2007 was another good year for the Whitefish Chain Yacht Club. Our membership remains strong (about 215 member families) and our financial situation is solid. Our programs, aligned with our mission “to promote boating and water safety…on our chain of lakes”, remain our primary focus.

At our Fall Board meeting Bruce Lick and Tom Schroeder were elected to the board as members at large. Vickey Leonard became Vice-Commodore. A special thanks for his leadership to Jim Anderson, who became (again) Past-Commodore.

We place and maintain almost 100 buoys on the Chain. These navigation and hazard marking buoys are placed at the direction of the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Water Patrol, with locations actually specified by County ordinance. Waterfront Services, under new owners Craig and Troy, continue as our service provider and do an outstanding job. When the buoys were removed in October, WFS recorded GPS coordinate locations to help with proper placement in the future. WFS at 218-692-2760 is the point of contact for reporting buoys that are out of position.

In 2007 our swimming lessons, led by Vickey Leonard at the Corps of Engineers Campground, had 70 students. There is always room for more. 2008 lesson dates are the three weeks between July 7 and July 25. Registration information will be announced in April.

In addition to activities supporting our mission, we have a number of Club activities. For 2008 these include the Spring Dinner (June 14), Family Picnic (August 12) and Fall Dinner (September 13). We are planning to reintroduce the Summer Splash ( tentative date July 19). Information on all of our Club activities will be online on our website at www.WCYC.info. We are setting up an email database. If you would like to receive email about upcoming Club events visit the website and subscribe at www.WCYC.info/subscribe.html

A Club directory will be published this spring. It will be distributed with our annual dues notice in April. One of the benefits of membership in the WCYC is reciprocity with other member clubs in the Yachting Clubs of America. You can now request your reciprocity card on our website, or by simply including a note with your annual dues.
We hope to see you on the water this summer!

Safe boating,
J. Robert Nelson, Commodore

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