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Message from the Commodore
As quickly as summer arrived, bang, it’s back to school, the sailboats are now put away for the season and Juniper is a much, much quieter place!
Although the docks will be winterized on September 18 — volunteers needed, please see Jason’s message below — the nets will stay up and the courts will be open until mid-October. If you come to Juniper after September 18, you’ll still be able to park at the main dock by the Pagoda.
Coming out of the pandemic, it’s been a very busy summer on Juniper with particularly heavy traffic in the first three weeks of July. But what a blast! I’d like to thank all our staff and volunteers in Administration, Sailing, Tennis and Pickleball for making it so memorable and so much fun for our families.
Coming this fall in our Membership Survey, we’ll be looking for your feedback on your experiences at SLYC. It’s more important than ever that we receive your input as the club seems busier than ever. Through the off-season, we finetune our programs and scheduling and determine how to best use and improve club assets. Member feedback, especially from those who wouldn’t normally speak up, is a central pillar in our planning.
At our AGM held on August 20, Tam Matthews rose to thank our out-going Commodore, David Newton, for his two years of service as Commodore and many prior years as Treasurer and as Golf Tournament Chair. David and his Golf Tournament team are dedicated to keeping costs down for young families at the club, and thanks to them and the generosity of our Stony Lake community, we continue to raise significant amounts of money to fund our sailing fleet and racquet sports equipment. David will continue to serve as Past Commodore and we’re looking forward to having his seasoned contributions on the Board.
Scott Wootton, on the other hand, is now off the Board as Past Commodore after countless years of service and material contributions to SLYC. In our last Board call, his parting words were something like, “See you later, suckers!”, and away he went. But seriously, Scott has been a conscientious executive, always generous with his wisdom, research, time and resources. Kawartha Lakes Construction is consistently at the ready to help with equipment and manpower thanks to their strong community spirit. We’ll hopefully continue to see Scott around Juniper slicing balls across the courts, sailing in the odd Weekend Race, medalling in paddling at the Juniper Island Regatta and always doing something on the island with his hands to make our lives better. Thank you, Scott, for everything you do.
As Scott used to say, “It takes a village,” and I’d like to acknowledge the dedicated service of our other out-going Board members and sincerely thank Sally Paradine and Anikka Foster. Sally has been Member at Large and is a past Tennis Director. Sally was the rock behind our tennis program as we entered the pandemic and found the safest ways for us to open the courts and to continue with activities in an otherwise exceptionally restrictive and fluid environment. And this summer, without a Social Director on the Board, Sally stepped up to organize the August 20 After-Dinner Dance Party at the Clubhouse, which was a great success.
Anikka is our out-going Membership & Operations Director. Anikka’s desire to maximize the enjoyment and efficiency of our member experience led her to a hands-on, in-depth understanding of our member-facing interactions, processes and systems as well as back-end operations. Her invaluable insights have led us to not only split her former role into three Board positions of Membership, Operations and Fundraising, but also prompted us to initiate a review of our operations software with the objective of improving your member experience as you interact with the club through our staff and technology.
I am very proud to be able to do my part on the Board with such dedicated and talented Directors past and present. In case you missed it, here is your Board of Directors for 2022/23:
ASLC Liaison: Amy Jacobs
Commodore: Greg Plant
Communications: John (JC) Craig
Fundraising: Dave Bart
Membership: Cath Kirk
Member at Large: Kelly Henderson
Member at Large Ex Officio: Kevin O'Callaghan
Operations: Tom Pitfield
Past Commodore: David Newton
Property: Jason Colbert
Junior Sailing: Dave Anderson
Secretary: Beckie Bart
Social: Jackie Hubbs
Tennis: Andrew Rush
Treasurer: Michele Macpherson
Finally, we obviously wouldn’t have a club without our members, our committee members, our volunteers. It’s your participation and support in our activities that makes us the strong community we value so much.
We wish you all the best and look forward to keeping you up to date in newsletters in the off-season.
And please, complete the SLYC Membership Survey when you receive it.
See you on Juniper next summer!
Warm regards,
Greg Plant
Commodore
gsplant@bell.net
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