It will be Spring soon - nice - warmer :)
Then it will be Summer - nicer - warm & sunny - lots of sailing :))
Time to start thinking about all the credits that can be earned by volunteering for the Buildings & Grounds committee :)))
Yeah work!!!
| Commodore |
I hope everyone is having a good off-season and taking the time to pursue their other hobbies in life (or just working hard so we can sail more later...). I want to first give a big shout out to Jesse Wriedt for taking over the Membership committee and putting in so many hours over the last two months. It's busy season for the Membership chair as he walks the club grounds to check stickers, does an audit of what boats are on our grounds vs what should be on our grounds, rounds up all the work credits from 2023 and applies them to 2024, and finally sets up registration for the 2024 season. It appears all that hard work is done and we are now able to register for 2024. If you see Jesse, please thank him for taking on such a complex job. And thank Perry Cameron (our prior Membership chair) for helping transition, train, and creating a system that was able to be passed on.
Facilities Reservation Request Form - I put together a Google Form that members can fill out if they want to request a reservation of our facilities. Traditionally, the Commodore and Social chair bounced around emails to approve each request that came in. This will allow us to streamline the requests, get all necessary information for approval, and capture a signature on ECSC's first "Facility Rental Agreement." I'll reiterate that this is just for members. We are not attempting to rent the facility to any additional people. Here is that form...please feel free to read it and give feedback. https://forms.gle/8YHG2r7qwtBL5wKV9 Club Liability - I have done some initial research as to who owns liability in the event of an injury. Specifically, liability gets a bit more complicated when a member is acting as a volunteer worker for the Club. The Racing and Social committees often have volunteers, so we want to be clear about who is responsible for potential medical bills in the event of an injury. I'll hold off on saying what I think is the answer is until I talk with our insurance agent and confirm it. Once confirmed, I would like to make a Liability Release Form for our Club to use as well as a new sign when we enter our Club. The sign would mention who is responsible for your health and safety while at the Club. Upper Trailer Parking - This is a big one. And, it really requires its own email since the background and explanation is long. The short version is this: ECSC's current lease with the Indy Parks Dept is expired. We're working on a new lease. Indy Parks has let us know that any future lease will not include that upper trailer area. The reason is that they are penalized by federal DNR because it's violating the LWCF laws stating it should be accessible to the public (this just applies to that field, not our Club grounds). Indy Parks can't apply for grants with how that field is currently being used. They do not have any specific plan for that field and I've tried to explain to them that our use as trailer storage (just in the summertime) is by far the best use. I'm hoping they will decide to take control of the field and potentially rent trailer storage to members individually & privately (not through ECSC). I do not foresee this being an issue in 2024, but potentially 2025. We will see what the Parks decides. This brings me to my next point. ECSC Lease - This is slow-moving, but we're making progress. We are continuing to abide by our expired lease terms and rent payment until we get a new one in place. Since we may lose the upper trailer parking area, I am hoping that our rent payment to Indy Parks will decrease...or at least stay steady. They mentioned that the future rent payment will simply be 10% of whatever our land is appraised at. So, hopefully an appraisal without the upper trailer parking area will end up being a lower rent. If we lose the upper trailer parking area, then I'm sure the 2025 Board will adjust boat storage/wet slip dues accordingly. That's all for now
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| Facilities |
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It's Winter; Brrr - cold! It will be Spring soon - nice - warmer :) Then it will be Summer - nicer - warm & sunny - lots of sailing :)) Time to start thinking about all the credits that can be earned by volunteering for the Buildings & Grounds committee :))) Yeah work!!!
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| Social |
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Hello Fellow Sailors! Hope everyone is enjoying making plans for a fantastic sailing season while staying warm this winter season. Our Assistant Social Chair this year is Karen Orndorff. Over the years, Karen and her husband Kenneth have done a fabulous job hosting many different events at the Club. Below is an introduction from Karen.
My husband, Kenneth and I, have been members since 2016. Our boat is an S2 7.3 named Plan B...appropriately named. We love spending a breezy day on the lake and have enjoyed being a part of the sailing club...meeting new people and attending fun events. We love to entertain and have found it a lot of fun hosting events such as the Lobster Fest the last 4 years and Father’s Day the last 2 years (with the popular Bloody Mary Bar). We have helped crew the Beach Party for several years as well. We have 3 children and 3 grandchildren that we love to spoil. The newest member was born Tuesday, January 23rd! I look forward to helping Jen with the social events. With membership renewals now available, if you are interested in volunteering with any of our social events, or work, please indicate so as you fill out your renewal. We’re always looking for hosts for our events, volunteers to help those events run smoothly, or to help with special projects we might have. You’ll earn work credits for your time and efforts and meet some fantastic people who help make our Club the wonder that it is! So, here’s hoping the sailing season gets here before we know it and we all see each other soon down at the sailing club!
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| Racing |
 Racers and Non-Racers, Winter can be very hard on sailing club members...not so much that they aren’t able to enjoy sailing on our beautiful reservoir, but that all don’t get to see one's fellow members as frequently. Add to these, the weather and dark skies and one is looking at real distress. In order to mitigate the adverse outcomes for our members, the racing program has done its best to bring some cheer into everyone’s life by sponsoring some winter meetings. Our first meeting was January 17th and there was a great turnout with all manner of handshaking, hugging, and reacquainting going on. Food and beverages were enjoyed by all and the attendees participated in a lively discussion on many topics. A summary of last year’s racing participation was shared and showed a dramatic increase in the Sunday Race activity. There was general discussion about increasing Sunday racing format to include having two races and providing food for post racer enjoyment. There were thoughts about changing the structure of the fleets in the Blue and White Fleets as well as the Red and Green Fleets. The intent of the meeting was to reflect on last year’s format with an intention to tee up decisions that we would make to change things for next year. We now have a healthy list of those decision points that we will now further discuss and decide upon at our next meeting. The next meeting will be on February 21st at 6:30pm at the Eaton Hall in Brownsburg. We hope that you can make a point of attending and participating in the decision making as well as the camaraderie. An official announcement of this meeting will come closer to the meeting time.
Wayne with our junior racers:
One last thing to share with you, particularly if you are a non-sailor/racer, is that this year we have already had board approval to offer full membership dues forgiveness for positions as racing assistant to the Primary Racing Officers who will be running the individual races throughout the season. We are particularly looking to offer these positions to new members and non-racing members who would like to enjoy learning a little more about racing, enjoy being out on the lake watching the races, and meeting and sharing time with other members. If you are interested in considering this, please contact me (John Kohne jckohnep@comcast.net 317-966-4844) or Nancy Goff (cngoff6@gmail.com 317-918-1019). Hope to hear from you or see you soon!!
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| Membership |
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ECSC Members, 2024 registration is now open! This year the process will be entirely online. Automating the process and putting it online saves an incredible amount of time for our members...and, me! To register, Click Here You will need to know what E-Mail address you have on file with the Club. This is how the system identifies you. If you can't remember what E-Mail address you have on file (or for any membership questions), ask membership@ecsail.org. As usual, registration is due February 29th, 2024. And, you might not want to assume your spouse is making this payment!
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| Publicity/Communications |
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Not much going on this time of year...except planning for come Spring. Part of that includes bunches of E-Mail blasts to our Club members for various communiques. Please be patient as I learn this Mailchimp program we're using for the E-Mail blasts. One concern is starting to rear its head...Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are getting harsher on spammers. Apparently, major ISPs, like G-Mail and Yahoo, are starting to get really serious about enforcing what they call spam-rate thresholds. If too many of our messages are identified by the recipient as spam, those ISPs might block all our messages going into their service for our other ECSC members! So, this is fairly simple, if you do not want to receive messages from us, please contact Membership to remove that E-Mail address from our database. And, as you may note, all our blasts from Mailchimp have an "opt-out" link at the bottom. If you choose to opt out, we will remove that E-Mail address from our Membership database. We can't take the risk of losing our E-Mail communication method. Now, on another note, our Club old timers know the importance of getting your dues in on time (end of Feb). In early March, our Harbormaster starts the process of slip assignments based on the data given from Membership. If you're not in that data...oops! There goes your wetslip! And, Newbies, keep your eyes out for Club work parties come Spring...it's a great way to meet other members and help give a sense of belonging to our Club!
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| Safety & Education |
 Safety and Education is busy setting up programming for the 2024 sailing season! Mike Crowell, of Hoosier Sail & Power Squadron, will be on site this season to conduct vessel safety checks! Dates TBD.
Would this pass the Safety Inspection?? Cody McCoun will be leading a women's dinghy-sailing course this summer! Dinghies offer steadiness, maneuverability, and more responsiveness to helm. This makes them ideal for women wanting to learn to sail and for those seasoned big boat sailors who want to improve their skills. Programming is currently being planned; more to come next month.
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| US Sailing Member Demographics Survey |
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US Sailing is conducting its annual survey in compliance with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s (USOPC) annual demographic reporting requirements. The collected data will allow US Sailing to better serve its constituency and develop relevant initiatives. Your participation can greatly impact the efficacy of the data collected and they would sincerely appreciate a brief moment of your time. Please click the link below and complete the four minute survey. Thank you! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/P7PXKXG ASA Performance Racing Seminar to be hosted at ISC this Sunday, the 4th. Calling all sailors in Indiana and beyond! Indianapolis Sailing Club will be hosting the North U Trim seminar on Sunday, February 4th. Learn how to improve your sail trim and sail faster! Cost is $149 per person. Register below: https://asa.com/seminars/sail-trim/2024-02-indianapolis
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