Welcome to the March 2002 E-mail newsletter. (if you do not wish to receive future issues, click on the unsubscribe link at the end of this newsletter)

Here's what's new:

Class Survey

The membership mailing this year included a survey on member activity and views on travel to regattas, communication and other issues. This is your class and your views drive our priorities and direction so here are the results:
    83% of respondents indicated participation in at least one racing event or series over the past year.
    65% participated in two or more.

On the question of how this compared to prior years:

    8% said it was much more
    39% said it was much less
    45% said it was about the same

The reasons given for this were:

    38% Change of life issues (kids, work etc)
    9% Just not sailing as much
    14% Moved onto another class /activity
    14% Lack of information on events
    8% Lack of crew
    17% Other (personal medical issues etc.)

It is understandable that our interests, responsibilities and circumstances change over time causing many people who were active in the past to become inactive. This is natural and just means we need to be constantly recruiting new members. What is less excusable is 22% who sailed less because of lack of crew and information. We are responsible for this as a class and need to do a better job of communicating with JYCA and each other about events and people interested in sailing. The message board on the web site to look for crew or set up an e-mail group through Yahoo to instantly e-mail all your fleet to find crew. (Let me know if you don't know how to do this. JYCA can provide lists of sailors in your area.)

On the subject of travel to non-local events:

    6% said it was much more than prior years
    37% said it was much less
    35% said it was about the same

The reasons given were:

    37% Change of life issues (kids, work etc)
    19% Lack of information on events
    11% Moved onto another class /activity
    11% Travel is too much hassle
    8% Just not sailing as much
    6% Lack of crew   
    6% Other

Again, we could clearly do a better job of promoting and communicating about events to encourage travel. But even before the events of 9/11, many people indicated to me that they had some much JY racing at their local clubs that they did not feel the need to travel. It’s great to see that local JY racing is quite strong at many clubs but getting out to meet and compete against other JY sailors is a lot of fun and an important part of the JY experience. It helps to build a sense of "class" beyond the yacht club and improves the overall level of competition. I hope you will all make it a priority to attend at least one out-of-town regatta this season.

On the subject of the JY website (prior to the new site):

     86% said they have visited it
    72% said they would use it more with enhancements.

As far as the enhancements desired – everyone pretty much wanted all of them with no clear preference. What is clear is that the web site is a critical and highly valued tool for the class to communicate information to members. (Thanks to JY Sailboats for funding the redesign!)

Similarly, on the newsletter, members wanted to see more of all the options. The more interesting question was just what format members would prefer for the communication of information:

    44% said less frequent hardcopy newsletter but frequent e-mail newsletter
    28% said cut dues and do everything by e-mail and web site (most crossed out the "cut dues" part)
    18% said quarterly hardcopy newsletter as we have had in the past.
    4% said other (semaphore, smoke signals etc. I guess)

Clearly our class has embraced the electronic age. Virtually every member provided an e-mail address. This is certainly good news for the class since the cost of electronic communication is a fraction of paper. This monthly e-mail newsletter cost about $200 per year for monthly mailing to as many as 3000 addresses. By comparison, JY sailboats used to spend over $5000 annually on the newsletter (which is more than we are currently receiving in membership dues). Quarterly, paper newsletters are, therefore, just not feasible. Our plan is to do at least one paper newsletter following the North Americans and another in the Spring if possible. We also need a newsletter editor to make this happen. Nobody volunteered for this in the survey, so if you feel real strongly about a paper newsletter, here’s your chance! Call me.

Thanks to all who contributed to the survey!