The holiday and curing time have slightly slowed down the daily progress on the construction project. It normally takes untreated concrete 21 days to cure and be able to support stress and strain. Unseasonably warm weather has increased the rate of curing, and contractors have been able to set the basement wall forms into place along with the required REBAR for strengthening the walls. By the time you read this the concrete trucks will have arrived and the walls will have been poured. Concurrently there will be  under and in floor plumbing and drainage piping installed prior to actual pouring of the  first level floor. The weather has been cooperating and the contractors are on schedule and optimistic about target dates.

Many of our folks have been traveling this week and we have had reports from several. Charles and family made a short holiday trip and the crew of Brown Eyed Girl have been steadily transiting the “Ditch” to Florida. Interesting stories have come forth from Joe, Tom and crew, including Bucky and PC Bob. The autopilot has helped but sharp eyes, especially at night, were required for safety purposes. Thanks were given to Laura R for bringing supplies at Southport and the fly bridge navigation crew was beginning to be able to wear less warm clothing as the weather slowly warmed with more southerly climes. PC Bob departed the “girl” at his home in  Charleston and Captain Joe is nearing his ultimate goal.

Our series on remember when this week focuses on the club management role. For many years, back in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s we had a system of management called the “house chairman.” This appointed position was held by a member and was a totally voluntary, but very time consuming job, which tended to be held for many years by one person. The job involved supervisory and  full management of club operations, finances, dining, property maintenance and repair as well as direction of any projects assigned by the Commodores.

Yours truly “inherited” the position when my predecessor passed away after a club Halloween party. The Commodore called me the next morning to say “ you are it.” For 10 years I found out what a major job running the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club was. It was rewarding, fun at times, and not so much fun at others. Jean Thornburg was our bookkeeper, but the house chairman fixed broken pipes under the building, fired a chef who was drinking up the proceeds, and worked on roof leaks and space problems. In those days, the clubhouse had a flat roof and was considerably smaller than it is today. We had two fireplaces (a beautiful two sided on,e which was between the spinnaker room (then a bar) and the main dining room. The other was a large stone fireplace in the casino.

The fireplaces were removed, by decision of the Flags, some years later when the clubhouse was modernized and its present status was created. Along with that modernization we moved away from the house chairman  concept and tried several dining room managers in the role of general manager. None of these attempts worked to the satisfaction of the rapidly evolving flag succession and, for a period of time the concept of a manager seemed doomed. The selection of dining directors as club managers proved to be the fly in the ointment ... because there is so much more to our operations than food production and service. 

The concept of a year-round operations manager evolved in the 80’s and Jim Matel was elected as our first year round general manager. The concept has worked well ( as Jim’s 10 year tenure proved), and Charles’ selection as his replacement continues the “modern” management plan. This process has been aided by the contributions of the  late Peggy Luke Minor, Francis, and Donna, who have held down the financial operations factors in the management plan.

One other factor in our operations was changed drastically when the expected term of commodoreship was reduced to one year from its original two successive years. As an editorial comment, I strongly advocate the two year term plan as a benefit to both the club and the commodore. 

Next week we will go a little bit more detail into the West Harbor Clubhouse evolution.

Next week you also have to remember the social event on the night of Friday, Dec. 8 at the Mutch’s home on Southport.

Hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving.