Mark,

I 100% agree without volunteers events don't happen. But do you need paid staffers to make the same events happen? I'm sure this is where you and I will disagree.

I don't know how much experience you've had working with US Sailing and trying to make a regatta happen but when they want to be they can be extremely difficult to work with (yes I'm sure they felt the same about me, I'm not really a go with the flow kind of guy). US Sailing really doesn't bring much to the table $$ wise either. After they get their cut the host club gets about $3K in sponsorship money. As far as needing paid staffers to keep it all going...maybe but I can tell you with a great deal of confidence that there is at least one paid staffer that could be replaced by volunteers. Wouldn't it be nice if the funding for that staff member was funneled directly into the championships.

Because US Sailing doesn't bring a lot of $$ to the table and the paid staffers aren't contributing to the success of the championship (based on my direct experience), is the championship really being served by its association with US Sailing? This idea has already been floated within US Sailing so I know we will lose the right to call it a championship and we will lose the trophy if that path is taken.

If this is going to end up being a BYOB DPN "Championship" then there really is NO value in keeping the championship oops, King of the World Cup with US Sailing. At one time I supported keeping the championship with US Sailing because it was the one thing we could hold up say this is a reason to be involved with US Sailing, but now... I think we are better served by serving ourselves.