Commodores

raybo3

Who is a Commodore or past Commodore and how was your experience. I was Commodore at my club for the 90th and 100th Anniversary..... Thought this might be a interesting subject..........

Stodge

I'm past commodore of my boat club.  We are in a small paper club.  There are a few clubs in the area who have islands and we have friends at some of them.  There is a parent organization that the clubs belong to.  The first year as past commodore, you are the one who attends those other meetings to hear what all the other clubs in the area are doing.  We're a small club and we don't do the uniform thing.  Some of the area clubs have the whites for summer and blazer for winter.

The biggest challenge we run into is finding people to serve on the board or on the bridge.  We only have 30 or so members (families) and most of them have been on the board or on the bridge at least once.

In our club, commodore is more of a figurehead.  We only have 5 flags (treasurer, secretary, fleet, vice and commodore).  The commodore runs the meetings and addresses the members at events.  

In a slightly related topic, I'm currently the flotilla commander for the Coast Guard Auxiliary flotilla I belong to.  Similar role to being commodore but more paperwork.  

Black_Diamond

PC here. I thought it was a good experience. I revamped our by-laws to cut the board down to flag holders, had 13 before and pain getting any agreement. lol. This was during the heart of the recession and dealing with dropped memberships and getting finances under control. Club is in great shape the last few years. 

LaRea

I served on our Board for ten years, ending with two years as Commodore.  We average 220 member families (~400 members).  With only 115 slips, we have as many non-boaters as boaters.  It's as much a neighborhood social club as a yacht club (pool, parties, you name it).

We are an all-volunteer club, and relatively informal -- no paid staff, no uniforms, no hats with scrambled eggs.  We do have a formal Commissioning Day every spring, and a black-tie change-of-watch ceremony in November.  

It's no exaggeration to say that the club has changed my life.  I've never lived in or heard of a neighborhood where people know each other like they do here.  And even though we are 10 miles from Washington, nobody talks politics.  Few of them even know what I do for a living, and I like that.

Being Commodore helped me learn leadership skills that have served me well in my business life.  But what makes me happier is the people I've met along the way.

We're having our 60th anniversary this summer.  Gonna be a big time!

Handymans342

Wow thats better than a country club!