WSC enews: Sailing season champions, Xmas in July, fee info & working bees

Sailing season champions, Xmas in July, fee info & working bees

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June 2016

I begin this month newsletter by congratulating John Gibson on winning Club Champion, Sue Burke - Best Women's Skipper, and Jarrod Meddings - Junior Champion for the 2015-16 sailing season. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Brian Fentiman who was a fantastic Master of Ceremonies at this year’s presentation night.

It’s now a little over a year since we announced the retirement of Russell Bates from his role as bar manager. During this time Jude Blackwood has done a terrific job as bar manager.

Apart from keeping on top of almost every minor fault with our race management and rescue boats our Rear Commodore Hans Schepers has been very busy planning for the current working bees. More recently he’s sifted through 1.5 cubic meters of documents our former Treasurer had collected over 30 years - that's quite a stash and some interesting history has been rediscovered.

TACKERS - the sailing committee is currently reviewing a proposed expansion of our Opti fleet, stay tuned more information coming soon.

Don't forget it's not too late to nominate for any of the positions on the CoM, nominations must be received by 12 noon Saturday 25 June.

Simon van den Berg | Commodore

Social calendar

Xmas in July - Saturday 23 July

In what could become an annual tradition we are once more hosting a Xmas in July function at the club. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to enjoy great food, live music, and sharing good times with family and friends. Once again our excellent local musicians ‘The Long & Short Of It’ will provide the musical entertainment. Bring along some family and friends and make up a table. This function is only suitable for children over 12. It's on Sat 23 July, 7pm till late Tickets: Adults $35, Family $80. Tickets must be ordered and paid for prior to the event, and no later than Saturday 16 July. Collect your tickets either in person at the club on Saturdays or by email to social@williamstownsailingclub.org.au

Save the date - Saturday 20 August for a progressive dinner - Williamstown sailing and boating clubs

At this stage all is moving ahead with a Progressive dinner on 20 August between the three Williamstown sailing clubs and possibly the Motor Yacht Squadron. Tickets will be limited to 40 per club and probably around $70 a head for all food and live music. When details are finalised information will go up on the website and in notices around the club regards ticket sales.

Event wrap up - Friday night 3 June

The Mexican tacos, nachos and burritos were popular with those who attended our last Friday night function on 3 June before we take a break for the winter months. About 35 individuals and family members enjoyed the evening, with the Ukulele Dolls keeping us entertained. Thanks to all the helpers from over the summer and autumn who assisted with our Friday night gigs- whether doing food prep, cooking, serving, cleaning up and of course running the bar. These nights have helped create some happy experiences, attract new members and allow us all to enjoy the best view in town.

Visit the website for more information.

Winter working bees

With working bees just beginning this month and continuing through until to late September there’s plenty of time to drop in on any Saturday morning between 9am - 1pm and lend a hand. If you're a new member and unfamiliar with the process, you simply review the list of tasks / jobs on whiteboard and find one that suits you, put your name next to the task and make a start.

There are plenty of projects both inside and outside the clubhouse so irrespective of the weather there is lots to do. This winter’s efforts will include adding bumpers to the floating pontoons, annual mooring maintenance and decking repairs. Sprucing up the clubhouse with some new timber and lots of painting is high on this year’s to-do list.

If you can’t make it on Saturdays, but are available during the week please contact me on 0412 241 980 and we’ll arrange a time and find a job that suits you.

Hans Schepers | Rear Commodore

Social survey: results are in!

Thanks to the 76 club members who participated in our social survey in May. The results have given us a good overview of what club members want, and don’t want in terms of social activities. We will use this information to put together a social activities plan for the 2016-17 year. Here are a few of the outcomes:

The Friday night events will definitely run again over the warmer months, and we will add gourmet sausages and hamburgers to the menu.
There were two Sunday activities that got high responses - a boat trip up the river and being involved in Clean Up Australia Day based around the club and water. So we will make sure we get these two happening.
The interest in big screen events at the club wasn't great, so we won’t organise a major event, but we might try some low-key activity.
There was high interest in having a sailing skills night, so we will collaborate with the Sailing Committee to get one or two of those events happening again - aiming for one early in the sailing season.
44% of respondents had been members over 5 years, 18% less than 1 year
62% of respondents were senior sailors, 13% family sailing, 13% seniors (ordinary)

Wanted - cleaner

Unfortunately our current cleaner is unable to continue providing this service to the club. Over the next month or so the Committee of Management will be seeking out a new service provider.

If anyone within the club has their own, or knows of a great cleaning company, we will gladly receive expressions of interest in providing cleaning services for the club.

Please contact the Commodore for more information commodore@williamstownsailingclub.org.au.

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AGM and Committee of Management nominations

Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday 31 July. This year a number of positions will need to be filled, including the roles of Treasurer, Secretary and Club Captain Anyone with a special interest in these positions is always welcome to nominate, if you're unsure of the role or tasks and keen to help out please contact the Commodore.

The nomination process for any Committee of Management (CoM) position requires submission of a nomination form, which is available in person on Saturdays and is available on the website.

Whist the AGM is held on 31 July, nominations close on noon Saturday 25 June to allow time to run any elections if required. Elections are only necessary if we receive more nominations than vacancies for any Committee member positions.

Budgets and membership fees for 2016-17

Over the last few seasons we have successfully begun to turn around a decreasing club membership and are expanding again. This is reflected in that the club is a friendly place to be around with great social activities, an improved program to assist new sailors and of course our fun TACKERS program. The increase in family membership this summer has been superb. Notwithstanding this great success, we generally experience some membership loses, so budgeting income is always a challenge.

The current financial results are looking positive for the 2015/16 year and it must be noted that the Committee has had limited major expenditure this year. Budgets have been prepared for the 2016-17 year, which includes a increase in expenditure on maintenance and structural work around the club facilities, resources, and an anticipated increases in our insurance. As we all know the club facilities are ageing, with a number of larger repairs and maintenance issues becoming necessary.

In the immediate future we will replace the clubs tractor with a more suitable vehicle, and condition of the trailers for the Course boat (RF Bates) and the James Pearl are currently being reviewed. We also need to begin our planning and budgeting for eventual replacement of our jetties.

In light of these considerations, at the May committee meeting the Committee of Management and members in attendance voted to increase the 2016-17 fees. Part of this increase is to bring WSC into similar fee rates as other small boat clubs. When compared to other clubs, some fees like boat storage and boat registration were very low and have been increased substantially, consequently we have not adopted an across the board flat increase. We have consciously tried to be fair and equitable with the rate increases that will sustain this fantastic club and encourage members to renew their membership and keep active in the club.

Invoices for the 2016-17 year’s fees will be posted out to all members in early July. Please pay your fees promptly in July and August.

View the 2016-17 fees on the website.

Club tractor to be retired

This month the Committee of Management resolved to decommission the club tractor and replace it with a more suitable vehicle. The replacement vehicle will have to meet the following requirements: short wheel base; utility style chassis; with four wheel drive capability. The tractor has required quite a high level of servicing and its use has been very limited to retrieval of boats. The new vehicle will continue to assisting with boat retrieval and will also be used to take boats to service centres, refueling, and the collection of various goods and items needed for moorings, etc.

TACKERS families working bee - Sat 6 August

Calling all TACKERS kids and their families. You are all invited to come to the club for a special TACKERS working bee on Saturday 6 August.

We will be working indoors, so it will be running no matter what the weather. There will be a variety of jobs for kids and parents to help with - Opti boats will need cleaning, life jackets to be cleaned and washed and other sundry tasks. We will also need helpers to cook the BBQ lunch. So come on down anytime from 10am, lunch will be 12.30.

For safety reasons, we have to place a minimum age of 7 of any children in attendance. All children will need to be supervised by a parent, or other adult.

Lois, with the assistance of TACKERS instructors, will be running a short meeting with parents around lunchtime to discuss what the families are looking for in our TACKERS program moving forwards and how to plan for that- both formal courses and TACKERS Fleet activities.

Wear your old warm clothes in case there are messy jobs to do!!

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