November 1, 2011
Dear Members,
The yachting season is coming to a close and so has my term as MYC’s Commodore. It was a super yachting season; a great one for finishing my term. We have wonderful members and activities that make for year-round enjoyment being part of MYC and a pleasure to serve you all. In this coming off season, there will be seminars, events, and meetings planning our 2012 season. Look for announcements, stay involved and join the fun over the winter. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Annual Meeting and Dinner Dance on Saturday, December 3rd at Turner Hill.
A key strength of Manchester Yacht Club and great support to me is the level of volunteerism that makes this club work. It would be impossible to thank all of the people who have volunteered by name – it would approach the entire membership list. I would like to give special thanks to our excellent Executive Committee who have made this season such a successful one and made my term as Commodore such a pleasure. Peter Twinning has excelled as Race Committee Chair. He has involved record numbers of members in the racing program and his organizational ability has increased the quality of program and events. Over his term, he and his committee have dramatically increased participation in all classes of racing. This is Peter’s last year as race chair. He will be missed.
Grace Babikian, Entertainment Committee Chair, has led a highly successful season of events starting with the Spring Dinner, the Commodore’s Cocktail Party, numerous Sunday Socials, the innovative Pot Luck dinner, Summer Dance, super and sunny Commissioning and Decommissioning chowders, and concluding with the upcoming Annual Meeting. She and her committee provide an extraordinary service to the club.
Charlie Newhall with Trish’s and his committee’s help ran the very successful Maine cruise, two over-the-top Executive Committee Cooks Gams, a spring and fall rendezvous, several successful gams, and a fishing tournament. Charlie and his committee are already planning some exciting winter and spring events. Fred Morris has filled Treasurer’s role with conscientious competence. He is not only keeping the club in good financial operations but with our Vice Commodore, established a long-term capital and financial plan for the club. Noel Johnson has led our fine Membership Committee this year. With Noel’s guidance the committee brought in eight excellent new members this year.
Mike Maginn, Secretary, has been a solid contributor to the Executive Committee not only in his role as secretary but also co-chairing this year’s Maine cruise, serving on the Membership Committee, and dealing with special needs of members. Paula Polo Filias has ably served as Member-at-large responsible for youth activities and serves as liaison with Ladies Sailing and the MSA. In her first year in this role, she maintained the high quality youth programs and made significant improvements to the Manchester Junior Yacht Club activities.
Marc Poirier joined the committee two years ago as Member-at large responsible for communications. He has taken the communications program to new levels. He created a communication committee, the email newsletters are high quality and consistent, the Trident is full of news and now has great color photos, and the web site has improved significantly. This is Marc’s last year as Member-at-large. He will be missed. While not officially on the committee, our Club Administrator, Carolynn Isham-Pitman, is the superb support person making all of our work and the club administrative operations the success that it is.
The Club and this Commodore are blessed to have two excellent flag officers as part of our Executive Committee, Vice Commodore Bill Barton and Rear Commodore Holly Fabyan. Bill and Holly are delightful to work with and have labored diligently to make this club the success that we’ve had these past two years. They have made my term as Commodore both pleasurable and easy. I can assure you that the club will be in good hands in the coming years with these two leaders.
Finally, we all owe a great deal of thanks to Jack Fadden and his capable team for the work they do every day at the club and for the pride and seriousness with which they care for our club. It shows in their work around the club, their service to our members, and the condition of our facilities.
Have a wonderful holiday season and a safe winter.
Sincerely,
Tom Johnson
Commodore
For the full issue of the November Trident, click here.