ALCOAST 002/25 - JAN 2025 SOLICITATION FOR 2024 AUXILIARY INTEGRATION AWARD NOMINATIONS

R 031508Z JAN 25   MID120001679406U
FM COMDT COGARD WASHINGTON DC
TO ALCOAST
BT
UNCLAS
ALCOAST 002/25
SSIC 1650
SUBJ: SOLICITATION FOR 2024 AUXILIARY INTEGRATION AWARD NOMINATIONS
A. COMDT COGARD WASHINGTON DC 271400Z DEC 22/ALCOAST 522/22
1. This ALCOAST solicits nominations for the 2024 Auxiliary
Integration Award Program promulgated in REF (A). This two-pronged
award program recognizes Coast Guard units/offices and District
Directors of Auxiliary (DIRAUX, dpa) that significantly promote
the Coast Guard Auxiliary and integrate it into Coast Guard
operations and activities.
2. The Commodore Viggo C. Bertelsen, Jr. and Vice Admiral John P.
Currier Award recognizes Coast Guard units/offices for their
distinguished Auxiliary integration achievements judged across
categories and criteria described in 2.a.- 2.c.:
    a. Enhanced Mission Support. Creativity and diversity in
leveraging Auxiliary skills, experience, and resources that
enhanced and improved the unit's/office's ability to:
        (1) Remain always ready for operational missions.
        (2) Maintain its surface, aviation, shore-side
facility, and/or C4IT systems.
        (3) Train, prepare, and develop its people.
        (4) Support its operators in both planned and emergency
situations requiring visibility across the country and integration
across lines of business.
        (5) Improve unit/office morale and esprit-de-corps.
    b. Enhanced Operations. Creativity and diversity in leveraging
Auxiliary skills, experience, and resources that enhanced and
improved the unit's/office's ability to:
        (1) Efficiently and effectively perform its operational
missions.
        (2) Analyze, identify, and fill unit resource gaps to
optimize mission execution, and promote and achieve maritime
safety, security, and stewardship.
        (3) Establish and maintain relationships with interagency
partners and maritime stakeholders to achieve unit/office
objectives.
        (4) Execute operational planning, policy, and/or international
engagement.
        (5) Improve unit/office morale and esprit-de-corps.
    c. Applied Innovation. Creativity and diversity in leveraging
Auxiliary skills, experience, and resources that enabled the
unit/office to efficiently and effectively:
        (1) Employ new ideas to develop and implement practices and
tools that enhanced and improved readiness, preparedness, and
mission execution.
        (2) Foster a culture of continuous innovation and learning.
        (3) Increase the potential for rapidly generating ideas to
solve challenges.
        (4) Find new solutions to challenges through encouraging,
recognizing, and rewarding innovative ideas.
        (5) Improve unit/office morale and esprit-de-corps.
    d. Nominations.
        (1) All Coast Guard units/offices at district, area, and
headquarters levels except DIRAUX and Chief Director of Auxiliary
(CG-BSX) offices are eligible for nomination. Awards are not based
solely on measurable data. Historical background and circumstances
arising during the award period that provide appropriate context, as
well as other best practices that foster and capitalize on Auxiliary
integration into Coast Guard mission support, operations, and
innovation will be considered.
        (2) Units/offices within a district chain of command must
submit their nomination through their district for endorsement.
Units/offices within an area chain of command must submit their
nomination through their area for endorsement. Headquarters
units/offices must submit their nomination through their
headquarters program management office for endorsement. Nominations
must be submitted by the unit/office command. Auxiliarists cannot
originate nominations, anonymous nominations will not be accepted,
and 2023 award winners are not eligible for nomination in the same
award category in which they won in 2023.
        (3) A unit that has subordinate units may consolidate
Auxiliary interaction and support from those subordinate units into
its single nomination. In doing so, independent nominations from any
of those subordinate units may not be submitted.
        (4) The same unit/office may be nominated for, and earn, the
award for more than one of the three categories.
        (5) A subordinate unit of a 2023 award winner consolidation
may submit its own unit nomination only if it is not part of another
consolidated nomination.
3. The District Director of Auxiliary of the Year Award recognizes
the DIRAUX who significantly promoted and advanced Auxiliary
programs to improve Auxiliary recruitment and retention and fully
leveraged Auxiliary skills, experience, and resources to support
Coast Guard operations and activities throughout their district.
    a. Award Criteria. Qualitative and quantitative information
analyses should be included in narratives of nomination packages.
Determining the awardee will be based on the following primary
factors:
        (1) Demonstrated high performance as an officer and role model
with strong commitment to Auxiliary programs and initiatives.
        (2) Creativity and diversity in leveraging Auxiliary skills,
experience, and resources throughout the district to:
              (a) Analyze, identify, and fill resource and mission gaps
for Coast Guard units/offices using Auxiliary resources.
              (b) Enhance and improve Auxiliary recruitment and
retention.
              (c) Support Coast Guard missions, surge operations, and
incident response.
              (d) Improve Auxiliary morale, esprit-de-corps, material
condition, and personnel readiness.
        (3) Comprehensive promotion and conduct of Auxiliary training
and communications.
        (4) Active promotion of the incorporation of Auxiliary skills,
experience, and resources into Coast Guard unit/office organization
and business.
        (5) Promotion and achievement of expanded recognition of
Auxiliary support.
    b. Nominations.
        (1) Nominees must be Coast Guard officers assigned to a DIRAUX
billet and must have served as such for at least six months of the
calendar year.
        (2) Nomination packages must be submitted by the DIRAUX's
district chain of command. The cognizant Auxiliary District
Commodore must be included in the routing for endorsement. In cases
in which a DIRAUX oversees the regions of more than one District
Commodore, a consolidated endorsement from them is acceptable.
Auxiliarists cannot originate nominations and anonymous nominations
will not be accepted.
        (3) There is no limit to the number of nominations from a
district that has more than one DIRAUX.
4. Nomination packages must be forwarded to arrive at the Coast
Guard Office of Auxiliary and Boating Safety (CG-BSX) by
01 March 2025. Nomination packages must include a narrative that
summarizes accomplishments for the criteria described above. It
must be in standard Coast Guard memorandum format (single-spaced;
12-point Times New Roman font; no longer than three pages) addressed
to COMDT (CG-BSX).
5. POC: For additional information regarding this ALCOAST contact
COMDT (CG-BSX-1) at CGAUX@uscg.mil.
6. RADM W. R. Arguin, Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy
(CG-5P), sends.
7. Internet release is authorized.