Activity Requirements & Roster Cleanup

Hello everyone,

From the 1st of February, Gander Oceanic will begin actively enforcing section 2.1.2 of the Gander Oceanic General Policy.

This section states that:

2.1.2: Upon receiving their oceanic certification, a certified member is obligated to control for at
least six hours every six-monthly activity cycle (January 1st to June 31st, July 1st to
December 31st) on their certification.

The enforcement of the above currency requirement will be performed through ActivityBot; a new custom serverside Oceanic hour monitoring tool.

ActivityBot will be implemented in two stages:

1. From 0000z on the 1st of February until 2359z on the 29th of February, a 'purge' period will occur. During this time, all certified Gander Oceanic controllers including staff team members are required to obtain one hour controlling a Gander or Shanwick position. Controllers who did not obtain their one hour during this period will be automatically removed from the roster by ActivityBot at 0000z on the 1st of March.

2. From 0000z on the 1st of March until 2359z on the 31st of June all certified Gander Oceanic controllers who met their one hour February obligation will be required to control an additional five hours to meet the policy requirement. Controllers who have not met this obligation will then be marked inactive on the roster at 0000z on the 1st of July. Controllers who are running short on time to meet the requirement will receive three reminder emails. These will be sent thirty days, seven days, and three days before the expiry date of the 1st of July.

From then on, the activity cycles continue as normal. There are two activity cycles per year:

Cycle 1: 0000z January 1st to 2359z June 31st. Cycle 2: 0000z July 1st to 2359z December 31st.

Controllers are expected to control for six hours per activity cycle. The reminder emails explained above are sent by ActivityBot every activity cycle, in case you have forgotten to complete your hours. Controllers are automatically marked inactive by ActivityBot as explained above if they have not completed their hours by the end of an activity cycle.

Controllers marked inactive at the end of an activity cycle are automatically removed from the roster by ActivityBot at the end of the cycle immediately following if they have not attempted to renew their certification. The renewal process requires a single OTS, which controllers can book through the Chief Instructor ([email protected]). (General Policy section 2.1.4)

There are periodic Oceanic events throughout each activity cycle. Controllers are encouraged to use these to help obtain their six required Oceanic hours.

Controllers may request a Leave of Absence (LOA) from their certification through the FIR Chief as per section 2.1.3 of the General Policy:

2.1.3: The above currency requirement may be waived, provided the member has applied for and
obtained an approved ‘Leave of Absence’ (LOA) directly from the FIR Chief (ZQO1). During
a period of LOA, a member is not permitted to log onto either Gander or Shanwick in a
controlling capacity. An LOA may not exceed a period of six months. Members may not
request another LOA within six months of the end of their last. The FIR Chief will use their
discretion in deciding whether part of or the whole of the requirement is waived.

ActivityBot exempts approved LOAs from currency enforcement.

In addition, ActivityBot logs every Oceanic connection, including who was controlling, the logon time, and the duration of the connection. This allows unauthorised connections to our positions to be monitored and actioned upon. In addition, this data, upon request may be used to assist a supervisory investigation.

Important contacts for questions or concerns regarding this policy:

Andrew Ogden, FIR Chief: [email protected] (For concerns and questions regarding the hour requirement) Gabriel Cevallos, Events & Marketing Director: [email protected] (For queries about our events)

We appreciate your cooperation! Apologies for the long one!

Cheers, Andrew Ogden - Gander Oceanic FIR Chief