Meeting Minutes for the Executive Committee
2022-02-09
Attendees:
Steve Howard, Commodore
Pete Katz, Treasurer
John Ebell, Club Development Officer
Tom Walsh, Any One Meter Class Coordinator, Equipment Manager
Kyle Russell, DF65 Class Coordinator
Budget
Three budget scenarios were presented by the Commodore and Treasurer. The Executive Committee agreed with the sentiment on providing new services to the membership, but decided to defer these ideas for future consideration. The "as-is" budget was approved and will be presented at the 2022 Annual Meeting.
Bylaws
There was a discussion on the new Bylaws. Some members feel that the proposed Bylaws present too much overhead and structure for the club. The committee decided it was better to define roles, than to leave it open ended. Two options were discussed:
Rescind the 2021 bylaws and just run using the Sailing Instructions as had been done in prior years.
Adopt the proposed bylaws.
The Commodore presented the most recent changes to the Bylaws and sought Executive Committee approval to recommend them to the membership for adoption by the Club. Approval was unanimous.
Report of Membership
The Commodore and Treasurer have invested a lot of time to "clean up" records for who are members and their status in 2021 and 2022. A new spreadsheet has been built and was shown. Bottom line, we have 10 paid full members and 1 junior member as of this meeting. We are way ahead of where we normally are in terms of membership on a given year.
We will continue our traditional efforts to sign up members pond side.
Pond / Lake Status
The committee approved a work day before the season begins. Two primary focuses:
Install the job box that will hold the inflatable, marks, safety equipment, etc.
Have a fun sail to allow members to get on the water and tune their boats in preparation for the season.
Old Business
Per the new bylaws, upon approval, there is now a defined Race Director and a set-up/take-down volunteer for each weekend race.
The RD will be responsible for course selection based on wind, managing the start, finish, and scoring. The RD will not race. Instead, the RD will get the same points as the 2nd place finisher for classes they normally sail.
The set-up/take-down volunteer will help get equipment out and set up the course working with the RD and Equipment Manager. This individual will race during the day.
We need to start seeking volunteers for the season. John Ebell will be RD, and Tom Walsh the set-up/take-down, volunteers for our first races.
New Business
There was a discussion on having the club open its own bank account. This presents multiple benefits to the club, including:
Year over year consistency in where the MMYC funds are held and minimizing delays for access when officers change.
Enables mdmodelyachtclub@gmail.com to be used as a PayPal account to make joining the club easier, and providing an electronic trail of members that have paid their dues.
The committee decided to defer this until next year. There are several things that must be done before the club can have its own checking account. These actions take time, and anticipate doing them during the 2022 season in preparation for the 2023 season.
Election of Officers
The committee approved Mike Rickels as the new Scorer for the club. Craig Huzway resigned the position.
The Club Secretary is still open. We seek nominations from membership to fill that position this year.
Meeting adjourned
2022-01-11
Attendees:
Steve Howard, Commodore
Pete Katz, Treasurer
Walter House, Out-going Treasurer
Treasurer's Transfer meeting
Good meeting. We gained significantly more clarity on the history of the financial transactions of the club and what current balances are.
2021 Paid members: 29
2021 Lifetime members (non-paid): Danny Thomas
Final balance being transferred: $1,256.86
This team has full agreement that financial details of the club are only published to the membership, and most definitely not out there on the public internet. Summary information should be published as to document the health of the club.
Historically, it has been a process, procedure, and financial difficulty to track who is a paid member. Largely this has to do with accepting cash payments at pond-side, usually without a fully filled out and signed membership form. Often the forms are just not available pond-side. This needs to be rectified by having an easy way to use a smartphone to register with the club and use an electronic payment method to deliver the funds. This keeps a full record of who signed up and who paid. The new Club Express site should have all these capabilities and we will endeavor to make it truly easy to sign up pond-side (or just going to the club website) and pay membership dues.
A discussion was held that we need to identify all assets owned by the club and to ensure they are with current club members. Pete and Steve committed to work with the Equipment Manager and others with historical knowledge to identify what is owned by the club and where it is. We will also collaborate to decide potential new homes for assets and any repairs that may be needed.
There may not be a reason to have a substantial balance carried forward from year to year. The discussion was to reduce this balance by spending on benefits for the club members (hats, lanyards, maybe some lunches, etc.). Pete and Steve will be working on a budget that shows club expenses, planned expenses, and subsequent balance. There is also potentially a need for a rainy day fund (e.g., replace the inflatable, buy a job box). The budget will be proposed to the membership and voted by the membership at the annual meeting.
Meeting adjourned
2022-01-08
Attendees:
Steve Howard, Commodore
Pete Katz, Treasurer
John Ebell, Club Development
Tom Walsh, One Meter and Equipment Coordinator
Chris Carpenter, Webmaster
Treasurer's report
24 paid members
1 lifetime member (unpaid) - Danny Thomas
Received spreadsheet of expenses/income from 2021 Treasurer. Awaiting funds from 2021 Treasurer. Expecting approx. $800.00.
Both ponds are now insured for 2022. Cost $155.00 to be reimbursed from funds received.
Budget estimates:
- Income: $500-600/year (based on 25-30 members)
- Expenses: tbd
- Reserve: tbd
Website - unanimous vote to approve
The website is our most important asset for communications, recruiting new membership, collaboration with other clubs, advertising Regattas and Races. Executive Committee unanimously voted approval to buy domain names and invest in a new website based on ClubExpress. We will transition off of googlesites.com over time. Expenditure: approx. $240/yr for Club Express; approx. $150 for 3 year purchase of domain names.
Remove Hall of Fame page. Create a "Past Commodores" section for the previous commodores. Vanilla listing, just when they served.
Remove Sail Wars advertising. That is not MMYC owned and advertises a lot of other clubs.
Bylaws - unanimous vote to approve
Draft amended bylaws were approved by the Executive Committee and recommended out for a General Membership vote. Changing bylaws requires a majority of voters to approve. They will be advertised shortly and a vote held at the 2022 Annual Meeting.
Sailing venue - unanimous vote to approve
We are keeping both Columbia and Melford as options for the club (hence the insurance coverage for both). Event schedule will use Melford Pond. We will shift to Columbia if conditions at Melford require us to use the alternate pond.
Annual meeting - unanimous vote to approve
Will be held on Saturday, 2/19/2022. This will be a virtual meeting because of Omicron.
2021 Awards - unanimous vote to approve
Etched 16 oz. glasses were approved. Steve Howard to order. Approx. $150.00 for all awards. Awards to be presented at the first race day of 2022 as the Annual Meeting will be virtual.
Nominations for officers
Discussion to fill positions: DF65 Class Coordinator; Secretary. Chris Carpenter agreed and was voted to be Webmaster, not Asst. Webmaster, per last election.
EC-12 as a new fleet
John Ebell and Danny Thomas have an idea to race EC-12's on Sunday, following our standard Saturday race day. Expect to run a "mini-regatta" format over three Sundays. They will work together to schedule and advertise to regional participants. There will be a future possibility of always racing EC-12's on the Sunday after our normal Saturday race schedule. This will depend on the success of this year's experiment.
Meeting adjourned