Club champions, working bees, strategic plan and more

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The cool and damp weather this month has taken the edge off the finish of the sailing season. Only the hardy sailors seemed to be out on the water this month, with some challenging competition right to the last official race. The presentation night was held on Saturday 23 May. I would like to send out big congratulations to Greg and Hayden Parsons, sailing Banana Split who are our Club Champions for the second season in a row. You have certainly thrown down the gauntlet to the other sailors. All other class and handicap results and trophy awards will be promoted on the website after the presentation night.

We have had major issues with the computer system in the office over the last few months and have gone though a review process to determine the best course of action for the club. The Committee recently approved the purchase of new hardware and updates of software, so we expect to be up and running in the next few weeks. Thanks to Su Fraser and Dave Del Monaco for their assistance in the IT review and implementations.

Just because the cold weather has arrived, don’t let it put you off using the club - whether you are fishing, sailing or just socialising with friends make sure you continue to use our great facilities.

There is information in this newsletter about nominating for our next Committee of Management whose term will be late July 2015 to July 2016. I would encourage members who have not been involved with the Committee, to consider nominating. I am happy to speak to anyone who is interested in getting involved with the Committee at the club.

Lois Hunt | Commodore

Working bee information

Working bees start in June and I hope you’re all getting excited! Working bees are a fantastic way to give back to the club whilst enjoying the camaraderie of your fellow sailors, making new friends and showing off your skills!

Our defect list is displayed in the club rooms so please nominate yourself on this list for any tasks you would especially like to tackle.

Quite a few jobs not completed last year have been carried forward to this year’s list, particularly maintenance on the jetties, Floating floating ramps and rigging platforms. Access to some of this work will be dependent on the tides and often they will not coincide with Saturday mornings.

We are looking for a pool of volunteers that are available mid-week where maintenance can be programmed around when the tides are favourable. If you are retired, semi-retired, or just have some flexibility to commit time during the week, please contact Mike Virant at the club or call him on 0419 239 344.

The success of our working bee program relies on many members putting in some effort during the winter months. Whatever your skills and experience, or lack of, please make sure you come to the club and give a hand in some way at a few of the working bees. Many hands make light work.

Committee of Management nominations

Even though we do not have our Annual General Meeting until Sunday 26 July, we have to run the nomination process now for the Committee of Management (CoM). This is necessary to allow time if we require elections to be run. Elections are only necessary if we get more nominations than there are vacancies for any Committee positions. Being on the Committee involves a commitment to attend monthly meetings and to assist with the day-to-day operations of the club in various ways.

Copies of nomination forms will be available at the canteen and office on Saturdays and are available on the website. The nomination period closes at midday on Saturday 20 June. This allows us a five week period to organise and run elections if required.

Use of function room

A useful source of income to the club is the fees we receive from function room bookings.

Members are reminded that they can rent the function room for events involving family members - birthdays, family reunions, weddings and even wakes.

We would like to remind and encourage members who are involved with any community, not for profit or educational activities (not commercial) that the club rooms are available to be used for these activities.

It's a wonderful location for training meetings, community information sessions etc. We currently have a community choir using the rooms one night a week. We have a great club facility, and the upstairs area is currently under-utilised – so if you have connections or ideas that can assist the club to increase our income through the use of the function room please contact Lois or the Secretary.

More information on about the function room is on the website.

Reminder - working bees

Club working bees start Saturday 6 June from 9am - 1pm. All members are encouraged to participate.

Bar news

Congratulations to our hard working Bar Manager, Russell Bates who has just celebrated his 80th birthday. Russell has had a very long and active involvement with the club, and in his youth was a member of the Sea Scouts next door to the Club. This seems an opportune moment to remind everyone that Russell has asked to step down from his bar manager role. Fair enough at 80!

We are very keen to have a new bar manager or two, as this is a role that can be shared. If you are interested please talk to Lois or Russell.

Don’t forget the WSC club bar is open the first Friday of the month right winter. Dates to put in the diary: 5 June, 3 July, 7 August, 4 September.

Hartley TS16 State Titles

The Hartley State Titles were run at Portarlington in April. Despite appalling weather at times, the fleet managed to complete three races and the six crews who defied the conditions had some spectacular racing - and socialising! Highlights of the weekend include the outstanding on-water and race committee support and extremely close racing with three different winners!

Congratulations to the top three boats and crew:

1. Whispering (Alan O;Brien and Sue Burke)
2. Tru- Blu (Michael Horvath and Anthony Berger)
3. Wild One (Peter Mullinger and David)

A full report of the 2015 Victorian State Titles is available on the website.

Draft strategic plan

Our strategic plan sets out our intentions for the next 12 months or so. We will pursue the initiatives on the list and ignore or defer things that aren’t on the list. So if there is something you’re keen to see us do, or not do, please take a look the draft plan. If you want to suggest changes then make sure you send us your feedback.

Thanks to all the members who have already provided feedback on the draft strategic plan. We will allow another month for any further feedback from club members and the Committee will finalise the strategic plan at the June meeting.

Fishing activity

There have been some very good consistent catches of flathead over the last few weeks. James and Tony are always out chasing them and generally with good results, Joe has had the odd grin on his face. Bill Pride and John Bunnet were seen cleaning a very large catch on Sunday morning at the club, claiming they did not quite bag out, just missed by one!

Big grins from Bill, but disappointment from others who fished the same spot the night before and got nothing.

Boat ramp users

If any of the current 37 boat ramp users have not used the ramp for 12 months, we would like you to consider giving up your position on the ramp so we can provide your spot to someone else. We have a waiting list of new members who would like to access the ramp for fishing. Please let Leigh know if you don't need your ramp spot anymore: secretary@williamstownsailingclub.org.au

Thanks to Healthy Fit Williamstown

We would like to pass on a thank you and give a free plug to support Healthy Fit who donated two two-week passes for group training classes at their gym in Williamstown. These were used as prizes at the raffle during our South American night in April, which was a very successful fundraiser.

Leigh and Hayley Farrell who won the passes, have let us know that they have progressed on from their group training classes and have signed up as members at Healthy Fit.

Healthy Fit are situated upstairs at 100 Douglas Parade Williamstown. They offer personal training, small group training and club membership. Telephone: 9397 8292 www.healthyfit.com.au

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