Meeting MINUTES Monday November 18, 2013 Ladner Yacht Club 1930-2100 Attendees: Byron Buie, Donalda Buie, Rick Easthom; Cindy Arbeau, Colin Redwood, Bill Hawryluk; Bob Juulsen; Cleve Pryde; Dave Mellis; Bob Everson; Rose Easthom; Les Muller, Jan Muller; Peter Lefroy; Nan Lockie; Meredith Williamson, Vidas Vitkus Regrets: Chair: Minutes: Kathleen and Paul Vanderwood, Jack Tang Byron Buie Cindy Arbeau Call to order 1) Roll Call: Called to order at 1935 2) Previous Minutes: Accepted by Meredith Williamson and Peter Lefroy 3) Business arising from previous minutes - None 4) Officer Reports a) Commanders report- (Byron Buie) Report submitted by Byron AGM in Toronto - We had a good trip to Toronto other than having some initial room problems which were resolved after a few days. We attended all the meetings including the Squadron Commanders, Marketing, Course Directors & AGM on Saturday. Fraser Squadron did receive several awards, and I was hoping that we would get one or more of the volunteer awards, but it did not happen - We received 3rd place with our Chinese Study Guide, and 1st place for our WEB site - Bob s hard work finally paid off. We also received three honour Roll Awards 15th, 16th & 17th (Are we up to date now?) The Commanders meeting was almost a carbon copy of last year s in Edmonton... Lack of students for our courses and many Squadrons had to cancel their fall classes due to lack of interest. The most popular course this year is ROC (M) and one Squadron has put 250 students through this year. They have been doing a one day course which we will be doing in January. As was talked about last year many Squadron Commanders wanted the word boating to appear in our CPS name. Some Squadrons are using the term Boating before their name example FRASER BOATING. (see license plate holder) - Also many Squadrons are using Kijiji to advertise their boating course with great success.
Registering our courses on boatingcourses.ca in WBAS which we are doing. CPS-ECP has also received a grant from Google Ad Words of 10,000 month which apparently is renewable every year as we are a volunteer organization. So we must use boatingcourses.ca to advertise all our courses. CPS also has a staff member Vanessa Schmidt who is their graphic design person who has offered to help any Squadrons with Graphic work. At the Marketing Meeting there were many ideas exchanged on how to get more interest in our courses. 1) Make use of Social Media and place adds in the Boat for sale column. 2) If they take a CPS course give them a coupon for the next course (which we are doing with our Boating Essentials for our VHF course. 3) Some Squadrons are having the whole family attend the course and if their children are under 10 they charge 30.00 per student. 4) Short Courses which we are doing and some Squadrons are doing it with Boating Essentials. 5) Market our courses to Yacht Clubs, Water Taxis, Naval Reserves, Dragon Boaters, Rowing Clubs, Police Forces, and Fire Departments etc. On the water training - This was talked about at the Squadron, Marketing and Course directors meeting. Gary Clow the DTO from PMD did a presentation at the Course Directors meeting and he has the go ahead to develop course material before addressing insurance issues etc. The USPS do have on the water training and what they have done is to have a small boat on a trailer that is available to any Squadron to do on the water training. Saturday was the Annual AGM. And all motions were passed and we will see a restructuring of the Corporation to comply with the Not For Profit act. So we will see the nomination of 23 directors (see application forms online - The Ideal Director ) Also there was a resolution to recognize volunteers who help develop course material. Ships Stores: They had a clear out of everything from shirts to license plates. So we did take advantage of this and picked up a few items for giveaways at Xmas parties or on cruises etc. b) Executive Officer (Dave Mellis) Massey Marine is closed Gary indicated due to decreased commercial fishing and less pleasure boaters, Massey will maintain an online and a consulting business Need to look at one day short courses to attract boaters ie. Anchoring; boat polishing. Focus on attracting the interest of boaters Need to look at different revenue options Dave willing to utilize his boat, need to look at insurance issues; Coopers do a 2 day course on anchoring at ~$400.00 and a lot of people attended. Therefore we can offer a good course, cost would be reasonable. Will plan a date in the spring and ensure date is confirmed before advertising. Dave looking for help with the course Finances-need to consider how to minimize expenses, ie. Invite other Squadrons to participate in events such as Anchors Away; would allow other squadrons to meet each other and encourage participation. May help and do some fundraisers.
c) Treasurer - (Cleve Pryde) $11,675 current balance More membership $$ to come d) Membership- (VidasVitkus) There are approx. 40 family groupings Will look at how to minimize the mailings to the same address Still having problems downloading the member lists Carlos is the webmaster for Vidas to contact-byron will send the contact information Total Membership: 309 Regular: 178 Regular Life: 16 Associate Junior: 1 Lady Associate: 23 Associate: 91 e) Secretary (Cindy Arbeau) No report f) Training Officer (Kathleen Vanderwood) Report submitted by Kathleen Regarding the Chinese program, we have been advised that Jack Tang will have another group of Chinese students ready for their PCOC exam, and this will be written on Monday Dec 2, 8pm. Kathleen and Paul will be invigilating this exam. The Boating Basics, Boating Essentials, and the VHF courses will be set up in WBAS during this coming week, so that people can register online. They will also be set up on the Fraser Squadron Facebook page and on the Fraser Squadron webpage. Notifications of these courses will also be going out on Twitter in advance of each course. Our Boating Essentials course is ongoing at the LYC with Bob Juulsen coordinating the instruction. The practical session with the Steveston Lifeboat society is planned for Nov 30. The final exam for Boating Essentials is scheduled for Thurs Dec 12, at the LYC. Mr. Wally Kiss, our RTO, will be invigilating. The VHF Radio course (Oct 2 and 9) had 12 students who successfully completed this course with Byron Buie as instructor and Donnie, his wife, assisting with the marking of the exams. On Sat. Oct. 26, we had 6 students write their PCOC (Basic Boating) exam at the WestCan Yacht Club. All 6 successfully completed this exam. Many thanks to Jack Tang and Cynthia for assisting. With respect to a grad ceremony for our successful students, we recommend combining students of the fall and winter/spring program. We suggest that the graduation ceremony for our successful students to be held on Friday May 9, 2014, but this, of course, is open to discussion. Kathleen and Paul have received a letter from CPS indicating that our names had been submitted for the volunteer of the year award for 2012/2013. We wish to thank those on the Bridge who submitted our names for this award. While we did not win, we are honored with the nomination.
g) Admin Officer (Meredith Williamson) Discussion regarding Xmas party plans MC (Byron and Meredith) and perhaps asking Jack (for Chinese MC) Need to collect monies ASAP-$45.00 per person Will do another email blast; Will not be phoning as we have in previous years 50/50 draw-need explain the process Menu-would like to have a Chinese option. Phyllis from Sundance has suggested a menu that would incorporate some Chinese dishes for the meal. Gifts to donate anyone wishing to donate some items, please give to Meredith Squadron will buy some wine to give away ($100.00) DJ will have some group games, and mix up the guests games, bingo-1 line, dress up, Village people skit-disco duck, who let the dogs out Discussion to invite Royal City Squadron or other squadrons to xmas party? Byron to call the Commander- Need approx. 55 people to break even h) Communications (Colin Redwood) report submitted by Colin Redwood Bob will review the website capacity with Vidas and Colin to address some of the identified issues Consider emailing members every month to keep things on the forefront with some Fraser Squadron updates Need to be cognizant of privacy issues with mailouts; ensure there is an unsubscribe option Have been scanning historical information and will store it digitally. How do we store things on the website? Question: Do all Bridge members access the Squadron Webmail? i) Cruise Master (Peter Lefroy) The cruises tend to be attended by the same members Looking to have a younger member with families who may bring some fresh ideas for the cruises? ie. Blind dinghy boat races etc. Seems the Chinese group haven t been interested in cruises. Many factors this past summer may have led to people not participating. j) Regalia Officer (Donalda Buie) Some new items to sell and new ideas from the AGM in Toronto Many Fraser Items on sale-good deals Burgees have been ordered k) Environmental Officer (Les Muller) No report l) Multi-Cultural Officer (Rick Easthom) Approx. 12 students / month
m) Supplies & Training Aids (Bill Hawryluk) VHF course materials are in (20 ordered) CPS caps are available-will be given for the xmas party n) Port Captain (Bob Juulsen) Nothing to report Cindy to see if there is any update from the Ladner Sediment committee o) Webmaster/WBAS (Bob Everson) Nothing to report p) Public Relations (Jan Muller) Nothing to report q) Special Projects (Rose Easthom) Nothing to report r) Fairlead Editor (Rick Easthom) Thank you all for helping proof read the Fairlead Looking to put out a small Fairlead in January-will advertise the boat show 50 th anniversary - need content by Christmas-some archived items have been scanned by Colin Byron will put together an information piece re: VHF course s) Historian (Vacant) 5) New Business Gaming Grant awaiting announcement. Fraser Squadron got a grant in 1989 Will have float in the parade opportunity to get some Canada items and a grant to cover the items-donalda to apply for the monies/grant Donalda and Rose to coordinate activities for parade Need a boat that is trailered Les and Jan Muller offered help Bridge members have volunteered FYI-Industry Canada may drop in to review our classes and ensure protocol is being followed. Only protocol would he the mandated review of exam standards. 7) Adjournment at 2123 motion passed and seconded by Les and Peter NEXT meeting December 9 th, 2013