Letter from the Commodore.
Happy New Year AYC! I am honored and humbled to serve as Commodore this year.
Every January, the Commodore, with the help of the entire board, has the unpleasant task of determining whether we need to raise dues and storage fees, and if so, by how much. To keep up with inflation, the general theory is that our fees should go up in step with general inflation rates. By now, however, you are probably aware that this year, the increase is 6% on dues and storage fees. We are aware that this is more than the current rate of inflation and more than we are accustomed to seeing in most years.
There are a few key drivers behind increased costs of operations. One is our insurance costs. This is expected to increase by around $45k in 2025. We are meeting with our insurance agent to discuss potential ways to reduce the overall cost, but we must budget for the expected amount. In addition, we have increased staffing in the office. Staffing costs for 2025 are expected to be approximately $57k more than 2024 due to raises and having the additional staff member for the full year. This high-level calculation does not factor in additional payroll taxes and employee health insurance costs, which add a bit more. Finally, if you look back at the last few years, you will see that we have not raised rates nearly as much as inflation, so we’ve fallen a bit behind of keeping up with basic expense inflation.
During the budget preparation process, each board member carefully reviewed the expenses in their area, and we were able to pare things down to what we believe to be reasonable. This mainly involves understanding what exceptional expenses we may have had in the previous year (i.e. storm damages to docks, ice storms, etc) and not carrying those forward as expected expenses in the new year. After that, we were still looking at a potential 10% increase to balance the budget, so we went over everything again and discussed options. There wasn’t any one significant item that we could reduce or remove enough to make a significant difference, other than the security patrols that were started in 2024. After some discussion, we decided to cancel the security patrols, and we also agreed to scale back what we spend on the annual banquet in 2025. These decisions brought us to a balanced budget with the 6% increase in dues and storage fees. Sail training fees for camps and adult sail training classes are also being increased.
While we understand that the security patrols likely provided some level of deterrent to potential thieves, and perhaps comfort to members, there are things we can do on our own to avoid being a target, starting with not storing unnecessary valuables on club premises. Please do report any future thefts, vandalism, or suspicious activity promptly. We can re-evaluate this decision down the road, but we would need to raise rates to cover the cost.
With all of that business behind us, the Frostbite series is well under way, and the Ensign fleet is preparing a nice hot meal for the EOS on February 22nd and then we are on to Opening Day!
Sail on!
Renee
