We are all getting accustomed (some of us more reluctantly than others) to doing things differently and your Membership Committee is also adapting (I could say some more reluctantly than others, but I won’t!). During the period that the Club was closed, it was hard for us to meet and get to know our Provisional Members and since bar gatherings with us wandering around with masks on trying to hear and understand what people are saying does not sound very appealing, we are going to do things differently.
On Thursday 13th August, we are holding our first new member orientation evening. It will be upstairs in the main dining room and each staff department head will give a short presentation about the Club and, in particular, their area of it. In this way, new members will get a feel for what our facilities are, learn about the sailing programmes offered, get a feel for the life of the Club and meet the staff as well as the Flag Officers and Membership Committee. It is our plan to host these new member orientation evenings quarterly on the first Thursday of each month following the close of the quarter (so, our August meeting should really have been in July, but we were not yet adapted enough to the ‘new normal’ to get it organized in July). By doing this at 6pm for an hour on a Thursday night, we hope that folks will stay at the Club afterwards for supper with their families and their friends (as they have proposers and seconders, we assume they already have some friends at the Club and this will give them a chance to meet some new ones!). Since everyone will be seated during the presentations, masks are optional except for movement around the Club (when entering or exiting or heading downstairs to dine).
Attendance is not restricted to just Provisional Members; if any existing members would like to attend, they are most welcome. We would just ask that you call the Club and let us know, because we are restricted to a maximum of 50 people indoors during Phase 4. We look forward to seeing everyone.
Elspeth Weisberg
15 July, 2020