A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/800196
MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2017 Welcome to Communicating For Safety 2017! On behalf of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, we thank you for your attendance and commitment to collaboration, dialogue, and continuous improvement in aviation safety. We count on every one of you to contribute to the conference dialogue to ensure that we continue to run the safest, most efficient airspace in the world as we expand and grow. CFS is the premiere aviation safety conference. With nearly 1,500 attendees for the past two years, CFS has become an essential opportunity for members of the aviation community – including industry stakeholders, pilots, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) leadership, and of course, air traffic controllers and aviation safety professionals – to come together and discuss the most relevant topics in aviation safety. Each year, we welcome a host of fascinating experts, speakers, and panelists, and 2017 is no different. For the fourth year, we welcome Gordon Graham back to the CFS stage to discuss risk management in his engaging style. We will gain insight into media coverage of aviation with an interview with ABC transportation correspondent David Kerley, and hear the remarkable story of pilot Jessica Cox. We will hear from several keynote speakers including FAA Air Traffic Organization (ATO) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Teri Bristol, NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart, RTCA President Margaret Jenny, and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. We will have panels on topics including the popular pilot-controller communications, the ongoing programs making NextGen a reality, myths and facts surrounding weather, and how government regulations and policies can affect aviation safety, efficiency, and growth. The safety professionals we represent constantly rise to difficult challenges and uncertain circumstances, providing reliable service and staying calm, collected, and coordinated in emergency situations. We will conclude the conference on Wednesday evening by honoring an individual or group from each of NATCA's nine geographical regions who stepped up when it was needed most and provided life-saving ATC services. These individuals represent the best of our profession. It is essential that we continue to provide these services in the face of challenges, confusion, and complacency. By working through collaboration and focusing on the operation, we will be certain to continue to run the safest, most efficient system in the world. It is our hope that the relationships formed here will provide the basis to work together to achieve a shared vision. Have a wonderful time at the conference, learn from each other, and keep the conversation going. Teri Bristol, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Traffic Organization (ATO), will open today's collaboration panel with remarks on the progress that has been made by the FAA and NATCA. Bristol has stressed this progress in other remarks she has made to employees and the aviation community throughout her tenure as COO. For example, in a Labor Day message to ATO employees last year, she celebrated what she called, "the strong and continuous collaboration" the Agency enjoys with its labor partners that, "is helping us to accomplish our mission to ensure the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world." "At the FAA, we work with our labor partners on numerous safety, workplace and modernization efforts," Bristol wrote. "In support of our proactive safety culture, we've developed programs and campaigns such as the Air Traffic Safety Action Program, Recurrent Training, Take a Stand for Safety, Turn Off Tune In and Fully Charged. We're also in the process of developing the RESPECT campaign to establish and maintain an environment of mutual dignity, support and respect between all individuals that work to protect the NAS. We collaborate on many modernization efforts such as TAMR, Data Communications, NAS Voice System and others." Just two months prior to that, Bristol joined NATCA President Paul Rinaldi, NATCA Executive Vice President Trish Gilbert, NATCA Eastern Regional Vice President Dean Iacopelli, and FAA ATO Vice President Tim Arel in a video marking the new NATCA-FAA collective bargaining agreement covering air traffic controllers, NOTAM specialists, traffic management unit employees, and Alaskan Flight Service specialists. The contract teams for both sides became the first to establish an article within a contract solely about collaboration. It incorporates all of the collaborative principles and processes we have worked hard to establish, and will provide stability for the workforce through 2022. Collaboration is not simply a memorandum of understanding, the parties agreed. It is a practice that has been fostered by NATCA and the FAA for the last five years, and is now memorialized by the contract. "Most of the changes you will see in the contract really reflect just a change of acknowledging the way we have been working for quite some time," Bristol said when the contract was signed. Last October, at a banquet honoring Rinaldi with the Air Traffic Control Association's Glen A. Gilbert Award, Bristol praised the important role that Rinaldi and NATCA have played in building and growing the success of what she called, "a culture of collaboration." 7:30 a.m. Registration 12:00 p.m. Welcome | Steve Hansen, NATCA Safety Committee Chair 12:15 p.m. Keynote Address | Paul Rinaldi, NATCA President 12:45 p.m. Keynote Address | Teri Bristol, Chief Operating Officer, ATO 1:00 p.m. Panel | Improving Safety Through Collaboration 2:30 p.m. Break 3:15 p.m. Panel | NextGen Implementation Challenges and Successes 4:45 p.m. Meet & Greet | CFS Sponsors & Exhibitors 5:00 p.m. Partnership for Safety Demonstration 5:00 p.m. ATO Operational Contingency Group (ATOC) Presentation For full agenda, see page 16 Welcome to Communicating for Safety 2017! Bristol to Introduce Today's Collaboration Panel MONDAY, MARCH 20 Make sure to download the CFS App from your device's app store! Paul Rinaldi PRESIDENT Trish Gilbert EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Steve Hansen NATCA SAFETY COMMITTEE CHAIR Teri Bristol Chief Operating Officer Air Traffic Organization