Minutes of Spring, 2000 Meeting

March 24 and 25, 2000
Palmer House Hotel
Chicago, Illinois

Chair Dick Martin opened the meeting at 9:30 AM. The list of attendees is shown in Attachment 1.

1.  Opening Comments and Introductions

Chairman Martin introduced himself and asked the other attendees to introduce themselves and relate a personal sailing anecdote.

2.  Reports

2.1.  Championship of Champions

Bob Smither reported on the successfully completed C-of-C event. He advised classes to submit their applications as early as possible. If a class’s championship is after the deadline, the class may register without the champion’s name. Chairman Martin suggested increase use of the ODCC List Server and web page to help publicize the event.

2.2.  One Design Awards

Stan Betts and Mark Lobo discussed the One-Design Awards, the award process, and how to fund future awards. The awards were manufactured through the efforts of Dick Martin and central region one-design sailors.

The 1999 winners are:
One-Design Leadership Award: Rich Ogrentz
One-Design Club Award: San Diego Yacht Club
John H. Gardiner Jr. Service Award: Stanley Bell
One-Design Regatta Award: Chatham Yacht Club Annual Regatta

The amount of sponsorship required would be on the order of $500 per year. Mark Lobo will continue to obtain sponsorship funding for the awards

2.3.  Class Growth and Promotion Seminar

Patty Lawrence discussed the seminar that will be held at Chicago Yacht Club this afternoon. The audience members should consider what they want from US SAILING. At Saturday’s meeting, Patty discussed the success of the seminar (45 participants, including several first-time meeting attendees). An additional seminar that would include some of the US SAILING promotion and marketing people and their tools and successes. Stan Betts suggested making the seminar results into a PowerPoint™ presentation and taking the show on the road to various venues. Patty will continue with this effort and aim for. The Council expressed its gratitude to Betsy Altman’s efforts to obtain the room and publicize and promote the event. Ali Meller suggested that a new topic isn’t necessary for each meeting, but a seminar might be a good draw wherever the meeting occurs. A sail measurement seminar is another possibility.

2.4.   ODCC List Server

Dick Martin discussed the experience with the ODCC List Server that was established last fall. The feedback was very positive, but some persons expressed the desire to receive the mail in a summary fashion instead of each message individually. This option is available in the signup process.
The List Server itself should help to create a greater sense of community among one-design sailors. To subscribe, go to www.USSAILING.org/ODCC and click on “List Server”. This will take you to a signup page where your name and preferences can be entered.

2.5.   ODCC Web Site

Dick Martin and Ali Meller discussed the ODCC web page.

2.5.1.   Evaluation of current site. Generally, the feedback is quite positive.

2.5.2.   Improvements. In addition to the minutes from this meeting, the “proceedings” of yesterday’s seminar will be added. Mark Lobo suggested e-mail archives for the list server traffic. Patty Lawrence suggested an index of articles on fleet growth and promotion and Ali Meller suggested placing the Class Management Handbook and the Fleet Captain Manual there as well. Placing the table of contents and one article with the hook of having to purchase the full manual can be done reasonably quickly and Lee Parks will look into obtaining this material from the current Macintosh format.

2.5.3.   You@USSAILING.net. Dick Martin discussed the new program of personalized e-mail addressed.

3.  New Business

3.1.   ISAF ISSUES

Ding Schoonmaker discussed the new Equipment Rules of Sailing that have been developed. The US position is that these should be guidelines only and should not overlap with the Racing Rules of Sailing. The initial goal was to develop a set of standardized measurement procedures and measurement rules, but the concept has grown over time so that the current version imposes a standard. The Council approved the following motion

 The One-Design Class Council endorses the concept that the Equipment Rules of Sailing be guidelines or recommendations (not mandatory) and that they not overlap with the Racing Rules of Sailing.

3.2.   Appendix R

Ali Meller and James Appel discussed problems with Appendix R. The Appendix is optional and its use in one-design sailing is limited to larger one-design offshore classes such as the Mumm 30, but several dinghy classes object to the Appendix for the following reasons:
Sailors should never be excluded or their participation limited or hindered;
It is a US-only system, yet has international implications; and
There is a perceived unfairness to some of the classifications.

3.3    Protest Notification

Ali Meller will contact Rob Overton to gather background on the issue of a relaxed requirement for protest notification for inclusion in the 2005-8 rulebook. The issue will then be sent to the classes via the ODCC List Server.

3.3.   SNAX (Sailing Newsletter Article eXchange)

The possibility of making SNAX entirely electronic was discussed with the articles in a PDF format.

3.4.   Fleet Captain’s Manual

Rather than reprint the obsolete manual, the Council supported placing the manual in its current format on the web with open distribution and then form a small group to revise it. Ron and Susan Hofacker were suggested as candidates to for this activity with Stan Betts and Dick Martin. Mark Lobo will transmit the current electronic data to James Appel and Lee Parks.

3.5.   Funding ODCC Programs

Holly Macpherson discussed funding ODCC programs by including a checkoff box on the class membership renewal form for contributions in excess of the membership fee. Stan Betts suggested funding through advertising on the web page and funding the One-Design Awards by finding someone to endow the individual awards. The amount of such an endowment was discussed.

4.  Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 PM CST. The next meeting of the Council will be on Thursday 19-Oct-00 in the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans, LA.

Clark Chapin
Secretary

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Attachment 1 - Attendance