UKLA Chair blog #20
As we draw to the end of the year, we can reflect on a busy and successful year for UKLA. Our membership is hovering around 1,000. At our events we had around 1,500 entries, an increase of 31%, and 135 races. Skills Week was oversubscribed, and we did around 2,000 sailor training days. We launched our club training programme and saw over 100 individual sailors competing aboard. I say all this, not as a comprehensive review of 2022, but to indicate the scale of our activities when you consider we are just an association of members run with one part-time class secretary and many volunteers - I think it is quite impressive. And that context is important when thinking of and interacting with UKLA – it is your association and often you are just dealing with other members as volunteers.
I would like to call out some of those that make this work and I apologise in advance for not covering everyone. We get super support from our volunteers at events, both on and off the water, so thank you for that. Many of you are serial volunteers and events would not work without you. Thank you also to those who have taken on initiatives, often working quietly in the background. And of course, thanks to our coaches that deliver such quality training.
Ellie Ratusniak is the UKLA Secretary who works very hard to support all of us. She is committed and competent. Thank you so much Ellie.
On the committee we have:
Ben Nicholls – Vice Chair and Youth Rep
Tim Hulse – Training Officer
Keith Videlo – Sailing Secretary
Steve Taylor – Treasurer
Guy Noble – Media and Sponsorship
Alan Davis – Measurer
Tony Woods – Nationals Co-ordinator
Gary Finkelstein – Governance
Brett Lewis – Safety Officer
Richard Mason – Grand Prix Co-ordinator
Also on the committee as Reps:
ILCA4 – Pamela Cross
ILCA6 – Jane Sunderland
ILCA7 – Same Whaley
Thank you all for your hard work this year. I would also like to thank Tim Hall from the RYA for all his support this year.
The amount of training this year has increased dramatically (with a lot of new process to bed in) and would not have been possible without the support of Lisa Anderson, Jo Sinclair and Lorna Phipps helping Ellie and Tim.
Paul Jackson has been PRO at many of our events but has also provided stalwart support to Keith. Also, there would be no results without our scorer Nik James, who doubles up as our EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) Champion.
All the best
Mark
Check our UKLA website and calendar of events