Reports from the Bridge

April has been a busy, busy month. At the April 5th General Meeting, I am pleased to announce that the membership has voted in favor of hiring a caretaker/janitor. He is Donny Sherwood, son of a prominent member, and he will be assuming the security duties as of April 10th. On May 15th he will assume the janitor duties upon the ending of our contract with the present janitorial service. At this time I would like to personally thank those members who walked the docks, monitored the club house and generally watched over things for most of the past year. More to come on this later but for now, thank you one and all.

While on the subject of security please keep your eyes open for strangers on the docks or grounds, even if they are accompanied by a police officer. Without having permission or a warrant they have no more right to be here than they would in your own home without same. Please politely ask their business and if they have either of the above and if they don’t please ask them to leave immediately and then contact a Bridge Officer.

Second reminder about dingies on the dingy dock. They have to be gone by May 14th or they may go away on their own. We are replacing the docks, and moving dinks aren’t on the Work Party agenda. So far no movement has been noted.

You will find in this Towline an updating of the Service Points. Please review it carefully and if you have constructive suggestions or uncover any oversights please contact P/C Gary Carr. This will be presented to the membership to vote on at the May 3rd General Meeting.

Effective immediately, all items ordered from Fisheries Supply under BYC’s account must be ordered through the store and paid for through the store. Some members have been using the store account and evading both the tax and the store markup. This makes us in violation of state law if audited and hurts every one of us by reducing store income. To remind everyone, this is one of our income sources that helps keep other costs down. Coincidently, this very item just turned up on our own internal audit. So, in the future, items not ordered through the store will be refused when they arrive. Items ordered under your own account can still be received by the store but a heads up to the Manager that you have something coming in might avert it being returned if he doesn’t recognize the account name.

The Rear Commodore has started a park beautification project to add some color to this treasure we have. At the April 19th General Meeting the Bridge will be challenging the membership to match or beat us with donations of flowering shrubs or trees. These can be made in the form of a memorial to lost loved ones or special pets. The Rear Commodore will provide guidelines for a standard, small marker, if one is desired, to be placed at the base of the ornamental shrub or tree.

A word of caution - P/C Longnecker recently surrendered the Goat Flag and his fragrant parking space after dutifully flying it for the past 6 months. He promises he will have a candidate by the time we adjourn for the summer so be on your best boating behavior or do your unusual feat of seamanship when no one is around.

Shortly after I finish this we will be heading off to Tacoma Y.C. for Daffodil. When I removed the Daffodil Trophy from our Trophy case I didn’t rearrange the other trophies because I have great expectations that, come Sunday, it will be coming back.

Opening Day is right around the corner on April 30th through May 2nd. P/C Gary Carr is working hard to put together a crew for a Decorated Boat entry to join the Officers Dress Boat and P/C Wheeler’s Classic Boat. Give him a call if you can help. Last year our Decorated Boat took 1st Place. Let’s try to make it 2 in a row.

On the horizon, the first General Meeting in May is Elections. Do turn out to cast your votes. The Nominating Committee has a full slate to offer including 6 members running for the 2 Executive Committee open positions. Also, the very active Planning Committee will present it’s look into the future for the next 25 years and our 100th Anniversary.

May 14th brings Awards "A Night at the Oscars". This will be a sit down dinner and this year we will be trying something different so mark it on your calendar.

May 21st brings us to Installation of Officers where a new year begins at BYC and I retire to the Projects (that’s my boat) and become the one and only Ex Commodore in the Grand 14.

Last is our Memorial Day Cruise to Oro Bay. This will be addressed in other columns but I would like to remind everyone to remember what Memorial Day is really all about, particularly with the U. S. daily losing brave men and women in Iraq. It is much more than just a holiday.

Well, we’re off to Daffodil. Hope to see many of you there.

Bob Bachman
Commodore