Commodore Bulletin 1 - 241023
Published 16:45 on 24 Oct 2023
Helo aelodau, gobeithio eich bod chi i gyd yn iawn (and my humble apologies to any first language welsh speakers if I have got some of this wrong.... but more on the bi-lingual aspect later).
It is now just under a month since the AGM and I consider myself very fortunate to guide the club over the next 12 months with a fantastic committee who put themselves forward. I hope I can continue to build on the history and strength of previous Commodores that makes Bala SC such an enjoyable place for its members and a go-to place for a number of classes wanting to hold their opens and nationals with us.
Having done the publicity officer role for the last 12 months I am keen to make sure that our members get regular updates so here is my first Commodores report and hopefully you will see them regularly dropping into your mailbox's (via Webcollect) and on the website. A little bit of information about myself? Well this is the end of my 3rd season at Bala SC, having learnt to sail during 2021. I did have a dabble with the Ocean Youth Club c 1986 with a weekend and 1 week crewing experience but then marriage and kids got in the way! The opportunity presented itself for me to realise my long dormant desire to learn to sail and after completing my L2S with Mark and Mick I bought myself a Pico to finish my 2021 season. Having got use to falling in and embracing the club racing scene, 2022 saw me upgrade to a Lightning but after a taster session with John Hackett on his Dart, the multihull bug hit and after (I think a drunken chat) with Jonathan T, I somehow ended up in part share of a Spitfire! the 2022 and all of 2023 season has been a great learning experience in crewing the Cat with Jonathan at the helm. After seeing the Catapults at Bala and needing to find a way of developing my Cat helming skills (in case JT falls of the back!), you will sometimes see me on the water on "Nellie" (just keep clear if I am looking like I'm going to gybe.... still working on that!)
So as you can see, your new Commodore is a relative "noobie" (so I will get terminology wrong and if you are close to me racing at the mark I may not know the rule of the road perfectly) but I hope I can continue to bring a new passion of sailing to the club and also as a relative newcomer, bring a focus on growth around new members as part of my vision. We are fortunate to have a highly skilled and experienced committee (and training / coaching team) who are keen to bring some new ideas to members and I look forward to chatting about these as the season progresses.
I have got to continue by saying a HUGE thankyou to everyone who turned out on Saturday 21st to support the club closing down procedure. We always plan 2 days and over the last few years this has always got done in a single day. It is a crucial part of the club lifecycle and packs everything away safe for the winter and the likely lake floods, so to get it done so quickly is a huge reflection on the positive volunteer mentality of the club.
We have a great journey to go after in 2024 around inclusion and diversity with a number of initiatives close to my own heart which I hope to share with the committee. Fortunately these are not a "sole persons quest" but are heavily aligned to the RYA's strategy which I hope to share more with you in future bulletins, but for now, whilst we have a fantastic committee in situ, we do have two key roles which I am keen to still fill. We really need to get the right people into these but as with all roles you will have a huge amount of support from the committee over the next 12 months.
The first role is brand new and is a general committee role specialising in Diversity and Inclusion. In order to continue to grow the club and look to the future we have to recognise that from a gender viewpoint we have a strong male bias, from an age viewpoint we have a huge opportunity in the youth sector and from a locality viewpoint we have an opportunity to break any historical stereotypes of sailing being an expensive activity to take part in and reach out into the community more.
Add into that opportunities to develop our facilities and offering to be more aligned with the LGBTQIA+ community, reaching out to other sailing clubs who have been able to provided adapted sailing opportunities to those people with more complex needs and learn from their experiences and finally look at how we can embrace the clubs Welsh location and heritage and move towards a more bi-lingual set of materials. As you can see, this role has so much potential in the right persons hands! If you are genuinely interested in knowing more, please give me a shout.
Secondly, we are looking for a keen social media savvy person who has good networks in the local community (and likes writing newsletters to our club members about what is going on). With two Facebook feeds, an Instagram account, the starting point of a YouTube channel and the website we have a great social media footprint to fill. As well as that we have links with Y&Y magazine to inform them of our events and provide race reports. Finally, with Bala town celebrating Bala 700 next year, links into the local community will be key.
I have thoroughly enjoyed developing the publicly side but really need to find new blood and energy to take it to the next level? Once again, if you are interested, please give me a shout.
Now that the club is "officially" shut down, a reminder to all members that all boats, trailers and other items (including tenders, kayaks etc) must be removed from the foreshore OR moorings, no later than Sunday 5th November. Each year we have a number of items left which run the risk of causing damage to club boats, general lake management but also impede the work to prepare the foreshore at the start of the season. I will be chatting to Richie (our beachmaster) and team to monitor this as we approach the final date and advise if we have a large residue of left items. We can then agree how to deal of these.
You will (hopefully) note a pattern in my bulletins going forward that I will be using people names a lot as I am keen to bring alive the committee to our members. It is important to me that we are visible as a committee but also that you get to know the people in the roles and where you need to go to discuss things or share your ideas. Bala SC is a volunteer ran club and your committee is a key part of the club infrastructure. They have a great passion for sailing and a huge depth of skills to hopefully enhance your sailing membership.
So new (into the Sailing Captain) role for next season is one of our long standing members, Steve Pooley. You will find him gracefully balancing his F101 Trimaran out on the water and he is an Ex Commodore of the club. Steve is currently looking at the club racing calendar and approach for next year with a fresh pair of eyes. A clear trend has emerged post Covid of where club racing has been successful (and growing) in some areas but some other activities declining such as Saturday racing. I am really looking forward to this being shared with the committee in the next few weeks after which we can communicate it to our members.
Also new in role is Howard Jones who has picked up the role of Duty Rosta Secretary. We have always struggled to get all members undertaking their obligation to support the club by doing 3 duties per year (a duty being Race Control Officer (RCO), Assistant Race Control Officer (ARCO), Safety Boat Cox or Safety Boat Assistant). This has resulted in some racing being cut short or in order to ensure a safe racing environment some members who were intending to race, jump into duty. Some members have given up over 10 volunteering weekends which is at a detriment to their own enjoyment out on the water whilst a number of members have not done any. It is an issue we as a committee have challenged ourselves to address in 2024. So I suppose this is a gentle reminder that as you apply for your membership next year, whether you are an active member or just someone who stores their boat at Bala for an occasional sail or to use off site at other venues, we will be asking you to commit to a number of duties in 2024 to support the club activities. In order to support this, we aim to offer informal coaching especially around the ARCO (where you can shadow the RCO) or Safety Boat Assistant (to get you use to the tasks you may be asked to undertake out on the water). Please do not be offended as we endeavour to drive up compliance on this aspect of your membership.
We also have a set of fleet representatives this year who will be focusing on developing the needs or fleet activities as follows:
- Blaze - Mick Flemming
- Solo - Miles Thomas
- Catamaran - John Hackett
- Cruisers - Gary Darch
- Paddleboarders - Ewan McHenry
I am really excited by these fleet roles for a number of reasons. The Blaze fleet (headed up by Mick) just seems to keep growing and we have been approached about hosting an open. Solos have always been a stable part of the club and having Miles focus on these will create some great opportunities. John has been pivotal to getting people out on the catamarans in a number of informal taster sessions (more to come in 2024) and the cruisers (with Gary heading it up this year) had a great year in 2023 trying a number of different initiatives. Finally it is brilliant to have Ewan representing our Paddleboard members to look at how we can integrate them better into club life and maybe create tailored activities just for them.
We also have a number of other new roles and committee members who have come on board so I hope to expand on these in my next bulletin.
So as we go into the winter, the club racing for 2023 has concluded and we have lots of shiny silverware to polish and get ready for its presentation. We have been chatting informally about how to do this and hopefully in the next few weeks I can float a few more ideas around the membership as well as the final racing results in a more flamboyant manner. Club racing has been well supported last year and we are hoping for good growth next year as Steve unveils (what I think) is a really exciting variation for 2024.
Its only about 20 weeks until the season starts again and once we are into 2024 this will quickly spin up and soon we will be back out on the water enjoying whatever aspects of water-life gives us enjoyment.
I hope you have found this informative, feedback about YOUR club is always welcome and fingers crossed we will have a great 2024 season.
Rob Sloggett
Last updated 15:47 on 27 November 2025