I spent the last two days in downtown Tampa for "Tampa Chalk Walk". I did not register as an artist. I registered for the USCG Auxiliary, but I did do some sidewalk art. I put the National Boating Safety Council's "Wear It" campaign logo on the sidewalk. I did not wear a uniform while doing the artwork (the chalk is way too messy), but I will go in uniform tomorrow now that the art is done. The thought of all of those pastels on my navy blue pants...ugh!

Next weekend is our annual awards banquets. I do a lot of behind the scenes stuff for that. For a few years now, I have done all of the computations for the awards. It's a program that I enter all of the year's data into and it 'spits out' the winners. I also write a lot of the individual awards that have to be signed off by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has an award manual and the awards have to use specific wording and formatting. That was a job I just sort of fell into because a lot of members, even many our officers, don't know how to write awards. Now, they just contact the Division Commander with the names of the people that they want to recognize and why that member should be recognized, and the Division Commander asks me write and submit the award for them. I got to be so good at it that I am now one of about a half a dozen people who review all of the awards within our district (about 5,400 members) before they are submitted to the Coast Guard for approval.
Funny, everybody knows I edit and layout Auxiliary publications. Very few members know that I write and review awards. Because I am trusted, I know a lot of things and do a lot of things that other members don't. I am a staff officer and not an elected officer, and I don't have personal ambitions or an agenda, so that makes me 'safe'. I like being in this position.