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TCA 2024 ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES

TCA Annual Meeting Minutes Tom’s River New Jersey

Tuesday August 6, 2024

 

  • Meeting called to order at 4:31 PM (ET) by President Nicole Shedden

Present: Nicole Shedden, Warren Duckworth, Jenny Borshoff, Aaron Holland, Bob White, John Howell proxy Nicole Shedden

Treasurer: Sarah Paisley

Secretary: Dianne Duckworth

Regional Vice Presidents: David Hanson, (AC), Blair Dryden (CA), Craig Koschalk (GL) Proxy Nicole Shedden, Phil Gordon (PC) Proxy Stan Smith, Tommy Glenn (SE) Proxy Paul Abdullah

District Governors: Kevin Sheehan (C), Paul Abdullah (FLA), Corrine Sackett (LE) Proxy Conor Ruppen, Phil Christman (LM), Tom Lawton (LIS), Scott Vogel (NE), Douglas Kitchin (NJ), Scott Meyer (NF), Adam Young (SA) Proxy Nicole Shedden, Stanton Smith (SCAL)

Absent: John Gilmour (CA), Mark Udell (MICH), Ted Lischer (MA)

  • Roll Call of Fleets: 36/54 A Quorum is present
  • Minutes from the last Annual Meeting in North Flat Head Lake Yacht Club: Motioned, and Approved
  • Officer’s Report:
    1. Secretary, Dianne Duckworth
      1. Membership:
        1. Last: July 2023: 573 memberships; July 2024 membership: 559 (-14)
          1. Class Documentation: The National Duration Policy that was voted on and approved at the Special GB meeting on April 29, 2024, will be added to the Constitution on the website.
        2. Chevrons were sent to any District or Interdistrict regatta that was listed on the website calendar
  • Working on District and Fleet reports. An email was sent to ask all RVP, DG, and FC.
    1. Fleet Captains:
      1. Check your fleet and see if it’s missing anyone or if there’s someone on the list you don’t recognize. Make sure the Fleet Captain listed for your fleet is correct.
      2. If your fleet has the wrong number of registered boats, contact Dianne.
    2. District Governors:
      1. Make sure all fleets in your district are represented.
      2. Reach out to fleet captains of fleets with less than 3 boats to see if they’re missing someone on their list.
      3. If you see or hear of any incorrect info, contact Dianne.
    3. Regional Vice Presidents: Make sure all districts in your region are represented.
  1. Treasurer, Sarah Paisley
    1. Financial reports handed out; Sarah explained the Endowment Fund Account. This account will be moved to a firm that will handle the investments for the Endowment.
    2. The Nationals’ trophy fee does not cover the cost of the trophies. The average yearly trophy cost is $3586. May need to increase/decrease the fee depending on the number of participants at Nationals.
  2. First Vice President, Warren Duckworth
    1. Blue Chevrons – start thinking about next year’s dates so we stick with no overlaps
    2. MWW at Mission Bay Yacht Club- February 5 -8, 2025, followed by the Larry Klein Regatta on Feb. 9, 2025
  • MWE at Fort Walton Yacht Club- March 9-12, 2025, follow by the Orange Peel at FYC March 14-15, 2025
  1. Nationals 2024 – thanked the Hopatcong team for a wonderful job.
  2. Nationals 2025- Sandusky Sailing Center- August 2-8, 2025
    1. Working on housing, group rates, babysitting. Camping will be available on club grounds (pricing TBD).
    2. Confirmed Doug Kaukeinen as NRC Chair. Confirmed Deputy PRO- Jay Austin. Potential PROs- Mark Bounds, Mark Foster, Todd Fedeszyn
  3. Nationals 2026 – Eugene Yacht Club, July 26-31, 2026. Approved July 30 by ExCom
  1. Second Vice President, Jenny Borshoff
    1. Google Groups growth: 2023- 450 members and 2024- 605 members
    2. Willing to continue working on the Regional Pages on the website with Paul Cone.
  2. Third Vice President, Aaron Holland
    1. Number of G&P-sponsored free memberships for Youth Members in 2024: 17
    2. Total spent from G&P on U26 regatta reimbursements since the inception of the program: $6,500.00.
  3. Chief Measurer, Bob White
    1. National’s MI issue was the thickness of rudders. Many were too thick (GMW and some homemade). Will need to investigate why this happened.
    2. Future plans for Chief Measurer and Measurement Committee is to finish Wayne Pignolet’s work on wooden boat flotation amendment to be sure the boats are safe.
  4. Past President: John Howell
    1. Nominating Committee (NC)
      1. Interim Chief Measurer: NC recommended Bob White to the ExCom for interim CM after the untimely passing of Wayne Pignolet.
      2. Candidates for Class Officers: NC developed a comprehensive list of candidates. Following extensive discussions they developed a slate of:
        1. President: Warren Duckworth
        2. 1st VP: Aaron Holland
        3. 2nd VP: Paul Cone
        4. 3rd VP: Lloyd Kitchin
        5. Chief Measurer: Bob White
      3. Thanks to fellow Class members Mike Gillum and Greg Griffin for their invaluable contributions to the NC.
    2. TCA Strategic Initiatives
      1. Thistle Next Generation (Boat Grant and Fleet Boat): Matt Fisher leading this project. TCA received a boat grant donation of Thistle 3846. This boat has been placed with Riley Read, Newport, RI and Seattle, WA.
      2. Thistle Growth Partnership Program: John Howell leading the project. The TCA endowment committee (Jess Murphy, Mike Ingham, Warren Duckworth, Sarah Paisley, John Howell) developed four policies to guide the Thistle Class Endowment. The policies have been adopted by the ExCom and will be posted on the website. Next step is to screen potential asset managers and provide a recommended advisor to the ExCom. To date, the Endowment has received $25,000 with another $60,000 pledged. Additionally, there will likely be a $75,000 matching grant covering all donations over $10,000.
    3. President’s Report: Nicole Shedden
      1. Big thanks to TRYC and Hopatcong Fleet 36 for this year’s Nationals
      2. Strategic initiatives: We’ve written and approved 11 project scopes for strategic initiatives to help grow the TCA for the next 8 to 10 years. All scopes are published on the TCA website in the News section.
  • Congrats: Gerry Christman won the US Sailing John H. Gardiner Jr. Trophy & Service Award in recognition of distinguished service and leadership in the promotion of one design sailing and class organization. Exciting to have Gerry’s work with the Thistle Class and the Clinton Lake Sailing Association lauded on a national level.
  1. District Governor elections
    1. A few districts didn’t elect a DG in 2023, so the ExCom appointed reps per Const. Art. 11.3.d. The current DGs were willing to serve another year, so we got input from the district members and then appointed those people for another term. Please make sure you elect a DG every year before Nationals; your District Championship regatta is the easiest time to do that.
    2. Starting next year: Art. XI.3(b-c) requires electing an Alternate DG to lead in the absence of the DG Need to elect Alt. DGs in 2025 at the same time as the DG elections. Great opportunity to get new people into low-responsibility leadership and train them for the DG job. Thanks to Aaron for bringing up this issue.
  2. Nationals Duration Committee Recommendations: A committee assessed the number of sailing days and races per day of our Nationals format. The GB approved a motion to accept the Nationals Duration Committee recommendations to change the max number of races at Nationals from 7 to a maximum of no more than 10 (changing Bylaw Article XIV, paragraphs 9, 10 and 14). This change gives the National Race Committee the option, but not the obligation, to sail more races if/when conditions allow. Thank you to Aaron Holland, Alison Gillum, Greg Griffin, Ian Hunter, Tom Lawton, Jess Murphy and Corinne Sackett for their work on this committee.
  3. Trophies
    1. Working with SPYC historian to locate all the deeds for MWE trophies. If St. Pete owns the trophies, we’ll discuss whether to create new perpetual trophies for the event now that it travels.
    2. Looking into getting the Nationals trophies revalued and added on a rider to our insurance
    3. Our trophies sometimes need TLC. Special thanks to Paul Cone for coordinating the refurbishment of and new travel case for the G&P trophy and to John Yingling for making new bases and study travel cases for two Nationals trophies.
  • Qualification for Nationals: Started talking at March 2024 GB meeting about the Green Book Nationals qualification language, specifically Bylaw XIV.5(e)(2)(a) “Race at districts is the qualifier.” Continued discussion at August 2024 GB meeting. Discussed whether sailing in a different district’s District Championship regatta to qualify for Nationals fits the intent or not. Also talked about potentially changing the qualification system to create more qualification opportunities. The plan is to come up with several options to discuss at the next GB meeting at MWE 2025.
  • Encourage everyone to read the ExCom and GB minutes online.
  1. Thank you to the ExCom: Warren, Jenny, Aaron, Bob and John, for all the time and energy they’ve put into our class.
  1. New Business: Voting on Officer’s Slate for 2024/2025
    1. Election of New Officers: motioned and approved
      1. President: Warren Duckworth
      2. First VP: Aaron Holland
      3. Second VP: Paul Cone
      4. Third VP: Lloyd Kitchin
      5. Chief Measurer: Bob White
  • Meeting Adjourned: 5:06 PM (ET)

 

 

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