Mary,

You may give your opinion on this forum, that is fine. I wouldn't dream of banning that. I just requested that it doesn't include items that are obviously misleading to new members. Statements like "... there is no F16 sailing worth mentioning in Florida ..." Or that hooters/furling headsails are banned, both of these statements are don't do justice to the what is true.

Of course I also would like to keep the discussion flowing as I use that to finalize the membership document and regulations. Obviously comments that only state that something is very wrong don't help me. Withous specifying an workable alternative I have no choice but to discard such a comment in favour of the current setup.

I give everybody the opportunity to give input but it must contain some new idea or feature to be valuable.

Of course giving your opinion with some new proposals and ideas can never be controversial. Especially when a mild style of writing is used as well.


With respect to your statement :"Hmmmm. I guess that depends on whether or not he wants members."

That is a example of a statement that is not very helpful. Of course I want to see a large membership listing but I'm limited in the available resources because I do this as a hobby and not as a full time occupation. Actively chasing down every body is not something that I can do right now with the other issues than I'm working on now. Besides I think that members can be expected to show a minimal level of effort to become a VOTING member. Mostly because I expect all voting members to educate themselfs properly on any voting issue and that takes some personal effort as well.


The second statement of your post :

"I can't get into my opinions about the membership "plan" because they might create controversy, and I am told that controversy is counterproductive right now. Maybe the climate will be better in the fall. "

Is also a bit manipulative. I never banned you from given your opinion. I only asked if you could reword the questions and opinions in such a way that it didn't create the controversies that we've seen a few weeks ago. You know I'm a sucker for some hard hitting statements as well and I too had to tone down for this forum. If I can do it, then ... ?

So please give us your opinions

Wouter