Class Politics Creating a Resiliant Laser Board

gouvernail

Super Opinionated and Always Correct
Re: NA Class Elections This Month

Most volunteer non-profit organizations experience a natural turnover as those who have worked hard tend to burn out. When new enthusiastic members are welcomed into the system and trained by the exiting old guard, the new managers stand on the shoulders of the old guard and the association generally grows and prospers.
Sometimes the new enthusiastic members become impatient and throw out the old guard and the transition stumbles as our NA Class stumbled in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.

Sometimes the old guard remains in office and fades while no one recognizes the need and / or successfully brings new enthusiastic management blood in to continue the mission of the association.

In 2002 Mark Kastel spent a lot of effort attempting to educate the Class officers about the fragility of our management structure. We had too many eggs in one basket and in large part, "The health of Laser sailing in North America was far too closely tied to the health of Fred Schroth." We learned from Mark to consider the worst case reality, to train ourselves and have a plan so Laser sailing could continue un-damaged if Fred suddenly stopped doing virtually everything for us.
Mark tried to help the class officers understand that the class needed to put a plan in place before we lost Fred. Mark tried to explain that as a class we were fortunate. Fred was still alive and willing to continue managing our everyday operations. Mark pointed out that the class needed to create an effective plan so that the Class would have security (If Fred died or just decided to quit) and also so the Class officers would have options. (If the oficers wanted to fire Fred)
We all know Ryan Minth Minth and his ignorant minions chose to ignore Mark's advice, which was to setup a plan before we actually need a plan.
Even though they knew nothing about running the class and had no plan for keeping the class healthy, Fred was simply terminated. There was no trained replacement. In fact, no remaining class officer had any comprehensive concept of how to manage the North American Laser Class.

The ignorance of the officers, the foolish disregard for Mark Kastel's advice (Always have a survival plan for loss of the main officers), and the egomaniacal actions taken with no plan set back North American Laser sailing in more ways than we could have imagined.
We not only lost 3/4 of the membership and missed over 1000 new sailors, the US top sailors whose results had been steadily improving dropped to somewhere in the second 100 at the Laser Worlds.

Currently the NA Class has relatively sound, although generally inactive on the race course, management. The Class just attempted to hold elections and we failed. Luckily, our ancient team of officers has agreed to serve one more term. Most are in decent health and should, barring some unforseen disaster, serve their terms.
That is a long way from, " We have so many well trained and experienced volunteers who want to run things we have to hold elections."

Despite the advice of Mark Kastel, the NA Class and the game of Laser sailing it manages is one illness or car wreck away from falling dead.
We are one disastous illness away from another four years of incompetent management, loss of sailors, invisibility to new prospective sailors, and further humiliation on the international race course.

Last year one of our officers had a family disaster and no one was trained and ready to step in and fill her shoes until she could come back. The class had no plan other than to sit and whither while it waited. We are absolutely fortunate that she eventually came back and she is now doing great things to make up for lost time.

There would have been no lost time if anyone had listened to and seriously followed the advice of Mark Kastel.

The current election failure should be a wake up call to all Laser sailors in North America. The game is teetering on the edge of disaster..

The NA Class is once again being run by benevolent dictators while everyone else just sits and watches.

It is truly fortunate that our benevolent dictators are a lot like me. They would never do anything to hurt the game and, in fact, are doing their best to make the game work.

Eventually, one or two or all of our current benevolent dictators will stop.

Is it really the truth that 3000 Laser sailors around North America would rather risk the end of well managed Laser sailing than take on one of the very easy to serve positions in management?

Do the teenagers and twentysomethings understand that they can individually volunteer and almost instantly find themselves in charge of whatever part of Laser sailing they would like to run?

Hey kid! Want to choose better venues for yourself?? Take ofer scheduling. The class would love to have you do it.

Really.

I find it hard to believe that in any given year fewer than one new sailor in 1000 offers to get involved in class management.

Is it really true no one is interested??
 
Re: NA Class Elections This Month

gouvernail said:
Is it really true no one is interested??

Tracy, is it true that you are ancient?

Fred, it's a different world than when we were young in a couple of ways. Young people have so many options of things to do, and they are stepping up to working hard and volunteering. Maybe volunteering for sailing is pretty low powered compared to feeding, clothing, and housing the poor. And secondly, there's a lot of public criticism that flies on the internet. Sailing Anarchy is scary, but there's some here, too. It takes a hard shell to step up to that, and usually it's an older person who can take it. As you know, I myself stepped down from TLF because it got too rough for me. I got some interesting private messages, as well as what you saw publicly.

Another thing, I'll bet being on the North American Laser board looks daunting when you don't know what is involved. I suggest to anyone who is interested to begin by volunteering at the club level. Maybe put on a regatta yourself and see what is involved. Then see what you can do at the district level, perhaps as secretary. In taking on these jobs and working with the national office, one could form an opinion about what and if things need to be fixed. For myself, I have all the Laser sailing opportunities that I can manage for my level, but I am enjoying coordinating events to bring other sailors opportunities that are beyond my abilities so far.

Aside from any of these considerations, what is involved in the various positions? Perhaps laying out the duties of each officer to make the idea accessible would be appealing, Fred.
 
Re: NA Class Elections This Month

Gouvernail's idea of having a 'shadow' group of folks, willing to take over the show at some point, isn't bad. But the North American class organization doesn't really allow for that. To give an example, many seem to agree that the current group of officers is doing a good job (I think they do). Therefore, I don't want to throw my hat in the election ring since my election (highly unlikely!) would mean that one of the current officers gets tossed.

The 'rotational' model with newbie officers coming on board, gaining experience, and leaving after a number of years is used by many organizations where continuity is necessary, but not the NA Laser class, as far as I know.
 
Re: NA Class Elections This Month

This ought to be a different thread. I believe the discussion is important and the resulting actions could save us from another disastrous period similar to the two we already endured. 1985 to 1992 and 2002 to 2005
[Editors Note: This thread has now been split.]
 
I'm sure this is important, but aren't we only as strong as our districts? Getting to more of a grass roots level I believe the strength of our class on a NA level can only be as good as the growth our districts allows. District growth is much more in our direct control when compared to, what can be, the intense politics surrounding the management of the national governing body.

Looking at the national management I say status quo for the time being. We are just settling from a few bad years and growth is on the rise. Keep the current direction.
 
Just an observation here, but I think most Lasers sailors are affected more by what happens at the district level than the national level. Case in point, many members continued to participate in local regattas and simply ignored the shenanigans of the last few years. They just stopped paying their dues.

Many Laser sailors may view the national class as being strictly for those travelling to big regattas and aspiring Olympians. I realize this is a simplistic view and the national class does much, much more, but for some the perception is there.

The key to the class is strong district secretaries. They establish a base which the national organization can buld on.
 

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