Commodore Bulletin 14 - 161224
Published 00:48 on 16 Dec 2024
Dear Member,
Well, I hope this bulletin finds you well and continuing to count down the weeks until the season re-opens. As we continue to move the club forward, it is always important to remind members prior to any membership renewals of the basic principles of membership and any changes that come into effect at you point of renewal (which is the 1st January).
The main two areas that we have continued to struggle with in 2024 were storage of boats and duties, so going into 2025 we have reviewed the policies in this area but also made some changes to storage around the SUPs, Kayaks and Paddleboards. I would like to outline these below along with a few other pieces of information that members should find useful.
The first quick update is to let members know that from the 2025 season the club will no longer be permitting any car/motorcycle /rubber type tyres on the foreshore to place boats on etc. This is part of a development of our environmental policy which goes in line with the clubs triple S I status. As well as being an environmental risk, the disposal of abandoned tyres this year has cost the club in excess of £300. We will be issuing the full club environmental policy as well as a membership 1 pager soon but please remember this change when you bring your boats back in March.
At the end of this season, we had a much better exit of boats being removed (many thanks to everyone who made this happen) but still had 4 boats which were very late (2 still being there soon to be treated as abandoned) and 3 which we struggled to track down the owners of. With this in mind, during 2025 we will be conducting more regular spot checks to ensure that all boats, tenders, canoes, Kayaks etc have a sticker identifying the vessel to the membership owner. Please ensure that you register each item when you re-apply for membership so that the correct number of stickers can be issued.
In order to provide better membership information for our RYA census we have also made changes to the membership form on Webcollect. As well as capturing better demographic information there are number of prompts regarding acknowledging duties and a declaration of insurance cover (of which all vessel types must have). We have taken the decision to separate our fishing membership from the paddling membership as this also drives different reporting, communication and duty needs so if you are part of these membership types, please bear this in mind during your renewal.
Another important change, is that when paying for your membership fees next year, the PayPal function has been removed. You can now pay either by a monthly direct debit, a one off annual direct debit or by carrying out a manual bank transfer (details are emailed at the checkout stage). The reason for this is that we have had a very bad experience with PayPal which has resulted in us not being able to access some residue funds (we are still working with them to resolve this). If this took place with our main membership fees it would present a risk to the club therefore, we have reviewed it as a committee and are moving away from PayPal as a payment option. We are exploring other e-commerce options in the meantime.
We have been asked by the canoeing and kayaking membership to look at the provision of racking and I am pleased to say that we have made provision in next years budget to build this. This means that our SUP members will have the secure storage shed to store deflated SUP boards and our paddling members will have off the floor racking for canoes and kayaks etc. The club continues to evolve from a predominantly sailing club to one which will continue to embrace other on water activities in line with the RYA policy. This does mean that for 2025 we will start introducing a small fee (as we do for boat storage) for both the SUP storage shed and the canoe/kayak rack. We have set this at a nominal £20 per year and will monitor it going forward to ensure it represents good value for our members. If you are bringing down a Canoe or Kayak, whilst previously we asked you to pay a full boat park space (unless it was on top of your dinghy) you can now select the reduced cost rack price and once it is built, we will allocate you a space.
Finally, we have spent the last month formally documenting the club duty policy. As a volunteer ran club and as typical of most clubs of our nature, we struggle in some cases with getting all of our members to fulfil their duty allocation. Last year was much better than previous years and we operated every weekend with full safety cover (and race officer cover) as well as a fully resourced bar and galley but this was mostly down to a significant number of members doing over and above their allocation.
To go into 2025 in a good place we are doing a number of things as follows:
- The duty policy is now up on the website and attached here (Pol08)
- Any member who did not fulfil any duties last year (as recorded in Dutyman) will be contacted within a few weeks of rejoining and asked to populate DutyMan with at least 2 duties for the early part of the year if they have not done so
- Members who continue either not to assign duties or assign them but continually cancel may have their memberships reviewed during the year
I regularly get asked why members have to do duties and it is quite simple, as well as being a volunteer ran club (we are not a commercial operation with paid staff unlike some clubs), we will always continue to put safety at the front of our operation, hence the reason for having a safety boat on the water every Sunday. We are trying to change the perception that the safety boat is for racing only. Whilst it supports that, it is there for all club members to give a level of assurance on Sunday that you can enjoy the water with a safety boat in line of sight around the club house end or if you are traveling down the lake and take a radio with you, you can be in contact with the safety boat if you get into trouble (as a few members benefitted from it last year). We plan to schedule the safety boat from 10:30 to 16:00 each Sunday. If racing is cancelled or no members turn up the Cox may take the decision to stand down in agreement with the RCO or committee member by 12:30.
As well as the on-water duties, members can also support us in other ways such as supporting the galley. As part of our opens, the galley brings in key funds which allow us to invest in items such as the kayak racks and also during times such as the working parties and other events give direct support to our members.
The duty allocation for 2025 is as follows:
Hopefully this gives you sufficient information regarding the small changes for 2025. We look forward to you joining us for another season as we count down the weeks for the season opening.
Seasonal wishes,
Rob
Last updated 15:47 on 27 November 2025