Page 4 - Sept_Oct 2019

Jamie Keating
Commodore commodore@rcyc.ca
The Summer of 2019 turned out to be a good one, thanks to so many of our volunteer Members and our dedicated Staff.
Among our special summer memories was parading with kids at the Canada Day BBQ, meeting a wonderful new set of young friends at the Italian Wine Dinner and participating in our first CSS Cruise! We enjoyed Nancy Grant’s festive CSS Mardi Gras party, quite literally saved by our Staff who ‘emergency-relocated’ the party indoors from out on the Rose Lawn during one of our many epic summer rainstorms. On the other end of the weather spectrum, some 100 Members were treated to a sparkling sunset during the East Coast Lobster Night. Meg and I were also invited out to our first Wednesday night Lawn Bowling – on that sport we have a lot to learn. But perhaps most memorable of all our special occasions was the bittersweet retirement party for our veteran maitre d’ Roman Moreno. Known for more than 30 years of exemplary service, Roman was feted by over 300 Members in a heartfelt expression of gratitude. We thank you Roman, you will be missed. I hope everyone’s summer Club memories were as happy and wonderful as ours.
I was not the only Board Member to enjoy the Club’s social schedule this summer. We, your board, are committed to having at least one of us attend each RCYC social event, with the aim of meeting and listening to you, our Members, especially those of you we have not yet met. We will do our best to reach out but on the other hand please do not hesitate to beat us to the punch by introducing yourself first. We will listen and incorporate your feedback into future events and activities.
Our Club ran over 20 sailing regattas in 2019, more than 40 mid-week races, six CSS cruises plus numerous clinics and adult Learn-to-Sail programs. When comparing ourselves to peer yacht clubs, we run more regattas by a factor of 2-3 times. While exemplary on the face of it, this strains our resources, and may lead to a watered-down schedule or event standards. Accordingly, RC Fleet Andre Colenbrander and his Sailing Committee are studying whether we might be better off trimming our regatta schedule to focus resources on quality, not quantity. More on this over the winter as the team brings back recommendations.
Our Sailing Committee expanded its No Boat, No Problem program this summer. Generous boat- owning Members hosted non-boat owner Members to share the experience of our core activity. Thanks everyone – I hope this initiative grows next year.
Congratulations to our army of Race Committee volunteers. From regattas to TGIF cruises, we are striving to create great sailing experiences. Thanks to Martha Henderson’s leadership, we are building a roster of qualified volunteers: Anne Sanderson (wow, do we ever owe you!), Melissa Clark, Deb Elias, Derek Fisher, Jeff Gillmeister, Sandra Henderson, Christopher Hope, Megan Long, Bill McNaughton and the dynamic duo of Andrew and Daina Morgan, and many more. Let this be just the beginning – I urge others to come out and try it next year – it’s a ton of fun!
As I write this, we are finalizing Committee goals and by the time you read this, each Committee will have met to flesh out implementation plans. Our focus this year is to continue improving Member service & programs and to upgrade the condition of our property. On the former, many are aware of challenges we’ve had with F&B Staff, specifically cook turnover, that have caused unacceptable wait times and inconsistency in meal quality, both unusual for the RCYC’s typically high F&B standards. We appreciate Members’ patience as Clubhouse Manager Nick Diano, GM Neil Rooney, and our senior F&B Staff have been working hard to make adjustments and remedy the deficiencies.
On the Island, I hope you have noticed the cleaning and painting of the exterior of our marine buildings. We plan to augment the post flood clean-up with a much broader clean-up, implementing a tag-and- remove program on abandoned or unidentified boats and equipment cluttering up our Island property. So, Members please be forewarned – if you have unmarked items on Club property (the Island or at Cherry St. parking lot), please either move it to your locker, to your boat or off the property, else you risk losing it altogether. This on-going effort is designed to make our Island property again a source of pride.
Also, in the category of “as I write this”, we await final results from the Pan Am Games, where Mariah Millen, Olivia Mew, Robert Davis and Justin Barnes
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 • KWASIND
COMMODORE MESSAGE