Sunday, May 13, 2007 - 01:02 PM

Thistle Fleet 61 Volunteer Meeting Notes From 5/11/07

Thank you to all who attended the thistle fleet volunteer meeting last Friday night. We hope to make these informal and highly productive gatherings a more frequent occurrence for the purposes of keeping the Fleet thriving; plus it is just plain fun to get a house full of single minded sailors together on a Friday evening.

The meeting started with a discussion of fleet roles that need to be filled by volunteers. It was agreed that many of these roles should be defined and filled by election at our annual fall meeting. Roles to be defined are: Fleet Growth & Promotion, Social Planner, Regatta Chair and Website Czar.

The item of most discussion was our Fleet 61 Website. John and Jill Locke provided us with technical and hands on demonstrations of a proposed new web host. Michel O’Brien and Rusty Lhamon agreed to create the website frame work and Dave Casey will help gather photos, video and graphics. Jen and Jack Wisemore will provide the site with historical information and provide at least the first fleet personality profile. Rusty Lhamon seemed to assert himself as the “May Pole” of the discussion and focused the discussion to the goals of the site as follows:
• New ‘look and feel’. Keep the site simple and relevant with a more polished graphic interface.
• Inter-fleet communication; race results and forums and fleet news.
• Fleet promotion and outreach. We learned that our site gets about 1300 unique search hits a month (some of this is from spammers however), we should provide information to get new and interested sailors on the water.
• Provide general information on the boat, people and history of Pacific Northwest Thistle sailing.

We should see BIG changes in our internet site soon!

Wayne Balsiger and Pattie Heyl discussed upcoming Regattas and our current state of readiness. Wayne is writing the N.O.R.’s and S.I.’s for our Summer Solstice Regatta and Nationals. Pattie has coordinated for Summer Solstice trophies, food and promotion of this event as our Fleet 61 traveling regatta.

It is hoped that members from our PNW district fleet will attend our Summer Solstice Regatta on June 9th & 10th and stay for the Greg Fisher clinic on June 16th. We are looking for fleet members to volunteer housing for out of town sailors.

Fleet 61 is responsible for measuring boats at Nationals. Pat Schirmer has volunteered to coordinate our efforts in this task; if you are planning on going to Nationals please contact Pat Schirmer (pneschirmer@hotmail.com) to let him know your availability to assist in this important task.

Thanks again to those who attended this meeting!

What's Next
Follow Up to complete the tasks that were discussed!
We still could use another person to help Pattie with Pizza Night!
We could use someone to write articles for the CYC montly Leadline newsletter and for the National Bagpipe Thistle magazine.
Other ideas? Let's Talk!
Dan and Pattie Heyl

Additional notes submitted by Rusty Lhamon

Thistle Fleet 61
Fleet Responsibilities Meeting

Dan and Pattie Heyl’s House
May 11, 2007

Attendees
Dan & Pattie Heyl, John & Jill Locke, Jack and Jen Wisemore, Wayne Balsiger, Michael O’Brien, Dave Casey, Rusty Lhamon

Action Items
 Arrange Fleet Vote/Discussion regarding 4 year fleet officer progression – Pattie
 Create Promo Video – Dave Casey
 Video Reunion Event on June 3rd – Jen Wisemore
 Prototype GUI for new website (wireframes, prototype graphics) – Michael O.
 Develop Website Content – As Indicated Below
 Identify a Graphics Designer (for website volunteer work) – All
 Start logging GPS data during Tuesday night races for playback prototype – All

Meeting Overview
Key fleet roles were discussed. It is generally agreed we will have the following roles:
• Fleet Captain – Pattie
• Growth & Promotion – Rusty
• Social Coordinator (pizza night, parties, etc.) – [TBD]
• Race/Regatta Chair (scheduling, race mgmt, lake fleet council) – Wayne
• Fleet Website – Michael O. and Dave C.

It was also discussed that we may want to emulate the J24 fleet and yacht club structure to develop a 4 year fleet officer progression that moves toward a final assignment as fleet captain prior to retirement with one new person added each year. A further discussion and vote are likely to be required before moving forward on this.

Website discussion. The majority of the time was spent discussing the website. John Locke is moving his hosting operation to a new system (Joomla) and this presents a great opportunity to revamp our website and increase its appeal to a broader audience. Initial discussions were focused on identifying what we want our website to do. One key item is the realization that the website is an important tool to draw new people into our fleet and it must be targeted toward a balanced mix of users (50% internal fleet members, 50% external). After much brainstorming of items to include in the site, the following categories resulted. We all appeared to agree they should be investigated for inclusion into a new site and the parties that volunteered to coordinate individual sections are noted below.
• News
o General Thistle Information – Dan Heyl
o Fleet Information (modeled after “looks like fun” brochure) – Pattie Heyl
o Calendar of Events – [TBD]
o Google Map / Info on Upcoming Regattas – John Locke
o Map of Lake Washington Race Course and Buoys (overlay on satellite image?) – [TBD]
o Weather Links – [TBD]
o Fleet Member Profiles (rotating monthly) – [TBD]
o Weekly Racing Blog – [TBD]
• History – Jen Wisemore
o Photos/Video
o Old Articles (Bagpipe, other)
o Reunion Interviews (from June 3rd event)
o History of Fleet 61 write-up
• How to Get Started Thistling
o Promo Video
o “Get Me Connected” (submit request to be contacted)
o Link to Take a Trial Ride
• Classified Ads (shows how much this costs, gives people a point of entry)
o Boats
o Gear

Actions for next steps on the site are documented above. Rusty has agreed to hold follow-up meetings at his house over the next few weeks to review progress and refine direction. A proposal to the broader group will be presented when the first prototypes are completed.

Another idea that was discussed was the use of GPS tracking on boats during the Tuesday night races. If a system could be developed to play back races on the website it could be a great way to excite people and attract them to our sport. Trials will be conducted on this idea over the next few months to see if we can do this affordably. For more information on this contact Michael O’Brien.

Finally, it was discussed that if we can create a site that is good enough, it should be a goal for us to promote it as a template for other fleets to copy. This will be a way to potentially drive more business into John Locke’s company which will help us maintain a better site (after all you get what you pay for). In addition, it could help other fleets grow which is good for Thistle sailing in general.