sailorsue 0 Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Help!!!! Somehow the skipper and I have been voted on to the Vanuatu yacht club committee as Commodore and Rear Commodore- that's what you get for being shore based for a while!!!! They want new blood and new ideas, so they better look out. We have been brain storming and are thinking along the lines of developing the club to involve youth (maybe getting some Optis as they do in Fiji), also family and cruiser involvement which doesn't happen at present. Maybe new venue and dinghy dock to facilitate all this- the club has funds sitting there begging to be used. Any advice from anyone, (particularly those who belong to a yacht club) will be appreciated. Link to post Share on other sites
Zoe 8 Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Prepare for a lot of hard work! The more you put into it the more you get out. Tell people what you are doing because you can't sell a secret. Get stories in the newspaper and boating magazines in the Islands and NZ and Australia from Day 1. Run Open Days. Be hospitable. Have a good website. Experiment. If something works, do it again. If it doesn't work, try another way. Delegate because if you give people jobs and they will usually do a good job and if you get bogged down doing the small stuff, you won't be able to carry out your vision. It will take a while but once momentum starts, it really starts. Enjoy it. Link to post Share on other sites
sailorsue 0 Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Thanks Zoe Looks like we have a pretty good committee to work with, so yes there will be lots of delegation. Have been told some of the old salts might take a bit of convincing when it comes to "change", but you get that. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Sue - haven't beenm there in years, can you give us a description of what exists at present? Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Definately get a junior programme going if you can - insist on parents getting involved. It feeds the club membership long term and adds a new dimension to the club culture. If running dinghy sailing, have juniors sailing at the same time as seniors - needs a bit more effort but the club will be all the better for it. Link to post Share on other sites
Fogg 427 Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 All I recall of the Vanuatu YC is a great waterside bar which is VERY welcome retreat after a long passage! Assuming you see value in atttracting visiting yachtsmen as much as your own domestic members, I'd suggest making contact with a few of the other clubs on the usual cruising route so that cruisers departing from the likes of Fiji, New Cal, NZ etc are very aware of your existence, maybe with some kind of special offer to welcome new arrivals? Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 I was Vice Commodore of Royal Suva in the late seventies. The club was moribund and populated by a few fishermen and a host of dipsomaniacs and dinosaurs. One day I came across the old Cable and Wireless company's flagpole which had stood stood on the Suva foreshore and from which they used to fly the hurricane warnings. This 60' solid oregon pole had been condemmed due to dry rot. I discovered that the dry rot was confined to a small area at the base of the pole. I got a team together and we re-erected the pole on the lawn of the yacht club - the pride of the members was palpable - albeit that they named it "Lackey's erection". I am convinced that club activity, enthusiasm and well-being is largely a matter of morale. By the time I left Fiji we had a sizeable fleet of Hobie 16s, regular keelboat racing, and had run a very successful South Pacific Games regatta. Link to post Share on other sites
sailorsue 0 Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 Ogre- club has about 60 financial members. Base is the Anchor Inn which is the opposite end of the harbour to the Waterfront bar and restaurant and Yachting World which have the yacht moorings, internet cafe etc. We have an office there with an arrangement that one of the staff members from the Anchor Inn is paid to "man" it on a part time basis. Have yet to check out the ins and outs of this, but never anyone in there when we go past. Basically the office is a book swap, displays the merchandise and has a computer and printer. Club used to be part of yachting world I believe. It is all a bit disjointed really. Ahh the Royal Suva yacht club. Don't get me started- hasn't changed at all from your days there David L. We were charged a fortune to side tie- no power and a rickety old jetty to walk along, showers and laundry facilities a joke!!!! Didn't appeal at all. Used to have Optis, so need to track them down. Web site not been up graded since 2007- lots to do really!!! Link to post Share on other sites
Zoe 8 Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Yep there are a lot of clubs that keep doing things the way they always have, despite the fact that it's obviously not working. Looking at it with fresh eyes is really important. Regarding morale, I noticed the lights go on at our club committee meeting when we had a poster professionally designed. I remember presenting it at the committee meeting (I was so nervous because who was I to go in there and suggest change) and they were all like 'wow, is this us? this is us! we are cool!'. We also had a brainstorming strategy session where everyone got to contribute their ideas, then we agreed on a few key points. That was important too because it helped to get everyone's buy in from an early stage. We used it to write a strategic plan and even though some people considered it a waste of time, and in fact told me quite publicly at a meeting, it did cement the fact that we were working towards the same thing, and once you write down that sort of stuff on to a piece of paper, it has a habit of coming true. We could have bypassed this step but I still think it was quite important because it makes everyone think about what they really want from the club and they put in more effort once they have been through it. I might be wrong but I think it gave us as a team a good boost. The most important thing is good leadership. At the end it really comes down to a few good people at the top making it work, and everyone else follows and does their bit. We have had a great commodore and vice commodore who have done that. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Ahh the Royal Suva yacht club. Don't get me started- hasn't changed at all from your days there David L. We were charged a fortune to side tie- no power and a rickety old jetty to walk along, showers and laundry facilities a joke!!!! Didn't appeal at all. I'm sorry to hear that. Fiji was paradise in the 1970s. Link to post Share on other sites
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