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Fall 2019 Update – We have a home!

Dry Storage at Ventura Harbor

The Ventura Canoe & Kayak Club has a storage location for our trailer at the Ventura Harbor’s dry storage lot! This is a short distance — walking even — from the public launch ramps and docks at the Harbor. (See photos below.)

We can begin recruiting paddlers!

November isn’t really the best month to get beginners to try a sport involving extremely tippy watercraft but we will likely hold some information and tryout sessions at the end of the month and again starting in late January.

Donations

We’ve had three significant donations this past quarter:

These donations go a long way for our club! Many thanks! (If you’d like donate to our efforts, please use the links in the main nav or footer!)

Board Meeting Minutes

The following are the (not yet approved) Board meeting minutes from October.

  • All Board members have agreed to continue to serve.  Thank you!  

  • Drew has rented a storage space in the Harbor’s newly redone dry-storage area near the Harbor Master’s office.  At under $90 a month, we can store the boat trailer and current inventory of canoes and kayaks near the public docks in the Harbor.  Club members could even walk boats to the docks should it be deemed safer and better to leave the trailer parked in this spot much of the time.

  • Drew requested and received approval to set the club dues at $20/month per person with a 20% discount applied to any additional family member.  Erin asked about permitting members who might have difficult paying these dues be permitted to do in-service and/or maintenance work in lieu of payment.  Work in lieu of dues will be handled on a case-by-case basis and will be subject to Board approval to help limit such abuse.  Ideally, all club members help with maintenance and work and we will work together to make such a community.  The intention of helping families who may be struggling with funding is not to be ignored though.

  • Drew will begin formal recruitment of members in late November via Facebook posts and Instagram (thank you Mary for the Instagram suggestion!).  He also will hold a “brown bag” lunch meeting at Patagonia to try to get some adult members recruited there.

  • A donation of two boats — a Van Dusen “Hawk” K1 and a Simon River Sports K1 Trainer — was provided by a former paddler from the San Diego Canoe and Kayak Team.  The club’s boat inventory now includes 6 K1s, a K1 trainer, a K2, 4 C1s, a wooden C2, and 6 surfskis.  We have an assortment of paddles as well and two PFDs.  Focus will be on obtaining more PFDs and paddles for the time being.  The club also has two other K1s promised to it, and a C4 mold.  Jim Terrell has offered to give a C1 mold to us, too.  

  • A $400 donation from Tyler Marlof was received in our PayPal account.  (PayPal charges a fee — we have $388.10 in the account after fees.) Additional donations are expected in the coming months.

  • Drew will renew the club’s Paddle America Club membership with the American Canoe Association.  This gives us legal standing as a club in the eyes of the ACA and access to excellent liability insurance for about $100 a year.

  • Drew has obtained a NonProfit GSuite account for venturacanoekayak.org and has moved all Google Drive assets from the old Gmail account and imported all email as well.  This GSuite account will allow the club to grow and have roles such including head coach and Board membership handed off with continuity and transparency.  

  • Drew and Ed have discussed opening a bank account for the club with Bank of the Sierras who will allow for a small business account to be created free of charge.  Ed and Drew will both have signing capabilities and will share all account notifications with the whole Board.  Once we have a bank account, any donations Drew makes to the club can be matched by Patagonia as well!

  • Drew is researching grants for PFD purchases — SDCKT appears to have been successful doing this already.  The cost of 8-10 good PFDs would be about $500.  All paddlers will be required to wear a PFD and encouraged to buy their own as well as a paddle in the first year of their membership.  Second year paddlers should try to acquire a boat of their own. 

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