This years 1st Southern Regional Conference holds the distinguished ranking of reportedly being the largest of all Conferences held by any District within the USCG Auxiliary across the nation. First Southern is very proud that its attendance reached a milestone of over nine hundred attendees at this years conference.
The Conference registration staff headed by Judy Romanowski suspected that things were going to be big but had no idea it would swell to be the largest crowd its ever accommodated to date. The registration staff responded like the champions they are and handled everything so smoothly no one had a single complaint about any part of the planned activities.

At this years conference we had the largest crowd of Auxiliary Aviators that have ever attended a conference. They also participated in an early dawn swim test along with our new members who had to report to the USCG Academy pool in New London, by 0730 in order to get their swim test completed and report to their assigned sessions by 0900.

In the Member Training Department the conference hosted an overflow crowded room of fifty new members. New members were presented with important information about who we are, what we do, what they can expect and what's expected of them as volunteer life savers. The new members were privileged to hear welcomes and greetings from some of the highest ranking Gold and Silver USCG and Auxiliary representative we've ever assembled from NACO E.W.(Bill) Edgerton, to NAVCO Atlantic East Mary Larsen, to RADM Vivien S. Crea and more.

The Member Training department was responsible for three other areas of training which all went very, TCT training had a huge number of Auxiliarists in attendance. And in the Member Training session for the first time two Divisions were invited to showcase their division developed member training programs. Many thanks goes out to Divisions 10 and 13 for stepping up to be the first to respond to the call of sharing what training can be carried out by our divisions.

In other areas of training such as Public Education, our Auxiliarist were privileged to have as a special guest Bob Sweet, author of the new course "GPS For Mariners". And for the second year the PE Department had an even larger Instructional Aid display, items constructed by Auxiliarist to get mariners concepts across to their students. The Department also hosted for the first time a Instructional Aides Expo Friday evening that was also well attended.

Attendees at the conference had a plethora of selected training to take advantage of from Vessel Safety Checks, Program Visitations, Public Affairs, Information Services, Marine Safety and Environmental, to Auxiliary Specialty courses. Auxiliarist moved in and around the training sessions with the furor of trying to take as much in as they could.

The District Conference is an opportunity for our Leadership to recognize the hard work of its members contributing to the support of the United States Coast Guard. During the Saturday afternoon Awards Luncheon, there were many many awards handed out to individuals, Flotillas and Divisions for all of their hours of operation and life saving efforts.

An very big part of the Conference that everyone looks forward to is the Saturday night Dinner Dress evening event. All of the attendees dress themselves up in their very best auxiliary diner dress uniforms, wearing their medals and ribbons for this gala affair. There were more awards given out reserved for this special evening occasion. And then there's the music, singing and dancing that follows, that reinforces the fellowship, and socialization that is one of the cornerstones of the Auxiliary. A good time was had by all.

The 2004 District Conference certainly raised the bar for everyone in attendance especially for all of the individuals responsible for putting the conference together. In every area the District leadership feels that this Conference was a success, good training, more participants than ever, more recognition and awards, good fellowship, and lots of fun and laughter.

We look forward to seeing you at the 2005 First Southern District Conference knowing we have these great expectations.

Donald Lloyd DSO-MT

Images: Leslie Brown ADSO-PE and Ken Sommers VCP-13
Photo edit Ken Sommers VCP-13