Aug 23, 2020 GMM minutes

Cal Sailing Club - General Membership Meeting Minutes

Meeting Date: August 23, 2020

Start Time: 7:05 pm

End Time: 7:37 pm

Location: Virtual

ATTENDANCE

Officer’s Reports

Commodore (Mary, Nicho) Thank you everyone for joining us at this GMM. And thank you Nicho for starting us off. This has been an incredible year. Please read all the notices and check the website. And ask questions. John and Mark have done a great job updating our procedures. And thank you to Mariya for getting info out to our membership with the newsletter. Thank you Nicho for stepping up to share the commodore position. The Commodore job is mostly overseeing and redirecting. In more normal times, I would love to dig in with committees and subgroups. Right now it’s more important to get as many people on the water as possible as safely as possible. If you see anyone around the club who looks confused, do what you can to help them out. Look out for each other. I also want to announce that Pilar Schmidt has agreed to take over the Conduct Chair position, temporarily.

Vice Commodore (Christina, Min, Tone, Lonnie) we still can’t have events. But we are looking for photos for the 50th anniversary of the marina. If you have anything in your archives, share it with us at vice_commodore@cal-sailing.org 

First Vice (James, Memo) the season is going strong. We have 2 new JYs to replace JY3, and JY4. One of them is rigged and ready to sail, the other will be ready soon. We are anticipating getting one more later this year. Due to the high demand for the Laser we are working on simplifying the rigging and will share an announcement soon. On Friday afternoons there are dinghy repair clinics with Memo and Ryan. Lots of boats are logged as needing repair, if you don’t know how to repair, come join us on Fridays or contact us at firstvice@cal-sailing.org.

Second Vice (Sofien) Since the re-opening we have focused on safe use of gear and marked all boards and sails with individual numbers. We produced a video to educate members on sanitizing and quarantine gear. To accommodate the increase in new members we currently have 35 novice boards and 33 novice sails for beginners. Our new board repair chair is Oliver Wüseke and he is doing repair clinics. We also hosted three rigging clinics to help members progress in ratings. Youth lessons are back! The young windsurfers are capable of staying up-wind and get back to the dock. 

Third Vice (Ryan) the keelboat fleet is in okay shape Meritorious and Daisy are DNSed. Meritorious new rigging installation is underway. Daisy’s motor seized due to un-use, the parts are in and it will be repaired soon. A team of senior keelboat skippers is looking at the rigging on Dr. Who. Dr. Who is rigged to be a single-hand boat for ocean voyages. We are evaluating a list of things we want to do differently. Like everything at CSC, there are many opinions but we are slowly coming to agreement, stay tuned for an announcement.

Rear Commodore (John - Sailing) 

1. Instructional activities are limited by distancing requirements, so at this time we can’t teach the way we normally do, with the instructor in boats. We are also limited by distancing in general around the Club.
2. We have done a number of online sessions
   1. Completed the classroom part of the Senior Study Group
   2. Held a number of online sessions for general audiences, including two racing sessions, a single-handing session, sailing faster than the wind (how that is possible), and David Fraser’s popular knots series
3. Dinghy Ground School has been operating on Saturdays since we opened,usually 2 boats and 10 students, run by Birk Huber. Covers rigging, using the tiller in basic maneuvers, use of the hoist, and general introduction to the Club. We have also offered it (thanks to Mark Elgood) during the week in afternoons.
4. Novice Fast Track has been a hit. Intended for members with sailing experience, it’s part ground school, part on the water demo, and part coaching on the water (from a skiff and a sailboat or a kayak). Many new members with experience have never anchored a dinghy, and many have not done a lot of capsize recoveries. Many participants finish with a Novice rating.
5. We are testing Juniors from a skiff or another sailboat. This is intended for members who can single-hand with main and jib in 15 knots and may need practice in some maneuvers. James Clarkson was the first to do this, and we have a group of Seniors who are willing to do it.
6. Yesterday, Caitie Bryson, US Sailing certified instructor, ran a beginner lesson for 3 students (2 never-evers) teaching on land, from the dock, and from the skiff. It went very well, and we will start doing this with instructors that we certify. Caitie is working with us on an instructor workshop.
7. The week after next, we will have a Junior coaching session to teach and practice the difficult Junior maneuvers: perfect docking, MOB, and small circles. This will be a combination of land sessions and practice with coaches in other boats. If it works well, we will continue to offer it.
8. We’re not able to do any instruction on keelboats. We’re waiting for the distancing rules to be relaxed.
9. Since June 1, 21 members have earned a Novice rating and 3 have earned Junior. As the programs I described ramp up, we can expect many more.
10. Thanks to all who have helped with this. Without you, we wouldn’t be doing very much.

Rear Commodore (Jennifer (JJ) - Windsurfing) We are approaching our 10th week of socially distance windsurfing lessons. We have tons of new members, and have made at least 100 new novices. We even converted a few sailors. Throughout the season we have improved the way we are teaching and have added land lessons and video to the on-water instruction. Thanks to Will Spargur for the incredible amount of support he has given to the windsurf lessons program. And a shout out to all of the instructors who have put in a lot of effort to do this safely. All of them have allowed us to develop a lesson structure with two experienced instructors and one novice/junior windsurfer to support the teaching. Eric Lee is taking over my position. He has a big role on the re-opening committee and frequently teaches weekend lessons.

Port Captain (Heather, Adelaide) We’re super happy to take on this role. We are inheriting something special thanks to the position and processes that Brenden and Kevin built. We are excited to share the joys of coordinating DL activities. We are very grateful for everyone who has made an effort to increase communication with the club and the DLs. We are transitioning smoothly from summer to fall with 9 new DLs (2 or 3 from last year). And the new DLs are rising to the challenge of learning CSC culture and Covid procedures. Remember to always check in with the DL and always follow the DL instructions and  if the skiff is not in the water, then the club is closed. 

Treasurer (Peter - for Stella) - Quarterly Statement of Financial Condition August 1 2020

As of August 1st we had $54,895 in the bank, down $15,046 from 5/1/19. Dues income is lower than usual for the May – July quarter since we were closed all of May and are now reopening by limited stages. Spending includes a JY15 sailboat and a Venture mast for which we will be reimbursed by the California Parks and Recreation Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW); total expected reimbursement is $20,369 including a JY15 sailboat paid for in February. We will owe the US government about $10,000 for the Payroll Protection Program loan we received.

Big thanks to everyone who worked hard for the club!

Re-open Committee (Mark Elgood) speaking for the reopen team. We are doing really well and making slow steps forward. The  reservation system is the backbone of our operation. Every week we explore possibilities to increase capacity. Last week we finally got the west dock which will really help us increase dinghy capacity. There are updated diagrams and procedures of how we expect to accommodate more boats at the west  dock. We are continually iterating on the dock usage arrangements, since we need to make sure people are aware of how many others are in the vicinity while they are moving to and from the dock. Maybe in a few weeks things may change, Alameda county is talking about relaxing restrictions. In the meantime, we are doing all we can to get more people out on the water safely. One major change this month is that dinghy and WS gear can be sanitized and reused in the same day. PFD sanitizing and quarantine remains the same. Please send suggestions, comments, and questions to csc-reopen-feedback@googlegroups.com

Comments from members 

Paul Herzmark suggests additional email reminders closer to the GMM date.  

Michael Callahan wants to know when senior dinghy tests can be offered. Under the current Covid restrictions we cannot do senior dinghy testing. 

We are grateful for your membership and let us know how we can support you. Thank you to everyone on excomm for keeping this going. 

This is a non-voting GMM