Some interesting discussion points.

Be very careful before you attack Bob (or anyone else for that matter). Do you really know the facts? Regardless of what happened at the event, he puts in an extraodinary number of hours promoting and serving in a number of roles. Whether you know it or not, many others of us do the same, and have been for many, many years. Lots of people complain about the shrinking volunteer base, but do you really look at how you treat the volunteers? Free speech is your right of course, but the attacks on volunteers that I've read on this board and heard at meetings and regattas make me sick.

OK, on to the real discussion. For one thing, Area A/B has been "combined" yet we have two Area reps. It's probably a valid question to ask if there a point to that anymore?

I am very excited to have Chris as our new Area A rep. Dave was a great guy too, but we all know that new blood is always a good thing, maybe Chris can drum up some more excitement/interest in this event.

I don't agree that the state of cat sailing is healthy in our area. Our numbers are down across the board, at every event at every level. I'm not saying that we need to start killing events, I'm just not surprised that the Alter Cup numbers are down when you look at the big picture.

This needs some explaining: "If you win a qualifier as a ladder to winning the AC, the championship resides in your area." Does that mean the future events must be held in the Area of the prior winner? This is news to me.

Getting back to the main point (I think): The solution seems pretty simple (in concept anyway). Make the event "important," free of calendar issues, with top R/C and social events, at a club with wind and top-notch facilities. Most NAs and YC events require pre-registration, couldn't hurt for this too.

Mike