Sportin' Wood
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2007
- Messages
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I've been marinating on this question for over ten years. Some of the recent threads on here have me thinking about this topic again. Please join me in a hypothetical, collaborative discussion about boat driver's licenses.
Would you participate in a campaign to develop a voluntary boat driver's license? RDP seems uniquely positioned to create such an initiative with so many subject matter experts in this community.
Before you all get crazy about boating regulations, please hear me out.
I work in product development and have learned that field trials and beta tests provide great opportunities to pivot, modify and develop on the fly. You can always scale later, so think small with me for a moment, building something that can be created regionally and perhaps adopted broader if successful.
NGO idea, not a state or federal idea. For now, limited to the Colorado River system and perhaps tighten the net to just LHC and/or Parker. Totally Voluntary & Reward Based.
What if?
What if there was an online portal where boaters watched a collection of videos that shared best practices, safety guidelines, maintenance, and other related topics? When completed, the viewer received a certificate or license, which provided discounts at participating sponsors' businesses. Perhaps even insurance discounts? Things like a free bag of ice, or discount on a detail job, a free T-shirt, or VIP treatment at a local Bar. Early access to a storage unit?
Room or camping discounts, reduced Rack Storage Rent?
Maybe a small sticker that tells LEO you are a good guy?
Would you participate in that? What kind of incentives would you need to be motivated to participate? Would you promote an initiative like this? Do you think it would improve the boating experience someplace like the Colorado river if people adopted the idea?
The content and delivery seem easy to me; so many tools are available, and if you could pull together a half dozen people on this board, you could make some cool videos. What has always scared me away from this idea is
1.) Liability
2.) Funding
3.) Participation
4.) Sustainability
It seems you would need a not-for-profit to pull this off, and it also seems like a lot of work with little financial return for a single person to sustain as a job. It looks like the program could obtain grant money to offset some of the costs, and if marketed correctly, it may be able to provide value that could attract sponsors. So I pose this idea to the great and powerful RDP community for further thought.
Does this already exist, and I missed it somewhere? Do you springboard off an already established association? Stupid idea? Maybe someone here will see this idea and have the same thoughts and passion for the subject and say yes, that's my life goal. What say you?
Would you participate in a campaign to develop a voluntary boat driver's license? RDP seems uniquely positioned to create such an initiative with so many subject matter experts in this community.
Before you all get crazy about boating regulations, please hear me out.
I work in product development and have learned that field trials and beta tests provide great opportunities to pivot, modify and develop on the fly. You can always scale later, so think small with me for a moment, building something that can be created regionally and perhaps adopted broader if successful.
NGO idea, not a state or federal idea. For now, limited to the Colorado River system and perhaps tighten the net to just LHC and/or Parker. Totally Voluntary & Reward Based.
What if?
What if there was an online portal where boaters watched a collection of videos that shared best practices, safety guidelines, maintenance, and other related topics? When completed, the viewer received a certificate or license, which provided discounts at participating sponsors' businesses. Perhaps even insurance discounts? Things like a free bag of ice, or discount on a detail job, a free T-shirt, or VIP treatment at a local Bar. Early access to a storage unit?
Room or camping discounts, reduced Rack Storage Rent? Maybe a small sticker that tells LEO you are a good guy?
Would you participate in that? What kind of incentives would you need to be motivated to participate? Would you promote an initiative like this? Do you think it would improve the boating experience someplace like the Colorado river if people adopted the idea?
The content and delivery seem easy to me; so many tools are available, and if you could pull together a half dozen people on this board, you could make some cool videos. What has always scared me away from this idea is
1.) Liability
2.) Funding
3.) Participation
4.) Sustainability
It seems you would need a not-for-profit to pull this off, and it also seems like a lot of work with little financial return for a single person to sustain as a job. It looks like the program could obtain grant money to offset some of the costs, and if marketed correctly, it may be able to provide value that could attract sponsors. So I pose this idea to the great and powerful RDP community for further thought.
Does this already exist, and I missed it somewhere? Do you springboard off an already established association? Stupid idea? Maybe someone here will see this idea and have the same thoughts and passion for the subject and say yes, that's my life goal. What say you?
But go and try renting a car with no license 
lol
