Next week marks the membership Annual General Meeting. It is important that all members come to this meeting to approve the 2016 budgets, elect new Board of Governors members and meet the elected 2016 Flag Officers. It is essential to have a quorum, so please mark your calendars now!

In the meantime, I wanted to give everyone a few updates about the projects we are currently working on before the membership Annual General Meeting.

We are making tremendous progress on the Dock Reconstruction project. The bank loan is in the final stages of closing and we entered into a major purchase agreement for construction of the new docks using our insurance proceeds as an initial payment. If all goes as planned, Docks 1-3 will be installed by mid January, followed by Docks 4 and 5 in May. The team is also working out a transition plan to migrate boats back into their new slips as quickly as possible.

Next week marks the membership Annual General Meeting. It is important that all members come to this meeting to approve the 2016 budgets, elect new Board of Governors members and meet the elected 2016 Flag Officers. It is essential to have a quorum, so please mark your calendars now!

The Board has recommended a 2016 budget that reflects the principles of the financial plan presented at the earlier Special meeting. In addition to meeting our new debt obligations, the financial plan included sufficient flexibility to support ongoing capital projects needed to maintain our club. Therefore a number of projects have been proposed to address some urgent maintenance issues that affect the safety and security of our membership. The proposed CIF Safety & Security project bundle is projected to cost $18,000 and includes the following items:

• Repair unsafe electrical and wiring issues in the workshop building – $3,000
• Replace the unsafe and obsolete gas oven in the kitchen – $5,000
• Replace >10 year old upper level carpet, which is creating tripping hazards – $4,000
• Replace broken lower level blinds to reduce furniture sun bleaching – $1,000
• Replace the broken pool lounge chairs, which are causing personal injury – $4,000
• Install front gate battery backup to enable entry/exit during power failures – $1,000

Additionally, we have observed that our Juniors safety equipment is well below the standard found at other area yacht club junior programs, which puts our juniors at greater risk of personal injury. Therefore it is proposed to purchase a new Juniors Safety Tender boat to support junior instruction and regatta activities. The projected cost of $16,000 will come from existing Juniors Activity Funds, which are booked separately from the other DCYC funds.

Finally, we have also proposed an optional CIF project to replace the remaining pool furniture to match the new loungers, which must be replaced for safety reasons as noted above. This $8,000 project is not related to Safety & Security, but significantly improves the appearance and utility of the pool area, therefore it is presented as an option for the membership to decide if it should be funded.The board has tried to balance our spending as we discussed at the special meeting. We are proposing capital expenditures of 42k this year vs over 120k last year.

2016 is also the 60th anniversary of DCYC! A number of activities are planned to celebrate both the arrive of the new docks and our 60th year, including a subsidized social event to mark this important anniversary. Be sure to come out and be a part of these exciting events!

We look forward to your attendance at this year’s membership Annual General Meeting to learn more about DCYC plans for 2016 and to participate in voting. Be sure to mark you calendar now: November 14 at 10AM. See you there!!!