Annual General Meeting 2008

November 18th, 2008

What is the Value of CYC?
Members Take Stock during 2008 Annual Meeting

By Nojan Moshiri

On a blustery late fall evening, seeing the lights on at the Corinthian Yacht Club and seeing people streaming across the gangway to get inside provides an invigorating scene. It's these moments when there's no doubt about the answer to the question, "What is the value of CYC?" It's enough to get folks to the club on a Tuesday evening when there's not even any sailing happening.

The annual meeting of the Corinthian Yacht Club is a required and formal part of our club charter, but it's also one of the events that always puts an exclamation point on the end of another great year of racing and cruising. This year was no exception as our community came together to perform its duty, to take stock and to celebrate, on Nov. 18.

The theme of value ran throughout the agenda of the evening from the opening remarks by Commodore Joe James until the announcement of the election results for our new officers and directors. At the heart of the question of value are many themes, including reflections on the highlights of 2008, the plans for 2009 and the state of CYC in light of the larger economic issues this year. Over the course of three and a half hours these issues were discussed in depth with a vigorous agreement that volunteerism and community make the racing and cruising that CYC provides possible.

The highlights of the club's accomplishments read like an action packed issue of the latest sailing magazine. Some of these include the club's cruisers out in the world, such as Bob Riggle's Gaia currently somewhere in the Java Sea and other far flung cruisers that have been gone, in some cases, for 10 years.

photo: Bruce Sherman

Rear Commodore John Rahn, left, and Commodore Joe James took questions during the annual meeting at the Shilshole clubhouse.

Other highlights from the year are the club's racers who had a great year in many categories. Kris Bundy, for example, with the North American International 14 championship, the recent win of Steve Travis' Flash in the Round the County race, our Sea Scouts capturing the Kiwi Cup, and the many other first and high place finishes in races ranging from the J/24 Italian Championships (Keith Whittemore, 7^th place overall and top US finisher) to Derek and Rana Campbell's finish at the Melges 32 Nationals (5^th place).

There has been a lot to celebrate this year and many answers to the question of value. Stepping back a bit, Commodore Joe James, and new Fleet Captain Race, Jerry Diercks, highlighted for us the amazing statistics around racing at our club. In 2008, specifically, we had over 130 days of racing sponsored or made possible by CYC. That's an incredible statistic which is hard to fathom. Club members could enjoy windward/leeward courses three nights a week plus weekends throughout 22 consecutive weeks of the year. The National Offshore One Design (NOOD) event in the spring was such a success that it will be coming back in 2009 (May 15 to 17, 2009).

Our new fleet captain for cruising, Bill Mains, has also stepped up to reinvigorate cruising with more varied events. One of the great accomplishments that provide an incredible value for our members was completed by our current Fleet Captains Cruise Rod and Mary Deyo. Rod and Mary updated and refreshed our reciprocal yacht club list which is now up-to-date for our member's use.

Among the other highlights of the year were a survey of the clubhouse, provided at no cost as a generous donation to the CYC by Dick Obritz. The results of the survey showed that the clubhouse is in good to very good condition and that no haul out is currently required. There are some relatively minor bits of cleanup and work that need to be completed such as re-attaching the hatches of the watertight compartments of the barge, fixing a leaky shower and providing for some emergency anchor locations. With volunteer help these tasks should be completed with relatively low cost.

As we all took stock of all of the value of CYC, what it provides to its members and what the members provide back, Vice Commodore Bruce Sherman highlighted the volunteer efforts of 2008 that have provided much value to the club. These included the presence of CYC at the annual boat show at Qwest field last winter, volunteer work for club motor boats, volunteer efforts that have completely revamped the club's computer systems and efforts that have completely redesigned the club's website.

Wrapping up the evening, the final major topic of the evening was the budget recap for 2008 and the budget for 2009. The main issue for 2008 was that expenses ran beyond income for the year and the club faced a budget deficit of about $45,000. The priority of the officers was to balance the budget for 2009, a task achieved through a variety of difficult measures. As discussed in the November issue of the Leadline, the largest decision was to not renew the Leschi Clubhouse. The board also has voted to increase dues 10 percent and race fees an average of 10 percent, with no increases for Lake Washington sailors.

There was a lot of discussion around the budget and questioning by the fleet members on the nature of the overruns, what can be done to prevent them in the future and how the balanced budget for 2009 will look. The one thing that was not, and cannot, be captured in the balance sheets and PowerPoint slides we viewed was the value the club brings to its members, their families and friends, the community here and around the world, and how our volunteerism has boosted the club and minimized the financial issues in 2009. Surely without the hundreds of hours of volunteerism, the losses could have been well beyond where it stood at the end of this year.

The final item for the evening was the announcement of the election results. Nominees were running unopposed so the new officers and directors were chosen as follows:

The slide presentation by the various officers and committee chairs can be viewed here. (500 kbyte pdf file)