MacGregorSailors.com

Hi Brian,

We are away at the moment. Will confirm when we get back.
Dirk and Maria

Hi all,
Pls send me a PM so I can reply with address details. For those that want to join us via phone conference link again send me a PM & I will give you a 1800 & pin number so you can join by phone....Cheers, John

Hoping to see / hear from you all on Saturday.

Here's an Agenda I put together to try and keep us on track.
1. Open Meeting; get a list of those present/phoned in.
2. Phone conference etiquette.
3. Goal of Association.
4. Constitution – Incorporated (Std format or not), or non incorporated.
5. Name of Group & Logo.
6. Yachting Australia Requirements for recognition of Association.
7. Committee Makeup.
8. Fee Structure.
9. Website.
10. Racing Rules.
11. Nationals.
12. When to form Association (date).
13. Method, and frequency, of future meetings / communication.

Just a reminder that the BBQ will be at Johns place starting around 1pm AEST, with the phone conference starting at 3pm. Please try to be on time.

Whilst this meeting is not the inaugural meeting to start the association. It will go a long way towards making the startup as easy as possible in an informal manner allowing everyone to have their say. The more we can acheive in this meeting the easier the transition to becoming a viable association will be.

Whilst it will be up to the majority to put forward the inaugural meeting date, I'll put the 22 Aug 09 forward as a discussion start point.

See you Saturday.

Brian

P.S. If you have not been in touch with John yet, please do as your input can only help!

Brian & Others,

I found the web site of the UK Macgregor Owners association.

UK MacGregor Owners Association

Worth a quick look.

Tks
C ya.

I found the North East Trailer Sailer Association web site.

http://ne-ts.com

Worth a look. American and very cruising oriented.

Tks
C ya.

Greetings, fellow Aus Mac Owners,
well we had a phone conference in the lead up to trying to get an Association going. Six of us phoned in for what was a very effective means of long distance communication between multiple places.

The main reason for the meeting was to form the bul of the ideas to bring us all together and get the main discussions out of the way. When we have the AGM on Saturday the 22 Aug 09, most of the issues ar now done with (hopefully). I really encourage all Aus Mac Owners to join in the AGM and help us get the show started. A run down of the decisions made (which are not binding in any way and are still open for debate) are:

Goal of the Association is threefold:
A means of generating a social forum for owners (get togethers etc)
A means of sharing information and helping fellow Mac Owners
A means of generating a more realistic Handicap for those inclined to race.

Constitution: to use the Std set of model rules (incorporated) as provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria

Dirk has volunteered his daughter to come up with a couple of ideas for a club logo.

Need ten members to be recognised by Yachting Australia (that means 4 more). To have the YA fees waived we need 60% of members to hold a Silver Card (There are some yacht clubs out there who will give very cheap memberships, Mokoan comes to mind).

I have submitted a set of draft racing rules to the Victorian Trailable Committee for CBH calculation.

Need the basic 4 committee members to run the committee. Some volunteers have already put up their hands to get us started, however further nominations / voting etc will need to be carried out. The Secretary and Treasurer need to be Vics, however the rest is up for grabs. Would prefer some interstate members on the committee.

Fees - There are some small costs already identified to get the show running, and undoubtably more will be identified later. At this stage $15 seems to be effective.

From a racing point of view the following limitations were agreed upon (these still need to be voted on).
Those boats that currently are outside the rules at the AGM date, will be allowed to continue to race in that manner. However once that equipment is replaced (wear and tear/breakage) they will revert to the current Association racing rules.
No weighted centreboards
All racing with water ballast in
The cruising Assymetrical is the only spinnaker to be used for racing
On the in mixed class racing a backstay can be used. In single class racing (Mac Titles) the backstay (if fitted) may not be used.

A National titles will be held on Lake Hume at Albury Wodonga Yacht Club on the Melbourne Cup weekend this year. The Sat/Sun will be racing, and the Mon/Tue will do some cruising. This caters for racers and cruisers and a great way to try and get some of us together.

That using teleconferencing as the primary means of conducting the required 4 meetings a year is great. Could look at trying to incorporate a social sailing event to coincide with one of the teleconferences.

I really tried to keep the meeting to an hour, however it did runover by 10 or so minutes. Will need to be more vigilant on this issue.

In closing, we really need everyone to join in to make this a viable association. Where will it take us, I don't know, but I'm sure the ride will be fun and well worth it.

Please support the Association and we'll here/see you next Saturday at Johns place.

Will be the same time BBQ at 1pm and the teleconference at 3pm (AEST). COntact John for the address or the teleconference magic numbers.

See ya

Brian

Hi All,
Sat 22 Aug is the date set for the Australian Mac Association inaugural AGM. We are planning a BBQ at my house at 1pm prior to the AGM at 3pm. PLs send me a PM so I can reply with address details.

For those who want to take part but cannot attend in person we have organised teleconferencing facilities where you can ring in using a 1800 number so pls send me a PM & I will reply with the phone number & pin.

As Brian has previously mentioned this is a National Association & therefore we are keen for non Victorians to take an active part in the formation of the association & encourage all to participate. Once the national body is established it will be easy to form state based branches/ groups that cater for local activities etc......Cheers, John.

Hi John,

Maria and I will be there. Drinks and sausages in hand.

Well, we've had the AGM and now have an Association.

Now we need members. Cost is a reasonable $25 a year, and the more members we have the more viable an association we'll have.

I'm off for two weeks cruising down the Murray River (leaving the mast at home).

It would be great if as many as possible could join. It's as easy as sending Dirk (Mistral) a PM with your e-mail address. He will then send you a membership form. Send the form back to him with a cheque and you're in.

The admiral is working on trying to convert the new association logo into an embroidery file for her sewing machine. Once she gets this right we'll be able to do somethings like T-Shirts, Burgees etc.

I'll give a report of the trip away when I get back.

See ya

Brian

I look forward to receiving many PM's and applications.

Dirk (Mistral)

Won't be able to do much until we return home mid October as per email to Dirk but thanks everybody for getting this up and away.
Brian if you are back yet where was your Murray river cruise?, of all our travels the trip from Wentworth to Wellington still rates as the best including the Whitsundays.
The fishing is mostly better here in the Gulf (Carpentaria) but the Murray kills it for character.

Need to bring this to the fore again.
The group is slowly taking off, but we need more members.
The banking details have been sorted out and maybe it is time to try and arrange a get together again. As most members are based in Melbourne at this stage we could organise something over the Christmas break?

Dirk

Greetings to all,
we need to have another meeting to move some things along to finalise the Association. Would be great to get a social calendar nailed down as well.

We really need a few more members to be formally recognised as an Association by Yachting Australia, so please join up.

Am doing some work to get an Australian Website up. This will not be a rival to this website, that would be silly. This AUS website would just have specific to Aus information to try and assist those poor people who do not have a Mac to make an informed decision with good information. I have been asked many times by prospective owners about us having a website.

Due to my own time constraints, I am suggesting either the 14th or 21st of Feb. Could I be so bold as to suggest John's place , and that we will use conference call facilities for the meeting to include our interstate members (send a PM to John to get the dial in number details).

Your Thoughts?

Brian

Brian,

I agree, we need to get moving again and now is the time. We should be fine for those dates.

Well it's time to have our second AGM.

I'm thinking that Sunday the 18th at 2pm would be good.

We'll give it a go by using a phone in teleconference, so everyone who wants can chime in. Contact John (ubi_est_via) to get the dial-in number to join.

Please join in as we really need to get the Association going.

Regards

Brian Harrison
El Presidente' (unless someone else wants the honour)

I'm having the National boat measurer do the official measurement on my boat this Saturday. This is another step towards getting the Handicap sorted out.