We are Birmingham Power Squadron.
We make boating safe and fun!

Birmingham Power Squadron is comprised of approximately 225 recreational boaters who interact in three equally important ways. They are committed to providing free boating education to the public, civil service to the United States Coast Guard in the area of cooperative charting, and social interaction with its members on land and water.

The United States Power Squadrons, when first chartered in Boston and New York in 1914, were new power boat operators in a world where sailing prevailed. Since then they have grown into a group of 60,000 or more in 33 districts and 340 squadrons, and have equalized into both sail and power boat enthusiasts.

Birmingham Power Squadron was chartered in 1963. Their burgee with the seahorse pictured above represents the Bloomfield Hunt Club where they first held meetings. The three stars represent the three parent squadrons, Detroit, Grosse Pointe and Mount Clemens, from which we were formed. The blue background represents the waters of Southeastern Michigan, inland and Great Lakes where we do most of our boating.

Our publication, The Bilge Chatter, is distributed to our members from September to June and includes schedules of activities, member articles, meeting announcements, and other items of general interest.

Our major activities involve boating education. While we have a full navigational and boat related curriculum available to our members, we also offer ten free Boating class sessions to the public each year. Our locations for these classes are presently in Troy, West Bloomfield, Farmington, Rochester, Clawson and Milford. See our Boating Class Schedule for more information about current public Boating classes.

Our civic service is in the area of cooperative charting where we help keep the United States Coast Guard updated on the changing nature of our waterways. While this is underway, we also have an active schedule of summer rendezvous in and around Lake St. Clair.

To see this year's schedule, visit our Rendezvous Schedule.

Birmingham Power Squadron's Burgee (Unique Flag) is light blue with a white seahorse and three stars. This design was chosen to reflect the squadron's original meeting place--the Bloomfield Open Hunt Club, where we get the 'horse' in seahorse, because we are a boating organization--and the three stars represent the three squadrons that gave us members when BPS was founded in 1963--Detroit, Mount Clemens, and Grosse Pointe. The blue color represents the water that we are all drawn to!
Click on the burgee below to see a larger version: