Like a dozen squealing piglets fighting over six* nipples, Hoofer leaders are spending their offseason arguing over what else they can get paid for. Paid keelboat instruction is the latest rage. What's wrong with giving people money to teach on the club's largest boats..? Everything.
For one, there has never been a shortage of qualified volunteer instructors on those boats. This contrasts with the lower fleets, e.g. Techs and Badger Sloops. The ratings flowchart naturally requires more ratings on those beginner boats, which is logical and necessary, but it creates a huge demand for Tech lessons--and the responsibility to provide enough of them. Plus, the smaller boats leak, they're tippy, and so on. Thus paid instruction is necessary for Techs and Slops in particular (and probably sailboards). Everything else should be 100% volunteer because Hoofers is a club, at least according to its constitution. It is not a paid service organization where employees work for members, although it's coming to resemble that more and more.
The more money that flows within the "club", the higher the membership cost and the more incentive there is to shut people out. It's hard enough to get rated on the keelboats without having the added disincentive (from the paid instructors' point of view) of you the student potentially taking their paying job away.
Simply put, the large keelboats are the pinnacle of sailing in Hoofers. Paying anyone to teach on them is like paying someone to have sex. It just isn't necessary. In fact, it's decadent and degenerate. And yet, some people who've been teaching on the keelboats for years are salivating at the thought. They should be ashamed because skippering those boats is reward enough.
If you want a job, go find a bloody job.
*Most sows actually have 12 teats, but they nurse lying on their side, so only six are accessible at any one time.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
A crook on the board
Here's an amazing and disturbing new story about public employees. Journalist Steven Greenhut, author of the new book "Plunder: How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation" (good summary and review here), talked about it this week on WPR. You can listen to the entire 45min show for a limited time.
Although Greenhut focuses on California, he makes very clear that this is a serious nationwide problem. And although he focuses on public employee unions, they are assisted in their plundering by administrators, legislators, and the courts—the three branches of "government". Could anyone possibly believe it's just coincidence that the people who write the laws also happen to have the best pension plans, the best health care, the best benefits packages, and the most vacation time..? And that's not all. Despite being grossly overpaid to begin with (e.g. $175,000/year for Orange County firefighters!?), many public employees manipulate loopholes in the law—laws made up by their fellow state employees—to obtain extra benefits. Many even engage in actual criminal behaviour to obtain even more cash. All of this comes from the taxpayers, of course, i.e. from the people the state employees supposedly work for. Meanwhile, the rest of us have expensive health plans, or none at all. We have shaky retirement "investment" plans, limited unpaid vacations, and we work 70 hour weeks like slaves. As if that weren't enough, the state employees work actively to eliminate social security, they refuse to pass national health care, they charge us with every little violation they possibly can (to wring even more money out of us), and so on.
Take a minute to read this short but stunning Wall Street Journal article on the issue.
What does all this have to do with Hoofers..? I think you know (sung in melodic voice).... All Wis. Union and Hoofer staff are State of Wisconsin employees. Most of them are grossly overpaid (e.g. Susan Dibbell: $101,000/year plus benefits!?), and many of them are crooks.
Although Greenhut focuses on California, he makes very clear that this is a serious nationwide problem. And although he focuses on public employee unions, they are assisted in their plundering by administrators, legislators, and the courts—the three branches of "government". Could anyone possibly believe it's just coincidence that the people who write the laws also happen to have the best pension plans, the best health care, the best benefits packages, and the most vacation time..? And that's not all. Despite being grossly overpaid to begin with (e.g. $175,000/year for Orange County firefighters!?), many public employees manipulate loopholes in the law—laws made up by their fellow state employees—to obtain extra benefits. Many even engage in actual criminal behaviour to obtain even more cash. All of this comes from the taxpayers, of course, i.e. from the people the state employees supposedly work for. Meanwhile, the rest of us have expensive health plans, or none at all. We have shaky retirement "investment" plans, limited unpaid vacations, and we work 70 hour weeks like slaves. As if that weren't enough, the state employees work actively to eliminate social security, they refuse to pass national health care, they charge us with every little violation they possibly can (to wring even more money out of us), and so on.
Take a minute to read this short but stunning Wall Street Journal article on the issue.
What does all this have to do with Hoofers..? I think you know (sung in melodic voice).... All Wis. Union and Hoofer staff are State of Wisconsin employees. Most of them are grossly overpaid (e.g. Susan Dibbell: $101,000/year plus benefits!?), and many of them are crooks.
For further reading [click]
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Hoofers looking to marry ASA
The push to join the American Sailing Association (ASA) continues. Hoofer Sailing club is desperate to find a way to streamline its chaotic and foundering keelboat program. It seems those kb instructors also want to get paid even though club rules don't allow it.
We see several problems with Hoofers marrying up (and the problems are mostly for the ASA):
(1) Hoofer leaders include too many rump-humping yahoos who like to play bumper boats, blow out spinnakers, and even sink boats. And they normally do it drunk. Nothing is going to change Wisconsin's alcoholic culture, but it could affect the reputation of the ASA.
(2) Hoofers is run by criminals, not the least of whom is Hoofer Coordinator Jim Rogers. A formal relationship could have repercussions for the ASA.
(3) Over the past decade, several leading club members tried on several occasions to make the keelboat program more rigorous and were laughed out of the room each time. Now Hoofer keelboaters are looking for outside help?
(4) Hoofers is located on tiny Lake Mendota, so the only courses that could even be taught here are ASA 101 (Basic Keelboat) and perhaps 119 (Weather). Even 101 is iffy because it requires "moderate winds and sea conditions" and L. Mendota never gets moderate sea conditions, only rarely getting waves of more than one foot. Only during thunderstorms do we get bigger waves, but then the red flag goes up!
(5) All other ASA courses are clearly out, e.g. coastal cruising, bareboat chartering, etc.
Which begs the question: What is the real motivation for wanting ASA affiliation? It can't be to teach ASA classes because only a handful could even be taught here. Is it to justify paying keelboat instructors..? There is a long tradition of not paying them since Hoofers is (in theory) a volunteer-run club, not a sailing service. At least the kb program can take pride in abiding the club's constitution, while the rest of the club cannot. Now the keelboaters want to do an about-face!? Or are they hoping to standardize and validate Hoofers' ridiculously erratic program? That was already tried in the past and failed utterly.
We suspect certain club leaders have had trouble getting approved to charter and figure easy ASA ratings would be the best way to fix that problem.
March 8 update: You never can tell whether Hoofers are serious or not. Check out this flowchart of the proposed ASA program. It looks like maybe they're joking after all.
We see several problems with Hoofers marrying up (and the problems are mostly for the ASA):
(1) Hoofer leaders include too many rump-humping yahoos who like to play bumper boats, blow out spinnakers, and even sink boats. And they normally do it drunk. Nothing is going to change Wisconsin's alcoholic culture, but it could affect the reputation of the ASA.
(2) Hoofers is run by criminals, not the least of whom is Hoofer Coordinator Jim Rogers. A formal relationship could have repercussions for the ASA.
(3) Over the past decade, several leading club members tried on several occasions to make the keelboat program more rigorous and were laughed out of the room each time. Now Hoofer keelboaters are looking for outside help?
(4) Hoofers is located on tiny Lake Mendota, so the only courses that could even be taught here are ASA 101 (Basic Keelboat) and perhaps 119 (Weather). Even 101 is iffy because it requires "moderate winds and sea conditions" and L. Mendota never gets moderate sea conditions, only rarely getting waves of more than one foot. Only during thunderstorms do we get bigger waves, but then the red flag goes up!
(5) All other ASA courses are clearly out, e.g. coastal cruising, bareboat chartering, etc.
Which begs the question: What is the real motivation for wanting ASA affiliation? It can't be to teach ASA classes because only a handful could even be taught here. Is it to justify paying keelboat instructors..? There is a long tradition of not paying them since Hoofers is (in theory) a volunteer-run club, not a sailing service. At least the kb program can take pride in abiding the club's constitution, while the rest of the club cannot. Now the keelboaters want to do an about-face!? Or are they hoping to standardize and validate Hoofers' ridiculously erratic program? That was already tried in the past and failed utterly.
We suspect certain club leaders have had trouble getting approved to charter and figure easy ASA ratings would be the best way to fix that problem.
March 8 update: You never can tell whether Hoofers are serious or not. Check out this flowchart of the proposed ASA program. It looks like maybe they're joking after all.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Sobering stats for would-be instructors
So you passed the instructor exam (or not), and you've got an interview lined up. Woo hoo! Don't get your hopes up just yet though. Here are last year's stats:
* 117 applicants (65 return applicants and 52 new)
* Of the 52 new applicants, 27 got interviews
* of those 27, 14 were offered positions
* 73 instructors were selected overall
Thus, your odds of getting "hired" are over 90% if you're a returning instructor but just 25% if you're a new applicant. Amazingly, of the approx. 73 total instructors "hired" in 2009, every single one of them was white (see photo). None were African-American, none were Asian, and not a one was Native American, but you can bet they all could handle their liquor. Worse, not one single Hoofer Sailing Club member in 2009 was African-American! That's out of more than 800 club members!
Welcome to the most discriminatory club in the world which, by the way, is run by guys who are not only white, blue-eyed, native-English speaking crooks. They also--you guessed it--can handle their liquor.
Feb 27 update: Check out yesterday's Daily Cardinal front page article about diversity and discrimination at UW in general.
* 117 applicants (65 return applicants and 52 new)
* Of the 52 new applicants, 27 got interviews
* of those 27, 14 were offered positions
* 73 instructors were selected overall
Thus, your odds of getting "hired" are over 90% if you're a returning instructor but just 25% if you're a new applicant. Amazingly, of the approx. 73 total instructors "hired" in 2009, every single one of them was white (see photo). None were African-American, none were Asian, and not a one was Native American, but you can bet they all could handle their liquor. Worse, not one single Hoofer Sailing Club member in 2009 was African-American! That's out of more than 800 club members!
Welcome to the most discriminatory club in the world which, by the way, is run by guys who are not only white, blue-eyed, native-English speaking crooks. They also--you guessed it--can handle their liquor.
Feb 27 update: Check out yesterday's Daily Cardinal front page article about diversity and discrimination at UW in general.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Good ol' Joe
It's only February but things are already heating up. Last week, a WPR radio show got a surprise caller. It was Joe Silverberg, long-time Hoofer sailing instructor and the elder of that exclusive club, promoting HSC as a volunteer organization. What's wrong with that, you say..? HSC is no more volunteer than Walmart is. More than 60% of the club's $300,000 annual budget goes directly to pay instructors and shop staff [ref]. The rest goes to buy beer for instructor parties, to purchase new boats, etc.
It is grossly inappropriate for a long-time Hoofer Sailing instructor, e.g. Joe S., to misrepresent the club to the public. Nor can Joe claim he doesn't know how things work at Hoofers, i.e. that the vast majority of instructors are paid, because he's one of them. Most HSC sailing instructors wouldn't even teach lessons unless they got paid. In fact, not one instructor who was paid last year offered to volunteer this year! That shows how committed most club "leaders" are to having a "volunteer" club. [NOTE: "instructors" should really be in quotes too since so many of them are incompetent, but that's another story.]
Even former commodore Matt Duerst wrote "yes" next to "Paid" and "NO" next to "Volunteer" on his instructor application. Want more evidence of the "volunteer" club that Joe imagines..? Check out the club's BOC minutes. There's a recent motion to let BOC members get paid too!! Hey, they just want their piece of the pie.
The culture of lying and duplicity and general criminality is slowly infecting everyone who comes into contact with it. Even good ol' Joe.
It is grossly inappropriate for a long-time Hoofer Sailing instructor, e.g. Joe S., to misrepresent the club to the public. Nor can Joe claim he doesn't know how things work at Hoofers, i.e. that the vast majority of instructors are paid, because he's one of them. Most HSC sailing instructors wouldn't even teach lessons unless they got paid. In fact, not one instructor who was paid last year offered to volunteer this year! That shows how committed most club "leaders" are to having a "volunteer" club. [NOTE: "instructors" should really be in quotes too since so many of them are incompetent, but that's another story.]
Even former commodore Matt Duerst wrote "yes" next to "Paid" and "NO" next to "Volunteer" on his instructor application. Want more evidence of the "volunteer" club that Joe imagines..? Check out the club's BOC minutes. There's a recent motion to let BOC members get paid too!! Hey, they just want their piece of the pie.
The culture of lying and duplicity and general criminality is slowly infecting everyone who comes into contact with it. Even good ol' Joe.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Hoofer keelboaters sink J24 in Carribean
On Monday Feb. 1, while most of use were freezing our butts off walking to class or hiking to work in Madison, some HSC members were enjoying the balmy breezes--and warm water--of the Caribbean.
HSC Large-Keelboat instructors Mike Moninger and Dennis Kennedy and other experienced Hoofer Sailing Club members who should have known better were racing keelboats off Grenada when along came a big puff. Seconds later, they all found themselves in the water, their boat sinking. Now, anyone who has sailed a J-24 knows that it simply can't be sunk. It's a small yacht with 1200 lbs. of lead in the keel which prevents it from capsizing. Even if you do somehow manage to roll it, e.g. in big waves, the keel will flip it right back up. That is, unless you left your cabin hatch wide open! Well, it's a pain in the butt to have to keep opening and closing that hatch when the beer and liquor are below. But you can't keep it up in the cockpit – J-24's just don't have enough cup-holders! So, you tend to leave the hatch open. Problem is, this wasn't Lake Mendota. It was the ocean.
Here's the story in the local Grenada news with photos. Check out those big waves. They must be, what, 1 or 2 feet in height?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
