Officers Reports for the January 20 Bridge Mee:ng

Commander’s Report for Bridge Mee:ng of January 20, 2020

Happy New Year!

Educa:onal

The Boa0ng 2 and 3 courses for our 3 students were completed and exams were wri?en On December 18th. All three passed both the “Beyond PCOC” and “Introduc0on to Naviga0on” exams.

A third day of teaching the ROC(M) Radio course was had on Saturday December 13 2019 at the Rollo Centre. Over the course of the 3 teaching days, 13 students were successful in obtaining their Restricted Operator’s Cer0ficate (Mari0me).

The Squadron’s Educa0onal Commi?ee met on January 13th 2020 to plan the winter-spring courses for 2020. Our SEO (Squadron Educa0onal Officer) will present this plan, and it will be discussed at our Bridge Mee0ng of January 15.

Social Events

Elaine Pearce and Jude Briscoe organized an excellent Christmas Party on Saturday December 14th 2019. Peter Bolton, Chief Commander CPS-EPC and his spouse Diane a?ended.

The social commi?ee is also very busy discussing with BC Ferries the possibility of a presenta0on by BC Ferries on Friday March 20 at the Rollo Centre, about the development of the new terminal at Gabriola and /or the expansion at Duke Point. This s0ll needs to be confirmed by BC Ferries though.

Webmaster

Our Webmaster, Bill Kalbfleisch, will be leaving for Eastern Canada, and, on a temporary basis for the balance of the Squadron year, Bob Derksen, Past Commander twice removed and previous Webmaster, will take over. A candidate for the Webmaster posi0on will be required for the next Gabriola Squadron year. The Gabriola Squadron is very grateful to Bill Kalbfleish for his yearlong

commitment SINCE 2012 to the Gabriola Power and Sail Squadron as MAREP Officer, Safety Officer, Assistant Webmaster and sole Webmaster.

CPS-ECP New IT System

We are s0ll struggling with the new IT system. We have received Nic Miller’s (VIND)report on the number of ac0ve (registered on the new CPS-ECP website) and inac0ve members. So far, we only have 9 ac0ves out of a total of 62 members. This situa0on needs to be addressed. In addi0on to this, some Officers who are ac0ve, have reported problems accessing the informa0on that they should have when accessing the new website. Nic Miller (VIND) and Nancy Richard (Na0onal) are assis0ng in solving the problems.

Communica:on

CO Don keeps our membership abreast of all things happening in and around the squadron, on our website and in Scu?lebu?: the January-February 2020 edi0on is out!

VIND Mee:ng of January 12th 2020

I a?ended this mee0ng. There were some very interes0ng discussions. One item was about the general “lack of interest” by the general public in the Power and Sail Squadrons. As somebody said: “it looks dull and dreary.” Some thought that the benefits of being a member are not sufficiently publicised.

Lengthy discussion took place about the new CPS-ECP IT system. Generally, only 15 % of the CPS members registered in the new system. For Gabriola, only 9 out of 62 members registered.

The new system allows only 4 levels of pricing for courses, or all. Squadrons cannot set their own prices. Only early bird discounts are possible.

Alexa Stockmal (DEO) had a long list of problems with the new IT system. For example : today, the SEO cannot enter a student in a course. She can enter herself, but not a student. Prospec0ve student also cannot enter for a course. There are serious problems with trying to enter a student’s marks for a course. E-book

courses cannot be printed. Course dates cannot be entered. E-mail addresses can only be changed by somebody at Na0onal CPS. Etc. etc. From our own Squadron’s experience, we know that our Webmaster has not been able to access our Squadron’s mini- site on the CPS system. Our Membership officer has been unable to access our membership list.

And so on, and so on.

Peter Bolton, Chief Commander of CPS-ECP was at the mee0ng. Na0onal is pukng in efforts to correct the problems.

Meanwhile, Alexa (DEO) assured us that she will make sure that our Squadron Educa0onal Officer will know everything she (Alexa) knows about the new IT system.

CPS-ECP old ( 2016-2020) Strategic Plan: request for feedback

CPS-ECP are in the process of thinking about a new Strategic Plan (Na0onal Level). The Squadrons have been requested to provide feedback on the old Strategic Plan (2016-2020) to CPS-ECP. A mee0ng of an Ad Hoc Commi?ee from our Squadron will be held on Friday January 17th to prepare our feedback.

Bert’s

Talking about keeping abreast of things, Squadron Member Bert ter Hart and Seaburban have rounded Cape Horn on January 9th. Here are Bert’s thoughts on accomplishing this:

From Bert’s blog:

09 January 2020by Bert ter Hart

“This morning at 0430 local (UTC -5) we sailed under Cape Horn. I hesitate to say we round the Horn as we've yet to clear Isla Ana Nueva. With that Island astern and the unfettered South Atlantic ahead, we'll call it rounded and celebrate.”

Bert ter Hart’s solo voyage around the world was a highlight of our squadron’s achievements in 2019 and will con0nue to be one in 2020.

You can follow Bert by going to the Squadron’s website and click on the front-page link, or by following the info in Scu?lebu?.

With thanks to all Squadron members who con0nue volunteering their 0me and efforts! This is very much appreciated, THANK YOU ALL!

Respecoully submi?ed

Jean Van Praet, Cdr

Educa:onal Officer Report – January 2020 mee:ng of Gabriola P & S Squadron

*The Boa:ng 2-3 Course went well with all 3 registered students a?ending classes diligently un0l the final session on December 11th. The students wrote the Boa0ng 2 & 3 exams in the evening of December 18th and all passed. As I am just now understanding the IT system, I will go in and register the student marks later this month.

*As discussed at our November mee0ng we organized a day for the public to experience the CPS Boa:ng Simulator at the Rollo Centre on December 15th. Nigel Wells set it up in the small room of the Rollo Centre the morning of our Christmas Social and I gave a few people an introduc0on to the Simulator that evening. We paid for an ad in the Sounder, asking people to reserve a 0me slot but no one responded. In fact, only 1 individual came to use the Simulator on the Sunday, aside from the 4 Bridge volunteers who used it. In spite of Jude’s efforts to promote the use of the Simulator by teen-agers over the end-of-year Holidays, and Nigel’s offer to set it up elsewhere, the simulator was not used again. It now has to be delivered or shipped to to the Lower Mainland by the beginning of February as it is needed for the Vancouver Boat Show. Bob Wood had originally offered to do this but he is now “not available”. Anyone else?

*Having had 2 requests for the Radio Operator Course, and sensing that the Boa0ng Simulator Sunday would not be very busy, I offered the 2 students the opportunity to review the material and write the Exam that day, at the Rollo Centre, in the same room as the Simulator. As both students had picked up their Manuals in advance, had read through them, and had learned the phone0c alphabet, this session went very well using the exis0ng CPS Power Points and linkages to videos. December 15th I was able to cover all the material with the 2 students who wrote the Exam at the end of the day and both passed with high marks!

*On January 13th Jean-Pierre organized an Educa0onal Commi?ee mee0ng at Robert’s Place Restaurant. A?ending were: J-P Van Praet, Agathe Gaulin, Sean Lewis, Gary Small, Don Messer (keen new boater) and Nigel Wells. We discussed planning a series of workshop style study sessions star:ng in March and con:nuing into April; probably every Wednesday evening upstairs at Robert’s Place. Topics could include: Review of knots and use of lines; Splicing braided line; Boat maintenance, check lists and troubleshoo0ng issues (one for Power boats, one for Sailboats); Naviga0on using charts & electronics; Weather; Emergency procedures (including MOB); Planning for Tides & Currents; Provisioning; Manoeuvring (docking & anchoring). All these workshops would be offered by one or two “subject

experts” so we need to con0nue iden0fying Who wants to present What and on which evening. These workshops would be promoted as “Review and renew skills and knowledge” and the Boa:ng 4 exam could be offered to those wishing to write it. I will work on that schedule if the Bridge approves this concept. Promo0on should be via our Website, Facebook page, and one or two Sounder adver0sements and ar0cles.

* There are also plans for offering the PCOC (Boa:ng essen:als) and RoC-M in late February - early March for new Boaters. We should adver0se that it will be offered if we receive requests for it.

* On January 15th I par0cipated in a Webinar to review the workings of the new CPS website. We worked through, together, sekng up a course, registering students, ordering materials and entering marks. The bugs seem to have been generally removed from the System. I will go in and enter students and marks and possibly set up “courses” to prac0ce using this system. One request of the Bridge: name Nigel Wells as an Assistant Educa:on Officer. This way he will have access to the Educa0onal func0ons of the website and fill in for me in my absence or moments of unavailability.

*In concluding, I must advise the Bridge that I will be out of province, from January 23rd to February 13th and as these work trips are quite intensive, I will not be available for any GPS Squadron volunteer work in that Eme frame.

Respecoully submi?ed Agathe Gaulin Educa0onal Officer

Communications, Privacy, Scuttlebutt Editor Report to Bridge January 15, 2020

Scuttlebutt will be published at the end of February. I will be including an update on Bert’s progress. I will need the usual messages from Cdr and SEO. And anyone else who’d like to see their work in “print”.

Communications Committee The blog has a large following especially since the the more than two pages on Bert’s voyage in Port Hole. Further updates are to be published.

Privacy. Nothing to report

Nani is hosting a “Cape Party” to celebrate Bert’s passage by Kaap Hoorn for the Gabriola Squadron and SBYC – see below. https://www.sailblogs.com/member/seaburban/

Respectfully submitted Don Butt

Celebrate Cape Horn!

Bert has navigated the Horn. Let’s celebrate with a party, and wish him fair winds and calm seas by satellite phone.

Potluck - bring appy's, salad, protein, or dessert, and libation.

Nani and Bert’s Home, 1637 Perry Rd (off Peterson Rd) Sunday January 26 at 5 PM

How about wearing a cape? (or a horn?)

Membership Report - Bridge Meeting - January 20, 2020

Currently there are 61 active members in the Gabriola Power Squadron. Fifty eight are regular members and three are lifetimers.

Respectfully submitted,

Elaine Pearce Membership Officer

Financial Officer Report –November 2019 Respectfully submitted, Jude Briscoe Financial Officer (Jan 20, 2020 mtg)

November 2019 Opening Balance: $3863.82

Expenses: November 2019 (-)CPS-Course materials -$815.00Sure Signs-date changes for signs -$18.00

Total Expenses: -$833.00

Deposits: November 2019 (+)Deposit Transer from Equity Shares +$36. 32

Deposit Transfer from error made in Oct. from Saving +355.00Interest +$0.03 Total Deposits: +$391.35

December 2019 Opening Balance: $3422.17

Financial Officer Report –December 2019 Respectfully submitted, Jude Briscoe Financial Officer (Jan 20, 2020 mtg)

December 2019 Opening Balance: $3422.17

Expenses: December 2019 (-)Gabriola Senior Citizen Assoc. hall rental for course and simulator

-$100.00John Van Praet-(Arbutus) motion sensor for Robert’s -$69.97

Total Expenses: -$169.97

Deposits: December 2019 (+)Course fee and net intake from door at guest speaker +$81.50Xmas party net proceeds (door liquor and 50/50) +185.45Course fees +190.00Interest +$0.03 Total Deposits: +$456.98

January 2020 Opening Balance: $3709.18

Webmaster Report January 20, 2020

Website Updates

Updates since the last webmaster’s report in November 2019 include the latest course and workshop information on the home page and in a more detailed fashion on the Courses and Workshops page. Once the final details become available they will be posted on the web site along with links to the CPS registration page for each course offered.

We have placed a link on the Squadron Bridge page to CPS-ECP’s instructional videos introducing the new CPS web site. At this time there are eight videos. We expect more to come, so you might wish to check them out to see what information there is in the videos for your particular officer duties.

Some minor cosmetic changes have been made to the Home, Award Winners, Contacts, Courses and Workshops, Course Resources, Boating Links and Bert’s Epic Journey pages.

The latest Scuttlebutt came online on the web site at the same time as the notice of the January - February 2020 edition was sent out to the membership.

Evolving Webmaster Role?

Webmaster Bill Kalbfleisch has been a great help in the transition process going on with the new CPS web site. CPS was clearly not ready to go public with its new site and as a result many problems and issues remain. This has cost Bill and myself many hours and the upshot is that as of this writing we still do not have webmaster privileges for the Gabriola Island Squadron “microsite” on National’s web site. We also do not have clear answers about course postings to the National site. Until the new site came along, our Squadron’s webmasters posted the course registration information and forms to the CPS website and sent course information to another CPS web site, boatingcourses.ca These two entities have now become one, which makes sense, but there is no indication any longer of webmaster involvement.

Implications of Going Microsite

Webmaster Bill Kalbfleisch and I have also taken a detailed look at the implications of the new Microsite option on the CPS site. National has made space available on its web site by creating blank templates for each squadron. This allows squadrons with no webmasters or with webmasters with limited skills to enter information online by not needing to know any coding. While attractive in a way, Bill and I have come to the conclusion that the shortcomings of this approach are nothing short of severe for those

squadrons that have functional web sites which they are willing to give up to go the Microsite route. We have identified the following implications for our own squadron:

Very little would remain of the current Squadron website. The reason is that National’s template does not allow for the importing of pages to the National’s web site. The idea is that the Squadron’s site at National would have small amounts of text entered manually by the “webmaster" and a few images per page which reside on the CPS web site. The number of pages itself is eight and it does not appear that these pages can be omitted from the menu or added to.

What could be carried over in modified fashion to accommodate the CPS template page design:

Home Page course information but not the links to newsletter, video, photosContact information on home page and Contacts pageSquadron Bridge page informationMembership page informationUpcoming Events page information

What would not be carried over from our current site:

Bridge minutes and officers’ reportsAward Winners pagePolicy ManualPrivacy PolicySquadron videosSquadron history albumsSquadron memories pages from 2003 to the presentAwards photo pageGabriola shoreline photos pageBoating accidents pageCourses and Workshops page would simply become a pointer to that information on the CPS siteCourse Resources page - to be replaced by CPS’s own linksScuttlebutt newsletters since 2005; no room for any newsletters Useful boating links to be replaced by CPS’s own linksSponsors page

Basically, what would disappear is local character and local ways of doing things. For example, the sandwich boards would no longer work if they read what now is a very short and effective message “google Gabriola Power Squadron” since there is no direct link to the Gabriola web page on the CPS site or Gabriola’s course offerings (one has to go through the menu system on the CPS site to get to the Gabriola page and courses). On our current web site we can record our own achievements and events (eg. our classes, socials, our business records, etc.) and respond instantly to local events,

issues, opportunities for promoting ourselves. Becoming part of National will mean that only National’s priorities and interests will be addressed.

Webmaster Wanted

In consultation with Bill Kalbfleisch, I am sending out the following to the membership. With Bill’s expected departure in the spring, I have agreed to maintain the web site until the Squadron’s AGM.

Webmaster and Web Site:

The Nominating Committee is looking for one or more webmasters to take over from our current webmasters for the squadron year 2020-2021. This is an executive (Bridge) position, since the webmaster should be conversant with the day-to-day operations of our squadron and the jobs carried out by the officers. The website is important to the identity and functioning of our squadron. The website promotes the squadron’s purpose of volunteers teaching safe boating, it facilitates prospective students to choose and register for courses, it is an administrative record and tool which aids the executive in fulfilling its mandate, it provides resources for boaters and it is a historical archive of the squadron’s current and past achievements.

What We Ask:

Section 3.12 of the Squadron Policy Manual describes the tasks of the webmaster:

3.12.1 The webmaster should code according to W3C standards and preferably by hand. 3.12.2 The coding should be self-explanatory through descriptions of usage in the cascading style sheet files.3.12.3 The webmaster must ensure that all information, particularly regarding course offerings and upcoming events is up-to-date.3.12.4 The webmaster must keep course offerings up-to-date on the CPS-ECP web site and on the boatingcourses.ca web site.3.12.5 The webmaster must be aware of all the Squadron’s activities and should take an active interest in the Squadron’s various committees, such as Communications and Policy.

As the webmaster’s job description mentions, the squadron web site is coded by hand according to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard. This produces a site that is based on code which is universally recognized, which can be maintained easily and updated with a minimum of effort because it is simple, powerful and direct. It allows as well for unique, original designs rather dealing with the limitations of templates. Because hand coding is based on the internationally recognized W3C standard, others familiar with it can take over and administer the site with few or no transition issues.

What We Offer:

We do not assume that a member interested in taking on the position of squadron webmaster possesses the skills currently to run and maintain the web site in the manner described above. What we are asking for is that the person is willing to learn this valuable skill set, which, once mastered, will allow them to maintain and modify the squadron’s web site and also build and administer other websites if they so choose. We will provide all the training and support needed to take the task on gradually, over a period of time. Given the right interest level and motivation, we can get you started in as few as ten sessions. All the training and software tools needed are provided for free. If interested to talk about this, please contact Bob Derksen at robert_derksen@yahoo.com

and finally, THANK YOU BILL

VIND Commander Ion Barnes presenting Bill with a Merit Mark award, April 22, 2018

Thank you for your dedication to the Squadron over the years, Bill and especially the great work you’ve done as webmaster. I, for one, will be forever grateful and honoured to have worked with you.

Bob

Respectfully submitted,On behalf of Webmaster Bill Kalbfleisch and myself,

Bob Derksen