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DISTRICT
COMMANDER’S REPORT
GOVERNING
BOARD – JUNE 5-7 2009
My travel was uneventful, the weekend was very busy, and I think
that quite a bit was a accomplished. Unlike
previous meetings, where the District
Commanders met together only on Friday
evening, and the rest of the meetings were
held jointly with the whole Governing Board,
on this occasion the District Commanders also
met separately on Saturday morning , which
provided lots of opportunity for the exchange
of ideas. It was unanimously agreed that
this process should be continued in the
future.
In this report I shall attempt to bring you up to date on the items
that I feel are of most interest to the
members of VIND.
Notices of
Motion –
Motion NM1,
re giving the National Secretary authority to
approve pennants, was carried.
Motion MM2,
re allowing those who pass Advanced Course to
become members, was withdrawn to allow time
to investigate some insurance issues – it
will be brought to the October Governing
Board.
Motion NM3,
re requiring parental consent for Juniors to
hold Squadron positions was also withdrawn,
for further investigation of the definition
of ‘under age’. It will also come to the
October meeting.
Membership
– to date renewals by regular members
nationally have been about 77% (usually they
are about 80%). About 15% of Associate
members have renewed,
which is higher than was projected when the
automatic membership was introduced. More
renewals will probably still come in. the
latest statistics are shown below.
|
CPS Members |
July 20, 2005 |
July 6, 2006 |
July 16, 2007 |
July 31,
2008 |
|
May 30,
2009 |
|
New |
2638 |
2857 |
3815 |
3337 |
|
1858 |
|
Renewals |
24823 |
23590 |
22199 |
24321 |
|
23622 |
|
Sub Total |
27461 |
26447 |
26014 |
27658 |
|
25480 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CPS Associates |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New |
47 |
76 |
14 |
4923 |
|
2988 |
|
Renewals |
659 |
582 |
601 |
1647 |
|
2492 |
|
Sub Total |
706 |
658 |
615 |
6570 |
|
5480 |
|
Total paying members |
28167 |
27105 |
26629 |
34228 |
|
30960 |
|
Junior Members |
45 |
56 |
45 |
46 |
|
40 |
|
Junior Associates |
44 |
45 |
28 |
24 |
|
33 |
|
Life Members |
759 |
759 |
759 |
803 |
|
803 |
|
Honorary Members |
|
|
3 |
2 |
|
9 |
|
Grand Total |
29015 |
27965 |
27464 |
35162 |
|
31792 |
|
Lady Associates |
1217 |
1204 |
1186 |
862 |
|
750 |
Membership
Acquisition Program (MAP2) –
the MAP 1 project led to the decision to
provide all Boating and PCOC graduates with
automatic membership. The Special Projects
committee has followed this up with new
proposals which they feel with help to retain
new members. Two key elements are the:
1) “Fly the
Flag”
program by
which
CPS will
provide every new Full (not associate) Member
their first CPS flag free of charge. They
propose a significant new ceremony as part of
the graduation where the squadron presents
the graduate’s “1st flag” and the emphasis is
placed on the flag, not the pledge. The
purpose is to encourage new Members to feel
pride in flying the flag, which will be a
daily reminder of their association to CPS
throughout the boating season.
2) In
addition CPS will now provide every new
Member (full and associate) a CPS “Card ‘n
Key” Float for use on their boat.
The float will not only be a typical keychain
float but will also hold an individual’s PCOC
as well. The float will carry the CPS
insignia.
This program will be presented at the National Conference in
October and will be instituted with the fall
2009 classes. It was endorsed
enthusiastically by the District Commanders
and General Directors.
CPS Budget –
The
Finance Committee had prepared a balanced
budget, but had decided not to accept the
MAP2 proposal, the cost of which will be
approximately $35,000. There was
considerable discussion concerning the best
way by which to fund this project. The
final decision was to increase the cost of
the Boating notes by $5.00 and the PCOC exam
by $3.00. The budget also includes a 10%
increase in all Advanced and Elective course
costs. This results in the budget having a
very small surplus. The budget was approved
with these changes which come into effect on
July 1, 2009.
Please note –
the increased cost of $5.00 to the Boating
course notes and 10% to all Advanced and
Elective courses will have to be factored
into your charges for the fall – so make sure
that you include them before you plan your
advertising for the fall.
Many (probably most) squadrons across the
country already present Boating graduates
with a flag, with the cost included in the
course fee. For those squadrons there should
be no additional cost to students for the
Boating course.
District
Trailer
– As most of you are aware, the use of the
District Trailer was discontinued pending
resolutions of the issue of insuring it, as
our district is not a Society within BC. The
National Law Officer has suggested that CPS
buy the trailer for a nominal $1.00. CPS
will then register CPS as an out-of-province
society, and will be able to insure the
trailer and be responsible for any liability
as a result of its use. The legal costs of
extra provincial registration will be covered
by CPS with individual trailer registration
and insurance costs covered by VIND. CPS
promised to expedite this procedure as
quickly as possible, and it is hoped that we
may be able to use the trailer by Rendezvous
time.
CPS
Recreational Vessel Courtesy Check (RVCC)
Program -This
program is up and running. The National
Coordinator is P/C/C Tony Gardiner (acg@ieee.org).
The west coast coordinator is Ann MacDonald (agmac@telus.net).
Any squadron which is interested in becoming
part of the program should contact her. The
plan is to have 15 two-person teams on the
west coast this year. The Office of Boating
Safety will arrange for training of
volunteers, and costs will be reimbursed.
CPS insurance will cover all CPS volunteers
taking part in the program.
Using the
revised, Transport Canada approved, form the
checks should only take about 15 minutes,
which is considerably shorter than the
previous Coast Guard programme. A CPS
sticker will be provided for successful
checks.
PCOC providers
- The Lifesaving Society has withdrawn
completely as a PCOC provider and passed its
records over to CPS. Some Lifesaving
providers may wish to continue using Boat
Pro, so if there is a provider in your area
they many apply to become a RP. HQ will
advise your squadron if this happens. I
suspect this will not affect many (if any) of
our squadrons.
Share Program
;
There have been complaints that smaller
squadrons cannot afford to advertise, even
using the Share Program, because of their
small numbers. Changes were approved to the
program, to provide additional funds to
smaller squadrons, at the expense of larger
ones, so that the total cost to CPS will be
about the same. The new formula will be as
shown below:
Total
amount that can be granted - 300 minus the
number of members times $1
All
squadrons may receive at least $100
For
example - a squadron with 50 members can now
get up to $250. (300 – 50 x1 = 250)
-
one with 350
members can only get up to $100: (300 – 350
= -50 x 1)
Other
criteria are unchanged, such as the 50/50
cost sharing
For this
program, member numbers exclude CPS
associates
Boating course
–
there will be few small, non examinable,
changes in the Boating notes this fall, in
the form of appendices covering such things
as GPS, environment, boating etiquette etc.
The National Training Officer will send out
an e-blast in a couple of weeks to keep
everyone up to date with Training matters.
Reminder for
STOs
- As soon as an STO enters marks into the
WBAS system he/she should e-mail HQ (Carole
Brown for Boating and Linda Green for other
courses) to say the marks have been entered
and specify whether the certificates should
be sent to the STO or the student. If no
indication is given, then they are
automatically sent direct to the student.
Once the marks are entered, temporary
certificates can be printed directly. STOs
will be able to enter PCOC marks by
September, and similar certificates will be
able to be printed for PCOC graduates.
Flare
Demonstrations
– apparently these are being allowed by Coast
Guard in some parts of Ontario. Perhaps we
should check into this again on the west
coast.
Agreements
with other organizations
- The National Law Officer is drawing up
policy guidelines re agreements that
squadrons may enter into. Such things as
agreements to renting classrooms or
facilities for social functions are not a
problem, but more complex agreements which
require the signature of an officer of the
corporation (with
governments, crown corporations, other
non-for profits, copyright issues etc)
may have to be reviewed by HQ or the Law
Officer.
WBAS
– HQ has
prepared a draft WBAS Member survey for
distribution to all National, District, and
Squadron Officers, to be sent out later this
month. This is intended to facilitate input
on any problems being experienced and
determine what may be improved within the
system (via change/correction) and what
issues may be addressed via improved
documentation and/or education. Watch for
this coming, and please return it with your
comments. They are also preparing a
”request for change” form where changes to
the system may be suggested (but not
necessarily implemented depending on the
costs involved and the complexity of the
changes).
CPS Passport
– The membership certificate is being
redesigned. Stickers for other courses will
be entered in a new “CPS Passport” which will
also include slots for a membership card,
PCOC card, etc and pages for stickers,
sailing logs, and certificates for courses
taken with other organizations such as CYA.
Examples were circulated, and they look very
good. It is hoped to introduce the passport
for fall 2009 graduates.
Member
benefits –
On the WBAS
site, if you enter Member Services and go to
Member Benefits there is a listing of the
national member benefits. That list
includes a section for Additional Regional
benefits. So far, only Quebec squadrons are
listed there. HQ would like squadrons and
districts to send them a list of discounts
etc that you receive locally so that they can
be added to the list.
Squadron and
District Web Sites –
for those
Districts and Squadrons that do not have a
web site, National would like to have a link
of some sort on the CPS site which would at
least provide contact information. However,
this cannot be done without local
permission. More information about this
should come out during the summer. |