National Safe Boating Week (NSBW) is a program of the North American Safe Boating Campaign. NSBW aims at spreading a message of boating safety, encourages boater education, and helps to save lives. The campaign produces a variety of safe boating information intended to enhance and supplement the individual campaigns that take place through groups, associations and organizations across the United States and Canada during National Safe Boating Week.

The purpose of this section of AuxBWiki is to share best practice ideas for making the National Safe Boating Week a success. If you have done something locally or in your state that works, please let us know.

Walmart, K-Mart, Ace Hardware, West Marine, Bass Pro Shops, are just some of the retail stores that have given our PA Officers space for their boating safety displays for National Safe Boating Week. With the 2012 campaign ahead of us, let’s plan to use these stores as opportunities to meet the boating public and sell them on safe boating practices. Now is the time to contact the managers of these establishments and secure a spot during NSBW. Some of these stores may allow us to use a part of their parking lot to perform VSCs.

Other opportunities abound to reach the boating public, via the media. Download the statistics from the National Safe Boating Council’s website, to list boating accidents and fatalities for your press releases. Editors love statistics. Also, invite the TV and news media to attend your special NSBW events. Life jacket demonstrations and on-the-water rescues make great action footage for television broadcasts.

Look for the free and paid resources available from the campaign site in March. Such items as Wear It! stickers, decals and posters are especially favored by our younger boaters. For additional resources, download the Auxiliary Material Supply Center Catalog. Order through your Materials Officer.

Don’t forget to post your planned PA exhibits and VSCs on the campaign website for NSBW and even before the big event. Share your great ideas.

There is quite a range of free resources available on the **NSBW website**.

• Sample National Safe Boating Week proclamation
• Build a NSBW proclamation
• Time to Plan for NSBW – February 2011 newsletter
• Flotilla Initiates Energetic Safe Boating Campaign After Receiving NSBW Proclamation (from //SITREP//)

Harriet Howard, Special Assistant for NSBW