August 22, 2021 GMM minutes

Start Time  6:06 pm

End Time  6:33 pm

Location: Virtual

Attendance

Commodore (NW):

The club doing well, tracking near what it was doing in 2019. I would like to thank people giving lessons we have a lot of new students needing them. On budget overall the club is doing well and covering the expenses. Considering 2020 we are remarkably on track. 

Blog posts are helpful for driving traffic to our website since they get indexed. Please consider posting.  We will also be doing a website reorganization and are setting up a small team to work on that. We would welcome volunteers for that as well.

Vice Commodores (CPH,ML)

Not much going on with open houses thanks to the delta variant.

1rst Vice (MG)

New jibs/sail covers are coming in for quests. Not much else to report. Send email to 1rst vices if you need help repairing stuff

2nd Vice (SS):

Lots going on. The Sherman island events have been giving access to a lot of first class education for members. Thank you Randy Shapiro for taking lead on setting them up.

Covid did effect board suppliers, sails came but we are waiting on boards. We lost many of our Intermediate/advanced sailors as they drifted away using personal equipment. Our newest senior is Erik Lee. 

3rd Vice (Ryan)

Keelboats doing o.k. Daisy is down for planned maintenance getting new standing rigging. The completion was delayed while they check out the state of the cabin top. One Merit (Doctor Who) is down for maintenance after gooseneck failure. It should be sailing within a week.

Rear commodore:

(JB dinghy instruction):

In general our sailing instruction programs are all up and running, but at

somewhat lower volumes than pre-COVID.

1. We are teaching about 12% fewer students on Saturdays than in 2019, but Mondays are about even with 2019, and Thursdays are 50% higher. There is huge interest in our programs. When I arrived at the Club yesterday at 8:55am, there were 20 students lined up to sign up for 10am lessons.
2. Our basic keelboat program is going well with at least 2 regular Wednesday instructors (soon to be 3) and a lesson coordinator, Pierre Nedelec.
3. We are running 6 Fast Tracks this year instead of the usual 5 (the last one is the week of August 30). Because the first two were at half normal capacity (COVID restrictions), the total number of students this season will be the normal number. Thanks to everyone who helped, especially the coordinators.
4. Our last Advanced Dinghy session is tomorrow, finishing a full and successful season with consistently high attendance.
5. Rating stats are always a good proof point. 24% more members have earned Novice this year than in 2021, but 20% fewer have earned Junior. I would encourage members to skip the Novice reating where possible and go for Junior. In a month or so, the winds will be dropping, so it will be hard to get a Junior test. Only 1 person made Senior this year, compared to 2 in 2019. 

I'll end by thanking all of the instructors and testers. I've seen quite a few newer members teaching, and I encourage all of you who are rated to try it out. It's a rewarding experience, you'll be helping fellow members along the way, and you'll learn a lot. I am also getting great suggestions for improving our program from some newer members, so think about how we can do even better.

(EL windsurfing instruction):

Since the last GMM, we finally escaped the super frequent low tides and have been able to hold Youth and Novice lessons every weekend. This, in combination with loosening COVID-19 restrictions, has meant that we’ve been able to teach many more Novices. We’ve also had several topic-specific clinics for advanced novices, freestyle, water starting, and more. None of this would have been possible without help from a huge number of windsurfers, all of whom have contributed their time and passion for teaching and windsurfing.

Looking forward, we have about two more months of regular lessons scheduled and can hopefully have a few more workshops for advanced novices as well.

Port Captains (absent)

No updates.

Secretary (BH, CB)

No updates.

Treasurer (absent)

Report attached to bottom of this document.

Comments/Questions from members:

Gordon kirkwood: how on topic should blog posts be: would a post about a homebuilt boat project be o.k?  NW: such a post in the stories or teachings section would be fine.

Marcos Nascimento: How to pair people who want to train together -- NW: We have a distribution list and also slack has channels that would be good for that. https://join.slack.com/t/calsailingclub/shared_invite/zt-3x258mj8-GtLySGs37ajpwTblBNZcxw

Mike Sone:  Meals after fast track were really good for camaraderie -- thanks to people who organize that. NW: In precovid times these sort of events were really what the club was about -- we were a community and getting together was as important as sailing. We are glad to be able to start getting back to those.

Comments/Questions from members:

Gordon kirkwood: how on topic should blog posts be: would a post about a homebuilt boat project be o.k?  NW: such a post in the stories or teachings section would be fine.

Marcos Nascimento: How to pair people who want to train together -- NW: We have a distribution list and also slack has channels that would be good for that. https://join.slack.com/t/calsailingclub/shared_invite/zt-3x258mj8-GtLySGs37ajpwTblBNZcxw

Mike Sone:  Meals after fast track were really good for camaraderie -- thanks to people who organize that. NW: In precovid times these sort of events were really what the club was about -- we were a community and getting together was as important as sailing. We are glad to be able to start getting back to those.