The Commodore's Newsletter October 2017

During October we revived the New Members Evening. This was a great success and it was clear that the new members appreciated the chance to find out how the Club functions and how to become more involved with our activities. It has been brought to the attention of the General Committee that there is some disquiet from some of our members, about a perceived bias in the recruitment of new members who are on the younger side and who have young families. Personally I love to see these members and their families enjoying our Club, along with all our members. However, there is no bias towards new members joining in the younger membership bracket. In fact over the past year the majority of members who have joined us are in the older age range. Over the last year we have 6 new members in the 18-30 category and 116 new members in the 31+ categories.

Sailing

I enjoyed a great evening at the end of season youth awards. Helping to award the prizes to our Youth Members was a privilege. The enthusiasm of the young sailors was infectious as was the amazing list of volunteers who work all year to make the Youth Sailing so enjoyable.

Moving up the age bracket the Cruiser Summer Series prize giving was a very successful evening and most enjoyable. Again a big thank you to Matt for all his organisation and to Roger who organised the Poole Yacht Club sponsored PYRA racing awards.

The big news from Sailing is that after a number of submissions and presentations to the General Committee over the last few months, the General Committee has given its full support to the appointment of a full time “Sailing Professional”. The rationale and benefits to The Poole Yacht Club are explained in an attached briefing note from John Yonwin and the Sailing Committee. I have attached further information at the end of my newsletter.

For your diaries

• Ladies night, Organic Wine Tasting: 6/11 (I might shake out an old frock to attend!)
• Commodore’s Charity pursuit Race: 12/11
• Cruiser Section Laying up Supper: 18/11
• Annual Dinner and Dance: 2/12
• Commodore’s Youth Challenge: 27/12
• Advance warning for January. There is a fascinating evening arranged by Sue Thornton-Grimes on the history of our Club. There will be three presentations during the evening to cover our early history, more recent history and all the amazing cruising and racing undertaken by our members over the years. There will be slides and pictures to illustrate the narrative. Date Wednesday 17th January 2018. Time 19.30 in the Skylight Lounge. We are asking for a donation of £2 per head to be made for the Commodore’s Charity (Julia’s House).

Our Youth Section

The Commodore’s Challenge Youth Team has been out practicing. On Saturday Dave Hale and Joe Cross were putting them through their paces on race starting strategies. Thank you to Steve Thompson for all the work on your boat and to Dave and Joe for their enthusiasm and expertise. Come on our Youth Team!

Social

Tickets are going fast for the Annual Dinner Dance so please buy your tickets soon to avoid disappointment.

Commodores Charity

The next fund raining event towards raising money for Julia’s House will be the Charity Pursuit Race on Sunday the 12th of November. Please come along on the Sunday and bring some change. There will be a collection to add to the total we are collecting for Julia’s House. We will, of course, be holding a two minute silence at 11.00 hrs for Remembrance Sunday.

Sailing Professional:

As noted in recent Sailing and General Committee Minutes, your Committees have been considering and working on the prospect of the Club taking on a “Sailing Professional” over the recent months. The final vote (which was unanimous in favour) to proceed was taken by General Committee at its October meeting. This followed much research, reports, reviews and cost/benefit analysis work by a number of members of Sailing & General Committees It will, essentially, add a paid member to the Club staff team in this important area of our Club.

We felt that even with such a great team of hard working Volunteers, the time has come to bring in a “professional, paid staff member” (as we have in all other aspects of the Club.)
This appointment can only add to the longer term success and future of our great Club.

The applicant would be expected to:
“......Plan, organise and deliver a programme of sailing training for adult members, for the sailing training of youth members to run in school holidays, for the dinghy instructor, assistant instructor and first aid training which is essential for our adult and youth training; also plan and organise an initial On Board training programme, work with our Race Officer team in developing training plans and be involved in securing sailing events.......”

We are now commencing the recruitment process and, of course, we will keep Members briefed on this.
The Sailing Officers will also brief members fully and take any questions at the Club Forum planned for early 2018.
In the meantime, by all means, contact or speak with John Yonwin, Vice Commodore / Sailing on: 07966 551038 or john.yonwin@btinternet.com