Marina Dock Age

Industry organizations can be an invaluable tool for sharing ideas with others. Together they can solve common problems and promote the development and growth of the marina industry.

One example of such a group is The Pacific Coast Congress (PCC) of Harbormasters and Port Managers. They are commercial and recreational marina professionals from Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, and even British Columbia that have been meeting together since 1974.

Groups like PCC offer its members:

• organized meetings that address the changing industry
• continued growth and development through education and training
• networking opportunities with other marina professionals
• a chance to raise important issues and find solutions

Networking

A main goal behind PCC and its conferences is networking and making contact with people that can help now and in the future. “Having somebody that you can trust, that you can get a straight answer from is huge,” said Tami Hayes, harbormaster of Port of Friday Harbor in Friday Harbor, Wash., and PCC president.

Fowler said, “PCC is a ‘we’ thing. It’s the people that go there.” Members go for the mutual benefit of exchanging with each other. With lots of handshakes, smiles, and eye-to-eye contact, the PCC conferences help build professional relationships on a friendly level.

PCC holds two conferences a year. Each begins with a unique networking exercise called “Call of the Ports.” At the first main session, members introduce themselves and their facilities, as well as the issues they’re interested in discussing or specific projects on which they’re focused.

In addition to introductions, this helps connect those members with similar problems or connect the problems with solutions. Dale Fowler, marina manager of Cap Sante Boat Haven in Anacortes, Wash., and former PCC president, likes to jot down notes during these introductions. “Maybe somebody has a problem I can address, and I can catch them later,” he said. Similarly, he looks to connect with those who have his same concerns or even better, solutions.

To help facilitate those connections, members attend “Lunch with a PCC Friend,” the next day. Members can join specific roundtable discussions on the important topics brought up the previous day and lunch with others interested in the same discussion. “There’s a lot of smart, innovative people in our industry, and don’t be hesitant to copy what they do or modify it to make it better,” said Fowler.

Roundtable discussions are only one of the ways PCC members connect and learn from each other. The conference also includes:

• formal presentations by experts
• case studies and featured port presentations
• workshops and seminars
• fieldtrips
• hands-on demonstrations.

The conference also focuses on broader managerial issues. For instance, PCC brought in motivational speakers to do presentations on public speaking and HR and legal professionals to focus on the practice of hiring. Others sessions often concentrate on management and leadership training, such as sessions on anger management or dealing with difficult employees or customers.

Staying fresh

Hayes is a firm believer that she works in an extremely evolving industry and wants the conferences and its topics to always reflect that dynamic. “Things change all the time,” she said. “You constantly need to keep yourself adaptable.”

PCC tries to plan conferences that are a reflection of its members concerns. At the beginning of each conference, members receive a feedback sheet to indicate what sessions they liked, what they didn’t like, and what they’d like to see in the future.

One of the most valuable tools outside of the conference for identifying those important issues is the PCC e-mail discussion group. Even away from the conferences, PCC members are never far from each other. Members can post questions and answers for each other in an open forum format. “It’s extremely well-used,” said Hayes. “It keeps the whole group together.”

PCC also places all its conference presentations online. Members can get information from sessions they missed or just refresh their memories on important topics anytime.

Diversity

The members of PCC and the facilities they represent are very diverse – some public, some private, some big, and some small. To cater to that diversity, PCC holds each conference at a different host facility. “Most of us in marina operations are so busy we don’t have time to visit other facilities,” said Fowler, who said he’s gotten good ideas from every facility he visited.

“When you go to different regions, you focus on different topics,” Hayes said. For example, the group travels far north to Kodiak, Alaska, this fall for the next conference. Hayes said the state of Alaska is unique in how they operate in the marine industry, such as their maintenance practices during the winter. Also, because of their remote locations, facilities in Alaska do a lot of things internally that other marinas can bring outside agencies in to do. “We can learn a lot from that,” Hayes said.

Also, the board of directors represents all the different regions of the group, and PCC actively recruits newer members for elected positions. “Because you’re different and maybe we haven’t heard from you, we want to,” Hayes said.

The group includes commercial marine businesses as well. “PCC aggressively solicits product vendors in the industry to become members and have that close contact with marina managers and operators,” said Fowler. In a casual environment, facilities have the opportunity to talk to vendors about new products or concerns with products they’re already using.

“I think our sustaining members, the vendors, they’re in the industry but not on the same side of the issues. They bring something else important to the mix,” said Hayes.

Commonality

For all the diversity that PCC represents, its members come together for a common cause. “After first attending PCC, I quickly figured out that the other people attending were just like me, people trying to make their marinas or their ports work smoother,” said Fowler.

For every difference PCC members can find among themselves, they find just as many commonalities in the best ways to do business.

“I really look forward to going to each conference, especially because there’s a lot of longevity in the group,” said Hayes. “It reminds me why I enjoy my job.”

Anna Townshend is senior editor of Marina Dock Age. She can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 ext. 1308 or via e-mail at: atownshend@prestonpub.com.