Following are the Minutes from the most recent Meeting of the Santa Cruz Rowing Club Board of Directors. I will set up a category of posts under which all of our meetings going forward will be posted. As always, we welcome your comments. I will also attempt to archive our past meeting under this same Board Meeting Minutes category and comments can be put to those postings as well.
Present: Linda Locklin, Beth Gummere, Thomas Crubaugh, Tom Dexel, Tim Kensit, Jane Allen, Michelle Oldman, Martha Brown (note taker)
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm
Boat Maintenance Issues
Beth reported that the club now owns 11 rental boats, including the newest addition, an Aero (in excellent shape) donated by Merrill Newman. She needs additional help maintaining the fleet now that her work schedule (and Terry's as well) has gotten more hectic. Beth is also willing to start doing more teaching, which will prevent maintenance problems in the long run. She urges Board members to be more visible and vocal in order to head off problems with boat damage, as well as to emphasize safety. With so many more people now renting boats it's critical that safety be stressed.
Ideas for spreading out the work on boats were discussed. One thought Beth had is to make different people responsible for a specific area of equipment (oars, fins, skegs, seats, etc.) so that we develop areas of expertise. Although Beth notes that Jamie has been doing a good job repairing boat hulls, others have to step up to deal with other parts of the boats. For instance, Rosalie has volunteered to work on rigging. Linda said she would also investigate the possibility of identifying unused equipment in the oarhouse.
Action items suggested:
* Send an email to the general membership regarding looking for help with maintenance (Beth will do this)
* Board members should be a bigger presence at work parties (the next is scheduled for Sunday, September 19)
* More people-particularly renters-should be encouraged to join the Board
* Hold another clinic to review boat handling/cleaning
* Ask Joel to build a "cleaning rest" for doubles so that they don't have to be put on the slings to be cleaned
* Remind renters of basic maintenance and safety issues-if you observe problems, speak up! If conditions are bad outside the harbor, let people know.
Beth was also encouraged to ask for help from other Board members and vent when she needs to.
Web Site Update
Thomas proposed going to a "blog" format for the Club's web site. This would make it more interactive, make it possible to post photos, etc. Thomas would continue to be the "gatekeeper," though we can have more than one person in this role. The cost would be $4.95-$8.95 per month. We would keep the same titillating web site name. Jane offered to help with the web design. Thomas got the okay from the Board to explore this new format.
Lobster Row
The row is scheduled for Sunday, October 3. Jane has lined up the caterer and rentals, arranged for the lunch area, and will get the entry forms mailed tomorrow. Martha and Linda have ordered the t-shirts and will post additional flyers around the harbor. Tom and Thomas will contact the Sentinel to try and generate some publicity. We discussed finishing outside the harbor.
Jane wants people to take charge of various aspects of the race. She will send out a "to-do" list and get in touch with Judy Jensen to arrange for volunteers. Tasks include:
* Contacting the harbor (Jane)
* Registration - Martha will help the morning of the race, but we need a registration coordinator to oversee all of the process.
* Course marking - Jane will contact the SCYC for help marking the course; Tom will arrange for a start boat and sweep boat. We could also use a boat to mark and monitor the turn marks.
* Race timing - Jane will contact Jim, John, and Terry. Volunteers will be needed to help with timing; they will need radios and/or walkie talkies. Jane will help deal with the postrace "sorting" of finishers.
* Skipper's meeting: Terry has traditionally run the skippers meeting. We decided to use the orange buoy as the first and last mark; there will be a time penalty or you will be disqualified if you miss it.
* Launch committee - 4 to 5 volunteers will be needed to help launch boats.
* Set up and tear down - volunteers will be needed for setting up the lunch area and tearing it down. We hope that the caterer will pick up the tables on Sunday rather than Monday.
* Greet and collect lunch tickets - Linda
* Sell t-shirts - Martha and Michelle
* Buy beer, water, soda - we need someone to do this; these ran short last year
* Buy cookies - Martha (get more than last year)
* Awards ceremony - Linda would like to pass on doing awards this year; we talked about asking Sunny to do it.
* Clean up - Linda will be in charge
Sign Up System for Reserving Boats for Races
The issue of reserving boats for races (particularly the doubles) needs to be addressed now that the number of renters has increased. It was proposed that we create a ranking system so that a "point" value could be assigned to determine priority for rentals. The following was suggested as the criteria for ranking:
Highest
Full membership paid
Unlimited launches
Volunteer duties completed
Next highest
Full membership paid
10-launch member
and so on.
We would notify people two months prior to a race (Tahoe, Monterey Crossing, Lobster Row) and open sign ups, then assign a ranking using the criteria above.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30.
Martha Brown
