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Meeting Date: August 25, 2020

Today's Meeting With another Zoom meeting, President Tabb Randolph called the meeting to order from his home in Truckee. Tom Schwarzgruber was on Tabb’s front porch, but

remained quiet. Today’s words of wisdom, “No one is perfect, that’s why pencils have erasers.”

These are words from Wolfgang Riebe. Roy Holmes led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

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Tabb thanked Gary Bunch for Meals on Wheels. Tabb was his own Zoom guru.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests We had no visitors or guests.

Announcements

Chuck Maltese has two spots left for Mystery Golf (Sept. 16

th).

Everybody will be distanced on the bus and will wear a mask.

Shred it day is on hold because of the pandemic.

Chuck Moore reported on the virtual FFA auction. Only steers were sold

this year. All nine were sold.

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Kris Kristensen reminded us of the Chamber of Commerce Golf

Tournament at Yoche Dehe September 17th

. Cost is $160.

Tabb said we received a thank your for the fire truck from Club

Guadalajara. The fire truck went to El Grullo, Jalisco.

Anniversaries

Only Tim Pettit was present. He married Nadine in 2003 at a winery in Murphy’s. He said, “I have been happy ever since.”

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Birthdays

Recognition Recognition returned, led by Chuck Maltese. Chuck was

probably pissed off about something, but restrained himself.

Chuck asked Mike Chandler for a report on the fires. Mike said they are growing. Karl

Diekman checked into the evacuations and the checklists do not include spouses. He asked why?

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Lisa Martinez had much to be happy about. She is now a partner with Ullrich Delevati.

She made this a bell ringer.

Mark Ullrich was also fined.

Dick Hoppin was fined for breaking his New Year’s resolution of no swearing on the golf

course. He didn’t get off the first green.

Rags to Riches We still have to wait to get rich.

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Today’s Program Mike Chandler introduced our speaker, Kevin Couch, Director of Operational Safety for the Commander of Navy Surface Forces. Mike met Kevin when Kevin

was a student fire fighter at UCD. (Mike was eventually Chief at UCD fire).

Kevin went into the Navy in

1985 and came out of flight school, No. 1. Naturally he chose helicopters. He became to XO for

the Ronald Reagan in the 2000’s and commander of the USS Cleveland. He retired in 2011

after being offered the command of a Nuclear Aircraft Carrier. He put family first. Kevin

originally joined the military because he was married, had one child and needed health insurance.

Kevin went back into the military as the first Director of Operational Safety. There are

four major branches to the Navy, air, submarine, special fighting, and surface warfare. He was

tasked with developing an operational safety management system. This is not occupational

safety, but operational safety to keep ships in operation and out of drydock. Ships are out of

commission and in for repair when they run aground, catch fire, or run into each other.

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Examples, on January 17, 2017, a cruiser ran aground; in the Western Pacific a ship hit a North

Korean fishing boat; the USS John McCain hit another ship, and other ships have collided.

Kevin launched a comprehensive review of the incidents. He went through all the check

lists, made his report, and then did further analysis to see what the incidents had in common.

Complacency was the common theme. An even higher review found that people weren’t doing

what needed to be done. There was always more than one person involved. When those

involved were asked if it happened before, they invariably said yes, or some near mishap.

Record keeping was always poor. Logs are the most basic supervisory tool. Another issue was

failure to plan for how to drive the ship in upcoming conditions. There was an organizational

drift into failure. Everybody on watch has to realize his or her responsibility.

Kevin’s next challenge was how to implement the model, meaning how to measure

organizational drift? It had to be a team approach. He talked to commanders about day to day

excellence. Since implementation, no ship that has gone through the process has had a serious

mishap.

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Kevin was asked about the Navy’s response to COVID. The Navy was required to

change how to eat, sleep, and deploy. They had to learn as you go. The USS Roosevelt COVID

outbreak was a learning experience. Kevin thinks the Navy is in a better place today.

There are always consequences. A mishap is always the Captain’s fault. Legal

investigations are separate form safety investigations. They have also learned from the USS

John McCain incident that not all technology is a good thing. Sometimes easier to use, such as

control panels with knobs and throttles rather than touch screens, is better. Touch screens are

hard to use in the dark. Integrated panels are being changed out.

Kevin with Randi Chandler

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Upcoming Programs Next week we have Fabrizio Sasso, Executive Director of the Sacramento Central Labor Council; 'Organized Labor and the Connection to the

Community';

https://www.sacramentolabor.org/about

See more program listings on the Club’s website at:

http://www.woodlandrotary.org/Programs.cfm

http://woodland.clubwizard.com/Programs.cfmhttps://www.sacramentolabor.org/abouthttp://www.woodlandrotary.org/Programs.cfm