is having a good week. We are still waiting to hear back on the MOUs. Hopefully we get them back soon so we can get start bidding. Anyway, here’s the update:

Webscheduler Changes

You have probably seen this before but just as a reminder:

Previously, NATCA and the Agency agreed to migrate WebScheduler from Lotus Notes/Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to MyAccess on Wednesday, August 22, 2018. That migration was delayed due to issues that existed with MyAccess. The Agency has addressed those issues and is now ready to move forward with the migration. NATCA and the Agency have agreed to make the effective date of this migration Wednesday, September 19, 2018 at 7:00 AM EDT.

BUEs will be required to access WebScheduler using https://wmtscheduler.faa.gov or through the MyAccess website, https://my.faa.gov. To sign into WebScheduler, BUEs will use either: (1) PIV Card and PIV Card PIN; or (2) FAA email address (as their username), as well as their MyAccess PIN and the correct answer to one (1) of their established MyAccess Security Questions. All current authorization levels, associated rights, or notifications in WebScheduler will remain the same.

Article 5 SOI

There is a SOI for Kelly and Jessica's R-side lab 11/13-12/21/18. We have had quite a few volunteers already so thanks to everyone for that. You have until tomorrow if you want to throw your name in the hat. Dan Baker will be selecting the person we will use shortly after that.

Under Guides

On the schedule that published yesterday we published under guides on 10/20 (Saturday Swing) to accommodate the OJTI course. I initially asked for overtime for that but they claimed none was available (which is stupid). However, we do routinely go 1 under on that shift for leave or other reasons so we should be able to make it work. That being said, I will not be on that shift so those of you on it please let me know if the shift is run poorly. If you lose even one person, they should call in OT then. If you go over 2 hours or get your breaks shortened please let me know immediately so I can address it with Jason Alliston.

That’s it!

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 9/10

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  Football and PSLs are back so there's something for everyone.  There really isn't much to say right now.  We are still in holding on our MOUs.  I'll share more info there as I have it.  I would like to encourage you to ask as many questions as possible regarding that or anything you don't understand.  I've learned in conversations with a few people around the building that not many people are paying attention to the info being put out about the bidding process and MOUs.  There will be changes this year so make sure you educate yourself on all that as it happens.  I will continue to share all the information I have as I have it.

Airport Status Bayheader

So I have noticed this going missing every now and then and I figured I would check in and see what everyone thinks about it.  It is the green bay header you can put check marks on to indicate metering and CFR at our airports.  It is a trial period and not a requirement to use but I know it drastically decreases the number of strips you have to post.  If you don't like it or have any recommended changes to it, please let me know.

Thats it!

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 9/3 (HATCH ACT - DO NOT OPEN AT WORK, LABOR DAY!, Meter Arcs, PDX Metering, Future Plans for SEA Routes)

All,

I hope everyone is having a fun and safe Labor Day/Labor Day weekend, if you are BBQing, make sure you buy Union!

Here's the Update:

Meter Arcs

The change in the SEA meter arc should be complete by Sept 15th.  This will make the SEA arc one continuous line as opposed to the split one that we have now.  With that update, the PDX meter arc name will change from OCITY to PDX as well.

The PDX arc will eventually be added to our maps but we need to pick out a spot for it.  We currently have all of our buttons in use so we gotta ditch something.  My vote would be the button that shows all of the fixes on the TMBRS arrival.  I don't think anyone uses that.  So when you get a chance, look at the MAPD buttons and tell me which one you would like to change to the PDX meter arc.  Unless I hear otherwise, I'll have them replace the TMBRS Arrival button.

PDX Metering

Last week I said PDX could use runway 7/21 during their next runway closure.  I'm pretty sure no one in the country has 7/21 as a runway configuration.  That's a pretty steep turn.  They have 3/21. As far as I know that closure is still scheduled to start on Sept 10th.  Time will tell if we will still have to meter.

How is everyone doing with the PDX metering mitigations?  Is the B area asking for more than what we have already agreed to?

Future Plans for SEA Routes

There has been some talk for awhile regarding a better routing for SEA arrivals.  Our current routings create unintended consequences like conflicts with PDX climbers and an obscene amount of traffic calls.  When those routings were implemented, they were never meant to be permanent.  Some folks in the airspace office have been working on a possible change to these routings in the future that moves the flow of traffic to the west of LMT and LKV and adds some holding fixes.  I've attached an early mock up of what that might look like.  The mockup shows BLYTZ and KNGDM scooted over from where they actually will be when they publish so don't get too attached to this drawing.  I wouldn't expect this any time soon, but conversations are being had about it.  So if you have thoughts on what a good idea might be, feel free to email me directly or start a slack conversation about it as well.

Trump's Alternative Pay Plan

Here are updates from our Regional Legislative Rep Richard Kennington and from the National Office on the President's most recent antics regarding our pay.

---

Dear Member,

In case you didn't receive this already, I wanted to pass it along because I know that a lot of our membership has been fearing the worst and giving wild interpretations based on what they hear in the news or, even worse, on social media. Here is a summary of how the Presidents plan would actually affect us and the procedure that would have to happen to make it go into effect. 

It is times like this that demonstrate why we develop relationships constantly on Capitol Hill and why it is not sufficient to become "legislatively interested" only when something negative happens. I encourage you to get involved legislatively, even if this simply means donating to the NATCA PAC. This is a good example of how investing a few dollars into educating our Members of Congress can affect your pay and benefits for the rest of your career and retirement. You can't afford not to participate. 

Richard Kennington

Northwest Mountain Legislative Chair

---

Brothers and Sisters, 

Yesterday, the President transmitted an alternative pay plan to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and the President of the United States Senate, in accordance with the discretion provided in the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990. The alternative pay plan includes a zero percent general increase for 2019 and a zero percent locality pay increase. Although some media outlets are referring to this as a "pay freeze," it would only affect the January pay adjustment and would not affect any other contract-related pay increases.

It is important to note that the President's alternative pay plan will take effect only in the absence of congressional action. The Senate already passed the Fiscal Year 2019 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill that includes a 1.9 percent pay increase for federal employees, effective the first full pay period in January. However, the House of Representatives did not provide for a pay increase in its Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill, 2019. Ultimately, the House and Senate will have to reconcile their bills in conference, otherwise deal with this disparity as part of a larger appropriations package, or pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) before appropriations expire at the end of September.

If no appropriations bill or CR is signed into law before Oct. 1, the government will experience an emergency shutdown. If Congress passes a bill that includes a pay increase and it is signed into law, the President's action yesterday will be overridden.

We will continue to keep you updated as this issue progresses.

---

That's it for this week.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 8/27 (Meeting TODAY!, PDX Metering, NO Update)

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  I don't have a lot for you this week, just some updates on some of the irons in the fire.  First and foremost...

MEMBERSHIP MEETING TODAY!!  3PM @ THE RAINBOW CAFE IN AUBURN.

MOU Negotiations

These are ongoing.  We will have some info to discuss at the Local Meeting today at 3pm @ the Rainbow Cafe in Auburn so make sure you are there.

PDX Metering

Just a quick update for those of you who can't figure out how to use slack and haven't seen any of our messages there.  We are still working on trying to get mitigations put in place for PDX metering.  The mitigations that I have personally agreed to are:

During times of metering:
    - All PDX landers over or west (in the case of being vectored) of AARON
    - All PDX landers FL300 and below
    - TTD and HIO do need to be sequenced with each other but not with PDX
    - PDX arrivals below TTD and HIO

It is important that these be implemented for the duration of metering.  I have seen several scenarios where the B area waits until they can't handle it anymore and then asks us to start forcing aircraft down and if we are also metering to both airports, that creates an unsafe situation.  These are mitigations that should come on as soon as metering does.

It was also brought up that aircraft were locking in late or appearing late.  That shouldn't be happening anymore.  TMU says they reset the freeze horizons and didn't push them back out.  Apparently now it is fixed.  I will believe it when I see it.  Let me know if you are having issues with aircraft not locking in at a reasonable spot.  Make sure you make note of the time so I can pull the data.

As for when these mitigations will be implemented, that is anyone's guess.  I am asking anyone who will listen to help me get this done but not much movement is being made on it.  You'll see something in CEDAR when it is official.

The current runway closure ends Sept 7th and then they will close the other parallel on Sept 10th. That should have less of an impact on the rate because PDX can still use 7/21.  I am skeptical of that.  Time will tell.

National Office Update Regarding District Court Decision about Executive Orders Lawsuit

Some of you may have already read this, but just in case you haven't, here is an email sent by National on Friday:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

Late Friday, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a decision, partially granting the union-plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and issuing an injunction preventing the administration from implementing key provisions of the three executive orders (EO) issued on May 25, 2018. The EOs would have: (1) expedited the process for removing employees from federal service; (2) reduced the use of union official time government-wide; and (3) reduced the time it takes to negotiate collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and to reduce the costs contained within them. 

We notified you previously when the EOs were issued, once we analyzed them more fully, and when the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued its guidance for implementing the EOs. In those prior messages, we assured you that "there should be no changes to any of NATCA's agreements with the FAA - local or national - nor any changes in how they are implemented. The same is true for all current practices and procedures between the parties."

Because of the way other unions' CBAs were written and how other agencies were implementing the EOs, those unions could not make similar assurances to their members.  Instead, they sued, and on Friday, the Judge agreed with their arguments, in part, finding some of the provisions of each EO to be invalid because they conflict with the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (title 5 United States Code chapter 71). Specifically the Judge wrote, "this Court has concluded that many of the challenged provisions of the Orders at issue here effectively reduce the scope of the right to bargain collectively as Congress has crafted it, or impair the ability of agency officials to bargain in good faith as Congress has directed, and therefore cannot be sustained."

This decision is only the first step in the judicial review of the EOs, as the administration is likely to appeal the District Court's decision. In the meantime, the administration is prevented from implementing key provisions of the EOs, including the restrictions on official time, union office space, and the expedited processes for conducting opportunities to demonstrate acceptable performance and removing employees.

Regardless of the ultimate judicial resolution of this case, the EOs shall effect no change on NATCA's negotiated agreements, both term CBAs and mid-term agreements, as well as established past practices, whether national, regional, or local. We are confident that FAA and Department of Transportation will honor our CBAs in compliance with the law, our CBAs, and the OPM guidance

If you become aware of any attempt by the agency to implement any part of the EOs, or make any other changes, please immediately contact your FacRep and Regional Vice President.

In Solidarity, 

Paul Rinaldi, NATCA President

Trish Gilbert, NATCA Executive Vice President

Thats all for this week!

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 8/20 (SEA Meter Arc, PDX Metering)

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  I am doing some more split RDOs for MOU negotiations this week so you may see me here at weird times.  Hopefully we will have a better feel for what our BWS will be next year by the end of the week.  More on that as I know it.

Big thanks to everyone who came out last Wednesday for the Solidarity Event at Acme Bowl.  D area was represented well.  Don't forget that one week from today, 8/27, is our business meeting at the Rainbow Cafe in Auburn @ 3pm.  Be there!!  D area fantasy football draft will immediately follow that meeting so feel free to hang out and watch me pick Tony Romo and Dez Bryant in the first and second rounds.

Not much I can update you all on right now, just a quick couple of things.

SEA Meter Arc

Previously we discussed changing the SEA meter arc to where it is one continuous arc as opposed to the broken one between 14/15 that we have now.  This is still in the works but was delayed slightly for unknown reasons.  Hopefully we will have that in the next month or so.

PDX Metering

I'm sure you all have seen the same wacky stuff I have coming out of the B area regarding PDX metering.  Evan and I are in constant discussions to try to come up with a good answer for how to get through to Sept. 7th.  As we come up with something, I will be posting that on the slack so make sure you are monitoring that for all things PDX metering related.  As always, text/call whenever something happens that you don't think should be happening regarding PDX metering, especially if you deem it unsafe.

That's all for now.

Fraternally,

Drew

Area Update 8/13 (Sign In/Out, PDX Metering)

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  I wanna take a quick second to address the incident that happened at SEA last Friday night.  I can't find any other words to describe it other than it sucks and it is really sad.  Another guy who needed some help and never got it.  I also want to say how proud I am of how professional all parties were during this tragedy.

Our own Chris Schenk is the NATCA CISM Rep for us.  CISM stands for Critical Incident Stress Management.  If you are needing someone to help process events like these, Schenk is a great resource.  You can also reach out to EAP.  If neither of those seem like good options to you, please find what works for you, I am here to help in whatever way I can.  Listed below is the contact info for CISM and the EAP.

• CISM Hotline (202-505-2476)
• Website (NATCACISM.com)
• EAP (1-800-234-1327)

I would like to think it goes without saying, but do not talk to the media.  If you are contacted by a member of the media, please pass that to me or one of your EBoard members and we will make sure it goes through the proper channels.  Please also refrain from posting any knowledge you have about the incident on social media.

Ok, now on to the update!

Signing In/Out

Just a quick reminder for the new folks or for those of you who forgot when we are required to sign in and out.  Here is an excerpt from the Cru-X/ART MOU:

Section 4. A bargaining unit employee, who reports for his or her scheduled shift on time, will not be required to sign in to the CRU-X/ART system at the start of their scheduled shift. However, an employee who elects to utilize flex time or approved leave at the start of their shift will make the appropriate sign in entries in the system. The bargaining unit employee shall not be required to sign out unless assigned duties as Controller in Charge. A bargaining unit employee who takes leave during or at the end of the shift must make the appropriate sign out entries in the system.

So if you do anything other than work your exact shift as it is in the webscheduler, you should be the one making that adjustment in the webscheduler.  I'll give a couple of examples:

• You have a 0700 and you show up at 0630 -- You must sign in but not out.
• You have a 0700 and you show up at 0700 -- You do not have to sign in or out.
• You have a 0700, you show up at 0700, but you are taking AL from 1300-1500 -- You do not have to sign yourself in, but you must sign yourself out.

Hopefully this is all pretty simple.  Some facilities elect to designate their shifts as 0630s for this very reason.  Since most people do show up at 0630, this way, most people don't have to sign in. Some supervisors will do the sign outs for you but you are trusting them with a little too much there in my opinion.  You want to make sure you are charged the correct leave and I sure as hell don't trust our supervisors to make sure I was charged the right leave.

If you think that designating our shifts as 0630s vs 0700s and so on is a good idea, please let me know ASAP and I will see what we can do.

PDX Metering

Jesse posted some great questions about this in our slack channel and I am working on getting answers for us.  If you want to join the discussion on PDX metering, feel free to jump on over to the slack and do so.

Upcoming Events

• Solidarity Event THIS WEDNESDAY from 6-9 at Acme Bowl in Tukwila!
• Business Meeting August 27th @ 3pm at Rainbow Cafe in Auburn

That's all I've got for you this week.

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 8/6 (PDX Metering, WX Briefing Tracking, A4s at LMT)

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  Really I do.  There are a few things going on right now to update you on.  First off, I am going to be joining Derek and Alex in the facility level MOU negotiations.  These will take place August 13-15.  No idea if we will be able to complete them all around that time, but those are the initial meetings.  This has caused me to have a pretty screwy schedule with some split RDOs and stuff like that.  So if you see something weird on my schedule, that is why.  Thanks to everyone who worked with me over the last few days to get swaps and stuff done so I could make that happen.  I will do my best to represent you all well in those meetings.

On to the update!

A4s at LMT

Beginning tomorrow and running through Friday, you will probably be seeing those same A4s we have been seeing coming in and out of the Juniper Complex.  Garret and I (along with the airspace office) have emailed with them a little and requested that they be on J5 up to BAARB and then a point into the airspace.  Just be prepared for some nonstandard situations to arise with these guys.  I know we have been working them already, but I just wanted you to know what I know about these guys.  Garret, feel free to jump in on the slack channel if I missed something with this.

WX Briefing Tracking

As I am sure you have been told by now, we are supposed to be initialing the sheet by the sign in computer once we complete our weather briefing for the day.  Management will at some point be rolling out digital tracking for WX briefs.  I would expect that to be something pretty simple and should be in place by the end of the month.

PDX Metering

Here is my post from slack yesterday in case you missed it:

Ok.  So.  There is apparently about to be another runway closure at PDX today (8/6).  We were notified about this on 8/4.  I find it hard to believe that the Port of Portland only planned this 2 days in advance so someone dropped the ball again on planning this out.  No idea who.

That being said, metering to PDX will likely happen again for the next week or so.  I have repeatedly mentioned that we can't meter to an arc we don't depict and we need an Art 114 workgroup to help mitigate this.  Alex has told me he is going to pursue that moving forward.

However, we still have to deal with this for the short term future.  Mgmt should be briefing you soon on how metering to PDX should go.  It should be something like this:

Sector 6 takes 2min, Sector 42 takes 4 minutes, and sector 14/15 handle the rest. The arc runs very close to the boundary so we can use that as the arc.

Please let me know about anything that goes poorly in any way with PDX metering.

That's it for this week.  Don't forget about our upcoming events!

• August 15th at Acme Bowl in Tukwlia @ 6pm
• August 27th at the Rainbow Cafe in Auburn @ 3pm

Fraternally,

Drew

Weekly Update 7/30 (Voting and TOP)

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  Particularly James Morgan.  I hope you are having a really nice week.  I'm enjoying the sun and I hope you are too, James Morgan.

Anyway, not much this week...just a few quick things.

Don't forget the upcoming events.  Last week I typoed the date for the all members meeting, it is actually 8/27, not 8/2.

• 8/15 - Solidarity Event at Acme Bowl. Details in the flyer in the header. 
• 8/27 - All members meeting at the Rainbow Cafe. (3pm)

VOTE VOTE VOTE

I think today is the last day to cast your ballots.  Make sure you do it!

TOP

There are a few rumors going around about mgmt wanting to increase our TOP.  If you hear a manager say something about how TOP needs to be over a specific amount for the day, let me know the specifics.

In case some of you don't follow NATCA on Twitter, I wanted to make sure you all saw this...Pretty Cool Denise!

https://twitter.com/NATCA/status/1023931541683142662

That's it!

In Solidarity,

Drew

Weekly Update 7/23 (VOTE VOTE VOTE)

All, 

I hope everyone is having a good week. I’ve been in Idaho/Montana the last week and in and out of cell coverage so I don’t really have much for you.  Don’t forget about the two upcoming events. 

• 8/15 - Solidarity Event at Acme Bowl. Details in the flyer in the header. 
• 8/2 - All members meeting at the Rainbow Cafe. (3pm)

Vote

Please vote if you haven’t already. I’ve pretty much said all I can about it at this point. Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you may have about the voting process or the candidates themselves.  

MOU Negotiations

Your Eboard has been working tirelessly on these and Alex and Derek will be meeting with facility mgmt soon. I’ll keep you guys in the loop on that. 

Fraternally, 

Drew

Weekly Update 7/16 (Direct BTG, Controlling Sectors, Schedule, Refuelers, FREE FOOD!)

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  I am writing you from Glacier National Park trying not to get eaten by a bear.  First and foremost...VOTE VOTE VOTE.  If you haven't voted in the National Election, please do.  If you are unable to, please let me or any Rep know.  

We have two upcoming events.  The first is the Solidarity even on Wednesday August 15th.  Please see the above flyer for details on that.  Also, we have scheduled our next all members meeting for Monday, August 27th at 3 pm at the Rainbow Cafe in downtown Auburn.  The D area draft will be taking place immediately following the meeting so feel free to hang out for that!

The agenda items for the meeting are as follows:

• Adopt Minutes from previous meeting
• Bid Procedures
• MOU briefings
• Local Finance Policy as it relates to spending money on alcohol (currently out policy prohibits spending money on alcohol, is this a policy we want to continue?)
• Article 46 Trainee Line Movement
• Solidarity Event/Holiday Party?

If you have any items you would like added to the agenda, please let me or any officer know.

Alright, on to the business.

Direct BTG

It was brought to my attention that in last week’s email I did a poor job of wording what I was trying to say about direct BTG.  I also put a little too much emphasis on the whole thing.  It’s really not that big of a deal.  The only thing I was trying to discourage is creating a situation where you shortcut an aircraft and cause the aircraft to have a longer delay.  If you need to change routes of aircraft to streamline the flow of your sector then you do you.

Also, Bill brought up a good point that when you send aircraft direct BTG you are shortening their route by a maximum of about 5 miles.  That is not that big of an impact.  If it helps you to do that, then do it.  I am not trying to force my technique on anyone.  I spoke to TMU and it doesn’t seem like it matters too much to them either as long as we are hitting our times.

When the workgroup originally met and decided to have all of those routes over LMT and LKV, the goal was to mitigate the impending increase in meter delays and traffic.  It was never intended to be permanent.  The airspace office has already begun doing some work on routes that would help to deconflict a little more from all the southbound traffic.  I wouldn’t expect to see something anytime soon, but it is being worked on.

Controlling Sectors

You should have all seen the ZSE Supplement that designates controlling sectors for our special use airspace.  I am working on getting a section added that clarifies exactly what the procedures should be for clearing aircraft into a special use airspace that you are not the controlling sector for.  Basically I want to make sure that the B area coordinates prior to clearing aircraft into our SUAs.  I also want to make it clear that 5 doesn’t need to be handing off aircraft to 10 for us to clear into the SUAs.  I’ll let you know what comes of that.

Schedule Negotiations

Jason Alliston and I have talked a few times regarding next year’s schedule and we seem to be largely on the same page regarding what we want.  We can’t agree to anything yet because we don’t have a facility BWS MOU.  We have been working as an EBoard on drafting our U1 (First proposal to mgmt.) and Alex is planning to meet with Don Hill soon.  More on that as I know it.

Refuelers

The LSC has a contact at SKA now so if you have any questions or comments regarding the refuelers we regularly work from SKA, don’t hesitate to ask an LSC member. (Jesse Barracoso, James Darlington, Garret Wilkerson, Taunisha Karsh, Clarence Courtney, and Elaine Olson)

FREE FOOD!

There is a bunch of food in the NATCA office leftover from the Alki BBQ.  Please come get some whenever you want to.  There are sodas, candy, and a shit ton of little bags of chips.

Fraternally,

Drew

Weekly Update 7/9 (Schedule Negotiations, Metering, UAV Ops, Trainee Lines)

All,

I hope everyone is having a good week.  You may have noticed that the header changed on the email.  I added in the flyer for the next event we have going on.  NATCA President Paul Rinaldi, EVP Trish Gilbert, and NNM RVP Doug Pincock will be joining us for an event at Acme Bowl in Southcenter.  It's be a good time to come hang out and mingle with them and some folks from other facilities.  Wednesday, August 15th from 6 to 9 pm at Acme Bowl.  Hope to see you all there.

On the subject of Solidarity events, thanks to those of you who made it out to the BBQ last Friday.  A lot of work and planning went into that and it was cool to see that a few people decided to show up.  Even if they didn't show up until everything was all packed up and we were leaving...

Further on the subject of meetings...I am working on planning the next All Members meeting and I am trying to scout out new locations.  Rainbow Cafe has been good to us but there has to be something better, right?  Any and all ideas on that are welcome.  Please hit me up with your suggestions.

Ok, on to the business.

Schedule Negotiations

Facility level BWS negotiations should be underway soon and I will keep you guys apprised of that as I have information on it.  Jason Alliston and I are meeting this Wednesday to discuss specifics of our schedule for next year.  With the help of NG and HA, I have built a few options that I think all work well.  I haven't received much input from you guys as a whole but I still feel confident I know the general gist of what you want and I hope to get something resembling that for our 2019 schedule.

Metering

Please stop shortcutting aircraft to BTG during metering.  If you need it for traffic, I get it, you do what you gotta do.  But if you are just sending everyone to BTG and then turning them for delays it makes us look silly.  I know it may not feel like it sometimes but even before those aircraft lock in for their meter times, TMU is planning a spot for them.  Shortening the route just for the hell of it changes that plan and decreases the (already challenged) efficiency of the program.

Also, I've heard the B area say a few times now that some people still hand off a/c with speed increases or speeds with "or greater" on them during times of metering.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop doing that.  I cannot imagine anyone is still doing this and I am hoping the B area is just talking shit when they say that, but if we are metering and you speed aircraft up (or leave increases on from ZOA), we look like idiots.  I hope you all understand why.  If not, please feel free to ask me or any of your peers.  I am sure someone can explain it to you.

UAV Ops

Something we might see more of this summer is UAVs being used to help with fire spotting and fighting.  We worked one on Saturday called GRZLY so maybe that is a callsign we will be seeing more often.  This is new to a lot of people so I would expect the information to be fuzzy the first few times it is coordinated.  Coordination should always include a COA (Certificate of Authorization) which you may see if you are CiC when these Ops are going on.  This COA is important because it should contain the lost link procedures for each flight.  As far as on sector goes, so far it looks like they are going to coordinate an orbit area and altitude (ex. 30NM Range of OED @ FL280).  Another important thing to brush up on is 5-2-9 of the 7110 which covers lost link procedures with UAVs.  Here is the text of that:

5−2−9. UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS (UAS) LOST LINK

Code 7400 may be displayed by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) when the control link between the aircraft and the pilot is lost. Lost link procedures are programmed into the flight management system and associated with the flight plan being flown.

When you observe a Code 7400 display, do the following:

a. Determine the lost link procedure, as outlined in the Special Airworthiness Certificate or Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA).

b. Coordinate, as required, to allow UAS to execute the lost link procedure.

c. Advise Front Line Manager (FLM), when feasible, so the event can be documented.

d. If you observe or are informed by the PIC that the UAS is deviating from the programmed Lost Link procedure, or is encountering another anomaly, treat the situation in accordance with FAA Order J0 7110.65 Chapter 10, Section 1,Para 10−1−1(c).

NOTE−

1. The available lost link procedure should, at a minimum, include lost link route of flight, lost link orbit points, lost link altitudes, communications procedures and preplanned flight termination points if the event recovery of the UAS is deemed unfeasible.

2. Each lost link procedure may differ and is dependent upon airframe and operation. These items are contained in the flight’s Certificate of Authorization or Waiver (COA) and must be made available to ATC personnel in their simplest form at positions responsible for Unmanned Aircraft (UAs).

3. Some UA airframes (Global Hawk) will not be programmed upon the NAS Automation roll out to squawk 7400. These airframes will continue to squawk 7600 should a lost link occur. The ATC Specialist must apply the same procedures described above.

Trainee Certification/Lines

Ok so this is going to take a second to explain, but from what I hear there are quite a few of you doing some talking about this so I figured I would take a second to explain the process for how we handle trainee certifications.  Often times when a trainee certifies, we have a shortage in the schedule that needs to be filled.  When that happens, the OM and I discuss where the shortage is and through Article 7 mid term bargaining we add a line to the schedule and develop a process in which it will be filled.  It is worth noting that Article 7 was meant to be an infrequent practice and carries with it a few dangers.  For example, if we open up the BWS to add a line, mgmt has the ability to want to start negotiating shift start times or whatever else mid year.  This is not likely to happen but it is part of the fire we play with by opening up mid term bargaining.  Traditionally our agreement has been to waterfall the line through all who volunteered and then whatever the remaining open line is will have a shortage and be filled by using Article 46 (Realignment of the Workforce) which is where the junior person (most likely the new CPC) gets forced to the open line.

Here are the relevant Sections of Article 46:

Section 5. In facilities where staffing imbalances exist, volunteers shall be solicited from all qualified employees where no individual retraining is necessary to complete the change. If after this initial change has been completed another imbalance was created that requires further action, the Agency shall designate the teams from which volunteers will be sought and the number of employees to be selected from each team.

Section 6. In exercising and complying with Sections 4 or 5, each vacancy shall be filled by the reassignment of the most senior qualified volunteer. If there are no volunteers, selections shall be made using inverse seniority from among the qualified employees within the designated area(s)/team(s) which were identified in the solicitation. The transfer of employees shall be accomplished within three (3) months of the close of the solicitation. If the transfer is not accomplished within three (3) months of the close of the solicitation, the selection list shall be considered void.

The issue we have right now is that there is no shortage on the schedule.  At least not that I can find.  If you think a certain crew is short and you can back it up with numbers, I am happy to try to make that case to mgmt as well.  I just don't see it right now.

So the question has been asked "since there is no shortage, can we just make the trainee that just certified's line available?"  In this case that would be HX.  The answer to that question is no.  The 2016 CBA does not differentiate between CPC and DEV lines.  It says that you can bid them separately but it does not do anything to indicate that DEV lines mean less than CPC lines.  Neither does our MOU.  The current MOU only addresses this once by saying that after a trainee certifies the OM and the Area Rep will meet within two weeks of certification to discuss where the new line will be placed.  This is an odd way to word this, because we still have to follow the contract as far as filling the line and we can't force people off of their lines without using Article 46.  So even though someone certified, it may not always be the case that we "add" a line.

Another question I get is "but they bid as a trainee, that's not a real line, we can just take it form them and bid it out, right?"  No, we cannot.  If someone bid a line, regardless of whether it was as a trainee or as a CPC, the only way I know of to move them off of their line is through Article 46, which requires mgmt to determine an imbalance before doing anything.  And we don't have an imbalance.  I am not going to take away anyone's line just because someone senior to them might want it.  I know that the line HX is on was only available to trainees during the bid so that may seem unfair to you but I guess you could call that the one perk of being a trainee.

In the past this has been done wrong and in violation of the CBA.  An example of this is QW.  QW bid Mon-Tues off as a trainee (CPC-IT).  That was a "trainee line."  Then when he certified, we had a shortage on Thurs-Fri due to Christina's departure.  Caleb, with 10 years in the agency, was forced to Thurs-Fri.  That process did not follow the CBA.  Article 46 should have been used to determine the imbalance and then solicit it, if there were no volunteers then the agency would determine the fat crew and force the junior person.  In this case since QW had just certified on Mon-Tues, that would likely be determined to be the fat crew and the junior person would be forced to the vacancy.  In that case it would have been KD.  This is a risk you take by bidding the junior spot on any crew.  These situations are rare, but they do happen.  If you are the bottom person on Fri-Sat and your crew is determined to be the fat crew during an Article 46 movement, you absolutely can be forced off of your crew.  That is something to consider when you bid this coming year.

If we currently had a shortage on Thurs-Fri then this would be an easy process.  The agency would deem that crew short, we would solicit volunteers and if we got none then we would force the junior person from the fat crew.  Sat-Sun would likely be determined to be the fat crew and then the junior person (HX) would move to cover the shortage.

I know this all may seem like big changes to some of you, but the only thing that is changing is that we are making an effort to comply with the contract.  If we pick and choose what we follow in the CBA, then why can't the agency do the same?  If we choose not to follow Article 46, can they choose not to follow Art 108 (Pay)?  That may sound silly but when we circumvent rules because it is easier or we like it better, we lose credibility.

It is almost impossible for me to cover every scenario in an email, but if you have any questions about this process or if you have other ideas about how this process should be done (while still complying with the CBA) then please feel free to let me know.  So many of you love to talk about this stuff to people other than me so if you find me unapproachable about this then please feel free to discuss with Derek or Alex as well.

Barry Krasner

Lastly, and on a sad note, NATCA giant Barry Krasner passed away this morning.  Any of you who had the pleasure of meeting him know what a truly awesome person he was.  I had the pleasure of working with him on the National Constitution Committee for a few years before he retired to enjoy some time with his family.  He was the kind of guy that could let you know he was the smartest guy in the room without making you feel stupid.  He shaped the direction of this organization for years and carried us through some tough times.  He will be missed.

In Solidarity,

Drew