MISSA News

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

By ISSA President Tim Hogan

February 19th, 2014

After attending the US Sailing’s leadership conference last week in San Diego with 650+ attendees, I came away with a lot of ideas so we can improve junior sailing from the high school sailing point of view. I believe we fit in a box that is simple and structured. We are not trying to change any aspect of youth sailing other than creating a team sport that becomes important for high school students. The message from the conference was to learn as much as you can but come away with 5 key items that can use in your organization. Here’s my top 5:

1. High School sailing is doing most things right- Make it fun!
2. Relationships with Yacht Clubs, Community Centers and Colleges are very important. Every group is benefitting. I would recommend that you match up your goals for high school sailing with your community so you can work together to increase participation.
3. All high school sailing teams are in the fund raising business. The 5 things you need to do:
   • Be clear and specific.
   • Know your audience and tailor your presentation for each group.
   • “Under promise and over achieve”.
   • Make it easy.
   • Follow up.
4. Bring a friend to sailing practice and a high school regatta. By the way it’s Coed.
5. It’s important that we provide safe and healthy environment for all the sailors.

As far as I’m concerned, all of the action in growing our sport is in the youth sailing and high school areas. Some examples of this growth is with the high school programs that are being sponsored at Chicago Yacht Club (115 sailors) and Rochester Yacht Club (65 sailors). In the past few years the enrollment has substantially increased. Chicago Yacht Club has put sailors in keel boats just to get more kids on the water.