I think both Phill and Steve have made very reasonable, though different, points. If I had to choose between them, I would probably lean towards Phill's argument. However I'm more inclined to look for a solution that meets as many reasonable objectives as possible.

At this point it's appropriate to say once more that I am not currently an F16 owner, only an interested observer, so make of this what you will, and please by all means ignore me if you wish...

As far as voting eligibility is concerned (which may be a different issue from membership per se), I like the idea that people who vote are active F16 racers. Ultimately, the only purpose of the rules, I think, is to facilitate racing, so I don't know why it would make sense for people who aren't racing as F16 to be interested in, let along responsble for, changing the rules.

However I think adding an additional requirement (e.g. regatta size) that is really aimed at getting people to go the extra mile (literally!) specifically to actively promote the class is not necessarily the best way, and perhaps not even a good way, to get the maximum number of people enthused about the class. And as I've said before, it's difficult to ensure geographical equity in the way such a requirement is imposed.

I would be quite comfortable with a situation in which voting members are restricted to those who have shown that they are genuine F16 sailors by sailing N races as F16 in the past year (either straight up in a designated F16 fleet or off an F16 handicap in a mixed fleet). I would not exclude club races nor place any restriction on how many boats they have sailed against. On the other hand, unlike the original proposal, I would be inclined to make N > 1.

However, as Phill said to start with, this should all be about more than voting, and if the class wanted to define membership and voting as separate issues (e.g. to enable people to sign up for newsletters and other things as John Alani mentioned) I think that would be absolutely fine. And as Matt said, the rules really should be fixed for a good long period anyway to help get this thing rolling.

So although the membership/voting issue is important, and worth debating, the more pressing issue is how to help people feel connected with the community. That's a separate discussion.

Mark.