Hi, NAMSA seems to have been very quiet for a good long while. I see from the rules that there is meant to be an annual meeting at which the officers present reports. I presume this means there is supposed to be some feedback to the members about what NAMSA is doing. Have I missed something? Was there an '04 meeting? Has their been an '05 meeting, or has one been scheduled? Are minutes available?

Curious.

Mark.

WE had a meeting at the NAMSA North Americans and a high percentage of the officers were there.
There was a full report in the NAMSA News in the Catamaran Sailor Magazine.
Also, a vote has been sent out with a deadline of July 1 on determining the divisions throughout North America.
The insurance plan is in place as is the event sanctioning.
NAMSA has all the ground work done and is standing by.
Thanks for asking,
Rick

Thanks Rick. Missed the Catsailor report somehow. And as far as I know I have not received the ballot. Come to think of it, I can't remember when I last received an issue of Catsailor. I have the March issue here. Not sure if I received one after that. Pretty sure my subscription is current.

Would it be possible to post the meeting report here or on the NAMSA site?

Mark.

Mark,
For some reason you are not even listed in my Catamaran Sailor subscriber database. That explains why you have not received a magazine or a NAMSA ballot.

Please send me an e-mail about this, so we can get it straightened out.

Hmmm, very strange. I believe my subscription is good until October. I have my NAMSA card at home. It should have a membership number on it, right? I'll check it when I get home and send you an email tonight.

Mark.

Ok, I did eventually find my February issue of Catsailor and the meeting report Rick mentioned. It prompts a few comments/questions...

What sort of uptake of chapter membership has there been to date? What are the objectives of the planned points system?

On the subject of insurance, there was a post by Mark S. in March last year suggesting that NAMSA insurance wouldn't actually be very helpful to most regatta organizers. I'm curious to know how many fleets are actually availing themselves of that.

Is it possible to get a more detailed financial report? The minutes record that there was $2400 in the bank in January. However in a post at the start of last year it was stated that at that point there were 1800 magazine subscribers, which would bring in some $9000 in annual dues. So it would be helpful to have some indication of how that money is being spent - e.g. expenses split out into some basic categories. Is there a budget for this year? In general, can we get this sort of information included in or attached to meeting minutes?

Finally, I presume that the results of the divisions vote will be published in the next week or so?

Cheers,

Mark.

THe results of the vote will be in the next issue.., not the one coming out now. We want to be sure we have all the votes counted after the due date of July 1.

Bob Blackington is our treasurer and has faithfully issued a monthly rundown on the financials. However, around December he was re-stationed in Iraq (he is in the Air Force) and he has just now returned.
So, during that period not much has been done on the accounting field. He plans on getting it caught up to date very soon.

Don't know where you are getting your insurance info, but it is the exact program offered by US Sailing and Hobie and protects the officers and RC.
Rick

Thanks Rick. The insurance info wasn't from me. I am completely ignorant of the subject. I was referring to this post from Mark Schneider last year. So that just made me wonder whether clubs are actually taking up the insurance NAMSA is offering.

When Bob gets things sorted out, it would be good if we could get the financial report and the budget posted here on the forum as well as in the magazine. Since the magazine only comes out once a month I'm guessing it could take a while before we see anything there.

Mark T.

Mark,
The money in NAMSA sounds about right, because it is based upon how many of my "subscribers" actually are paying for their subscriptions. It's a pretty small number, since I never seem to get around to sending out bills to people.

Bob does a good job of managing the NAMSA money. The weak link is me (Catamaran Sailor).

By the way, I do not publish monthly; it is eight issues a year.

Thanks Mary. Do you mean that there are only about 500 subscribers, not the 1800 that Rick refered to here?

The concern I have is just that there's not a lot of information around. I think it is important to know how many members NAMSA has, what the total annual income is, how that is being spent, what the organization's strategy is and how effective it's being. Not that I'm complaining - I know everyone's lives are very busy, not the least my own. But someone needs to ask questions like these from time to time. I will check back in a month to see what progress there is in getting the financial statements out.

Mark.

Actually, I have about 1,900 subscribers who have paid at some point -- it is not their fault that they do not know they haven't paid recently.