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Symposium at Embry-Riddle to Chart CRM’s Future

Daytona Beach, Fla., Dec. 18, 2006-- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will convene the 2007 Crew Resource Management Vectors Symposium from Feb. 27 to March 1, 2007, at The Shores Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach. The symposium will be a series of workshops designed to chart the future of crew resource management (CRM) for the aviation and space industries.

CRM is a management system that makes optimal use of all available resources – equipment, people, and procedures – to promote safety and enhance the efficiency of flight operations. It combines communications, decision making, problem solving, situational awareness, and teamwork.

The symposium will unite global representatives from industry, government, and academe to focus on CRM training today and its challenges in the future.

“Numerous new initiatives are being pursued, but very little cross-talk is occurring in the global CRM movement,” says Tim Brady, dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus, which is hosting the event. “This symposium will offer stakeholders a sterling opportunity to reach consensus as to which way CRM should evolve and how to engender such development.”

Participants will engage in facilitated workshops and then gather in teams to write action plans for CRM’s future. “We consider participants to be research cartographers who are collaborating to chart the future of CRM,” says Cass Howell, chair of the aeronautical science department.

“We have created a collaborative means for achieving consensus among a very diverse group of global CRM stakeholders,” says Antonio Cortés, assistant professor of aeronautical science, who designed the symposium’s interactive approach.

“The symposium will let those who live and breathe CRM be the ones who determine its future,” says Timothy Plunkett, assistant professor of aeronautical science and co-chair of the event’s organizing committee. Plunkett is a recently retired captain at Delta Air Lines with experience facilitating CRM workshops.

The word “vectors” in the event’s title alludes to the fact that “the future of CRM may be different for each corner of the aerospace industry,” according to Plunkett. “CRM training for a VLJ pilot may show little resemblance to that of an A-380 flight attendant or the astronauts on the new CEV.”

After the symposium, Embry-Riddle will coordinate implementation of the action plans. The next CRM Vectors Symposium will review the progress made by previous participants with their action plans and adjust the plans as necessary.

To register for the 2007 CRM Vectors Symposium, please go to www.erau.edu/crm.

Reporters who wish to attend the symposium should call Bob Ross at (386) 226-6198.

Embry-Riddle, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 centers in the United States and Europe, and through online learning.