Untitled Document

Attendance
Tim Ryan – President; Jim Farmer – Vice President; Randy Borges – Builder; Eric Nelson – District 14; Frank Gain – District 4; Eric Sanderson – District 19; Eric Faust – Executive Director; Tim Winger – Governor’s Representative; Russ Cook – District 7; Adam Zangerle – District 12; Proxies carried – Chris Snow and Jeffery Siewert by Jim Farmer; Nadine Franczyk, Todd Warnygora and Don Oliver by Eric Nelson.; Observers: Nancy Zangerle, Geoff Evelyn

Call to Order
Tim Ryan called the meeting to order at 8:20a.m.

2001 Minutes
The minutes from the 2001 USJCA AGM were reviewed and approved without change.

President’s Report – Tim Ryan
Tim Ryan acknowledged and thanked many people who have helped and contributed throughout the past year. Review of relevant highlights of the year: new Executive Director, magazine publication, membership stability, financial stability and independence from the International class, new finance chairman, major regatta successes. The class’ relationship with J/Boats is strong due to the value that they place on moving J/24 owners into other J/Boat products. Good will has been restored with advertisers. There are other well attended regattas and circuits around the country and new fleets are developing. We need to continue to focus on a few key things: one-design standards, great major regattas and communication to the membership. We face challenges in the future but we seem well positioned to handle them going forward. Finally, Tim emphasized that we need to push to have U.S. representation at the 2003 Worlds in Holland after no U.S. teams attended the championship is Japan in 2001. Geoff Evenlyn then described the conditions to be expected in Holland. Geoff also noted that the dates for the 2003 Worlds have changed to August 15-21, 2003 and coincide directly with the 25th Anniversary Regatta scheduled in Newport, RI.

Executive Director’s Report – Eric Faust
The new class office is set up and running in Austin, TX. The membership for 2002 will likely end slightly lower than in 2001 to finish the year with approximately 1140 total members. Communication is the key to building the membership. There are pockets of strong fleet activity and growth throughout the country and an abundance of used boats that position us well for the future. Eric acknowledged the help of Jim Farmer throughout the year in regular membership reports to the District Governors. Eric described the pre-regatta membership list distribution process to verify membership at all class events.

As of January 1, 2002 the USJCA formed a new corporation in Texas that is recognized as a non-profit and began accounting on a calendar year basis. The next step is to apply for 501(c)3 (charitable) status with the IRS by our April 1, 2003 deadline. The USJCA is on track to meet the budget numbers for the current year. Year-to-date balance sheets and Profit & Loss statements were distributed and reviewed by all participants. Revenue is expected to meet projections leaving the class with a small positive cash position at year’s end.

Sail royalty tags are being sold at approximately the same rate as in past years. The royalty tag “pilot program” was discussed and the consensus was that the USJCA should be paid regularly for tags sold by the IJCA instead of being credited to an account. Geoff Evelyn explained that the IJCA is no longer selling tags to Quantum as was decided in the IJCA annual meeting.

The joint publishing arrangement with the IJCA was described and the payback to the U.S. Class for the first issue was deemed acceptable. The magazine had a good look, but there is much room for improvement on the layout and content. The fall magazine is being produced now, and will be delivered on schedule. The 2002 wall calendar broke even on a financial basis and plans are to produce another one for 2003. The future of U.S. publications should be explored in order to best serve our members. The website has been improved somewhat, but needs lots of help. Online membership and an email subscriber list have been added in the last year. The USJCA has secured the domain www.j24usa.org for a future internet presence. The new site will utilize more interactive database driven features.

The 2003 major regatta schedule is in place with Midwinters and the Pan Am Trials in Miami, FL and the Nationals in Milwukee, WI.

Builder’s Report – Randy Borges
Randy is excited to be the builder of J/24s but admittedly entered into the process cautiously. He builds about 12 boats each year. J/Boats paid for a J/24 to be in the Newport boat show. He compiled a database of existing owners who talked to him at the event. The class must take the opportunity to reach boat owners who are not part of the class.
Base boats are $35,500. There is a package with sails, trailer and boat for about $40,000. There is not much margin in selling new boats, and the dealers are generally not excited about pushing the J/24. The boats he sells come ready to race with little or no upgrades needed. The mold is the same mold used by TPI for the majority of their boats. Many of his new boat sales are to existing J/24 owners who are upgrading to a new boat which does not bring new members into the class.
The Class should look at different types of events such as the 25th Anniversary Rendezvous and college events to help generate more interest and bring new people into the class. J/Boats helps support national advertising for the J/24 as in a recent display ad in Sail magazine which generated some response and should be looked to as a resource.

Finance Committee Report – Dave Anderson
(via teleconference) Dave Anderson presented his proposed budget for 2003, and it was reviewed by all attendees. Tim Winger mentioned that the $66 for scale shipping should be increased. Fundamental to the proposed budget was a dues increase for full members to $60. This was necessary because of increased postal rates, and other operating expenses as well as the decline in membership. At 1000 full members, the USJCA needs more revenue to continue to provide high quality service to the membership. The consensus was that the ten dollar increase was needed, and would not adversely effect overall membership as it is an extremely small portion of what it costs to operate a J/24 throughout the year. Dave also mentioned that the magazine uses much of the valuable time resources of the Executive Director and should be examined for other potential options. It appears to break even financially, but there is significant opportunity cost from magazine production. The budget also included an increase to $1500 for website services. Click Here for the 2003 Budget
Tim Ryan made a motion to “approve the budget as proposed with an increase for scale shipping to $125.” Jim Farmer seconded. Unanimously approved.

Dave Anderson then presented his “White Paper” on Class growth and promotion. This report had been distributed to all participants and reviewed. The main points of the paper are as follows: There are many existing boats in the market and we need to transition new owners into them. Should support rehab project to make old boats competitive. The Class should take a survey to determine member’s needs and opinions. This could be handled by mail when renewal notices are sent. A database of existing boats would be a useful tool to promote growth. New events such as match racing or team racing can help generate interest in J/24 sailing as was the case with the UBS Challenge this year. A significant strength of the class is the prestige it holds in the sailing community. Getting more crew involved is fundamental to growth. Some ideas are a crew swap or bringing in guest skippers to regional events to sail with different crew. To build excitement, the Class should look at “ladder” or qualification type events for the sake of competition. Tim Ryan mentioned the idea of a national ranking system to boost interest in major events.

Publications
Publications to the membership continue to be a primary concern for the USJCA. Eric Faust explained that in 2002 we have been involved in a joint publishing arrangement with the IJCA to produce a magazine. After much discussion about the needs of the members, it was agreed that although the current system adequately on a financial basis, the USJCA needs to have more control over the information distributed to the members. Tim Ryan asked if Eric Faust could produce a quarterly newsletter for the U.S. Eric said that since the idea is to use his time effectively, a large quarterly publication would be difficult. Eric agreed that a small quarterly publication is possible and speculated that it could be produced on a break even basis. This would also allow the IJCA to produce a publication that best suits its needs. It was agreed by everyone that the USJCA would produce an independent quarterly publication starting in 2003.

Sponsorship
Tim Ryan described a conversation he had with Karen Yngling regarding sponsorship for J/24 events. Karen indicated that she could possibly arrange for sponsorship for a package of events including the Midwinters, Nationals, and North Americans. She would carry out the fulfillment and act as a sponsorship advisor for regatta hosts. It was decided that Karen should present a proposal for review by the class.
Making the J/24 the boat of choice for the UBS Challenge in the future was also discussed. For a fee, the class could arrange to provide boats for all the regional events. Tim Ryan said that to support sponsorship efforts, the class needs to collect demographic information on its membership by way of the previously mentioned survey. It was decided that Dave Anderson, Tim Ryan and Randy Borges would form the foundation of a promotion committee to explore opportunities for class growth and sponsorship. Nancy Zangerle described the recent Women’s Open Championship and explained that there are many opportunities for promoting women sailing J/24s as they make up a significant part of both skippers and crews involved with the class.

Regatta Standards
Tim Ryan said that in an effort to have consistent, high-quality events the Class needs to draft and implement regatta standards. Eric Faust said that the current method for worlds qualification needs to be evaluated and improved particularly with regard to the pass-downs at qualifying events, and with the petition process. Eric proposed that the petition process be dropped and a more quantifiable system be implemented. Eric said that the U.S. Nationals be the fall back event to choose qualifiers. If a qualifying event fails to assign a worlds berth, the next eligible helmsperson from the U.S. Nationals would be offered the spot until all the berths are filled. The net result should be higher participation at the Nationals, and a more quantifiable system for allocating berths. In the case of a World Championship outside of the continent, petitions may be used to promote using all the available berths.
The pass-down of worlds berths was also discussed. It was determined that a district or regional event should qualify a boat from that district or region. The pass down system that was agreed upon would be that the berth passes down to the top 10% or the top three (whichever is greater) eligible skippers at each event. Boats from other districts or regions that are ineligible to gain a berth at the event (as per the IJCA constitution) would not be counted in the 10% or top three. Tim Ryan offered to draft rules for subsequent approval by the executive committee with the intention of implementing the new process for the 2003 season.
There was some discussion to publish a regatta standard suggesting the days of the week that major regattas be held upon. It was finally decided that this should be left to the discretion of the regatta hosts.

Upcoming Events
2003 Midwinters - The Class has been working with the organizers and things are looking good for a well run event.
2004 Nationals – A proposal from Fleet 8 in Annapolis, MD was reviewed and unanimously approved. The regatta will be held in early May, 2004 on the weekend following the annual NOOD regatta.
2007 Worlds – This regatta will held in the U.S. Tim Ryan said that proposals should be solicited throughout the year so they can be reviewed, and the final location approved by the IJCA in August 2003 in Holland. Interested hosts should contact the class office for details.
Eric Faust emphasized the importance of getting dates for the world qualifying event held in 2003 to the class office right away. This is extremely important to a successful year. A January 1 deadline was set for regatta dates to be submitted.

Technical Committee Report – Tim Winger for Reid Stava
Suggestion that measurers for major regattas have a stock of royalty tags for purchase and a sewing kit. Competitors should be aware that they are required to have a measurement certificate, and make arrangements to obtain such before arriving at a major event if possible. The regatta hosts cannot spend their energy locating lost records for unprepared owners. Proof of insurance should also suggested as part this preparation to compete. At the North Americans random measurement was carried out during the event including weighing boats. The new measurement manual is almost ready to be distributed. There have been more than one incident of keel bolt failure. There is not enough evidence to suggest any trend in the failure, but it will be looked into and a technical bulletin issued on the subject.

Internet
Tim Ryan led the discussion regarding the website and internet communication. The website committee will stay intact for the coming year. There is a need to determine what we want out of our internet presence: easy communication to members, news, notices rules etc. Email lists should be utilized to maximize direct communication. This topic was deemed to be very important to the Class, but too extensive to discuss in full at this meeting. Further work will be done in committee to advance internet communication.

Election of Officers
Tim Ryan nominated the following slate of officers for the 2003 Executive Committee.
Jim Farmer – President
Nancy Zangerle – Vice President
Reid Stava – Technical Committee Chairman
Tim Winger – Governor’s Representative
David Anderson – Finance Committee Chairman
Tim Ryan – Past President
The nominations were seconded by Russ Cook and unanimously approved. In addition, Eric Faust and Jeff Johnstone retain their position on the Executive Committee.

AGM 2003
The 2003 meeting was scheduled for after the Nationals in Milwaukee held August 1-3, 2003.

Women’s Open Championship
Holding a Women’s Open Championship in 2003 was discussed. It was determined that it would be good to hold the event in 2003 with the winning team earning a berth to the 2004 Worlds in Noroton. The logistics of bringing in an international jury for the event may make it cost prohibitive, and may not therefore meet continental regatta standards to gain the worlds berth. Proposals to host the regatta need to be submitted by the end of November 2002 in order to properly promote the event.

Adjournment
Adam Zangerle moved to adjourn. Jim Farmer seconded and the motion was unanimously approved.

		Minutes of the 2002 USJCA Annual Meeting Cleveland, OH - September 22, 2002
Attendance Tim Ryan – President; Jim Farmer – Vice President; Randy Borges – Builder; Eric Nelson – District 14; Frank Gain – District 4; Eric Sanderson – District 19; Eric Faust – Executive Director; Tim Winger – Governor’s Representative; Russ Cook – District 7; Adam Zangerle – District 12; Proxies carried – Chris Snow and Jeffery Siewert by Jim Farmer; Nadine Franczyk, Todd Warnygora and Don Oliver by Eric Nelson.; Observers: Nancy Zangerle, Geoff Evelyn Call to Order Tim Ryan called the meeting to order at 8:20a.m. 2001 Minutes The minutes from the 2001 USJCA AGM were reviewed and approved without change. President’s Report – Tim Ryan Tim Ryan acknowledged and thanked many people who have helped and contributed throughout the past year. Review of relevant highlights of the year: new Executive Director, magazine publication, membership stability, financial stability and independence from the International class, new finance chairman, major regatta successes. The class’ relationship with J/Boats is strong due to the value that they place on moving J/24 owners into other J/Boat products. Good will has been restored with advertisers. There are other well attended regattas and circuits around the country and new fleets are developing. We need to continue to focus on a few key things: one-design standards, great major regattas and communication to the membership. We face challenges in the future but we seem well positioned to handle them going forward. Finally, Tim emphasized that we need to push to have U.S. representation at the 2003 Worlds in Holland after no U.S. teams attended the championship is Japan in 2001. Geoff Evenlyn then described the conditions to be expected in Holland. Geoff also noted that the dates for the 2003 Worlds have changed to August 15-21, 2003 and coincide directly with the 25th Anniversary Regatta scheduled in Newport, RI. Executive Director’s Report – Eric Faust The new class office is set up and running in Austin, TX. The membership for 2002 will likely end slightly lower than in 2001 to finish the year with approximately 1140 total members. Communication is the key to building the membership. There are pockets of strong fleet activity and growth throughout the country and an abundance of used boats that position us well for the future. Eric acknowledged the help of Jim Farmer throughout the year in regular membership reports to the District Governors. Eric described the pre-regatta membership list distribution process to verify membership at all class events. As of January 1, 2002 the USJCA formed a new corporation in Texas that is recognized as a non-profit and began accounting on a calendar year basis. The next step is to apply for 501(c)3 (charitable) status with the IRS by our April 1, 2003 deadline. The USJCA is on track to meet the budget numbers for the current year. Year-to-date balance sheets and Profit & Loss statements were distributed and reviewed by all participants. Revenue is expected to meet projections leaving the class with a small positive cash position at year’s end. Sail royalty tags are being sold at approximately the same rate as in past years. The royalty tag “pilot program” was discussed and the consensus was that the USJCA should be paid regularly for tags sold by the IJCA instead of being credited to an account. Geoff Evelyn explained that the IJCA is no longer selling tags to Quantum as was decided in the IJCA annual meeting. The joint publishing arrangement with the IJCA was described and the payback to the U.S. Class for the first issue was deemed acceptable. The magazine had a good look, but there is much room for improvement on the layout and content. The fall magazine is being produced now, and will be delivered on schedule. The 2002 wall calendar broke even on a financial basis and plans are to produce another one for 2003. The future of U.S. publications should be explored in order to best serve our members. The website has been improved somewhat, but needs lots of help. Online membership and an email subscriber list have been added in the last year. The USJCA has secured the domain www.j24usa.org for a future internet presence. The new site will utilize more interactive database driven features. The 2003 major regatta schedule is in place with Midwinters and the Pan Am Trials in Miami, FL and the Nationals in Milwukee, WI. Builder’s Report – Randy Borges Randy is excited to be the builder of J/24s but admittedly entered into the process cautiously. He builds about 12 boats each year. J/Boats paid for a J/24 to be in the Newport boat show. He compiled a database of existing owners who talked to him at the event. The class must take the opportunity to reach boat owners who are not part of the class. Base boats are $35,500. There is a package with sails, trailer and boat for about $40,000. There is not much margin in selling new boats, and the dealers are generally not excited about pushing the J/24. The boats he sells come ready to race with little or no upgrades needed. The mold is the same mold used by TPI for the majority of their boats. Many of his new boat sales are to existing J/24 owners who are upgrading to a new boat which does not bring new members into the class. The Class should look at different types of events such as the 25th Anniversary Rendezvous and college events to help generate more interest and bring new people into the class. J/Boats helps support national advertising for the J/24 as in a recent display ad in Sail magazine which generated some response and should be looked to as a resource. Finance Committee Report – Dave Anderson (via teleconference) Dave Anderson presented his proposed budget for 2003, and it was reviewed by all attendees. Tim Winger mentioned that the $66 for scale shipping should be increased. Fundamental to the proposed budget was a dues increase for full members to $60. This was necessary because of increased postal rates, and other operating expenses as well as the decline in membership. At 1000 full members, the USJCA needs more revenue to continue to provide high quality service to the membership. The consensus was that the ten dollar increase was needed, and would not adversely effect overall membership as it is an extremely small portion of what it costs to operate a J/24 throughout the year. Dave also mentioned that the magazine uses much of the valuable time resources of the Executive Director and should be examined for other potential options. It appears to break even financially, but there is significant opportunity cost from magazine production. The budget also included an increase to $1500 for website services. Click Here for the 2003 Budget Tim Ryan made a motion to “approve the budget as proposed with an increase for scale shipping to $125.” Jim Farmer seconded. Unanimously approved. Dave Anderson then presented his “White Paper” on Class growth and promotion. This report had been distributed to all participants and reviewed. The main points of the paper are as follows: There are many existing boats in the market and we need to transition new owners into them. Should support rehab project to make old boats competitive. The Class should take a survey to determine member’s needs and opinions. This could be handled by mail when renewal notices are sent. A database of existing boats would be a useful tool to promote growth. New events such as match racing or team racing can help generate interest in J/24 sailing as was the case with the UBS Challenge this year. A significant strength of the class is the prestige it holds in the sailing community. Getting more crew involved is fundamental to growth. Some ideas are a crew swap or bringing in guest skippers to regional events to sail with different crew. To build excitement, the Class should look at “ladder” or qualification type events for the sake of competition. Tim Ryan mentioned the idea of a national ranking system to boost interest in major events. Publications Publications to the membership continue to be a primary concern for the USJCA. Eric Faust explained that in 2002 we have been involved in a joint publishing arrangement with the IJCA to produce a magazine. After much discussion about the needs of the members, it was agreed that although the current system adequately on a financial basis, the USJCA needs to have more control over the information distributed to the members. Tim Ryan asked if Eric Faust could produce a quarterly newsletter for the U.S. Eric said that since the idea is to use his time effectively, a large quarterly publication would be difficult. Eric agreed that a small quarterly publication is possible and speculated that it could be produced on a break even basis. This would also allow the IJCA to produce a publication that best suits its needs. It was agreed by everyone that the USJCA would produce an independent quarterly publication starting in 2003. Sponsorship Tim Ryan described a conversation he had with Karen Yngling regarding sponsorship for J/24 events. Karen indicated that she could possibly arrange for sponsorship for a package of events including the Midwinters, Nationals, and North Americans. She would carry out the fulfillment and act as a sponsorship advisor for regatta hosts. It was decided that Karen should present a proposal for review by the class. Making the J/24 the boat of choice for the UBS Challenge in the future was also discussed. For a fee, the class could arrange to provide boats for all the regional events. Tim Ryan said that to support sponsorship efforts, the class needs to collect demographic information on its membership by way of the previously mentioned survey. It was decided that Dave Anderson, Tim Ryan and Randy Borges would form the foundation of a promotion committee to explore opportunities for class growth and sponsorship. Nancy Zangerle described the recent Women’s Open Championship and explained that there are many opportunities for promoting women sailing J/24s as they make up a significant part of both skippers and crews involved with the class. Regatta Standards Tim Ryan said that in an effort to have consistent, high-quality events the Class needs to draft and implement regatta standards. Eric Faust said that the current method for worlds qualification needs to be evaluated and improved particularly with regard to the pass-downs at qualifying events, and with the petition process. Eric proposed that the petition process be dropped and a more quantifiable system be implemented. Eric said that the U.S. Nationals be the fall back event to choose qualifiers. If a qualifying event fails to assign a worlds berth, the next eligible helmsperson from the U.S. Nationals would be offered the spot until all the berths are filled. The net result should be higher participation at the Nationals, and a more quantifiable system for allocating berths. In the case of a World Championship outside of the continent, petitions may be used to promote using all the available berths. The pass-down of worlds berths was also discussed. It was determined that a district or regional event should qualify a boat from that district or region. The pass down system that was agreed upon would be that the berth passes down to the top 10% or the top three (whichever is greater) eligible skippers at each event. Boats from other districts or regions that are ineligible to gain a berth at the event (as per the IJCA constitution) would not be counted in the 10% or top three. Tim Ryan offered to draft rules for subsequent approval by the executive committee with the intention of implementing the new process for the 2003 season. There was some discussion to publish a regatta standard suggesting the days of the week that major regattas be held upon. It was finally decided that this should be left to the discretion of the regatta hosts. Upcoming Events 2003 Midwinters - The Class has been working with the organizers and things are looking good for a well run event. 2004 Nationals – A proposal from Fleet 8 in Annapolis, MD was reviewed and unanimously approved. The regatta will be held in early May, 2004 on the weekend following the annual NOOD regatta. 2007 Worlds – This regatta will held in the U.S. Tim Ryan said that proposals should be solicited throughout the year so they can be reviewed, and the final location approved by the IJCA in August 2003 in Holland. Interested hosts should contact the class office for details. Eric Faust emphasized the importance of getting dates for the world qualifying event held in 2003 to the class office right away. This is extremely important to a successful year. A January 1 deadline was set for regatta dates to be submitted. Technical Committee Report – Tim Winger for Reid Stava Suggestion that measurers for major regattas have a stock of royalty tags for purchase and a sewing kit. Competitors should be aware that they are required to have a measurement certificate, and make arrangements to obtain such before arriving at a major event if possible. The regatta hosts cannot spend their energy locating lost records for unprepared owners. Proof of insurance should also suggested as part this preparation to compete. At the North Americans random measurement was carried out during the event including weighing boats. The new measurement manual is almost ready to be distributed. There have been more than one incident of keel bolt failure. There is not enough evidence to suggest any trend in the failure, but it will be looked into and a technical bulletin issued on the subject. Internet Tim Ryan led the discussion regarding the website and internet communication. The website committee will stay intact for the coming year. There is a need to determine what we want out of our internet presence: easy communication to members, news, notices rules etc. Email lists should be utilized to maximize direct communication. This topic was deemed to be very important to the Class, but too extensive to discuss in full at this meeting. Further work will be done in committee to advance internet communication. Election of Officers Tim Ryan nominated the following slate of officers for the 2003 Executive Committee. Jim Farmer – President Nancy Zangerle – Vice President Reid Stava – Technical Committee Chairman Tim Winger – Governor’s Representative David Anderson – Finance Committee Chairman Tim Ryan – Past President The nominations were seconded by Russ Cook and unanimously approved. In addition, Eric Faust and Jeff Johnstone retain their position on the Executive Committee. AGM 2003 The 2003 meeting was scheduled for after the Nationals in Milwaukee held August 1-3, 2003. Women’s Open Championship Holding a Women’s Open Championship in 2003 was discussed. It was determined that it would be good to hold the event in 2003 with the winning team earning a berth to the 2004 Worlds in Noroton. The logistics of bringing in an international jury for the event may make it cost prohibitive, and may not therefore meet continental regatta standards to gain the worlds berth. Proposals to host the regatta need to be submitted by the end of November 2002 in order to properly promote the event. Adjournment Adam Zangerle moved to adjourn. Jim Farmer seconded and the motion was unanimously approved.