If you were a paid HCA member in 2008, you should have received a cool calendar from Hobie Cat by now.

And, you should have received the eblast from Rich... But, in case you missed it (or you weren't a member in 2008):


ANNOUNCING SOME MEMBERSHIP DRIVES FOR 2009…

It’s time to renew your HCA membership for 2009. We want to encourage EARLY renewals this year, to minimize the early- and mid-season scrambles. So, we’ve come up with some extra incentives!

We will be having a special series of raffles. We will be drawing for prizes based on paid memberships at the end of January, February and March. You will have up to three chances to win a new harness for your Hobie. Here’s how this will work:

* Memberships paid online, or postmarked by 1/31/09, will be eligible for the first harness raffle, AND the subsequent raffles on 2/28/09 and 3/31/09. Join early, get THREE chances to win!!!

* Memberships paid online, or postmarked by 2/28/09, will be eligible for the second harness raffle, AND the subsequent raffle on 3/31/09. So, you’d have TWO chances to win!!

* Memberships paid online, or postmarked by 3/31/09, will be eligible for the final harness raffle.

So far, the response has been tremendous!

So, stop what you're doing and renew your membership (or join for the first time)!

[NOTE: We've made some recent upgrades, and the online system works great for most people. If you have troubles, or just prefer using paper, just send me a check and paper form (see link below). Don't panic, don't air dirty laundry here, just step away from the computer and send in a check...]

Mike Levesque, Membership Chair

Online: www.hcanamembers.com
Paper form is here:
http://www.hcana.hobieclass.com/sit...bership/2009/2009MembershipAp08Dec08.pdf
Email:
hobiemembership (at) gmail.com

Quick reminder: Just one week left until the first deadline. Don't miss your chance!

Mike

JUST TWO MORE DAYS!!!

Mike

Hey Mike

One of my pet peeves... CBYRA just did the same thing... launched their membership drive by listing all of the details on how they could collect your money.

US Sailing failed miserably with their mandatory membership drive when they also could not communicate the value they give to the racing sailor.

How about highlighting one of the reasons a non racer would join the HCA.... You guys do a great job with lots of stuff. Say it loud and proud!

Finally, How about getting one of your national regatta chairman to tell the community how they used the class support to make that event happen and why your dues are essential.

There are so many elements in maintaining a first class regatta organization and a lot of it goes unnoticed by the rank and file racer. Get your regatta chair to highlight a key aspect of what the volunteer for the regatta does and why he does it for the class and exactly why it's needed.

Howzzat?
(and no - that's not an old cover - it's a retro one I did for the 40th Anniversary Regatta)

Holy crap?! Is that Greg "The Terminator" Thomas?!?!

A good reason: most of my Fleet's events aren't catered to the racer. We host one regatta a year, and that's it. A trip to Lake Superior and a handfull of fun sails on our home lake fill out the rest of the schedule.

Hi Mike,

DONE!!!!

But I was confused about the Family Membership Card ... is that an actual membership card for one's wallet??? We know how well I remember membership #'s ....

... make that harness a medium please, has I would like to give it to my niece, Megan. She has been using "hand-me-downs" ... it would be nice if she had her own, new harness

HarryMurphey
TheMightyHobie18/#9458, Fleet54/Div11
P19MX/#86, CRAC-Open Class

Hi
In response to the question about what the membership $$ do regarding the HCA, the first thing, is of course the Hotline. Incredible magazine with lots for everyone. Another plus of an HCA membership is the funding for youth activities. Now I know you hear this from everyone, but just 2 weeks ago,we spent in excess of $10,000 on sending 7 teams to Long Beach for the US Sailing youth multihulls. Travel, lodging and regatta. Awesome deal,and we're very fortunate to have the resources to do what we did and hope to do it again.
Another plus (and keep in mind, these are generalzations) but when we host a National event or large regatta, there is a signifcant economic impact on the area of choice. The local Economic Development group and the Chamber in Clear lake told us when we hosted 8 days of racing last summer, with the number of people there etc.....was north of $600,000 (based on a formula one of them was trying to explain to me) but that too, is significant.
As most of the one design classes out there, our money goes toward top notch racing, social events and organization. Membership gets you on our National Points Ranking list too. Our membership chair is doing a really good job getting things rolling for 09, and is raffling off some new Hobie Hiking harnesses with paid membership.
Hope that helps.
cw

Also allows us to put on a Guest Expert Programs, where the event organizers bring in a Hobie rock star for the weekend to put on a sailiing clinic.Like the one that will be at the Division 7 divisionals this year in Spicier Mn.Wally Myers will be brought in (courtesy of HCA)for the Bald Eagle Regatta July 11-12.Contact me at themadges@shaw.ca for more details.

Mark (S),

My pet peeve: People who feel that they have to jump in and hijack a positive thread promoting something with benefits above and beyond for our members with a bunch of negativity.

I can't find your name in any of our databases, and they go back quite a few years. If you're so concerned, when are you going to join?

Way to support the sport...

Mike

Quote from CW "Now I know you hear this from everyone, but just 2 weeks ago,we spent in excess of $10,000 on sending 7 teams to Long Beach for the US Sailing youth multihulls. Travel, lodging and regatta. Awesome deal,and we're very fortunate to have the resources to do what we did and hope to do it again."

Chris, on behalf of the US SAILING Youth Multihull Championship Committee, we thank you and your group for the excellent support. In the Northwest, we supported three Youth Teams to this event a few years back, and also hope to do it again.

Hobie Cat Association, and the many volunteers have been a great supporter of Youth Development for Multihull Sailors.

The Youth Sailors are the future of our Sport.

Caleb Tarleton
US SAILING Youth Multihull Champ. Comm.

Mike, usually I'm first in line to give Mark a boot in the nuts but this time you're wrong. Mark simply said, you do a lot of good things for your members showcase it when you ask them to join. He even got me thinking that we need to do the same thing for the F18 class.

Oh what the hell, Mark you're a douche bag.

I could almost go along with that if he didn't drag in the negativity associated with the other groups. There was nothing in our promotional announcement about forcing anyone to do anything, demanding money, or anything else.

Mike

Mike,

Mark was just pointing out the mistakes of the (recent) past of several other organizations. (IMHO)

A little information and history: Mark stated racing Beach Cats in the mid 80's. (I met him then) He has had a Dart18, a Mystere6.0, a Tornado, and currently a A-Cat, no Hobies though. He has worked w/ Darlene for years on portsmouth scoring ... introduced computerized scoring here locally .... regatta Pre-registration ... developed contacts w/ local YC's resulting in Beach Cats (including Hobies) being invited to their regattas. Under the new HCA-NA policy several of these events have the possibility of becoming Hobie O-D starts. We (Div11) are currently working on completing the required documentation to obtain "Sanctioning" for the first event under this new policy. Mark has been working on developing a Youth program at ANNAPOLIS Yacht Club w/ Div 11's help with the intent that the Div11 Youth sailors would be involved. Mark has been a big influence "behind the scenes" here in Div11, you may verify this w/ Rondo, Danny Flannigan, Rich McViegh, Wally and many other ol'time Div11 members.

So while Mark and I go round and round ... and I want to beat him w/ a stick sometimes ... usually he is (2)steps ahead of me in analyzing and coming to a conclusion.

... as they say in Australia ... he's a "mate" of mine ...

So, I think you need to "step back" here a little bit ... I think here, you want to "shoot" the messenger ... you need instead to "listen" to the message.

Sidebar to Bob Merrick, How are you progressing w/ contacting your friend who is the "new" sailing coach at Annapolis YC per Mark's request? We could really use your influence to help "kick" the doors open for this program ... we already have Div11 members who are ready to loan their boats out in support of this program ... Help!!!

This could be a BIG opportunity for us ...

Your Friend
Harry

The difference is, I'm seeing through the "message."

I know he does a lot in various ways, but his approach sucked, plain and simple. There was no need to publicly reply to this thread in that manner. He could have written me a PM.

Mike

How about some more positive reports on this forum about what Hobie Cat Association and it's members are doing in your Area?

Chris has certainly done a great job to raise $10,000 to send their local Youth Sailors to the US Sailing Youth Multihull Championship. See the following for complete results, and pictures http://championships.ussailing.org/Youth/USYMH.htm

So how are you doing in your Area?

Caleb Tarleton

Good points Caleb. I actually though about starting a new thread to discuss that sort of thing (I really wanted this thread to stay focused and positive about the raffle).

Anyway, something along the lines of... Top 100 things the HCA has done for me...

Mike

This idea sounds awesome fellas. Good onya.

re: Hotline Cover

I kinda crack up (and cringe) when I see the top jib batten hooked on the halyard!!!!