Volunteer to Help

Like most sports clubs, Muritai Yacht Club is run by volunteers. All of the work that goes into making MYC a great little club takes time and effort from members. This includes administration of the club, organising and running racing and other sailing, regattas, training and coaching, maintenance and crewing of support boats, maintenance of the club's building, equipment and facilities, planning social events, fundraising, afternoon teas, providing support on the beach for launching and retrieving boats, running the bar, providing food at regattas, doing dishes, recording race results, supporting juniors at outside events, maintaining the web site, and so on. I guess you get the picture by now.

So, at present we have ten committee members, which is really good (usually it's about 8), and several other folks provide regular support in particular roles. Many of these people have been doing this for many years and the club is like a second home - they love being involved.

But - there is an ongoing need for casual help, and we do need turnover on the committee.

As members will be aware already, afternoon teas are run on a rotating voluntary basis. All members are expected to help with this at least once during the season. Those that are on duty every week to run the club ask that you give some thought to when you will be able to make your contribution and get on the roster in advance. Contact Judy.

Another regular task that does not require special skills is helping on the beach. On most days, more or less all sailors require help with beach trolleys when launching and returning to shore, and with pulling boats up the beach. Turning up in your shorts and sandals every now and then and helping out with this for half and hour can make a big difference and you get to meet lots of sailors! It always makes afternoon tea taste better too if you have got your feet wet. Just show up.

If you are keen to get more involved that would be great too.

Helping with recording race results is a low key and fun thing that only takes a short time as the boats finish racing. No special skills are needed, although it gets easier if you have done it before. Contact the Race Officer.

We generally need more people to get up to speed with crewing rescue/support boats and we can arrange training for boat driving, first aid and so on for crew. Contact the Boatmaster.

Race management, including running the race starts from the rescue boats is something that requires people too. At present this often involves race committee members that would rather be sailing but have to give it away to run the starts for everyone else. It would be great to spread the load a bit so if this appeals to you we would be glad to hear from you. Training and support will be provided for volunteers. Contact the Race Officer.

Helping getting stuff up on the website is another opportunity. Collecting and writing stories about the club, sailing events and social activities, exploits of members is something we need to do more of. If you have an interest in such journalistic activity contact the webmaster for a chat.

Finally, there is the opportunity to become a member of the core team. We welcome new blood on the management committee, which is elected at the AGM on the last Wednesday in July each year. Check out the contacts page for a list of current officials. There are lots of tasks run by committee members or others, like the social committee, fundraising, organising regattas, the 75th Jubilee celebrations in 2013 and associated work on documenting the history of the club, and so on. All of these groups would welcome help from members that would like to contribute. Contact the Commodore to see where you can help keep us as the Greatest Little Yacht Club in the World!