We are a members club run by the members for the members which means all of us should be doing something to help run the club and look after our infrastructure.

Recently — after many years of service — committee members have stepped down from their roles and more will do so at the AGM. New people have joined and are doing an excellent job.

We have not found members to take on all the work done by those who stepped down, some of the committee have taken on two or more “jobs” and are now doing too much.

The pool of people with some experience of running the club is diminishing, more members need to be involved otherwise there will not be enough experienced members to run the club in the future and our activities will be reduced.

We need more members to participate in running the club. You would not be taking on sole responsibility for any activity or need to become a committee member just helping where needed.

We need help with:

• Maintenance of our buildings
• Organising revenue generating sailing events
• Maintenance of club RIBs – no RIBs means no sailing!
• Helping young adult members maintain club boats
• Managing the use of the club dinghy park spaces
• Organising sailing sessions for adult and cadet improvers
• Administration of mooring and tender storage applications
• Keeping our operating procedures and guidance notes up to date
• Ensuring our safeguarding procedures are compliant with the legislation
• Managing our Instagram, Facebook and Messenger accounts
• Supporting fundraising activities to contribute to the cost of replacing our roof
• Initiating plans for events in our club’s centenary year in 2028

There is a real risk that without more help from the membership sailing sessions will be lost, our buildings and RIBs will deteriorate and revenue generating regattas will not be run.

Please think hard about this - we need active members to maintain the success of the club which has been achieved through all the efforts of earlier generations. Being more involved is rewarding, social and fun if there are enough of us doing it! Don’t leave it to someone else volunteer yourself!

Please send me an email if you can help with any of the activities listed above. I will record names and sort them into groups and contact you again. 

Thankyou Stewart Gibbons secretary@elyc.org.uk