Greenwich Sail & Power Squadron District 2 THE HARBOR LIGHT http//www.greenwichsps.org Greenwich, Connecticut, L 41 00 N, Lo 73 37 W Volume 33 Number 5 NOV-DEC 2017 I Hello fellow boaters, This has been an exciting year for our squadron and I thank each of you for making it such a success. With well-attended events and classes that fill up quickly we have been achieving our goals. In recent years our squadron has been bucking a trend; Greenwich has been growing while membership at the district and national level has declined each year. Most organizations share the same issues - time is valuable and we are all busy. The United States Power Squadrons remains the largest organization of recreational boaters in the world and our courses are rated as the best. USPS has done extensive marketing research and now is convinced that our brand, while well known to experienced boaters, is not as clearly understood by the general public. A co-branding process is now underway. We ll now be promoted as America s Boating Club which reflects what we do: going well beyond boating education. Test marketing has shown our new moniker to be a clear, inviting message to new boaters who need exactly what we offer and want to belong as members. As an organization, our structure will remain intact and there will be no changes other than our name. The America s Boating Club logo contains the USPS flag within it, so there is continuity. We are still the same group of like-minded boaters with the same mission! Please bring a friend or two to our November 15 th event on the background to the movie The Finest Hour and show them your squadron. Enjoy the holiday season, Commander Bill Vernon, AP For Boaters, by Boaters.
Page 2 W Education Update e have 10 new successful graduates of the Cruise Planning course. All of the students who took the exam passed. Congratulations to all. And thanks to Marie Genteale and Chris Nitzsche for teaching this course. I received many positive comments from the students. As just a single example, one student wrote, Your experience and hands on practicality with the subject brought reality to the fore creating lively interactive and very enjoyable sessions. Marie and Chris, the students love you! Greenwich Sail & Power Squadron The Bridge: Commander William Vernon, Jr. AP Educational Officer Andrew M. Cummings, JN Administrative Officer Vicki Malara, S Treasurer Robert A. Henry, SN Members at Large George C. Dey, JN George Friend, P David Leisten Rich Malloy, SN Susan P. Ryan, JN William Strong, JN To contact all officers, email: GreenwichSquadron @gmail.com Editor Jeanine Giddings Piloting will begin on Tuesday January 23 rd. I am looking forward to seeing many of our ABC students from last spring in this class. And of course we will be conducting our one day ABC classes in the spring of 2018 on Saturday May 5 th and Saturday June 9 th. Andrew Cummings, Education Officer Safety Update t the recent District 2 meeting I was honored to accept on A behalf of the Greenwich Sail & Power Squadron the Mel Cohen Safety Award, one of the U.S. Power Squadron s most prestigious awards. This award is given to the squadron that has made the most significant contributions to boating safety in the past year. This is not the first time I have had the privilege of accepting this award. The award is based upon activities in multiple areas as reported by the squadron. This year, Harrison Valente, the District 2 safety officer, sited, in addition to our traditional articles and community outreach, our involvement in children s programs and the fact that several of our members became Vessel Safety Examiners this year. This was truly a squadron wide efforts. Thanks to all who contributed to these activities and congratulations. Andrew Cummings Safety Officer t is with mixed feeling that I will be resigning as Newsletter I Editor. This is my last newsletter. Over the past 20 years I have enjoyed publishing this letter while learning the tricks of the trade as well as the tricks of the English language with the help of Susan Ryan. I also have been blessed for the help of the various members who sent me articles and photos in order to inform you about our Squadron activities. I thank you all. Of course, I will remain in touch. Jeanine Giddings
Page 3 Awards and District 2 Meetings Carleen Lyden Walker and members at our October meeting. Rick Delfosse with Bill Vernon at our November meeting.
Page 4 District Two Fall Conference On Saturday, October 14 th Greenwich Sail & Power Squadron members Susan Ryan, Vicki Malara, Andy Cummings, and Bill Vernon attended the District 2 Fall Conference, held in Fishkill, NY. It was an informative conference with the highlight being a presentation on the new marketing and co-branding efforts by National which included our new name America s Boating Club and the new tagline For boaters, By boaters. The Fall Conference is the Educational Conference and Karl Wagner presented statistics on the number of classes given by each squadron and the number of students in each. Greenwich led in both categories, and was held up as an example of how to offer classes that boaters want, and how to conduct marketing to bring them to class. Greenwich Sail & Power Squadron was recognized with other awards, the most prestigious being the following: Stanley Stevens Memorial Award presented to the squadron with the largest percentage of eligible members who completed Piloting and/or Advanced Piloting. Thanks to all our students who worked so hard on these courses. Mal Ochs Children s Safe Boating Award awarded to the squadron who has made significant contribution(s) to the promotion of safe boating education for children. This was for our work with the Greenwich Young Mariners and mention was made of the article published in The Ensign on the educational cruise on SoundWaters where we took 33 underserved students on board. The Mel Cohen Safety Award is discussed in another article in this newsletter. The Lake Candelwood Award is the total number of advanced grades and electives completed in the Education Year. Thanks members!! A Sextant from the N Club for members taking N, our final navigation course. We are very proud of the accomplishments of our squadron that were recognized by District 2 at the conference. Keep up the great work! Submitted by Bill Vernon
Page 5 n y n Nov. 1 Nov. 6 Nov. 15 Dec. 8 Jan. 23 Executive Committee Meeting GB&YC 7:30pm JN class starts. Instructor Andy Papademetriou at 75 Holly Hill Lane, Greenwich General Meeting Monthly Speaker Event at GB&YC 7:30pm The Real Story behind The Finest Hours movie and more rescues Presented by Lt/C Bob Reilly AP from Mid-Hudson Squadron. Holiday Party GB&YC 7:00pm Piloting Class begins at the Greenwich Police HQ. YOUR MEMBERSHIP ENTITLES YOU TO MANY BENEFITS AND DISCOUNTS -> h p://www.usps.org/na onal/admin_dept/membenefitslist.htm