Hello Members,
Things are slowly getting back to normal. Racing has restarted, Wellington Ocean Sports is operating again, and our team is back working from the Club office.
However, some things are still a work in progress. We’re working hard to get the Wardroom up and running, and for now, COVID-19 rules still limit what we can do around the club.
AGM
The AGM will be held on 24 June, though it remains to be seen what the social distancing rules will be then. However, in all likelihood we’ll be able to run a normal AGM in the wardroom. Plans are afoot to ensure that social distancing measures are complied with, and if necessary we’ll have space available in either the Boardroom or at Wellington Ocean Sports if we have more than 100 in attendance.
Nominations closed last week, with nominations received for the incumbents for all of the open Board roles. The means that James, Katie, Phil, Paul and I will be re-elected to our positions at the AGM.
Katre Beckett is standing down as racing secretary. We’ll call for nominations from the floor, but in the meantime, please speak with James if you think you can help us in this important role, or elsewhere on the Sailing Committee.
Wardroom Bar Working Group and Covid-19 Update
We realise that the club and Wardroom is an important part of many people’s lives (including your Board’s). It is also important that we as a club do our part and follow the government guidance. At the same time, we have the added complexity of investigating a future operating model for the Wardroom now that the Black and Gold agreement is coming to an end.
We are now able to have up to 100 people which is a great step to getting back to ‘normal’. However, with the agreement with Black and Gold ending, the restrictions around having to be seated, separated, single served, and the added to the need for extra cleaning, we’ve decided not to reopen the Wardroom or the downstairs bathrooms for now.
This means that the first day of winter series the Wardroom will be closed. while only involved in race management will be allowed upstairs in the start box. This was an extremely hard decision to make and one not taken lightly. We must balance getting back to our new ‘normal’ for you while at the same time, keeping you all safe and the club safe. This will also give the working group more time to come up with a plan to what operating model will be the best for the club moving forwards.
The working group has started looking into several different models and how they might work for the running of the Wardroom. There’ll be two phases to the implementation, first to get a basic bar service up and running, and then to expanding the service and restarting our functions business.
Whatever operating model is decided it, it will need you to get behind and support it, otherwise we’ll be back at square one or worse. This means coming out of your sheds and off your boats into the club after sailing and on Friday nights.
In the meantime, if you have any questions please feel free to talk to one of the team on the working group, Kim Gottard, Andrew Dinsdale, Geoff Herd, Jason Reid & Katie Hakes.
New membership management system
We have now fully transitioned our member management system to a new system called MemberMe. From the office side, this system is significantly more efficient and will allow us to better serve our members. For members the system has a number of benefits. We’re in the final stages of testing the MemberMe app and in the coming weeks we’dd invite you to download it.
At this stage the app allows members to access a virtual membership card including QR code and to update their personal details held by the club. Members will be able to use the app to contactlessly sign into the club. The system has additional features that we intend to assess and implement after the initial roll out.
As always, please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, or think that you can help in any way.
