Unfortunately, we haven't been entirely successful in retaining all those new members. That is an area where attention needs to be focused in the future. There are also a number of sailors that participate in GBCA events and make use of our website that are not members. I don't bear them any grudge for that, as our organization exists to serve the sport of sailing in this area. But we do need to look at ways of making membership an attractive option for those people.
Membership is really important to the club, since that's what pays our fixed costs.
Our ability to hold more and better events is limited by our income projections, which have been flat for a number of years. As a result of some aggressive cost cutting, we've brought our expenditures in line with income. Unfortunately, it looks like the Shipyard intends to raise our office rent here, and we'll have to examine the impact that's going to have, and deal with it. I think it's been over 4 years since we've seen a protest in a GBCA event, except for that one unfortunate incident in the Veracruz race this year, and that didn't involve any GBCA members. I would also encourage you to keep it up, since by now I'm not sure that we'd remember what to do with a protest if you filed one.