31 July 2002

Hi Andrew

It would be great if there were a number of people willing to take up the reigns of the clubs in order to move them forward. However this is not my experience and it is usually only the stalwarts of a club, which can usually be counted on one hand, that are willing to take the time and the flack that comes with it who volunteer for these tasks.

These are the type of members who stood by the PYC while I was commodare. and make up most of the committees at this stage.

Regarding the merger, it is very difficult territory and after long discussions/meetings with RNYC, a road forward was found which comprised a few alternatives. At PYC, we held meetings and it was raised at the AGM. Result? As I remember it, the Gen Com was given a kind of go ahead, but the mandate was limited by a number of proviso's which were agreed in the meeting. From my prespective these provisos severely restricted the committees' ability to move forward in in a merger.

What I really believe we need is not that members should be questioning whether the clubs' leaders are doing the right things, but that they should be standing by their leaders and giving more open mandates that will allow the flexibility required to reach a plan that will enable the clubs to merge.

If members are fearful of the result, then they should lobby to be elected onto these committees so that they can assist with their inout.

To get the result the yacht clubs need in the development of the yacht mole, the committees need the support of the members and not the stop/start mandates that get given to them at periodic meetings.

Maybe I will get a Penny for my thoughts.

Regards

Gary Ninow