If you didn’t manage to make it to this year’s annual general meeting (we missed you), catch up on what was said / done by taking a look at our official minutes of the meeting put together by Kat.

November 19, 2004

Draft Minutes

The annual meeting was convened at 8:12 p.m. at Waterplay, Inc. Phil, the president of the association presided over the meeting.

MOMENT OF SILENCE

A moment of silence was observed for the passing of Alex Caviglia, the former president of Adventure Sports, Inc., and founder of the South Florida Windsurfing Association (SFWA), formerly known as the South Florida Board Sailing Association (SFBSA). Alex was a long time friend to both the windsurfing and kiting communities.

PRESIDENT REPORT

In honor of Alex Caviglia, Nancy Lee, a close friend of the Caviglia family, said that donations should be sent to “Alex’s Bluewater Foundation”, a newly formed non-profit charitable foundation to benefit victims of water sports related injury. It was noted that Silvia is currently working with the parks department to help organize the beach to be a safer place for kite surfers. Phil said that the club will donate $250 to $300 to his fund. The club will also match any other donations made by members of the SFWA where reasonably feasible (within our budget).

Donations may be sent to:
Alex’s Bluewater Foundation
c/o Silvia Caviglia
5724 SW 131 TERRACE
MIAMI, FL 33156

Phil introduced the current board members. Phil introduced Bob Weinreb as the treasure and Rob Rubinoff and Barry Bourland as the web designers. Phil mentioned that the association has changed the name from South Florida Board Sailing Association (SFBSA) to South Florida Windsurfing Association to more accurately define our association. Phil introduced Nelson Lopez as our graphic artist, Brian Barr as the race coordinator, Katrina Washburn as the Secretary, and associate board members Angle and Libbia who are “Perspiring” (slip of the tongue), “Aspiring” board members. Phil mentioned that it was good that more girls were becoming involved with the association to promote the sport. Nancy Lee pointed out that women were involved too.

Phil defined the rules for the meeting. To avoid chaos, if a person wishes to speak, please raise their hands and they will be acknowledged.

OLD BUSINESS

1) SFWA New Website: Phil reported that a new website (SFWA) will replace the current website (SFBSA). Rob mentioned that he is up-dating the website’s design layout from the 1990 appearance to the current times. On the new website, members will have the option to join the association on line and pay their dues via PayPal. The new website is almost completed and should be up shortly. However, due to work constraints, Rob has had limited time to work on the SFWA website and thus progress is slower than he initially anticipated.

2) Newsletters: Rob mentioned that AOL e-addresses receive the e-newletters as spam and this problem could not be resolved. Therefore, on the SFWA new website there will be a link for members to sign up for an online free e-mail account, either Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail addresses. Rob also pointed out that e-mail is an effective way of communicating with members of the association and allows the association to maximize the usage of the website.

Bob Weinreb questioned whether members could use credit cards to pay for membership dues on line. Rob said yes they could by using a PayPal account that Rob will set up.

Barry asked for a show of hands to determine how many SFWA members subscribe to iWindsurf.com for access to real time wind conditions. Barry brought up the idea that membership to SFWA entitles people to OUR online content, which will include extensive weather/wind information, much like iWindsurf.com. We will be competing against iWindsurf.com in an effort to raise our membership levels. Floridian windsurfers can cancel that subscription, sign up with the SFWA, and receive pretty much the same weather/wind info PLUS get all the other benefits of the SFWA club.

Ovid asked how long the old website would remain active. Rob stated that they want to maintain the old website for three months with notice to direct people to the new website and new message board.

Rob mentioned that the new forum will be organized by subjects such as travel, gear, sales, etc… The forum is still under construction.

Kent interjected that the new forum would be more successful if vendors and team riders placed notices and or adds on the site. Therefore, the board should persuade Paula at Waterplay to contact her vendors and convince them to promote the forum. The kite surfing forum, in addition to having vendors input, also sells advertisements.

Nancy Lee stated that older members never received the e-notification. Rob responded by noting that there will be some growing pains with placing all members on an active e-list. One problem is that AOL blocks e-mail notification. He stated that a list of member e-addresses needs to be developed and maintained. In the meantime, Rob encouraged people to pass on the e-newsletters.

Brian Barr noted that notification was also by word of mouth.

3) Mail notification: Phil then thanked Barry and Nelson for their work on the mail notification for the annual meeting. Phil said that the SFWA will send out mail notifications for large events and that signs will be posted at Waterplay, Inc and Sailboards Miami, Inc (the beach). Phil also noted that mail notification was expensive.

4) Treasures report: Bob reported that largest expenditure during the past fiscal year was for club insurance, which allows the Association to host races, drink beer during events, and covers liability for windsurfers on beaches staffed with lifeguards. The SFWA insurance costs ~ $1000.00 per year. Other expenditures include US Sailing membership dues, a P.O Box, and filing tax returns as a 501 non-profit organization, which costs about $400. In January 2004, the association had $7500; currently the association has $6800. We must keep a minimum of $5000 in the account or we are charged a banking fee.

Phil noted to the membership that paying dues is more than just buying beer and food for parties.

5) Calendar of Events. Phil reported that the calendar of events this year will include a race schedule. Any member interested in racing should speak to Brian Barr, our race coordinator. The SFWA will host two regattas: the Pray for Wind regatta and the Round Robbin Race.

Kent, the CEO of Adventure Sports, Inc. mentioned a Liquidation sale to be held on December 4th 2004 at Waterplay for members of SFWA. The sale would include demo gear, kite stuff, wetsuits, surfboards, and more. There was mention of promoting the windsurfing race on December 5th.

Phil mentioned the Midnight madness events, which will include a bon fire, if permissible. The first Bon Fire event is tentatively scheduled for the day after Christmas, Dec 26th 2004. However, this date is subject to change. These events will be scheduled to on Saturdays, which correspond to the nearest full moon. The question was raised about insurance for bon fires. Bob suggested that we don’t call it a bon fire, but name it something else like “Midnight Saturday party” to get around insurance issues.

There will be a regatta at Ovids/ a beer regatta/ an open day to play.
Swap meet will be held on April 16th, 05

Rob mentioned that the face of windsurfing is currently changing. There are more Latinos in the sport. Therefore we should embrace this community. The Latinos love to cook and thus we should have more BBQs with a Latin theme or perhaps ask them if they would like to participate in the grilling. Windsurfing should also try to include children and college student; in general the younger community.

ELECTIONS

Phil asked anyone if they would like to run for a position on the board. Then mentioned that if people did not want to be on the board, they could participate in other ways. Phil stated that we would elect board members by a show of hands. Phil was voted in as President, Bob Weinreb as Treasurer. Rob noted that Bob has done an excellent job as treasurer and thanked him for all his hard work. Denise was voted in as event coordinator. Ovid was voted on as a board member. Rob, Barry, Nelson, Katrina and Brian were also reelected to the board by a show of hands. A motion was made and seconded.

President: Phil
Treasurer: Bob Weinreb
Secretary: Katrina Washburn
Event Coordinator Denise Romero
Race Coordinator Brian Barr
Board Member Ovidio Deleon
Board Member Barry Bourland
Board Member Rob Rubinoff

NEW BUSINESS

1) Event planning. Nancy Lee began by saying that in the past, the best events that the association hosted were held at Crandon Park/beach: Round Robin races, clinics and bbqs. Kent suggested having events at Virginia Beach where we could throw a big party at Jimbos.

2) Dedication to Alex Caviglia. Adam Lock wrote a message on the message board of SFBSA website that suggested having an annual regatta in Alex Caviglia’s name. Barry read a passage from this message titled “Fair well to a friend”.

Several ideas were suggested in honor of Alex: 1) a big blow out party, 2) annual regatta hosted by SFWA in the name of Alex Caviglia to be held on his birthday which is October 25, 1956 or on his death of November 13, 2004, 3) help to finance alterations to Matheson Hammock park (e.g. sand in place of stone) and have a plaque at this park in honor of Alex.

Kent reported that Alex distributed J.P boards and that the Neil Pryde windsurfing board has just been selected as the next Olympic board (a Neil Pryde Board and sail). He mentioned that the Miami Olympic class regatta, which may be a BBYRA event held at the end of January, will be raced on this new board. Perhaps we could get this race dedicated to Alex and then it would be associated with the Olympics.

Bob stated that since we are members of US Sailing, this idea might succeed. Kent also said that there are only five distributors world wide of this new Olympic board and Adventure Sports, Inc is one of these distributors. Therefore, we might have more clout in having Alex’s name associated with this event. United States only holds one Olympic trial for windsurfing and the Miami regatta is used as a qualifying event.

3) Lower membership dues. Phil made a motion to lower membership dues to $25.00 instead of $50.00 to entice more people to join. Todd stated that $50.00 for dues is not much money and people can afford that amount. Todd also stated that the association should promote what you get for your $50.00 instead of lowering the cost.

Nancy suggested that first time members can join for a reduced rate of $25.00 and renewals cost $50.00.

Brian Barr suggested fund raising to increase the revenue for the association instead of trying to meet it by dues alone.

Ovid suggested lowering the membership dues to $35.00.

Bob reported that the fixed expenses were $1600 and currently the paid memberships were not meeting the cost of running the clubs expenditures.

Ovid then commented that there was no drive to increase membership – no promotion of the club.

Kent suggested that regularly scheduled events would increase club awareness and excite more people to join. However, these events cannot be just a one time occurrence, the events have to be repetitive to provide a synergistic effect.

Nancy suggested making brochures and passing them out to people on the beach, leaving some at Sailboards Miami, Inc and at Waterplay, Inc as well as contacting local colleges to promote windsurfing. Bob suggested printing the last e-newsletter and using that as a brochure. Kent and Todd promoted the idea of targeting groups for membership. Bob said that $25.00 / member will not cover operating costs for the club.

Nancy Lee suggested raising money for the club by charging $5.00 to non-members to sell their gear at the swap meet. Brian Barr mentioned that charging for the swap meet might violate our permit for holding this event. Perhaps the association could ask for donations instead. Kent suggested changing venues for the swap meet to Waterplay and then charge for permission to sell gear.

Motion was put forth: $25.00 per new member, $25.00 for students, $50.00 for renewing members, and free for individuals under 18 year of age. Motion was seconded and passed by majority.

4) Lessons to be learned from the Kite surfing community. Ovid asked Kent how the kite surfing community was promoting their sport. Kent reported that the kite surfing community provided organized instruction for the sport, marketed the sport to the age of 26 and up, and held club and social events. Kent noted that the windsurfing association could market the sport to two groups; 1) cruisers/family and 2) hard core racing (youth via Olympic campaigns). The SWFA should serve its members. For instance, promote coastal cruising (a big down winder), or 100 yards dash for cash around buoys.

5) Wind board Fishing event. Kent suggested that SFWA should think about holding a wind board fishing event to get publicity in the Sport Fishing magazines, which have a very large readership. Nancy suggested that she might be able to get a one day permit to use a Stiltsville house.

Committee was formed to organize the wind fishing event headed by Kent. The committee includes Eric, Nancy Lee, Kent, George DeFabio, Len Fenn, Denise Romero, and Peter Thompson.

ADJOURMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 10:16 p.m.