Annual Report
We worked hard to improve our equipment and infrastructure this year, selling older unused equipment, buying a new utility trailer, and purchasing a new Hody Sport training K-2 among other improvements. Some of our boats are over 30 years old and still quite useful and good for our club members. We are sure the purchases we made this year if treated with the same respect will last at least as long.
A big thank you to the many people who provided the club with financial support this year, including many anonymous donors.
Our 2025 Supporters Include:
- Russell Adams
- Wes Allison
- Andras Balogh
- Roger Beaman
- Bern Galvin
- Chris Gross
- Kim Hayashi
- Jennifer Hein
- Spencer Kellogg
- Tyler Marlof
- Patagonia
- Lynn Rimkus
- Drew Story
- Nicole von Gaza-Reavis
- Mary Weathers
- John Yamasaki
2025 Board Meeting Minutes
Report from Board Secretary to the Board –
Club Membership
- We currently have 8 paying members paddling with us regularly
- We had excellent attendance at a NAC race this Fall and will hopefully get the whole club to attend another in February.
Equipment
Some of our boats could use some repair work with damages to seams and chips in the nose and tail from being dropped or perhaps hitting our dock or the trailer while loading. Nothing too big. The canvas boat covers we purchased over a year ago are holding up well.
All boats have covers and we still have some new and lightly used kayak paddles in our inventory that we can sell below market cost to our paddlers when they are ready to have a paddle of their own. We have plenty of good beginner paddles and life jackets.
Until our club grows and the skill levels increase, there is no need for new equipment.
Marketing
Board President Mary has been doing an awesome job with our Instagram and Facebook marketing — a huge thanks to Mary for taking this burden on! Our uniforms and other merchandise act as marketing for the club and we’ve had non-club members purchase several of our t-shirts and sweatshirts this past year.
Finances
Insurance and storage fees are our main operating costs, along with maintenance for damaged equipment and upkeep. As noted previously, our dry storage fees will be increasing from $95/month to $130/month. We will also now need to pay an additional $25 to the American Canoe Association to get the Ventura Port District as a named entity on our liability insurance. Our club dues cover about 75% of our operating expenses at the moment.
Our outreach for support in November netted us just over $1,500 in donations. The bulk of these donations are from past contributors and mostly former Ventura club members.
Training Plans and Focus
The coaches are hoping we can get all multi-year paddlers and any first year ones to attend Nationals this summer. We estimate a cost of $1,200 minimum for each person attending Nationals and foresee Nationals being in Ohio, where they were in 2022 and likely the first week of August. We will want to rent our boats since our team’s size still does not lend itself to trailering boats that distance yet. Driving that distance with a full car of paddlers could still be a consideration as it may be cheaper to do so than to fly and rent a car there. (Logistics for Nationals is never simple.)
If the Team Trails are in San Diego/Chula Vista again, perhaps we can get more members to attend that regatta. At our current weekend workouts, coaches have been stressing fundamentals and discussing hydration, along with proper stretching as part of warm up. Much more can be done here, as always. Still, coaches think it is important to have a different focus for each training year and have chosen nutrition (including hydration) as the topic for 2026.
Summary / TL;DR Version
- We are growing slowly and our infrastructure is sound.
- Finances are good, but costs are increasing putting more pressure on our fundraising.
- Getting the team to more races, including Nationals, is the goal for 2026.
