It’s a strange year for sure, a RudderPost in midsummer? Yes it is. Welcome to the June edition of the RudderPost. I called a board meeting in late June to handle a couple of things that have come up. Mostly our summer cruises but a few other items too. Summer is in full swing and the US/Canadian Border is closed, making this the oddest year for boating. I expect the San Juan Islands are seeing more use than in a typical year.
Given the current Covid-19 guidelines we have made the decision to cancel the Summer Rendezvous and the other two cruises for this summer. If things change we will review the situation.
There have been some changes on the Board. Jewels Mellen has resigned as Secretary and Chris Powell has resigned his position as Director. With the support of the Board I have appointed Katie Breitling as interim Secretary to help finish up the year. I will leave the Director position vacant. In case you don’t know Katie, she and her husband, Jason, joined the club in May of last year. They own a Catalina called Flora; they have been to a number of dinner meetings and Jason won the Bottle Hunt at Yellow Fest last summer. They are really nice folks whom I hope everyone gets a chance to meet when we can have cruises again.
We are in the process of forming the Nominating Committee to help fill the board positions for 2021. If you are interested in either participating on the Nominating committee or joining the Board for 2021 please get in touch with anyone on the Board. This has been a challenging year and we will definitely need some folks to step up and help out in 2021. We have found that Zoom works pretty well for holding Board Meetings and are expecting to continue to have that option going forward. So if you are worried about a long commute in traffic think again – there are options which will allow you to participate remotely.
There is a Zoom Happy Hour scheduled for July 21st at 6:30pm. I will follow up with connection details closer to the event. As always, if you want help getting connected via Zoom feel free to get in touch with Nancy Kick, Ben Lobaugh or me, and we will be happy to help get you connected and set up.
As I start thinking about summer plans, I know there are many folks who are having trouble putting food on the table these days and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it will be getting better any time soon. I’ve been thinking of ways to help and I know there are a couple of food banks in the area who will put donations to great use. Here are some links to a couple of those:
Ballard Food Bank
Northwest Harvest
I hope you will join me in supporting folks who need it at this time.
Enjoy your summer!
A.J.