Passenger Vessel Emergency Alarms Advisory Committee

February 12 and 13, 2008 – Meeting Minutes (Feb. 22, 2008)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The meeting was opened by Mr. Silverstein (Committee Facilitator) with seven member organizations present.  Ms. Schacter representing the Hearing Access Program and the Hearing Loss Association of America, and Ms. Raimondo representing the National Association of the Deaf arrived later in the morning. 

Mr. Beatty provided the committee with 12 handouts (listed in the preliminary agenda).

The committee approved the November 2007 meeting minutes (Handout 11) without changes.  Mr. Silverstein briefly reviewed handouts 1 through 10, to remind the committee where they started from and the material which played a role in creating the initial draft consensus document (Handout 12).

Mr. Bakke and Mr. Welch reported they were unable to talk about Statement #3 in the initial draft consensus document but planned to talk during the two day meeting.

Ms. Tuck, who was representing the Cruise Line International Association, in the absence of Mr. Thompson, briefly reported on Mr. Thompson’s discussion with the International Maritime Organization about the committee’s work.

Mr. Nash described the process to set up a working group with the International Standards Organization (ISO) to develop a standard for visible emergency alarms on vessels.  He noted that two ISO secretariats may have jurisdiction over the visible alarm issue, technical committee (TC) 173 (Assistive products for persons with disability) and TC 8 (Ships and marine technology).

Mr. Silverstein reviewed the initial draft consensus document and then led a detailed discussion on Statements #1 and #2 in the document.

After lunch, Mr. Pettit, made a presentation on the chartered deaf cruise Royal Caribbean held, and Mr. Simons demonstrated the portable alarm/notification kits Royal Caribbean uses in its vessels.

Following a break, the committee continued work on Statements #1 and #2.

At the end of the day, a period of public comment was provided.  As no public participants desired to comment, the committee kept working until 5 PM.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Mr. Silverstein opened the second day of the meeting.  All member organizations were present, except the representative of the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network, Ms. Hamlin, who joined the committee later in the morning.  The Passenger Vessel Association representative, Mr. Welch, participated by phone during the morning session and was present in the afternoon.

Mr. Silverstein led the committee in a review of Statement #3.  Mr. Bakke reported on his discussion with Mr. Welch and others about the statement. 

Throughout the remainder of the day, the committee worked on Statements #1 - #5.

At 4:30 PM, the committee allowed a time for public comment.  As no public participant desired to comment, the committee continued its discussions on the consensus document.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Beatty was directed to immediately send out the current draft version of the consensus document to the members, then within a week send out a cleaned up version so members could review it for accuracy.  The members would be given one week to review it (additional time if members requested it).  Once the committee agrees to the accuracy, a draft committee report would be created for committee review.  Some members indicated that before their organizations could support the draft consensus, they would need to get approval from their Boards.

The meeting adjourned around 5 PM.

Appendix – Attendees