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Fall is right around the corner and I hope we can move into it slowly and hold on to the warmer weather. The annual beach party was a success again and I want to thank everybody for spending the day at the club. I also wish to say “Thank you” to all the volunteers we had, both club members and family members alike, which make these events possible. I would call everybody out by name, but it’s not just a group of individuals, but a small “Village” to pull these events off.
They start with the planning, ordering of food and non-consumable products, setting up, cleaning the beach, food preparation, ticket sales for food and beverages, and finally the clean-up. Also, we can’t forget the appearance of our own famous “DJ Jammin Jersey Josh.” As we ease into fall, you will see changes in the air, so please check your Emails, the GPYC website through your member porthole, and follow us on Facebook. If you’re a Facebook follower of the GPYC, you will notice that Trustees Vanessa Heinzman and Linda Clarici are doing an outstanding job keeping the page up to date and posting fantastic photos of club events. Again, if you haven’t seen the page, please follow us on Facebook. You won’t be disappointed. If you are not a computer user, please feel free to contact me at the club or give me a phone call. Finally, winter hours are going into effect at the club this week with the beginning of school. The club will be opening at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Friday and 7:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. In the short term, the club will open early on Friday’s at 7:00 a.m. to accommodate the boat ramp. Bar Manager Bob Cavalier will keep you posted. Ron Heinzman, Commodore
First I want to say, “Thank You” for electing me as your Commodore. I want to congratulate all of our newly elected Board members, and give a special thank you to our Former Commodore Ed Horton, Recording Secretary Dave Felton, Trustee John Hogan, Trustee Manny Muina, and Trustee Rainer Moellering for your service to our club. I am looking forward to working with our new Board of Trustees, Flag Officers, and all of our current members moving forward. We as a Board, look forward to listening to your ideas and hearing your input. I also want to thank our members that were able to make it on election night. Regardless of who your candidate was for office, you voted and supported your club. Again, thank you. I have said and will continue to say that holding office isn’t an easy one. Regardless of who holds the office, he or she runs with your club’s best interest at heart. When your watch is over, I believe your service continues, as we have seen with our former Commodores. Commodores Noonan and McGovern have spent countless hours after their terms ended supporting this club serving on committees, election boards, and being mentors to newly elected Board members. Commodore Horton will also be serving actively as well moving forward. On Friday, August 23rd we will be serving our popular Commodores Platter in dedication to Commodore Horton, Commodore Noonan, and Commodore McGovern. All of your Commodores will be at the club. So, I hope you can stop down, say hello, and spend some time with us at your club. Each of you former Commodores left the club better than they found it, which came from hard work and dedication. Your newly elected Board of Trustees and I will work tirelessly to leave the club better than we found it moving forward. Vanessa Heinzman will be posting the new committee chairs shortly and I hope to see everyone at the club. Lastly, I wish to have an open door to the full membership. If you wish to talk, have an idea, or suggestion, please feel free to email me. Ron Heinzman, Commodore As I stated in the last general membership meeting that the nominating committee chair person is Glen Blue. Please seek him out if you would like to step up to the plate and take on any of the positions that are up for reelection or replacement. For any of the trustee’s positions except for one, four positions will be for two years and the replacement position will be for one year. For all of the officer’s positions they will be for one year.
Being proud of this club is the theme of this commodore’s message. I AM PROUD of all the accomplishments that the present Board of Trustees has accomplished and how the membership has come together in helping to move this club forward as a whole. All the leagues the club has; the pool league and to the ladies that have shared in feeding the members that participate in that league it was complete success. Think about joining, win and get to see your name on the website as a winner. The Dart league on Wednesday, to the members that run it and the members that participate. You will see them at times wearing their monogram dart league shirts, it is fun for all and gives the membership something to do during the winter months when cabin fever starts to set in. Think about joining you don’t have to be good we are a handicap league. We can all be proud of our annual Memorial Day picnic and our inhouse veterans’ breakfast that we have every Veterans Day and the connections that we have made with outside veterans’ groups, looking forward to seeing them at the club this is something worth being proud of, by all. We as a group, have solved some in house problems that nature has thrown at us, that pesky sun that shines through the west windows and distributes the dinner time crowds has been solved with blinds you can leave your shades at home. The ice that creates havoc with our outer poles and causes us to spend money every year was solved with the investment of a new bubblier system. It was not just the purchase of it but the team work it took to put it together and install it for the first time. With a lot of good input, we are finally getting a light over the pool table it has taken some time but you will be seeing it over the pool table soon. We have a new boarder and new landscaping in the front of the building the club looks good. An event that everyone looks forward to this August 4st is our annual crab contest, free to everyone it becomes a feast of all feasts. All the annual events children’s Halloween and Christmas party, the New Year’s Eve party all have come and gone with total success thanks to the members that participate and those that ran these affairs. Because these are annual events look forward to participating in them, check the web page for their posting. We have members that volunteer their time and show off their talent and occasionally play music during meeting nights. Like I have said in the past; Like in a choir it is not just the conductor, but when everyone participates and sings their part of a song, their harmony together goes to a successful and a rewarding performance. Our club is no different, when everyone plays a part in its operation, the commodore, the Board of Trustees and the membership all chip-in and help out when and where they can, the end result is a club in harmony and rewarding for all. I know and can attest to this in my own pride and in the pride I see around the club. Your commodore Ed Horton We are at / in the time of the year where our family members of GPYC and the Gilford Park Yacht Club try to cram all of the following activities in 5 months It is a crazy time. Summer is upon us, members getting their boats ready for the season, there are graduations; Kindergarten, Middle School, High School and College. Families are still working 5 days a week so all that’s left is approximately 14 weekends which equals approximately 28 days. There are several major holidays during this time; Memorial Day which kicks of the season Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, 4th of July, Family Holidays (vacations) and Labor Day that ends it all. As I said it is a crazy time, and if I may add it can be a stressful time.
As I have always said your family comes first nothing else matters, I should practice what I preach. I have always said that I am never in the moment I am in, my mind is always somewhere where else, my wife days after a family event would reminisce about that day and I would not have a clue what she was talking about because I was not in the moment, I am in. My recommendation to myself and to the families of GPYC and to the Gilford Park Yacht Club itself is to take your time, slow down and enjoy that moment you are in. With all of what was said above, the club also goes through its time of change. July and August are our election process months starting with the nominations in July and ends in August with elections. Glen Blue again has graciously accepted to head up the nominations committee for July and the election committee process in August. Any member in good standing who would like experience running the club or being part of the decision-making process please seek out Glue Blue, let him know your intensions. Any one running for office or trustee will have to be present at the July’s meeting and if they can’t be there, they will have to have a letter stating the office position or for a trustee position they plan to run for dated and signed. This also goes for incumbent trustees and officers whose terms are up. I say, that without our members stepping up to the plate and taking on these rolls you will NOT have a club. Please do not run for the glory of the title but run to keep your club moving forward. Run only if you can commit to the position and the job you will get because if you can’t you will be doing a disservice to your fellow members and the club as a whole. By them electing you, they are depending on you to move the club forward. Just remember your immediate family indirectly gets elected to the position make sure they are on board with your decision. Just because you as a member elected a candidate or don’t like the candidate that won or you say you do your part by paying your dues, none of that matters it does not relinquish your responsibility as a member to help out at all the different activities that the club sponsors and support the elected members of the Board of Trustees. Remember, you took an oath to support the club when you were sworn in. With all the activities that will be crammed in this summer please do it safely, keep your eyes on the road, be considerate of others both on/or off the road, on the water and at the club, Drink sensibly and click it. Most of all, be in the moment you are in, because time only moves forward, you can’t get it back, it then becomes an empty moment in the history of your life. I hope there is a plethora of members that will stand up at the plate and take their turn as a trustee or an officer this election season. There will be 5 trustees and 5 officers position up for reelection or replacement. Commodore, Vice Commodore. Recording Secretary, Treasure, and Financial Secretary. I wrote this commodores message while watching the D-Day ceremony commemorating that day June 6th 1944. I became overwhelmed when I realized that how much it hurts when we lose an immediate family member and for that day all the families back home that lost their love ones and how a nation won but lost a generation of people. This was for the war to end all wars. There must be something about this United States of America that we are willing to die for others. I believe it is FREEDOM. So on Memorial Day, Flag Day, Veterans Day, D-Day and every day in between, give thanks to those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. So, to all that have read my commodores messages every month including this one I THANK YOU. I meant every word I said and stand behind those words. See you at the club. Thank You Your Commodore Ed Horton This Mays commodore message will be my 19th, all the messages each month are packed with my personal thoughts, current events, the club’s accomplishments, the club’s pride and my conviction that I have for this great organization we call the Gilford Park Yacht Club. They are all on the website for your reading or binge reading, if this is the first time you are visiting the website there is a lot of information, take time to know your club by visiting the web site often.
May Day the first of May is an important day for many people around the world celebrating spring time and honoring workers around the world. In the USA we celebrate Labor Day on Monday, September 2, 2019. The destress call - Mayday, Mayday, Mayday as we are all familiar with has nothing to do with May or any day in May. It comes from the anglicization of the French word m’aider meaning “help me”. For the Gilford Park Yacht Club, we celebrate Memorial Day on May 25th with our annual beach party. Don’t forget the May 11th Mother’s Day breakfast at the club May is the start of our summer season the river is alive with activity. I Don’t have a large immediate family base but since my bike was stolen and my unfortunate accident with a table saw I have discovered that I have an extend family base called the Gilford Park Yacht Club. I would like to thank all for their outrage over the theft of my iconic bike and the concerns they had for me over my table saw injury. Thank you Have a great month and hope to see you at the club and at our Memorial Day Beach Party. Your Commodore Ed Horton As I have stated in a past commodore’s message; the Gilford Park Yacht Club is not a short-term investment but a long-term investment into an organization that share in common likes, boating, fishing, hobbies, and a place where we help each other and support each other through a friendship bond. We support our Community, both fire and police departments and our veterans and as members we all get to share in all the pride that comes with being a Gilford Park Yacht Club member in what we have achieved since we opened and reopened. We’ve come a long way since the club started back in 1936 and since we re-opened after Sandy our members have stayed with us through the good times, the hard times and the difficult times. The club has become a way of life and our membership has grown. I am proud to say we have members that have 50 years of continuous membership, we are putting together a list of members with 25 years or more of continuous membership to which they will receive a 25-year pin and a certificate for their years of service at a one of our general meeting. We have existing members approaching 25 years and now new members working towards their 25 years of service as they reach this Plateau we will dedicate a meeting once a year to them so they can receive their pin and a certificate. I am very pleased to find out from our financial secretary that our membership knows the true value of what the club has to offer and again has supported the club by paying their dues. We are at 90% paid dues for this new physical year starting April 1 and these members added one more year of service towards their 25-year pin. In that 10%, we have lost people due to illness, moving away and the worst through death. The rest I am hoping is that It just slipped their mind and will pay. Unfortunately, by paying late they have already lost their position on the boat slip seniority list and have lost their privileges to the club and have accrued additional late fee charges. There are bylaws that exist that prohibit ex-members coming back into the club through any means such as coming in as a guest through another member or by any reciprocity agreement we have with any other organization and this will be enforced. I am asking our members to help to police in this matter. Fortunately, we have a waiting list of 40 plus people that are waiting eagerly to join and start experiencing all the club has to offer and still that view is spectacular. The Board of Trustees thanks all members for their support. Your Commodore Ed Horton. This is my own personal tribute to a member that I knew who helped me as a new member and many others to integrate into the club. It is sad that our new members did not get a chance to know him, laugh with him, joke and dine with him. But those who knew and there are many I believe have the same feeling that I have. He was a member, a trustee, and most of all a friend first. Every now and then someone at our club stands up to the plate and hits a home run every time over and over again that person also never looked for praise or recognition for the work he did, Ron Hemmer was that person. He was a trustee for many years and in charge of the newsletter. All though some never got to know him personally he came into every member’s home through our newsletter. Once a month everyone got to see his work and what it took to produce the monthly newsletter. We got to see the serious side of him, funny side of him, and keeping the membership up to date with the goings on at the club. When we were sleeping, he was on line gathering information to share with us. For me, I could not wait for the newsletter to show up in the mailbox. I would start reading it on my way back to the house. Every morning during breakfast my wife and I would share reading it and laugh and enjoying its contents. It was always kept nearby and would be read over and over again and for reference for that month and we could not wait for the next month to come. Ron passed on 2/19/19 although his physical presents is gone the memory of him will remain with us forever. If you would like to know more about Ron about his life beyond the club please click http://smithfamilyfuneralhomes.tributes.com/obituary/show/Ronald-Frederick-Hemmer-106894367 Thank you RonI would like to take this opportunity as your Commodore to put a challenge out to the members of the Gilford Park Yacht Club. After reading below If you are already on board that’s great, don’t stop, if not, consider coming aboard.
We take a lot for granted the planet we call earth and its natural resources; clean air, fresh water to drink, fertile land to grow our crops and our oceans. All the above are affected by man and only man can make a change. Members of the Gilford Park Yacht Club depend on all of the above for their existence, one that is mostly taken for granted is our back-bays and our oceans. The Gilford Park Yacht Club uses the ocean and the back-Bay waters to swim in, to fish and crab in, for boating and that view from our building again is spectacular, it is spectacular until we see “oh look there is a plastic milk carton floating by, a plastic bag, oh look there is several cigarette butts floating by”. We use these waters let’s not abuse them. Don’t let this problem become an eye sore to our view and the club’s way of life. Back in the day dumping garbage in our oceans was the norm and now it is coming back to haunt us and invade our beaches. Plastic also enters the ocean and our back-bays through natural disasters like Super Storm Sandy. I believe it was a thousand times worse back then, as it is now, but still a problem. Some of the plastic that we see in the back-bay’s ends up trapped with nowhere to go and somewhere along the line will end up either killing wildlife, wrapped around our props, clogging our water intakes, tangled up in our crab traps, end up on our back-bay beaches. I believe we are all conscientious in the recycling of our plastics but for some reason all does not end up at the recycling center, it ends up on the ground where rain washes it into the rivers that carry it to the ocean. Like in the phrase if you see something say something, I also believe it applies to if you see it and it’s safe to pick it up both on land and on the water do so. The Gilford Park Yacht Club can do their part by the policing of ourselves on land and in our local waters and on our beaches. We can clean up our little corner of the world but there is a bigger problem that exists. For years the problem has been ignored and now we are playing catch up. www.4ocean.com -- 4ocean “is a global movement actively removing trash from the ocean and coastlines, inspiring individuals to work together for cleaner oceans, one pound at a time”. If you have time check it out. I am not advocating anyone to join or commit money to any local or global organization but just too make a commitment to yourself and as a club member to be aware of this problem. We are the starting point for all plastics therefore it puts us on the front lines of this problem and therefore we should do everything we can to keep plastics and garbage from entering our waters. We need to stop kicking the plastic bottle down the road expecting someone else to pick it up or making it someone else’s problem. It’s here and now. If you can kick it, it can be pick it up. Remember we want to keep that view spectacular. Your Commodore Ed Horton PS Plastic has made our lives easier, but as always where there is good there is always the opposite bad. In Decembers meeting the Board of Trustees (B.O.T.) officially announced the increase in your dues for the upcoming dues year April 1st ,2019. There is a bylaw change which reduces the time you have to pay your dues it is now 90 days from April 1st, after that you will be removed from the membership roll. Also, if you pay late you will be charged an additional $25 Per month starting May 1st. There are other consequences involved for late payments please read your dues notices and bylaws for these consequences. Your dues are now $450 and boat slips have all gone up $100 for all slip holders. All members have to understand that by joining Gilford Park Yacht Club they become an integral part of its existence both in the present and in its future. Joining G.P.Y.C. is a long-term investment that means all must and mostly be involved and share in its principles, support the club through their dues and support all activities throughout the year. All of what I said above is essential. Your club can not exist without your support. These increases came with a lot of thought and compassion taking into consideration all of the different stages of life that encompasses our membership and what it takes to operate the club and nothing was taken lightly. It is the responsibility of the B.O.T. to make the best overall decisions about the current and future direction of the Club. To not look into our finances and not make these hard decisions would be a failure on the B.O.T.’s part and would be failing the membership. This would happen regardless of who is in office. This Commodores message is to Address any questions not all but what I think might come to mind. Before Sandy our dues were $185 a year, we had it easy, we had no mortgage, we had a small loan, we had a money market certificate which was the clubs nest egg in case of an emergency and a reserve of money just sitting in our daily accounts. The bar and kitchen were well established. After Sandy it was a totally different game. We lost bar and kitchen revenue for 4 long years. Our parking lot was also our emergency fund whereby we could always get a collateral loan on that parking lot. ALL AVENUES to obtain any type of collateral loans are gone almost forever. We need to move away from credit cards because as you know paid interest money is money you end up not having. We need to become our own bank and become self-sufficient and to do this we need a reserve of money. By our bylaws we only have two ways to raise money, its either by increasing the dues or assessing the membership when needed. Assessing the membership is not the way to go every time we need money for any type of emergency, it’s already too late. To ask for a lot of money from each member is not fair for anyone to come up with a large sum of money at one time that’s why we plan to increase our reserve money slowly over several years through this latest increase. All money will not go towards this reserve some will go to the operation of the club, reducing credit card balances and other items that I will mention below. We went for an SBA loan because the insurance money wasn’t enough and in order to get the SBA loan, we had to prove we could pay it back. That’s when we went with raising the dues to $300 a year. We had start up which also exceeded our expectations. Bar stools, furniture, resupplying the bar with glasses, and lavations. We had to start from scratch with the kitchen pots, pans, utensils and a whole lot of other items. Now looking forward we have unexpected costs: Yearly elevator maintenance contract, yearly fire inspections, third party security system, water systems checks all come with a cost and go up every year. We have yearly Maintenance on HVAC equipment and other equipment and we have a yearly cleaning contract. Our insurance requirements have increased. We had unexpected costs over the last couple years we had to pay $17,000 to fix the docks and pound down the outer poles. Approx. $1000 to fix the ramp, we had to purchase a $7,000 bubbler system to replace the deicing fans. We had costs for professional services that went beyond our expectations. We need to pay off the credit card debt. Future costs we will have to rebuild the ramp and fix the building break water. To make the club a quieter place sound proofing will be required. As I mentioned above being a member of GPYC is a long-term investment and requires everyone to support the club in mind, body, and sole and your Wallet. We are very fortunate to have our club opened year-round. Your Commodore: Ed Horton It seems that the last month and the first month of every year December and January seems to be the two months that almost everyone takes a moment and thinks as individuals where they have been, where they are at the moment they are in and where they are going from there. Some add to their bucket list and some start checking things off. Others make New Year’s resolutions, some are kept, some are not.
If I may as your commodore speak for the club, you all know where we have been, we have come from the depths of hell not knowing if the Club was ever going to come back, not knowing how many members we were going to lose as a result of not being there or losing our connection to the past, present and future. Although it seemed like all was lost, the optimism of the board of trustees at the time and the optimism of the of the membership help us survive that ordeal. The moment we are in is now like in the Phoenix Rising although we did not come from ashes as I said we did come from the depths of hell. We got up, dusted ourselves off and we moved forward. We now stand on 81 pilings sitting well above where we came from and a shining example of what can be done when everyone comes together in a joint effort. As I said in the past, we should only look to the future and never look back only with fond memories. We have been open for 2 1/2 years. We have had some growing pains since we opened the club and all has settled down and now, we look to the future. The future looks very bright the people that are on the waiting list want to be part of this club because they see what we did in the past years as a club and they want to be part of it. The kitchen and bar are running well and all of the club’s events are filled to capacity. We are keeping up with the traditions of the club and we are adding new ones. In the near future and much further into the future the club needs to become independent we need to be ready for anything nature throws at us or whatever comes our way. There will be changes in the upcoming year these changes are a must and need to be implemented for our future success of the club. It is very important that everyone have the same optimism, the same optimism that got us here today. Have a Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and a prosperous New Year Your commodore Ed Horton |
AuthorRon Heinzman is the current Commodore of the Gilford Park Yacht Club. 
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