The 2005 Annual Meeting was held at the Pelican Point clubhouse and brought to order by Commodore Edgar Cliborne, who welcomed everyone.

Officers present:  Commodore Edgar Cliborne, Vice Commodore Karen Litz, Rear Commodore George DeMestro, Fleet Captain John Breckenridge, Sunfish Fleet Captain Jeff Moorefield, Treasurer Warren Ibaugh, and Secretary Loretta Manning.  Absent:  Member-at-large Larry Richmond and Past Commodore Don Davis.

Loretta Manning presented the minutes of the last meeting, held January 10, 2004, which were reviewed and approved.  Loretta announced that BYRA had 58 members at the end of the year.

John Breckenridge reported on the year's racing activities.  He said there was wind in the spring but that participation overall was low.  He said there were 16 races for the year, including regattas.  In the spinnaker fleet only five boats ran all races and in the A and B fleets only one boat ran all races.  John thanked Karen Litz for serving as Race Committee during the year.

Jeff Moorefield reported that the Sunfish racers had little wind for their races and most had to be cancelled.  Only eight boats raced last year and we needed more participation.  The Invitational regatta brought in four guests.  He hopes the Masters Class award will be continued.  Jeff thanked the race committees and said he hopes the Junior Sunfish Fleet will continue.

George DeMestro thanked everyone who helped during the year and reported that the wine tasting event in the summer was a huge success and would like to see it continued.

Warren Ibaugh submitted the Treasurer's Report which is attached to and made a part of these minutes.  Warren said he hopes we maintain the current membership.  Our slip fee went up and our insurance premiums take up a large part of the budget.  We lost money on regattas and didn't make as much money as usual from the sale of clothing.  Ben Gardner said he had a tentative commitment from Sun Trust for $1,500 to sponsor the spring regatta.  This amount has not yet been received and is not included in the budget. The budget as submitted by Warren was approved by the members.

Old Business.  Six items were presented by Edgar Cliborne as having been addressed by a special committee consisting of Edgar, John Breckenridge, Warren Ibaugh and Loretta Manning.

Item 1.  Recommendation to change the Bylaws, Article II, Membership, Section 2.  Applications for Membership, to replace International Sailing Federation with U. S. Sailing Association to reflect the current name of the organization.  The members approved this change.

 Item 2.  Recommendation to change, in the same section of the Bylaws as in Item 1, the date of July 30th to July 1 and add the following sentence:  The half-price dues apply to new members only as an incentive to join BYRA.  The members approved this change.

 Item 3.  Recommendation to amend the Sailing Instructions to reflect that the annual club championship will be determined by using the scores of 80% of the races completed by the club in each year.  The members approved this amendment.

 Item 4.  Recommendation to add a paragraph to the Sailing Instructions concerning the number of trophies for each series, i.e. if three or fewer boats qualify award only the first place trophy, etc.  After much discussion action on this item was delayed until item 5 was addressed.

 Item 5.  Recommendation that qualification for trophies needs to be defined under item 6, Scoring and Awards, in the Sailing Instructions, as follows.  A boat qualifies if it sailed in 5 out of 7 races run, 5 out of 6 races run, 4 out of 5 races run, or 3 out of 4 races run. John Breckenridge discussed the problems if a boat races only one race.  There is no problem if participation is high.  After much discussion Edgar called for a vote. The proposal passed as written with a vote of 18 For and nine against.

Edgar returned to Item 4 for further discussion.  Ben Gardner proposed awarding up to three  trophies per class if three boats qualify.  The members approved this amendment to the Sailing Instructions.

 Item 6.  Recommendation to add the following sentence to the Sailing Instructions, Section 2A, Series Eligibility:  The signup sheet for the first race that a boat signs up for in a series will determine which fleet it is eligible to qualify for in a series, and any subsequent crossover to another fleet will not be scored for series qualification.  The members approved this amendment.

Election of Directors and Officers.

The following list of nominees for officers for 2005 was presented:  Commodore-Karen Litz, Vice Commodore-Ellen Ramsey, Rear Commodore-Bob Grogan, Fleet Captain-Jeff Moorefield, Sunfish Fleet Captain- Marty Minot, Treasurer-Warren Ibaugh, Secretary-Loretta Manning, Member-at-large-Bob Boe and Edgar Cliborne will remain on the Board as Past Commodore.

The slate of officers was approved by acclimation.

At this point Edgar turned the meeting over to newly elected Commodore Karen Litz.

Karen announced that this year is BYRA's 20th anniversary and asked for celebration suggestions. 

New Business.

Marty Minot reported on the Sunfish Junior Program and said he expects to have the same number of kids in the fleet which is for children age 10 to 18.  Marty said he would appreciate the loan of Sunfish for the fleet to use.

Marty proposed an amendment to the Sailing Instructions to include a Sunfish addendum, copy attached and made a part of these minutes.  Karen mentioned that minimum wind was not stated and it would be assumed to be the same as for keelboats unless stated in the addendum.  She did not feel a vote was required.

Marty proposed that Junior Sunfish participants whose parents are not BYRA members be provided  a Junior non-voting membership for $5.  Warren said that non-members, or their parents, would need to sign waivers.  Marty would like to be able to present trophies.  The members decided that a charge should not be made and that the Bylaws should state that Junior Sunfish participants will be considered non-voting members at no extra charge.

Jeff Moorefield presented the proposed racing schedule for 2005 and Karen reminded everyone that it was not official until approved by the Zahns.

A suggestion was made that the Pelican Point Open schedule for June 11 could serve as BYRA's 20th anniversary party and include a parade and raft up.  We should invite the Zahns, perhaps other marinas and former members.  Information could be sent to lake associations and the SML Eagle.  We could order polo type commemorative shirts in advance to wear on that day.

Charlie Manning announced that a new fabric top was being prepared for the Committee Boat and that Warren Ibaugh had built a new grid for the top.

Alvin Bennett said that it was hard to get two races completed in one day because of the time needed to change race committees between races.  After discussion, the members agreed to have only one race committee per day to serve for both races with race committee service counting as the average of best of 4 races.  This is to be a temporary rule to be reassessed next year.

Glenn Cliborne noted that a problem is created if a race committee cancels at the last minute and puts an unfair burden on the Fleet Captain.  He reminded everyone that it is the responsibility of the race committee to find a replacement if necessary.  Bob Boe said we needed to have an emergency plan in place.  Glenn said that in an emergency the fleet captain usually has to fill in.

Bob Boe said he would like to see the women members get more involved in racing and perhaps have a special women's race.

Lee Arnold suggested having an alternate weekend or day for makeup races in the schedule and Jeff Moorefield said he would add another day for make up races.

Karen announced that the U. S. Sailing Association has issued new racing rules for 2005.  The Board will look at the changes and decide how best to inform the members. Suggestions were made to discuss a rule change at each skippers' meeting.  The Vice Commodore will look into this.

As a result of questions raised last year Karen reminded members that the rules indicate you are racing when the preparatory flag goes up at four minutes from the start.  Technically, skippers can run their motors until that time.

Karen asked if having finish times on the website was helpful.  Racers want to see finish scores immediately following races so if there is an error it can be addressed at that time.

Jan Arps will be BYRA's new webmaster.

In answer to a question raised by Richard Belvin, Jeff Moorefield said we would continue to use PHRF for 2005.

Bob Boe recommended some sort of recognition for highest placing new member such as a "Rookie of the Year" award.

Lee Arnold proposed that BYRA and VISA try to come together to improve the racing program.  Karen will talk to Barry May at VISA.  Glenn Cliborne said that most of VISA's racers were already racing with BYRA.  Tom Morgan said that there were a few people at VISA that should be encouraged to race with us.

Bill Hughes said that an excessive amount of time was being  spent at regattas trying to get a perfect starting line.  He said that we should encourage the outside race committee to back off. 

We may need to find other outside race committees.

The meeting adjourned at 1:22 p.m. and lunch was served by George and Holly DeMestro.

Respectfully submitted.

Loretta Manning, Secretary