Thanks for your support YNZ

[Kiteroa 8]

This is a summarised list, some of it is what YNZ does, and some of it is what benefits club/classes get by being affiliated. They won’t all apply to everyone, and some will apply to clubs and not classes, etc. It is a bit off the cuff and brief sorry, however it should hopefully demonstrate that there is some level of value for everyone (and perhaps enlighten some who aren’t quite sure what we do).

 

There is an issue of communication; what we put out there does not seem to get through to the individual. This is either because:

• We do not know who the individual is, so we cannot target them

• Clubs are a barrier – information does not get past the committee, manager, secretary

• People don’t read Briefings

 

We are always trying to improve our cut through to sailors. The way YNZ is structured the member is the club or the class. Very few clubs share the contact details of their members with YNZ, so we simply cannot communicate directly, we don’t even know who they are, so we have to go through other channels (website, newsletter, and social media).

 

As Zoe mentions, Briefings is a good way to keep up to date with what is happening in the sport, but also what YNZ is doing. It is easy to sign up to (on the YNZ website), it comes out every two weeks and is free.

 

Here is the summary:

• YNZ help with building capability within organisations:

o Helping clubs through Sport NZ’s Organisational Development Tool, a warrant of fitness for clubs and groups to help them grow

o Providing guidance to clubs/class and help around how they administer their club, including risk management

o Hands on support from Regional Support Officers, there are 5 in the country. RSO’s provide support around club structure and activity, funding, promotion, connecting with other schools and clubs.

• Access to training and education

o YNZ provides free training from race officials and volunteers (race officers, judges and umpires). This also includes ongoing support with seminars and forums.

o Affiliated groups can attend any of the YNZ Coach education courses, from Learn to Sail and Keelboat Coach right up to High Performance Coach.

o Club and organisations have access to teach and run any of the national training programmes YNZ develop and maintain (keelboat and dinghy)

• Advocacy (an often overlooked area)

o Advocating on behalf of all boaties to maintain access to the water and foreshore. This includes trying to preserve bays and coastline for cruising and shelter from marine farms, etc.

o Lobbying local, central and regional government around many issues including compulsory licensing and registration, wearing of lifejackets, navigation/safety bylaw, etc

o Maintaining exemptions from Maritime rules including speed and needing to have club vessels in safe ship management (soon to become MOSS)

• Supporting clubs and classes seeking funding from charitable trusts and sponsors

• Clubs can use the Racing Rules of Sailing, and can be an organising authority for running racing and events. Anyone can run racing, however if they are not affiliated it will be under the rules for the prevention of collisions at sea.

• Members of affiliated clubs are then entitled to race in National Events.

• YNZ provide support around National Events, helping with race documents, finding official, maintaining the standards of a National Championship.

• YNZ runs the PHRF handicapping system and is working to improve the system and its delivery to clubs and sailors.

• YNZ has a safety and technical officer, we maintain and update the safety regulation and YNZ carries out yacht inspections for racing and on behalf of MNZ. Members also receive a discounted price on Category 1 inspections.

• YNZ is an information point for the public and for members and are open to anyone looking for advice, support or information. YNZ has a website with a large amount of useful information and contacts. The website is undergoing development and we recognise there is still a lot of work to go, but we are working through this as quickly as we can.

• Proving regional development for developing sailors nationwide.

• YNZ runs a high performance programme; yes this is aimed at the top end of the sport and the Olympics. It is worth noting that not a single dollar of money contributed to YNZ by clubs is spent in this area. In fact the money YNZ receives from Sport NZ for this programme helps cover the cost of the overheads for the whole organisation, helping reduce the pressure on funds that are spent in the non-high performance area. If the high performance programme disappeared so would the money from Sport NZ. I’d like to think the sailors that perform well at events like the Olympics inspire new generations of kids to try sailing.

[JK 28]

Thanks for the comments Smithy! Just to clarify it is the younger son that has the All Black aspirations not the older one! He has been in his P Class only once since the start of the rugby season, the older one has probably spent more time at sea than on land over the same timeframe.

 

I too could not see the point of the Takapuna proposal, always thought Okahu Bay would be a far better option & not just because I live south of the bridge. The demand on the R930 association showed a complete lack of appreciation around what was going on & could have been handled far better. The point I was trying to make was that I have nothing but respect for the people I have dealings with at YNZ. Granted that is not the administration as such, I have never dealt with them in 8 years of being involved with junior yachting & have never had to form an opinion, but the regional reps who are involved with many clubs and classes around the region.

 

As Zoe said, signing up on the website to receive the YNZ Briefings newsletter via email is an easy way of keeping informed with what YNZ are doing. Like French Bay I cannot remember details of what YNZ provide ever being relayed to club members by way of newsletter, maybe it is just assumed people know.

[Guest]

...

 

There is an issue of communication; what we put out there does not seem to get through to the individual. This is either because:

• We do not know who the individual is, so we cannot target them

• Clubs are a barrier – information does not get past the committee, manager, secretary

• People don’t read Briefings

 

We are always trying to improve our cut through to sailors. The way YNZ is structured the member is the club or the class. Very few clubs share the contact details of their members with YNZ, so we simply cannot communicate directly, we don’t even know who they are, so we have to go through other channels (website, newsletter, and social media).

 

.....

 

Thank you for that, W.T.. That's a very good exposition of the state of affairs and the work of YNZ.

 

I take it you are someone very involved in the running of YNZ and for some reason are not able to identify yourself as such. No matter; what you have enunciated above confirms my proposition about YNZ communication or rather the inefficacy of their communication which I outlined in my post at the end of page 6 above.

 

The whole point is that there is a communication black hole, and there has been for as long as I have been involved

 

You (and, I suppose therefore, I) are right in saying that it doesn't work. But it's been like this for as long as I can remember. Surely it's time for NZ yachting (through Yachting NZ) to rejig the way it orders it's affairs and, particularly, it's lines of communication.

[Guest]

WT, you say you have trouble contacting members of clubs and have to use other methods such as social media.

 

I challenge that and say BULLSHIT!

 

Crew is a good social media form of Communication to the masses.

 

Besides Zoe, JK, and You, there has been no plea or request from YNZ for details on class updates, sailor details, Club situations...

 

Even better ... YNZ has never come on this site and asked for "Sailors" view points on "anything".

 

If YNZ was on top of the job they would be sending their representatives to every yacht club and asking for membership details. I see no reason why they would not give you this info.

 

You may believe what you write to be true and have no reason to question it, based on what you see, but I think it is just another bunch of words... until someone details the facts of YNZ assistance to NZ Yacht clubs it is just more speil to make the people go away.

 

I don,t wish to shoot the messenger but you put it out there and I think it time for YNZ to be more open and transparant with sailors and stop hiding behind good people like you and others who fight their battles for them.

[Guest]

WT, you say you have trouble contacting members of clubs and have to use other methods such as social media.

 

I challenge that and say BULLSHIT!

 

Crew is a good social media form of Communication to the masses.

 

Less than 5000 members on crew.org, so I guess that if it is the masses then you are right...

[JK 28]

If YNZ was on top of the job they would be sending their representatives to every yacht club and asking for membership details. I see no reason why they would not give you this info.

 

The committee of most if not all clubs would not have a bar of letting YNZ see their membership details. It would be fairly common knowledge they all fudge the Senior Equivalent Member numbers to some extent to minimise their payments to YNZ, they would not want to hand over the raw data. They would also be aware of privacy legislation prohibiting passing over details unless permission was granted, and most clubs would not want the hassle of updating membership forms to cover waivers for the release of data in a legally defensible way. You may be surprised at the aversion of some people to having their details passed on, or to receiving unsolicited updates.

 

Unless someone specifically signs up to receive email notifications it is not legal to send them, that is classed as spam & I have had complaints after sending out newsletters to association members in the past even though there was an unsubscribe option under their membership login to the website and the footer of every email.

[Guest]

WT, you say you have trouble contacting members of clubs and have to use other methods such as social media.

 

I challenge that and say BULLSHIT!

 

Crew is a good social media form of Communication to the masses.

 

Less than 5000 members on crew.org, so I guess that if it is the masses then you are right...

Name another medium that has more access to sailors.

 

Also Crew has many thousand lurkers who probably would jump at a chance to speak to ynz in this type of format.

[Guest]

If YNZ was on top of the job they would be sending their representatives to every yacht club and asking for membership details. I see no reason why they would not give you this info.

 

The committee of most if not all clubs would not have a bar of letting YNZ see their membership details. It would be fairly common knowledge they all fudge the Senior Equivalent Member numbers to some extent to minimise their payments to YNZ, they would not want to hand over the raw data. They would also be aware of privacy legislation prohibiting passing over details unless permission was granted, and most clubs would not want the hassle of updating membership forms to cover waivers for the release of data in a legally defensible way. You may be surprised at the aversion of some people to having their details passed on, or to receiving unsolicited updates.

 

Unless someone specifically signs up to receive email notifications it is not legal to send them, that is classed as spam & I have had complaints after sending out newsletters to association members in the past even though there was an unsubscribe option under their membership login to the website and the footer of every email.

 

If that is so, and I don,t believe it is, then YNZ need to get on top of that as deception and fudged figures is not helping either party progress. Let alone the sport.

 

JK, I understand that some yacht clubs are just plain dis-organised but I don,t think they are immoral. But I could be wrong .

 

Some officials hold a dim view of YNZ, and that is holding them and their yacht club back.

 

This disconnect is the issue. YNZ should take the higher path on this and step up to the plate on the stuff they are failing at. Then they can point the finger with confidence at yacht clubs. At the moment they are not held in great esteem and as such progress forward is not possible.

[Kiteroa 8]

WT, you say you have trouble contacting members of clubs and have to use other methods such as social media.

 

I challenge that and say BULLSHIT!

 

Crew is a good social media form of Communication to the masses.

 

Besides Zoe, JK, and You, there has been no plea or request from YNZ for details on class updates, sailor details, Club situations...

 

Even better ... YNZ has never come on this site and asked for "Sailors" view points on "anything".

 

If YNZ was on top of the job they would be sending their representatives to every yacht club and asking for membership details. I see no reason why they would not give you this info.

 

You may believe what you write to be true and have no reason to question it, based on what you see, but I think it is just another bunch of words... until someone details the facts of YNZ assistance to NZ Yacht clubs it is just more speil to make the people go away.

 

I don,t wish to shoot the messenger but you put it out there and I think it time for YNZ to be more open and transparant with sailors and stop hiding behind good people like you and others who fight their battles for them.

 

I have no affiliation with YNZ other than sending them the occasional payment in the mail just like the rest of the boat owners here. What I did do, was send a quick email to to an old mate of mine who I know is directly involved in front line YNZ operations. I just explained the situation here and asked if he would like to write a quick summary of how they roll day to day, strictly for the purpose of a direct line of communication to the likes of yourself.

 

I know this guy is busy, but he made some time for you guys cause he wants to do a good job and get information out there. Within a day he had written that little summary for you guys and I offered to post it as he wasn't about to enter into a slagging match here and end up in a war of words with someone with a chip on their shoulder. Bagging these guys on a forum isn't the way to do it. Get on their website and write them an email or give them a call. Everyone's emails and phone numbers are on there. It's easy. Took me 1 minute, stop bleating and put in some effort if you want to change something.

[armchairadmiral 411]

Thank you WT.You are unlikely to change anything by dealing with incumbents.They think they are doing a great job ,as outlined by you.They regard "us" as ungrateful whingers with 'chips on their shoulders;.Slagging 'us' off is an admissiom of guilt.Play the ball not the man.The complaint stands.They are by their own admission spending over 70% of everything on elite sailing .They should separate out the sectors to stand alone self funding accounts.And be grateful for R930 trying to regroup!

[JK 28]

Think I will bow out of this discussion, it appears to be going nowhere & I have better things to do. I thought I could offer some insight based upon 8 years of heavy involvement with clubs & YNZ, plus a few years lesser involvement before that, but topsail/armchair admiral are like a stuck record.

[Kiteroa 8]

I agree that they are falling short in areas. Safety inspectors and their support from YNZ being a sore point for me personally. However there are people in that organisation who are batting as hard as they can for us. No organisation like this nails every objective they set out to, although it does seem that they have some direction. I think it's somewhat unfair to write them off over one, admittedly, miss directed and unfortunate email from someone seemingly having a bad day in the office.

 

I don't know the history of the 930's vs YNZ payment debacle, but to me it seems pretty minor. I'm sure as soon as it becomes apparent that the 2013 incarnation of the 930 crowd involves quite reasonable and enthusiastic guys like SD and co, the historical issues will be forgotten, and the class will get all the help they need.

 

For sure the front line people at YNZ read these forums, so they're aware of what's going on in some capacity.

 

That will do from me also.

[Guest]

I just caught up with this, so I'm going to make acouple of comments then lock the thread.

 

It is perfectly reasonable that YNZ spend 70% of its money on Olympic sailing, as this is money given to them to win medals, to spend it elsewhere would be dishonest. SInce this is disproportionately large against all other income, then it gives the appearance they are ignoring every one else. But that probably isn't true.

 

They have a PR issue. They are working on it with the limited resources collected outside of the SPARC funding.

 

(Anyone want to open a thread in small talk on whether the NZ taxpayer should be funding olympic hopefuls in any sport?)

 

YNZ is an association of Yacht Clubs, not sailors qand I think that is a large part of their problem. It was OK in the days of snail mail but is cumbersome and outdated now. But changing that would involve convincing them to change their constitiution and would probably meet some resistance along the way.

 

I put it into the too hard basket, go sailing, accept that I have to pay the fee, only join one club coz I'm a cheapskate, expect nothing in return and if i do get something it is a pleasant surprise.

 

Which leaves me with a vague unease that things like compulsory lifejackets and similar nonsense will be foisted upon us as there is no body really speaking on our behalf. Mainly because YNZ seem to take positions on things and as a member I'm never aware of it till after the fact.

 

This all gets worse if you are a cruiser not a racer.

 

Thread locked now, Feel free to start another elsewhere but keep it positive and free of personal invective. I'm in a bad mood, be warned.