VERO BEACH POWER SQUADRON : Cooperative Charting Group

What is a Vero Beach Power Squadron?

Vero Beach Power Squadron(VBPS) is a non-profit group of volunteers who are socially compatible and have a common love and appreciation for pleasure boating, whether power or sail.

For more detail on VBPS see the December (20) archive posts.....

We are a member of District 8. We are one of the 450+ squadrons of the United States Power Squadron ®.

District 8 is one of the 33 districts in the organization and covers the East Coast of Florida from Sebastian Inlet to Key West.

Objectives of the organization are self education, civic service and social activities.

You do not need to own a boat to be a member.

The VBPS was chartered in 1956.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Cooperative Charting Group

A major civic service of USPS and its members is Cooperative Charting -- the contribution of correction data for nautical and aeronautical charts, reports on marine facilities, and condition of geodetic survey markers (benchmarks) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Ocean Service (NOS), both of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

USPS contributes the largest number of chart correction reports, although NOAA and NOS also obtain data from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, and Civil Air Patrol, among others.

The Cooperative Charting Group meet at the Squadron building every Thursday at 0930.

Owners of appropriate boats can also contribute by doing channel surveys, using a depth sounder. Members without boats can participate in the program in any of four ways: by serving as crew on a member's boat, by turning in reports on marina facilities, by checking aeronautical charts, (from a car), for correctness, or by reporting on the condition of geodetic survey markers, or benchmarks. These markers are used in surveying and map making, and finding them is like a treasure hunt.