Firstly, what is a Club? The dictionary definition of a Club is:
“An association dedicated to a particular interest or activity whose members participate in the activity but also contribute to the running of the activities”
Mornington Yacht Club has as its main objective sailing in a variety of forms - from Learn to Sail, through to racing in the iconic Sydney to Hobart Race.
Our Club is organised into many areas, some requiring staff, others relying totally on members to volunteer their time to make things happen. Our staff, from the cleaner to the Club Manager ensure the important day to day routine tasks of running our Organisation are successfully undertaken.
The Board of Directors and the Finance Committee - who are all volunteers - plan and execute what has to be done to ensure our Club is well managed on a day to day basis and is structured to enable survival into the future.
There are several volunteer groups within the Club, but one such group is the ‘TAG’ team who carry out minor maintenance around the Club every Thursday morning - with their number one job being to empty the wheelie bins.
So, who manages all the sailing activities?
- The Sailing Committee, the Race Committee and the Training and Development Committee, all of whom are volunteers who plan and ensure that all sailing, racing and training take place in a safe and friendly manner.
- Volunteers, Race Officers, the Race Crew, on the water and in the Tower.
- On Saturdays there are currently just two dedicated volunteers who conduct racing on the water.
- There are 10 dedicated volunteers rostered to man the Tower and the Race Office every Thursday and Saturday to do a variety of jobs from Race Management, competitor safety (both on and off the water) through to race results.
- Sunday racing sees a few more volunteers ensuring racing takes place - some of whom are parents of the juniors just starting out in our sport.
- To lay courses on the water, there are people required to take out boats, position and move buoys as required.
Have you been rostered to participate as the Duty Boat Crew?
- So far this season there have been 7 Saturdays requiring a Duty Boat Crew but only 3 boats have provided a crew and showed up to help out.
We hear a lot of members giving the excuse “but I only sail on Thursdays so why should I have to help on Saturdays? Remember, the Tower is run by dedicated VOLUNTEERS on Thursday as well.
Our Club has been very soft on volunteering. Unfortunately, there is too much left to too few. It’s not hard to give up a few hours every two years to be part of the running of our Club.
Our Club is not just the Board or the sub Committees….
….it’s ALL OF US!!
Greg Martin, Commodore and Bill Bennett, Rear Commodore