I'm interested to hear from MHC with an official position. JW is working his butt off at the moment and when our guys behind the scenes come to a consensus then we'll have something to work with.

"Infiltrating" is so incredibly easy and everybody should be doing it at their club. When a bunch of us cat sailors joined our local club we had 2 of us on the board within a year. One of us is Vice Commodore, a flag officer.

All you have to do is show up, get to know the folks in the club (don't be cliqueish), put the effort in (volunteer, volunteer, volunteer) and be a little bit of a politician. Don't shoot from the lip, pick your battles, be helpful, fair, and gently nudge things in the direction you want them to go.

Our fellow club members love us cat sailors. The club is functioning better as a result of our efforts. We are reliable and they know we can and will come through in a pinch. We race on their monoslugs with them for PHRF races or run their race course. We help tune their boats and sail trim by sailing with them. They appreciate it.

Yeah, they always think of us as the multihull sailors, but it's not a dirty word any more. And you'd be surprised how reasonable most of the mono guys are. They are some great friends. Once they trust us/you it's easy to get things done. Build the love and the trust.

If your club has open board meetings attend them and just sit and listen. Be consistent and show up every month and just take things in. You'll learn how things work at your club. You'll learn the personalities. Volunteer to chair a committee, be the point person for an event, just get out there and make yourself useful. Then, next elections, volunteer for a position on your board or as an officer.

All you have to do is make an investment (time and effort) in order to reap the rewards. Try it, you'll like it!