Annual General Meeting
Remarks from Kathleen Lester
2012 Marked the year of many, many transitions for the Downtown Sailing Center. It was the first year we had a strategic plan that guided our work, where we had goals to meet and we met them. A Strategic Plan Progress Summary was distributed at the AGM, to view it, click here.
Board of Directors Changes
In 2012, we had several new members join our board of directors in 2012, with great new energy and vision and former board members who joined the newly created Afterguard to help us with our fundraising efforts.
- The Afterguard and the Board were responsible for bringing in $67,339 or 45% of our total donations, either direct donations, sponsorships or grants.
- I would like to especially thank the Silber Family Foundation for their generous donations to the DSC. In 2012 their gift allowed us to pilot our STEM curriculum, that is now incorporated into all of our youth programs; and in 2013 their gift will allow us to purchase 3 new access dinghy's, as well as upgrade our accessible fleet. Please join me in thanking Doug Silber, Afterguard Chair, for all of his hard work and dedication in leveraging the funding for these very important projects.
New Member Council 2012
We had a membership council for the first time in 2012, that represented the membership in all aspects of our organization and accomplished so much in one year, including: a member handbook, member policies, a cruising handbook, among many other important documents. A big shout out to Josh Ewen and the members of the council for their hard work and to Bob Baginski for stepping up to continue to enhance the membership experience in 2013.
New Volunteer Council
We had a volunteer council for the first time and we developed a plan to train and recruit volunteers, as well as identified ways to acknowledge our volunteers, leading to a year end volunteer appreciation event acknowledging the significant contribution that our volunteers make to the DSC - without them, we would not exist. Thank you Siiri for heading up this very important work and to Charley for stepping up to continue it into 2013.
Boats & Facilities
I am not going to gloss over the fact that we faced some significant challenges in 2012- our facilities were in need of improvements and we had some trouble getting 13 boats in the water - missing our April 1st deadline by far. But, despite that we started out the year behind the 8 ball, something great emerged - our Members stepped up to the plate to help. If it were not for their help, we would never have had 13 boats in the water and our facilities would not be as improved as they are today. I would like to give a shout out to our members who worked so hard on our fleet in 2012! Thank you, you are a testament to how important it is to come together and work as a team to make great things happen! As a result of your hard work:
- David Staley, founder of Access Dinghy visited us from Australia and was blown away by our facility and boats; he has never seen such an inclusive and diverse center (and he's been all over the world); we are on the short list to host the Single Person World Championships here in Baltimore in 2014 or 2016 - an international event.
- Karen Prieleou of US Sailing has lead a class at the DSC and boasted about our facilities and our fleet.
- This is thanks to the DSC Team that came together - staff, members and volunteers - Thank You!
Executive Director Position
Another challenge we faced in 2012 was our rotating Executive Director chair -- we had more Executive Director's than we would have liked, but we still kept going - again the "DSC Team" pitched in and worked through it! Our resilient team endured the transitions and yet continued to carry out the important work that we do at the DSC - and are still working hard over the winter. Our staff have truly shown their value through the changing tides and I would like to announce a few more transitions -hopefully long lasting ones.
- Please join me in welcoming Lynn Handy as our new Executive Director. Lynn has been with us since she was 11 years old, coming up through our programs. Over the last two years, Lynn has been responsible for taking our programs to higher levels and incorporating STEM curriculum into our youth programs. Lynn is excited to step up and lead us into the future.
- Traci Mead is now the Membership & Marketing Manager - Traci is going to help brand us and to market us in our community in new and exciting ways.
- Stuart Proctor as our Program and Education Manager, who is going to carry out the programs and continue our STEM work, as well as develop measures to evaluate our programs.
- Jared Ackers is stepping up to serve as our Fleet Coordinator, who will coordinate the efforts to complete the maintenance of 13 J22's/Sonars and improve our access dinghy fleet in advace of the April 1st deadline.
2013 Board of Directors
I would also like to announce the new board of directors for 2013:
- Kathleen Lester, President
- Steve Smith, Vice President Immediate Past
- Bryan Richardson, Vice President
- Damien Davis, Treasurer
- Todd Gustin, Secretary
- William Intner, Member at Large
- Greg Cantori, Fund Development Chair
- Bruce Levy, Board Representative to Volunteer Council
- Trevor Smith
- Jenn Millar (new), Board Representative to Membership Council
- Ed Duggan (new)
- Charlie Tucker, Volunteerism Council Chair
- Bob Baginski, Membership Council Chair
- Bill Sheppard, Associate Member, Accessible Programs
- AJ Pruitt, Associate Member, Youth Programs
Looking to 2013
I challenge the DSC TEAM (staff, members, volunteers and participants) to make 2013 our best year ever, as we are already off to a great start:
- We have our strategic plan and budget in place for 2013.
- We will have 13 J22/Sonars in the water, as well as an updated and new access dinghy's fleet (Including powerboats) by April 1st ready for our programs.
- Our cruising boats will also be updated with a larger maintenance budget and ready for new programming.
- We have a newly organized and energized staff.
- We were just awarded the Community Sailing Program of the Year by US Sailing!
- How will each of you contribute to the DSC Team in 2013?
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