Minutes for MASSA Board of Directors Meeting  December 9, 2006

Annapolis Yacht Club Junior Clubhouse  11:00am

 

1.  Director/Treasurer's Report

2005-6   52 Schools joined in the fall - 9 Schools joined in the spring

2006-7   35 Schools joined in the fall

Treasury:  Bank Balance:  Dec 05  $2745.41     Dec 06   $2879.94  

Expenses Spring & Fall 06:  Certificate paper $53.94 Spring 06 Trophies $441.53

ISSA Report

Discussion:  Have Director ask if ISSA can add 7th graders to ISSA team database (additional option for selecting graduating year)

Extensive discussion on insurance issues – Find out how much new ISSA umbrella coverage will cover or if there are options for leagues to participate – events, hosts, team members?  It was noted that maintaining a current and accurate email list for all the member schools that will get information to each team is no longer possible, given the proliferation of spam, spam filters, inaccurate email contacts in the ISSA database, and relative frequent changes in many email addresses.  This has resulted in not being able to literally follow some provisions in the by-laws that ask for emails to be sent to "all teams".  Website posting and notification to League Directors will adequately address this kind of communication in the future.

Motion: League directors will not allow participation in league events until that team's dues are paid.  – motion passed, all in favor.    The dues can be paid to the league representative at an event, and if the school later sends an official check to MASSA, MASSA will refund the original temporary payment to the original source, if adequately identified with the original payment.  In addition, the ISSA school membership database must be filled out for the new school year in order for the payment to be accepted by MASSA.

 

2.  Spring Schedule

District events agreed on, pending determination date of the National Cressy Championship - it was agreed to not hold a District event on the same weekend as the Cressy if at all possible:

-     Mar 24 - 25 Cressy Qualifier -  Rochester Yacht Club

-         *Apr 14 –15 Mallory Qualifier  (location to be determined)

-         *Apr 21 – 22 Baker Team racing Semi – Navy ( as many teams as possible )

-         Apr 28 – 29 Baker Final Qualifier - ODU (8 teams)

*Note:  After contacting Navy following the meeting, it turned out that they could only hold a regatta for us on April 14-15 so another Baker Team racing semi host will have to be found.

 

Date for General Membership Meeting:  A thorough discussion reached a consensus that there was little motivation for most member teams to attend a District meeting, especially if travel were involved.  Now that we have the League structure for local sailing, their most significant business would be conducted at League meetings.  There was good turnout at the District meetings when the teams selected the District regattas that they would attend at those meetings, but those selections are now done at the league level.  The District related business has since been handled by the League Directors and other members of the District Board of Directors.  Holding last year's annual District meeting at the District Fleet Racing Qualifiers did not result in a representative turnout since there was no time during the day to hold the meeting and few teams decided to stay after the regatta (and protests) had ended because they need to be on the road (along with some Board of Directors that had traveled with them).  Therefore, it was decided to not hold this year's meeting at a regatta.  It was decided that the 2006 Annual Membership Meeting will be held on the weekend of February 3rd or earlier, the exact date to be agreed on soon after the BOD meeting in time to give a 30 day prior announcement to the District.

 

3.  Duration of District Events

Motion:  District Team Racing and National Qualifiers will be scheduled for a Saturday with Sunday reserved for racing if enough races can't be held on Saturday to complete an official regatta.  District Fleet Racing regattas, other than a National Qualifier, will be held on 1 day only. -­ motion passed, all in favor.

 

4.  Backup for Mallory and Baker qualifiers.

Motion:  If a full regatta can't be completed at the District spring fleet racing qualifier regatta for the National Mallory Championship, the backup selections for the Mallory would be based on the results of the District fall fleet racing championship. If a full regatta can't be completed at the final District spring team racing qualifier regatta for the National Baker Championship, the backup selections for the Baker would be based on the results of the District fall fleet racing championship.  -  motion passed, all in favor.

 

5.  Allocation system for team racing events. 

Motion:  Allocations for district team racing events will be based on the ratio of the number of teams in a league that have been actively team racing throughout the season, divided by the number of teams actively team racing in the district throughout the season.  The League Directors will provide these numbers to the District Director by the Tuesday prior to the weekend before the District Team Racing Regatta to give the District sufficient time to calculate provisional allocation numbers by the weekend before the District Team Racing Regatta. If any of the league numbers subsequently change because of new teams sailing in league events up to the weekend before the District Team Racing Regatta, the League Director will provide those new numbers to the District Director the evening of that event. Each league will be allowed a minimum of 1 team to attend the District Team Racing Regatta.  If the District holds a semifinal preliminary team racing regatta to select teams to attend a final District Team Racing Regatta, the allocation system will apply only to the semifinal preliminary team racing regatta.  -  motion passed, all in favor.

 

6.  By-Laws and Rules

Some initial motions to modify the By-Laws to make the By-Law provisions for meetings more functional were superseded by later proposals for revisions.  It was agreed that the District Director would draft these By-Law revisions for review and approval by the Board of Directors following this meeting in accordance with Article VII, Section 4.  The revisions as discussed, would take into account the difficulties experienced with getting a representative membership turnout at annual membership meetings as noted in #2, above, the motion passed in #1, above, to alleviate the late or missing membership applications and payments experienced this year and the impossibility of maintaining a current, accurate, email list.

 

7.  Fall Schedule

It was agreed that there would be no District Regattas after the weekend of Nov 10th The draft Fall Schedule may need to be revised based on host availability and/or the date for National Cressy Championship.  It was agreed that no District Regatta would be held on that date.  The District Director will check with ISSA to see if and when that date is available.  The draft Fall schedule agreement was:

            Sept 22 [23] - Cressy Qualifier at Rochester Yacht Club

            Oct 13 - District Fleet Racing Championship

            Oct 20 [21] - District Team Racing Semifinals (minimum 12 teams)

            Nov 10 [11] - District Team Racing Finals (8 teams)

 

It was noted that last year's meeting included a decision that the fall season would no longer include fleet racing.  The members at this year's meeting agreed that MASSA needs to continue to emphasize fleet racing, particularly to provide a sailing opportunity for the smaller teams.

Motion:  Both team and fleet racing will be supported in the fall and spring MASSA sailing seasons.    -  motion passed, all in favor.

 

8.  Website - The Central League and the Northwest League will be making local information available on their own website (contact information, schedule, links to ISSA and MASSA websites, etc.)  Southern (VISA) already has a website with links from the MASSA website.  As the new website addresses become available, links will be added from the MASSA website to make the league information more easily accessible to both current members and to people interested in forming new teams.