I think we can say that winter has finally come!  With 70 degree days in January, who thinks of “Winter Planning”.  But I can assure you, your Governors have been hard at work planning another exciting season for 2007.

For starters, we have completed an exhaustive review of our “on water assets”.  An interesting note is that two thirds of these assets are greater than 10 years old, with some as old as 40 years!  During the winterizing of our powerboat fleet, we secured new engines for both the Tripp Angler and the Zodiac. We have also added 3 new Opti’s and 2 new 420’s to our fleet.  Because of the generosity of a few of our members, some of these boats are paid for already!  As has been a tradition, we ask you to “round up” your payment of membership dues this year.  This helps the club to maintain and replace these boats for all of our benefit.

Looking forward to the summer of 2007, each of our committees has been hard at work.  The racing committee informs me that in addition to the Saturday race series, there will also be a Wednesday race series!  We hope some of our Junior Sailors take advantage of this and jump into an Alden or Yngling.   The Social Committee informs me that not only are the well attended Opening and Closing Cocktail parties, cookouts and award ceremonies on the agenda, but a Fundraiser for our new fleet additions is on tap.  This will take the form of an auction with quite possibly a band and dancing!  The House committee has been hard at work shoring up the club for winter, securing the aforementioned assets and repairing our fleet for 2007.  The Junior Sailing program is pleased to announce the return of Ellie Field as Director of Junior Sailing.  Ellie tells us that Chris Brady, Jen Hough, Matt Simon and Caroline Cissel will all be back!  The Merchandise committee had its most successful year in 2006.  Arthur and Elbee Lewis want everyone to save money for more exciting SYC gear this summer Please keep checking our website, www.sakonnet.org, for updates on all club happenings.

As part of our planning for the upcoming season and beyond, we have put together a questionnaire.  The purpose of this is to ensure that your Governors are providing the services to you, our members, that you expect, within the framework of the Mission Statement.  This questionnaire has 10 categories that you are asked to weigh the importance of, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most important.  The results will help us focus on those items that mean the most to our membership.  Please keep in mind that we have limited resources in both time and money and endeavor to provide the best experience for all of our members.  This questionnaire is enclosed with this letter and may also be downloaded from our website at www.sakonnet.org.  Please complete and return it by Feb 28, 2007.

See you on the docks soon,

Paul C Cissel

Commodore