2020 505 North American – Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Sunday, November 22 @ 16:00 PST via Zoom due to global Covid-19 Pandemic.

 

Officers and Attendees:

President – Reeve Dunne

Vice President – Paul VonGrey

Treasurer – Jeff Nelson (absent, but provided a report)

National Measurer – Russell Miller

Information Officer – Dave Kirkpatrick

Secretary – Chris Pittack

There were 33 participants that joined the virtual meeting including the officers.

 

Reeve Dunne (Class President) opened the meeting with a brief summary of the year.

  • The class continues to show strength given the circumstances.
  • While there were no national events, there were regional regattas and local enthusiasm was high.
  • North Americans were cancelled but “not-North Americans” attracted 12 boats to ABYC with very close racing/training over 9 days.
  • US sailors travelled overseas and continued to represent well – in particular Mike Holt and Robert Woelfel II won the Australian National Championship.

 

Paul VonGrey (Vice President) provided an update on executive committee meetings, thanked Brendan Heussler for his contributions and presented annual awards.

  • Leadership committee was focused on championships where possible. NA’s, ECC’s & PCC’s.
  • Planning was limited given the Covid-19 pandemic but highlighted that the leadership team made very conservative decisions to keep the fleet safe and the brand strong.
  • Dave Cahn Award – Tim Murphy
    • Always eager to sail whether locally, nationally or globally
    • Continually looking to assist his fellow sailors both on and off the water Perpetual smile and positive attitude
  • Dennis Surtees Award – Russell Miller
  • Taken on the mantle of national measurer
  • Major impact on getting young and old sailors into a boat – growing the east coast fleet
  • Advocated using science and data in making the “go/no go” decision on N.A’s
  • Provided data on Covid-19 to drive “go/no go” decision
  • Poster child for positive attitude, partnership and community building

 

Jeff Nelson (Treasurer) was unable to attend due to back-to-back life-flights but did submit a written report.

  • Given the Covid-19 situation there were few expenses
  • Class financial plans include continued support of young team travel
  • Financial goals are to provide financial backing for:
  • Class Promotion (Facebook, Instagram, Website, Video)
  • New sailor recruitment to class
  • Support of younger class sailors
  • Financial Overview:
  • Beginning Cash Balance: $16,554
  • Dues/Donations:              $  4,458
  • Expenses:                       $  1,529
  • Ending Cash Balance:  $19,483

 

Russell Miller (Measurer) provided an updated including the measurement summit in Oak Harbor, WA

  • One new hull measured in 2020
  • No reweigh or certificate replacement requests
  • March measurement summit in Oak Harbor highlighted the differences of several manufacturers and the intricacies of the 5o5 measurement process
  • Summit highlighted the need to work more closely with manufacturers to make sure new hulls measure correctly
  • 2021 initiative for US Section to join International Section in their efforts to digitize certificates in a global database

 

Brendan Heussler (Information Officer) asked for increased digital engagement and utilization of the new platform.

  • New website up and running – need to increase engagement on social media including faster regatta reports and video footage
  • Utilize the new platform to drive engagement and promotion
  • Introduced David Kirkpatrick as the new Information Officer
  • Requested that the team work more closely with US Sailing on timely regatta reports

 

Regional Reports:

Region One: focused on acquiring new sailors and called out that the region now had 3 loaner boats.

 

Region Two: called out the winners of the West River Sailing Club regatta.  In particular they highlighted that Luke and John Ingalls, two young and eager new to the class sailors, won the event.  It was also highlighted that SSA needed a fleet captain as fleet activity was waning at the club.

 

Region Five:  highlighted several events including a 9-boat regatta at the Gorge and the 12 boat “not North Americans”.  The Region indicated that cancelling NA’s was hard but felt it was the correct decision given the situation with Covid-19.  Shout out to Kevin Taugher for doing the heavy lifting in preparation for N.A.’s especially given that the event was cancelled.  The Region also noted that while regatta activity was down Team Tuesday was going STRONG.  Mr. Hamlin mentioned that working from home seemed to have brought out more participants.  Mr. Hamlin personally donated 5 boats for people to use.

 

Region Six:  mentioned 3 events held in the PNW.  Of particular note was the annual DJOD regatta in Bellingham which included 15 boats from all over the PNW including Oregon and Idaho.  The region mentioned that Blaine Pedlow was lending out his extra boat which helped drive increased enthusiasm.

Officer Elections:  Reeve Dunne will serve another term as class President after running unopposed.  Brendan Heussler stepped down from his role as Information Officer to be replaced by David Kirkpatrick.  There was a discussion that it might benefit the class to have two Information Officers (split East and West Coast).  The idea is to increase class promotional activity, social media posting and regatta reporting.  The class will explore this including looking for a volunteer from the West Coast (Dave Kirkpatrick is based on the East Coast).

 

2021 and 2022 North American Championships:  there was lengthy discussion regarding the 2021 North Americans on the East Coast.

  • 2021 NA’s in St. Petersburg in March was removed from consideration. The class felt that March of 2021 would be too challenging and risky given the surge in Covid-19 in November of 2020.
  • Options for a new venue and timing for 2021 N.A.’s was discussed with 4 possible options:
    • West Coast (Long Beach) in late spring
    • East Coast (West River, Wickford or Oak Cliff) in spring
    • East Coast in late September (couple with Worlds container load)
    • Bermuda Worlds – utilizing pre-Worlds as N.A.’s
  • Online poll was sent on the above options and 27 responses were received – results below
    • 56% East Coast late Sept
    • 19% Bermuda Pre-Worlds
    • 15% West Coast late spring
    • 11% East Coast spring
  • Leadership Team to send the above poll to the membership to confirm that group feels similarly.
  • 2022 N.A.’s venues considered included St Petersburg (early spring – ship direct from Bermuda) or Long Beach (summer).
  • Online poll was sent on the above options and 24 responses were received – results below
    • 58% St Petersburg (early spring)
    • 29% Long Beach (summer)
    • 13% More information needed
  • There was some discussion that the schedule was heavily weighted towards the East Coast which might limit West Coast participation.

 

New Business: 

Steve Anderes recently discovered a 16mm film from the 1971 Worlds at Santa Cruz.  The film is rumored to be of very good quality and would make an excellent candidate for digitization.  Steve estimated that the digitizing would cost upwards of $1200.  The general consensus was that the class should look for incremental donations for the effort.

 

END OF MEETING