Dear Members,
Happy holidays and trust you all
had an enjoyable boating season. That said, as I did at the Annual
Meeting, the following is a recap of 2014 highlights and our focus
for 2015.
RECONSTRUCTION/IMPROVEMENTS
We are back to ‘pre-Sandy’
conditions and made a number of improvements throughout the
season: New deck and 3 season room, created a room for the Darien
Police Marine Division and The Harbor Master, new refrigerator, ice
& soda machines, fish weigh station, and new tables and chairs,
doubling our seating capacity. We also painted the Clubhouse and
have stained the deck since closing. Before year end we plan to
replace the front locker room door and repair the gas dock aluminum
ramp. Our focus for 2015 will be to totally replace "E" dock,
increase dock lighting, install uniform hose holders, align & cap
off all pilings, and finalize our gas tank replacement strategy.
EXECUTIVE BOARD AND COMMITTEE CHANGES
We backfilled one Committee, and
one Board member, created one new position, and welcomed one new
elected member to the Board this year.
- Appointed Justin Byczek as Secretary.
- Appointed Todd Scallen as House & Grounds
Chairperson.
- Created the Community Relations
Chairperson position and appointed Paul Johnson.
- Peter Fitzpatrick was elected Fiancial
Secretary.
I would like to
extend a special thanks to Charlie Crawley past Secretary, Art
Morris past House and Grounds Chairman, and Marty Milewski past
Financial Secretary for their service to the club and a job well
done.
As you know, Jim Baker retired,
(although still pitches in when he can) and Bill Lowitz became the
new manager. Bill did a terrific job managing the club's operations
during the rebuilding of the club house this spring and summer.
We had a complement of qualified
launch operators enabling the DBC to run our service from dawn to
dusk 7 days a week during the peak season and 40 members took
advantage of this opportunity. The launch service is an excellent
way to get started boating while you are waiting for a slip at the
DBC.
Link Jewett, who was the DBC
representative to the Coastal Commission, for 20 years was
recognized for all his many contributions. As a result, our First
Selectwoman, Jamie Stevenson, declared September 5th as
‘Link Jewett Day’. We also paid tribute to Scott McNiven, who
retired after 9 years as head of the Darien Police Marine Division
and was replaced by Dan Ehret. Additionally, we recognized Phil
Raymond, Bill Nolte, and Jim Baker as Honorary DBC Members.
Membership now stands at 736 and
is growing at approximately 5 members per month.
Community Relations Chairman,
Paul Johnson has done an excellent start up job, and some of his
accomplishments include:
- Signing up over half the membership to
Facebook.
- Publishing several articles on DBC events
in the local media including:
-Veterans Day for VFW Vets
-Swim Across America
-Boat Camp
-Kept the membership informed through the monthly newsletters
contributions.
In November an opinion survey
was sent to the membership, the results of which may be accessed on
the DBC website,
please click on the "Current and Past Newsletters" to view. Overall
the results were very positive, but we have identified a number of
ways that we can better communicate and make club facilities more
accessible for more members... more to come soon.
We restarted the ‘Fishing
Contest’ this year and of the 12 first and second place winners,
($500 in cash prizes), 8 of the winners were under 21 years of age
which is exactly what we are trying to encourage.
Joe Lopiano, (long time club
member and former Executive Board Member), chaired a committee
comprised of 1 Board Member and several club members and developed
‘Porch Rules’ which were approved and posted at the Club.
All the Dock staff job
descriptions were rewritten/updated to include Club Manager,
dockmaster, launch operators, and dock staff.
The plans for A & B Dock
expansion have been approved by the Army Corp of Engineers. During
Q1 of 2015 we will have an "All Hands" meeting to develop the
next steps to include: costs, needed approvals, and financing.
This effort will be driven by our new House & Grounds Chairman, Todd
Scallen.
- Continue to improve the physical Club and
grounds.
- ‘Next Steps’ for A & B Dock expansion.
- Continue to promote access to our coastal
waters for our ever growing membership.
- Plan for new gas tank and potential
dredging.
- And last but not least is "Volunteering",
which is the backbone of this Club.
I
would like to thank you for all your support this year, and on
behalf of the Executive Board and Club staff, have a safe and
enjoyable Holiday Season.
Glen
Osberg
Commodore |