Class Politics 10 Year Anniversary Review: How Did That Go For Lasering??

gouvernail

Super Opinionated and Always Correct
Midnight July 31, 2002



The Laser Class officers decided to hire anybody else but the guy who was running its office, organizing its scheduling, traveling to 25 events per year to help locals on and off the water, and publishing its newsletters.

The current office manager had taken over on August 4, 1999 when the class had a ZERO bank balance, no inventory of any sort, 1877 members, and membershipo numbers had just shrunk for 9 of the previous 10 years. ( 1995 saw slight pre-Olympic growth)



On July 31, 2002, the Class had just completed its 35th consecutive month of membership growth.

The Class officers did not use 9-11 or rising gas prices as an excuse

The growing Class had 3106 members

North America had 20 spots for its sailors already reserved for the upcoming worlds.

Vanguard was having its best year in the last fifteen selling 1100 boats

The complete major regatta schedule for 2003 was already published

Most major regatta sites were already prearranged through 2005 and a tentative schedule grid was published on line.

A fresh newsletter costing about $14,000 to publish and mail for which the Class would never pay a single penny was in the mail.

The freshly published 64 page newsletter had an eight page color insert from the ILCA, 65 pictures with over 200 recognizable sailor faces, 22 articles about regattas, how to use your boat, how to fix your boat, gear reviews, fleet management advice and a state of the class report. It had a financial statement, ads for stuff the office stocked, and 27 advertisements paid for by people who sold supplies specific to Lasers. There were listings of over 250 fleets with contact information and a brief description of the activities of that fleet. There were about 300
brief NORs for upcoming regattas and some long NORs for upcoming major events. The 2002 regatta grid and grand prix results through the July North Americans were tabulated and published. The qualifying system for the 2003 worlds was published. There were four cartoons. and The Around the Districts section included written articles from almost every district...and photos of sailors from those districts from whom no reports were submitted. There was contact information for every officer from every district and for the Laser Two class.


Invoices totalling over $6000 for which the class would soon be paid in full had been sent to advertisers.

A California mail order business was recovering from bad times and was about to catch up on its $3300 past due balance.

Other slow to pay adversisers still owed about another $6000 every penny of which was eventually collected. .

Vanguard's new boat member check for over $15,000 was already in the hands of the new secretary.

The Class' single largest annual membership windfall where typically over 200 new members had joined every one of the last 12 years ( CORK) was just three weeks off. ($7000 plus expected revenue. )

The Class owned an inventory of over $7,000 worth of books, sweatshirts, t shirts, trophies, posters, and various other clothing and videos which would be delivered AT MY PERSONAL: EXPENSE to the new Annapolis office never to be seen on the books again. ..

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




So how did the North American Laser game and its North American organization do over those last ten years?? How did the leaders use that wonderful head start they enjoyed? How many days does it take you to finish reading our current newsletters and how often do you see a photo of somebody you know??


Just a few late night thoughts.


Happy 10th anniversary to those who took over!!!!
 
Hello Everyone,
I'm new to Lasers and I was hoping to buy a new Laser boat and have myself some sailing fun but after a little investigation of the Laser scene it seems that Laser is in crisis and all but dead or well on it's way. From what I have been reading it seems to me that the only boats available are used boats and new spare parts are nearly impossible to find.

Please tell this "Noobie Laser Want-To-Be" that I'm wrong.

BLS
 
You are wrong.

Laser sailing is quite alive, at least in the USA, both at the Club level and at major regattas. I am not familiar with the Puerto Rico Laser scene, but I have seen that PR has some very good young dinghy sailors.

:eek: LaserPerformance is another story, addressed over and over on this Forum
 
You have to understand there are several entities involved:'

1. The builders
2. The design rights holder
3. The international class association
4. The national class association

The is occasionally drama with each. The current drama of no boats or spare parts is largely confined to the builders and the design rights holder. The international class has tried to mitigate the situation, but the outcome is up in the air.

The drama from ten years ago was largely confined to North American class association. Though there are good points raised, I think it should be discussed in a way that will not scare off new members.
 
Screw the drama!! Please try to forget all that.if I had meant to bring up all that crap again I would ahve tried to. I didn't mean to do that. I meant to write a comparison. ten years later we still have not sorted out all the great things Allan taught me to do, all the pretty good stuff I added and separated doing it all again from "doing stuff that horrible nasty fred guy was doing."

the facts are an always were. I was making great thing happen with the help of many many great others who made it possible. There was all sorts of stuff, stuff that was important to the properity of the game, that I was so scared of not doing, I lost nights of sleet to make sure they got done.

I still think those things are impoRTANT.
i STILL WILL GLADLY TELL ANY WILLING PERSON HOW TO REPLACE ALL THE TASKS i WAS DOING.

BUT,. i DAN CERTAIN DON'T WANT ANYBODY TO fight ABOUT ANYTHING.

i AM NOW LEAVING MY TpING INSTRUMENT TO GO RIG MY BOAT., IT IS WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND i KNW WHAT IS IMPORTANT

oops..sorry I bumped caps lock. no time to retype.. gotta rig race starts at 6
 
I agree. I didn't mean to point out all the current issues with the Laser Class and I am sorry for causing any drama and unwanted attention. I will just have to wait for someone in the US to decide to start making new Laser boats again. Maybe I'll just forget about Laser and buy a Formula 16 or an A-Cat catamaran, these cats are much faster than a Laser, both in boat speed and delivery time.

I will now stop being uncooperative and do my best to try not to scare off any potential future Laser Class members.
 
the racing was absolutely fabulous tonight. Maybe we sailed 10 races. maybe fewer. I lost count. One guy was test sailing one of our former fleet captain's boats she is trying to sell. he won one race....and that might help keep him around. seemed like a great addition to our fleet. Gotts go...everybody went to Flores for dinner and I can still get ther in time for some chips and a margarita.
I spent an hour this afternoon tryin g to convince a newbie transplant fro Lake texoma that Lasers on wednesday nights are the most fun he could possibly have during those hours. His Irwin 32 is in my shop for a week and I shall be relentless!!
 

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