Over time your board has noticed a decline in participation for some Club activities: most recently, our monthly dinner meetings. This is an issue for several reasons. The speakers at the meetings are doing so on a volunteer basis, and as such we would like to support them with a good turnout. The venues, currently Ivar’s, have a minimum amount we need to spend to get the room at no added charge and we have had trouble meeting that requirement. For the last few meetings we have been able to negotiate with them to drop or adjust that amount, but we can’t depend on their willingness to do so indefinitely. We have explored other venues, but have had trouble finding good options. Some offer minimal room charges, but with much higher meal prices. Others have limited facilities, limited staff, or require very long lead times for booking and participant counts.
Those who do attend truly enjoy the experience. Roger Newby has set up very interesting presenters and Ivars has upped their game when it comes to the food and menu choices. Perhaps most importantly the membership seems to greatly enjoy getting together, keeping up to date on the goings-on in our lives, and just enjoying a casual social evening. Also, members can invite guests to the dinner events, but need to make sure this is noted in the Evite response along with their meal choices.
We understand there can be many reasons to hold off on participation. Covid changed how many of us view gatherings, people have other engagements, and the current economy has many worried about spending. For our part we are looking at scheduling to try keep club events from occurring too close together, and we continue to try and keep costs down.
In the end we would greatly encourage participation in your club’s dinner meetings and cruises. Roger and Tom would really appreciate hearing from any/all members who are not attending the dinner meetings very often, or at all, and the same for our cruising events. We will absolutely protect your identity when sharing your thoughts to improve our Club, so please give Roger or Tom a call or email. Roger’s info is in the Roster, Tom’s email is commodore@shilsholebayyachtclub.org.