In attendance were Scott Stewart and Don Miller (co-Vice-Presidents), Keith Edwards (Camp Chingachgook liaison), John Kershko, Rick Irvine, Spencer Raggio and Dan Byrnes (Secretary). Dave Whalen participated part via Skype.
January’s minutes were approved, unanimously except for Rick abstaining.
Treasurer’s report: We had two $50 donations.
This year, for Nyack, the organizers talked about having 2.4 and SCUDs for demo purposes.
Keith will take the program role on this year, assisted by any other staff that we need. Steve is coming back, but Mark is not. Mike is returning and he will spend more time with the waterfront, Keith said. Spencer will handle volunteer training day.
Re: Membership, can we make out business cards or something to hand out when you see somebody. We have the flyer, too, but it’s easier with a card. Dave said we’ve had cards before. We gave Rick input and he will print them up for next meeting.
Don said at Burlington a couple of years ago, there were extra boats and some able bodied sailors came out and raced. (They kept scores separately.) “We talked about the physical limitations, but getting to the venue is hard. It’s a 60-mile trip for me. Some people come from down near Kingston and it’s even farther. If you have an event in a large city, it’s probably not that hard to get to the dock. But here it’s hard.
We discussed having more events where it’s an overnight. Have people drive up, stay overnight, and then sail the next day and go back home. If we can draw people from New York or Boston or the rehab centers, what about offering wheel chair accessible spots to people from out of town.
Rockwell Lodge has been great for disabled sailors, and it would probably be available in June.
Let’s promote the June 12 weekend as a special out-of-town welcome weekend. Make that a 2-dayer. Dave volunteered to put together some communications, if we put together some support for visitors, he’ll do the contacts. We can hit New Mobility magazine and other newsletters. Dave is going to find out what kind of interest there is in it, we can have people stay overnight Friday and/or Saturday nights June 11 and 12.
Scott suggests adding Living Resources to this distribution. Promotion: Can we get the hats and shirts on the web site? There isn’t any way to collect the money electronically. Can we invite people to send checks? Carole Izyk handles this for the store, and Spencer is going to contact her about how we can get involved.
Rick is going to look at uploading photos to Flickr.
Fishing without Boundaries will be back for the Y-Knot Regatta, and Yankee is contributing 3 boats again–two for fishing and one for sail racing spectators, family and friends.
Old business
Keith found the correct length bunk brackets. They’re only $11.00 each so supplies all told is only about $200.
We discussed the travelling regatta policy and agreed that there should be wording that at least one approved person go along with each pair of boats. We will add wording that whoever is going will make every effort to not be so extravagant. We will review one more time and approve it next meeting. Everyone send suggestions to Spencer.
George was contacted by a group out in Watertown. North Country Access does an annual event in the Thousand Islands at the antique boat museum in Clayton. There are wounded warriors and other organizations that participate, for about 75 disabled people and 150 volunteers. Dates: July 16-18. Are we willing to bring up a Martin to show them or to use? They would pay for any transportation and lodging costs. Keith says he would volunteer to go. It’s a 3 hour trip. Mark would like to go, also.
We need a vehicle to tow with.
Keith will call and say yes. The opportunity might be limited to paraplegics if we don’t have a hoist there.
Re: signage on sails, Rick has been testing options since October. The adhesive seems like it’s going to work fine.
Nothing new yet on the waterfront.
In Greenwich, the Methodists-Presbyterian-Catholic interfaith group has a bus we can borrow. Don will need another able bodied person to go with him in Albany. The bus only accommodates 1 wheel chair. We need to pick a date, and then recruit people.
To help promote the new sail racing dates, I’ll draft a press release.
Spencer brought up using Latham Mall off of the bus route. Is it accessible to us? Panera – West Marine, Chuckee Cheese. We’ll pick a date — do it in July. Bus holds 8 people and it has a lift. Spencer proposed to do it August 3. That was a Tuesday. Rick proposed doing it July 10. We agreed to try it on July 10.
Keith proposed moving July 4 to July 3, which is okay with their schedule as long as we wait for launching boats until 11:00 A.M. and get boats off the dock by 4:00 P.M. Spencer proposed moving to the last week in June instead. Keith said that’s camp opening day. We agreed to make it July 3.
Spencer is going to change out the photo on the sail calendar when he puts the dates in. Learn to sail will be May 9, 16 and 23.
Keith says George wants all the line colors on all the Martin’s changed to one color. Some of the boats are done correctly. With the Y-Knot stuff–we’ve done all right with that. Spencer proposed getting some grey 3 or 4 mm Spectra for general purpose use on any control line (as the extension). We agreed to replace only running rigging where needed and we’ll make that a volunteer weekend for somebody.
Keith handed out expense reports for us to Xerox and use as needed. We do not need to fill in the account number.
We discussed waterfront plans, which have not been approved. We discussed seat technology again, and the Strahle seat, as we did last month. Dave Whalen said, “My dream for the summer is I could take all my friends out who don’t really sail and I could sit in the middle where I could see and I could go out when it’s swell and I wouldn’t have to worry–I just struggle with that other seat.”
Spencer ran into a woman who prints nautical charts on canvas bags. They have sail grommets and other nautical trim. Could we get one for Lake George? Rick can do that, too. The printing is done before the stitching. Check out: KnotforNavigation.com.
Scott moved to adjourn, John seconded, and it was unanimous.