Well I thought that photo would get your attention!
I started this bulleting with this for a number of reasons, firstly following a fantastic end of season removal of boats we were able to do a full shore walk today as part of the opening working party and this is everything that was left as abandoned and needs to be scrapped. Secondly, if it is yours… it is being disposed of in line with our environmental obligations and will not be coming back. There is a serious note to this, we have an obligation under our Lake Licence and this level of waste (albeit built up over a number of years) is not acceptable. Plus this level of waste costs the club money which could be put toward members facilities.
We now have a fantastic clean edge at the club and will be striving too maintain it going forward…
So Commodore rant over (sorry), and straight into a HUGE THANK YOU!
We had the opening working party today and we had over 40 members (not just sailing) turn up by 09:30, so thank you also to the social members, family members, Kayak members and fishing members who came out to support us. The main heavy lifting was done by 11:00, then we stopped for breakfast baps (kindly provided by the galley), a quick read and execution of a snag list, then most people were away by 13:00! This was a huge effort and it has really set the community tone for the club season. In the afternoon, the race marks started to go out and these will be finished tomorrow. WOW does not really do it, but WOW and THANK YOU!
Another incredible piece of news… Over the winter, our training team put together a grant application to extend our training capability in the form of training additional instructors, providing tailored training to youngsters and females and looking to replace the club keel boat. I am very excited to announce that Bala SC was successful in this grant and this puts us on a great footing for this years training program! A huge well done to the training team!
So that leads me onto next week. Hopefully we can continue the community start up with our “rigging and freshen up day” on Sunday 17th March. Basically the plan is as follows:
- In the morning, get down, rig your boats. If you need extra pairs of hands just ask. Got a new boat and need help, just ask. The aim is, to have as many boats down in the bays and rigged by lunchtime
- The galley will be open and providing catering facilitates in the form of all day breakfast baps (probably from about 11:30 to 13:00). These will be based on a new pricelist we want to offer to members during these type of events so I could encourage you to support the club by buying one (instead of bringing sandwiches) and also giving us feedback on the food and prices…..
- After lunch, our Senior Coach (Andy Todd) is planning to get as many boats out on the water for a bit of sailing gymkhana. This will be a series of exercises to dust off your winter wobbles and get you “season fresh”
We then move onto our first two events of the season which are the Massacre and the Easter Regatta. We already have a great set of volunteers who have come forward for duty so we are in a good position to safely run these event. If you are planning to enter, the NOR and the online entries can be found on the website. We also have the Catapults joining us for the Easter Regatta and are planning to do a Bar B Que in the evening. Look out for meal tickets for this appearing soon!
Our next key focus will be getting all members to populate their duties and we will be running a report in the next week. I would actively encourage all members who are obliged to do duties to book in to save getting chased. Also a HUGE thank-you again to those members who are not duty bound for putting themselves forward. This really does help with the running of the club and developing the community aspect of Bala SC.
The final item for this bulletin is the Special General Meeting to ratify the constitution changes. This will take place on Wednesday 3rd April at 20:00 and an invite will be sent to all members in the next few days.
Wishing you all a great start to the season.
Rob
Bala Sailing Club 