In my very limited amount of experience I have had with county ordinances here in Brevard County Florida, heres my understanding of how some of these rules come about:

And again, my experience is limited.

First, someone perceives there is a problem. Either a private group, or individuals, or a county employee as a result of public complaints.

The issue catches the attention of the appropriate county department, which often then forms a working or study group to investigate the problem.

The study group develops a report which makes recommendations to the county commisioners. The commisioners then decide if, and with which recommendations to move forward with a public hearing on the issue.

Hopefully, interested parties are made aware of the hearing and are able to get involved, however late at this point.

My experience is that often the problem is that we (catsailors) are not often included in the study groups on issues that affect us. This could be for a number of reasons:

1. We dont know the issue exists
2. We are not invited
3. No one has the time to get involved, meetings are often held during the middle of the day
4. Interested parties dont want us there

The recommendations that come out of study groups are important. County commisioners often act directly on them.

In Florida about a year or two ago we went through the register your beachcat, kayak, and canoe issue again. The issue was raised by the powerboat community, who cared little about the non-motorized boating community, but saw us as a source of income to build them more boat ramps. I luckily found out about the study group meetings from a kayak group and when I attended and asked about the impact of beach cats, there had been absolutley no previous discussion about it. The kayak, canoe, and sailing communities came together and helped get the recommendation worded in such a way to remove the non-motorized portion of it. To me, it was scary how these things can happen essentially behind closed doors if we dont get involved.

Another example of involement is the Pineda Park near Scott Hubels Performance Sail shop. An entire new park was planned, with no facilities planned for non-motorized boats. Scott spent two years, numourous meetings, phone calls, etc not only to get the non-motorized launch included, but also got high voltage power lines along US1 moved at an addition cost of over a $100,000 to the park. It can be done.

When NAMSA came about, I personally didnt quite see the purpose, as in my opinion it was duplicating a number of efforts. However, if NAMSA were to take on one and only one mission, to provide a website of information and communication forum that would help catsailors across the country learn how to deal and work towards preserving and generating new beach access, I would be a strong proponent.

I believe on issues that effect catsailors, it comes down to the squeaky wheel.

Ok, end rant.

Brian