Membership Renewal Opens Today

You should have received an email earlier today with a link to renew your membership. Membership expires on April 1 so please renew by this date if possible. If you need to make alternative arrangements or do not plan to renew, please contact Membership 

Unidentified Boats

On renewal you will be required to confirm that you don’t own any of the unidentified boats. Please review the list carefully as we will dispose of any boats that are not confirmed to belong to a member. Please contact Membership if one of these boats belongs to you.

Work or Pay becomes Work, Play, or Pay

We are changing the work or pay system, adopting a system from the Burlington Beach Catamaran Club who have reported great success with the Work, Play, or Pay system. Members will be required to complete 10 hours each year, six of which can be completed through play. Play involves attended club organized events such as BBQs, Regattas, Weeknight Racing, and the AGM. For paddlers, we will be creating a new weekly paddling night. Each event attended counts for one hour regardless of how long the event is. The hours can also be completed through volunteer work as usual.

At the same time, we are increasing the cost for uncompleted hours to $30 which raises the cost for not participating from $150 to $300. The increase is designed to provide more encouragement for members to engage in club activities, while keeping the cost unchanged for active members.

The change is on a pilot basis, we intended to try the system for two years and review it to see if it has improved engagement in club activities.

Active Use Rule

We have added an active use rule, which states that members must use the boats that they store at Water Rats each year. We don’t view this as a change to the rules, but a clarification. We have a number of tests of active use, for example, Catamarans are required to put their masts up by June 30 each year. But we until now, we didn’t have a rule that explicitly states that members are expected to use the boats that we store. Water Rats mission is to provide affordable access to the water for sailors and paddlers. It is not intended to be a place for cheap storage, and this rule will clarify that. 

Profile Updates

Please review your membership profile to ensure that all of the boats you have stored at the club are accurate. Contact Membership if you need to make any changes. Please remember that if you want to bring a new boat to the club, you must obtain stickers before bringing it to the club.

Volunteer for Changerooms

We are looking for a volunteer who would like to spearhead the changeroom revitalization project. If you’re able to help, please contact Membership.

Lockers

We have a few of the newly built lockers that are available in the container. The ones available are on the upper shelf for a cost of $40/yr. Please contact Membership if you would like one before you renew as the charge will be added to your renewal.