This week’s Commodore’s Corner and Communications Corner articles are folded into one — this one. Before I begin, I’d like to explain briefly how I arrived at the decision to take this approach (“I” in the preceding sentence is me — Charles Jones, your Communications Director.)
Each week, Kathy sends me the text of her article by Thursday evening. I usually have my article written by then, too, and since the pandemic has to now caused the Upcoming Events And Other Items Of Interest section to require very little change each week, assembling everything into the Newsletter template, publishing it, and making concomitant changes on the web site is a fairly routine process on Friday morning.
This week, an interesting thing happened. Kathy mentioned yesterday that she has been tied up this week focusing on getting our 2021 Events Calendar finalized and sent to Metro, and simply never got around to her article for today. Even more interesting is that I had also been tied up on some other matters and never got around to mine. Since I’ve done a huge amount of writing over the years (articles in career-related media over several decades, publishing a weekly political blog from mid-2016 to about the middle of last year, etc.,) I’ve never had any trouble coming up with content for my weekly Newsletter articles.
So today, I thought I’d capitalize on this “no usual content” opportunity to share some thoughts with you about how this extremely unusual year has been taking a toll not only on our members and prospective members, but on all of us involved in the leadership of our Club (including but certainly not limited to our Board.) The relatively encouraging news lately and the hope that at least by Fall we may be able to proceed with some of our planned events is music to our ears as we hope it is to yours.
Back to Kathy saying that she has been tied up this week focusing on getting our 2021 Events Calendar finalized and sent to Metro. ... Even with activities this year almost all being cancelled so far, there’s a lot of administrative stuff that has to happen. We have to ensure that we get facility requirements for next year pinned down and scheduled with Metro early enough to avoid conflicts that may otherwise arise. That takes quite a bit of effort by several people. We feel that it’s important to publish our weekly Newsletter, both to keep our members and the public informed on the status of the pandemic vis-a-vis our Club’s activities and events and to provide additional content of interest. Supporting watercraft for regattas have to be maintained whether regattas are proceeding as planned or not. The same is true of Club Boats, and additionally the reservation system has to be kept operational and provide support for adherence to policies and procedures associated with that program. Interpretation of reopening guidance from local and state authorities has to be translated into operational and policy requirements specific to our Club. Long range planning regarding HCSM facilities is an ongoing process, and that requires dialog with Metro and coordination with other users of HCSM.
These are just examples. Meeting each of these needs requires the involvement of anywhere from two or three people to our full Board and others involved in our Club’s leadership. It has been my privilege to serve on our Board this year, and to be involved in many of the “behind the scenes” activities I’ve described here. That involvement has given me the opportunity to develop a respect for what it takes to manage our Club, and for my colleagues who volunteer a significant amount of their time and expertise each month to manage it effectively.
Please know that in this unprecedented situation, your Commodore, your Board, and other members who are involved in the leadership of our Club are constantly focused on what appears in the About section of our web site: being “a club of sailing and racing enthusiasts who enjoy spending time together in racing and social events, (and supporting) the main purposes of PPYC, (which) are to promote the sport of sailing, enhance boat handling skills and safety on the water, and promote fellowship and association among its members.”
Happy sailing!
Charles Jones, Communications Director
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