Rat Island Rowing and Sculling Club

Minutes of the Board Meeting – 20^th June 2006

Attendees: John Collins, Tim Lawson, Claudia Townsan, Penny Jensen, Susan Yawman, Erica Delma

Peanut Gallery:

Minutes

1. Additions to agenda
Communications – added to secretary’s report
Providing more rowing opportunities

2. Approval of minutes of May 25, 2006
The minutes were approved.

3. Treasurer’s report
Income from members' dues: $10,650
Income from Class dues: $2,750
Other income: $863.50
Cash in hand: $14,900(ish)
We're tracking to income prediction. Still too early in the year to predict expenses.

4. Secretary’s report
The new website is up and running. Still needs more content. Many of the picture galleries are populated. Any content to go on the website needs to be the complete text expected – no notes, please write the text for the final reader.

The newsletter will continue to be the primary broadcast of information to club members. High importance items (like change of open row schedules) will be sent as a separate short high priority email.

5. Proposal to purchase Pocock C8 from Pocock Center
Approved by the board with the caveat of asking John to check on potential boats at the regionals this weekend. We should know on Monday. Susan abstained from the vote.

6. Proposal to purchase 8 sweep oars from Tacoma
Approved by the board pending inspection prior to purchase.

7. Proposal to order 8 sculling oars from Concept II
Approved by the board – we need to oars to field two quads without borrowing private oars.

8. Discussion of need for pair/doubles
The board agreed that we currently have no need for any pairs or doubles. The minimum sized boat for the club is a quad / four.

9. Nominations for audit review committee
The club bylaws mandate an audit review committee is appointed to review the club finances. We are seeking members with an accounting background to help. Please contact John Collins if you can help.

10. Planning for “Near term goals”
We reviewed the short term goals and there was general agreement that we are making good progress against the goals. The two areas where we are a little behind are fundraising (see committee report below) and the Club brochure. If you have the skills to help create a club brochure please contact John Collins.

11. Committee reports and proposals:

· Boat Maintenance – Tim

i. Future maintenance priorities
Replacing the foot stretcher adjusters in the Martin Kelley and fixing the squeaky seats.

·Community Outreach/Special Events – Erica

i. Future outreach events
Next major outreach event is the Wooden Boat Festival. We're seeking a volunteer to organize the Rowing Race. We will be lifting the restriction on solely wooden boats participating. Please contact Erica if you'd like to organize the event.
Upcoming special events:
Party at Paul and Barb Hagar's house 1 July
Picnic at Kala Point – mid July
Row to Mystery Bay picnic – 19 or 20 August

·Fundraising – Erica

i. Fundraising plans
We're looking to hold a fundraiser in late September (9/25?) - a silent auction. We want to focus the goal of fundraising on a new boat / launch.

· Launch – John

i. Second launch priority
The board agreed that a second launch will give the club significant flexibility to mix levels of abilities during rows and reduce conflicts between novice classes and open row. We're looking for something in the $1-1.5K region. We'll put an ad in the Leader.

· Publicity/Marketing – Erica
We're being pretty successful at getting regular articles in the Leader and the PDN. Peninsular Lifestyles is another potential target. Want to write an article?

· Rower Education – Susan/Claudia

i. Planning for upcoming workshops/classes
Transition to Sculling workshop July 9^th – Lake Leland (if no longer toxic) Details TBA.
July novice class – 7 students. August novice class 3 / 4 students.

· Safety – Tim

i. Safety policy proposals
“Open Source” Safety policy. Tim will redraft the safety policy and post on Website with a comment period and allow remote authorship.

· Rowing Turnouts – Claudia/Susan

i. Ideas for strengthening open rowing turnouts
Long discussion. The board is very conscious of the need to provide more opportunity to row and for continuing education after completing a novice class.
We've decided to encourage keen individuals to organize their own team. The board will contact some individuals and solicit through the newsletter people to become a leader for a rowing team. Teams will need to be (minimally) 10 people for an eight or 6 people for a four / quad. There are many occasions when the club launch is used by a team (Lorna's quad team or One Catch) where another team can be on the water using the club launch. Any team using the launch organized by another team should adhere to the row plan established by the prior team and be self sufficient for team members and coxes. To help the transition to team rowing, various club members trained as coaches can be tapped for assistance. These include Susan Yawman, Erica Delma, Dianne Roberts, Barb Hagar, John Collins and Ken Shelton. Small VHF radios are available to assist communication between boats. Maximum separation between shells should be no more that ½ mile or as agreed with the launch driver.

·Competition—John

i. Future race participation
Very little interest from the club in either the regionals or the nationals. We hope that the programs to foster teams will propagate into more club participation in rowing events in the NW.
We will also set up a program of monthly intramural races to provide additional focus for the teams. We're seeking a volunteer to organize the July Races.

10. Good of the Order
Letter of recognition to Jim Mason – work on maintenance, building stretchers, launch
maintenance and launch driving

11. Next Meeting: July 16^th at the Cupola House

11. Adjourn