Shady Side of the Hump
Well, with only 2 more Regattas to go and some time to think between the Last one and the Next one, it feels good to be on the Shady Side of the Hump. Since this year represents the sum total of my Regatta planning and excecution experience, I needed the help of an Army of "volunteers".
I put the quote marks around the word volunteer because some of them had no choice! Just kidding, we all have choices when it comes to which YC activity we want to become involved in. Therefore, I am personally grateful to those who made the choice to help out in any way they could with the Regatta efforts. And you know what? It was hours and hours of shear fun and pleasure, punctuated by a couple of minutes, here and there, of boiled over emotion.
So if I lashed out at anyone please forgive me, I did not mean anything by it; after all I am half Itailian and we all know that showing emotion is like great food when it comes to that ethnic group.
There have been no complaints about the facilities and grounds, the sailing venue or the hospitality offered by the membership, most enjoyed the meals and if you can believe it, there was not one complaint about the Bar. 99.9% of the feedback I have gotten from visiting sailors has been very positive; there are always a couple of individuals that would like to have something for virtually nothing. Just to be clear, all the complaints I have received are about the cost of the entry fees.
Unlike many other old established YC's around the country, the Rock Hall YC does not have an endowment fund with which to pay for any events or building repairs or grounds maintenence or waterfront upgrades, or for anyother purpose: zero, zip. All of the cost of maintaining and upgrading the YC comes from the membership, and the membership should not be expected to underwrite any single element of the YC's activities, Regattas or otherwise.
It remains my feeling that those who complain about the cost of a Regatta entry fee need to step back and try to understand what it costs to maintain a proper facility and put on a good Regatta. I will not bore the readers with that list of costs but I can tell everyone this; the YC's goal for every Regatta is to break even, if it were not for the work of our extensive list of Volunteers this would be an impossible goal.
We will continue to monitor the fees of every Regatta to make sure of two things; first it is an affordable fee and secondly it covers the cost.
V/C Lee Urbani
I put the quote marks around the word volunteer because some of them had no choice! Just kidding, we all have choices when it comes to which YC activity we want to become involved in. Therefore, I am personally grateful to those who made the choice to help out in any way they could with the Regatta efforts. And you know what? It was hours and hours of shear fun and pleasure, punctuated by a couple of minutes, here and there, of boiled over emotion.
So if I lashed out at anyone please forgive me, I did not mean anything by it; after all I am half Itailian and we all know that showing emotion is like great food when it comes to that ethnic group.
There have been no complaints about the facilities and grounds, the sailing venue or the hospitality offered by the membership, most enjoyed the meals and if you can believe it, there was not one complaint about the Bar. 99.9% of the feedback I have gotten from visiting sailors has been very positive; there are always a couple of individuals that would like to have something for virtually nothing. Just to be clear, all the complaints I have received are about the cost of the entry fees.
Unlike many other old established YC's around the country, the Rock Hall YC does not have an endowment fund with which to pay for any events or building repairs or grounds maintenence or waterfront upgrades, or for anyother purpose: zero, zip. All of the cost of maintaining and upgrading the YC comes from the membership, and the membership should not be expected to underwrite any single element of the YC's activities, Regattas or otherwise.
It remains my feeling that those who complain about the cost of a Regatta entry fee need to step back and try to understand what it costs to maintain a proper facility and put on a good Regatta. I will not bore the readers with that list of costs but I can tell everyone this; the YC's goal for every Regatta is to break even, if it were not for the work of our extensive list of Volunteers this would be an impossible goal.
We will continue to monitor the fees of every Regatta to make sure of two things; first it is an affordable fee and secondly it covers the cost.
V/C Lee Urbani
There was a 100% increase in the entry fee from 2006 to 2008.
In 2006 a pre-registered single-handed US sailing member paid $22. In 2008 that was $45.
2006 NOR: http://www.rockhallyc.org/Images/2006%20SummerOneDesignNOR%20Doc.pdf
2008 NOR: http://rockhallyachtclub.org/files/2008RHYCOne-DesignNOR.pdf
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When you consider the increase in costs of everything from 2006 to 2008, I think RHYC and its Race Committee is to be congratulated for a superior job in putting on a fabulous regatta - and holding the line on expenses. Unless you've chaired an event of this magnitude, you have no idea of all the costs involved. Hooray to Lee and all of the tireless volunteers who have given so freely of their time and energy to make sure the competitors and their families had a good time in pleasant, safe surroundings.
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While I can not address other YC’s some, as I have stated, have endowments or deeds of gift that subsidize if not out right pay for Regattas.
RHYC pays the same market prices for all of the things you mentioned you are paying for to attend Regattas. We experience the same costs increases that everyone else does. This goes for the doubling of the cost for gas to cut the lawn & groom the grounds, & gas for the Private vessels that create the race and stand by for safety. This means we need to induce people, who are race knowledgeable, to come out and provide their vessels, and the maintenance and the gas to operate them for 10 to 12 hours for the weekend. To do that we have offered a stipend to off set some of these cost increases. We feel it is fair that this cost be borne by those who are in the race. We have a Club House with hot showers and heat and air conditioning, the cost of utilities has doubled in the last year alone. We provide a free campground. The cost of food delivery and the raw cost of food have more than doubled in the last two years. And so on and so on.
Our policy is; if an event or service can not cover the cost of putting on the event or service, we will not be able to provide it.
One of the ways we are trying to make sure our Regatta fees are controlled is to get a good handle on how many boats we will be hosting. That was the compelling reason why we went to on-line, pre-registration. If we can not accurately predict the number of boats / participants then we can not accurately predict food or water or any other variable expenses and must error to the conservative.
There has been resistance from the sailors in pre-registering for an event especially from the Laser, and Wind Mill Classes yet they are the two classes that have been the most vocal regarding the fee structures. We just concluded the Lightning Class ACC’s with over 90% pre-registered, were knew exactly what was required for the head count and were able to keep the fees in check. On the other hand this years One Design Regatta where we had twice the boats show up that were registered, caused our Social Committee to have to run out to retail supermarkets to provide enough food for that evenings meal. This cost the YC dearly and understandably some folks did not like the results.
As with every thing in life both sides need to think the problem through, there are many areas that are simply out of our control, such as the cost of gas. But we can work together to control the costs that we can control such as wasted food or to many paid helpers in anticipation of a larger crowd. So, help out by talking up on line pre-registration within the Laser group. I don’t know yet what the answer will be but with the efforts within Class groups and the discipline derived from pre-registration the RHYC will be in a better position to manage our costs and therefore manage the fees.
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