Present were Spencer Raggio, Scott Stewart (vice President), Keith Edwards (Camp Chingachgook liaison), Steve Mintz, George Painter (Director, Camp Chinghagchook), Trish McKluskey, Don Miller (Vice President) and Dan Byrnes (Secretary). Dave Whalen participated by Skype.
Reading of the minutes were dispensed with because Dan hasn’t finished them yet.
There was no new news from the Treasurer.
Committee reports:
Membership committee: Steve Mintz expressed surprise to learn that he was the chairman of the membership committee. He says he’s happy to help out.
Publicity/Promotion: Dan, Steve and Don will get together Mocha Java. We will confirm time by email. Don will invite Mark.
Fund-raising: Scott raised the question of linking our web site to a commercial gateway to sell Y-Knot merchandise. Y-Knot has something going on-line, George said, but it’s not current or up to date. The hurdle, Spencer said, is clearing the credit cards and setting up processing. Rick is working up a price list to go with that.
Regatta: Don said Rick gave George a bunch of pictures from the Regatta, and we discussed who can get them on the web site. Spencer’s photos are on the web site, but Rick’s are not. George brought up a terrific photo of Pierre holding up his trophy from 2008, and said we should take care to get it into the Web site.
Old business:
Boat repairs: Keith says the new trailer beds are fine. We need 3 new tires, and the wheels are now repacked. In April, we’ll get the registration and the strap and we’ll have a beautiful little trailer.
Regarding Nyack: Keith sent an email to Pete Moltzen to confirm it, and he hasn’t heard back yet. May 14 is adaptive sailing seminar, and the 15th and 16th are the regatta, the Tappanzee Challenge. Pete Hogue has offered to take a Martin down. We don’t need any Martin’s for Learn to Sail, George said, so that’s okay.
Discussion continued from last meeting about have a two-day weekend where sailors could stay at the camp overnight, possibly Saturday June 12. Don Miller mentioned that there used to be that kind of event which would include a campfire after dinner and stories. Lakeside and Rockwell Lodge have wheel chair accessible bathrooms, George said, and we could find bed space for 30-40 campers.
George suggested that space might be limited for a sailor and guest from out of town, but we could certainly promote the existing sailing dates and see what response we get from that. Don brought up that the web site lists 6 hotels in the area, but together by Rebecca Stanley 5 or 6 years ago, of places nearby that has disabled sailing. George said what we have now is a sailing facility with accommodations that are limited. For now we’re going to leave the two-day weekend off the agenda and sticking with single sail dates.
If we wanted to change Sailabration, George said, we could do it the weekend of the regatta. Right now it’s in November, do we want to move it to September. If we shift it, we would need a board committee that would make it an event.
George presented a report on the new water front. He called it the most exciting thing in camp that we’ve had. We have 16 full-time staff and Keith who is one of them focuses on Y-Knot. Of all the programs we have, George said, Y-Knot is certainly one that we’re most proud of. We’ve been working on a water front plan that includes a big staging dock in the center of it. We’ve been trying to move it forward and we think it’s going to happen in 2010. We have a commitment of $100,000 from Senator Little and another $80,000 in our capital budget.
George said we want to move the Y-Knot dock to over the rocks in front of the current boat shop building. The structure would replace the old waterfront headquarters with a 2nd floor observation area that allows us to view the whole sailing area. The foot print would be 50×50 feet. The dock will cost about $80,000 and the building (post and beam) will cost $80,000. We are now in the permitting process. The upper deck will be about 24×50 feet. Boats would load 3 at a time with 3 hoists.
The dock would be built by Dock Doctors in Vermont. Spencer brought up whether we can sell planks on the dock as a fundraiser.
Regarding fundraising, George is sending a fundraising newsletter to camp alumni in May. This will be the project of the year for Camp Chingachgook. We have $180,000 to cover this project.
Y-Knot organization could be listed by giving to this project–because it is the biggest project that has happened in a lot of ways, George said he was hoping that we could use a donation from the organization’s balance sheet surplus toward this. George said he was thinking of the designated fund–anyone that has ever given to the designated fund, like David’s sister who gave $20,000 for the first boat. Anyone who has given, we have put money into the designated fund. For the most part, those are surpluses from Y-Knot budget years past. It would wipe the slate clear with that fund and make Y-Knot part of the program.
Spencer suggested that we certainly should cover the lifts and other equipment. Dave Whalen suggested we should take this as a grant request to the Christopher Reeve Foundation.
By the last summary we have $13,000 in the fund.
Dave said, “My feedback is that some sort of contribution would make sense–to get the better dock and enjoy sailing more. We can use new lifts, ramps and the shaftless elevators.”
Dave moved to donate the designated fund to the project, and Spencer seconded. The vote was unanimous.
There’s also a plan to build 6 year round family lodges in the water front area, so this phase would full housing for future events where people might visit on the weekend — each cabin would have wheel chair accessible heated lodging for 6 people.
Transportation — July 10. We will need people to help coordinate transportation. Don is getting licensed to drive. We’ll need another person to be trained on the lift. Bus that has one chair. That lift operator has to ride along. George thinks the idea sounds admirable and good, and like a lot of work to get one person in a chair up to camp. This is worth trying. “How does the person get to the grocery store, how does he get to the doctor?”
When Keith hears back from Nyack, Pete and Steve will go and take a martin.
Sailing dates are up on the Web site.
The Strahle seat project is in Massachusetts. Dave has been talking with Gene Hinkel in Florida and will see if we can borrow it to check it out in Burlington or Nyack before we try to modify it.
North Country Access — in Canton, NY, is evaluating how many boats they need. Boats would be on display and would be sailed. They also do kayaks and other sailboats at this event.
Keith is willing to tow them out there — it’s about a 5 hour trip. Last time, Sunnyview sent out 6 people for this event, Don said.
Fifteen years of Y-Knot next year – we may want to have 15 year patches. We may also be able to celebrate a Spring 2011 dedication of the new dock and structure.
Scott moved to adjourn, Spencer seconded and it was unanimous.