I promise to follow up on GA stuff in another thread. Still in the EU and internet has been spotty, but I think I have decent access for the next couple of days from Varona.

Short answer is that, yes, current members can "convert" their regular membership to show up under the Multihill Council Golden Anchor (MHC GA). Doesn't do much other than help us figure out how many members are sailing multihulls.

However! New and renewing members save money on their membership, get all the same benefits, and we get credits through the USSA store for merchandise - I'm waiting to see how much we earned this year, and we'll figure out how best to spend it. I expect around $100-150 or so. I'm proposing to the MHC that we either use it to subsidize the Area Reps' purchase of medals for the Qualifiers, or we can set up a new annual award for leadership in a regional fleet or something.

The MHC GA has two anniversary dates - March and September. If you're about to expire and want to get the most bang-for-the-buck, you can wait until after January 1st to renew, which will get you through March 2010. After that, you're back to a 12-month schedule.

Hope that gets to the initial questions - there is a new GA promotion out that I will be posting links to in the next few days.

More later... Ciao!