Slow learners or poor teachers?

A quick look at a random sampling of ratings shows some interesting stuff. Of the 92 club members with last names beginning with K - M, their ratings break down as follows:

7 have ratings on at least three different types of craft
15 have a Tech rating plus one other rating (mostly sailboard)
32 have a Tech light rating only
38 have no ratings at all

Thus, three-fourths of all club members never advance any further than a Tech light rating! Importantly, these ratings statistics are a snapshot of club makeup that will not change appreciably from one year to the next. Annual memberships can be bought at any time, expiring exactly one year later. Thus, although some of the people who joined early this year will have more rating(s) by September or by 2009 (if they re-join the club), the memberships of other people who have ratings will have expired in the meantime.

News Flash!

As a result of the recent record rainfall and flooding throughout southern Wisconsin, Lake Mendota is now a very large septic tank. Until further notice, none of the small Hoofer boats should be sailed because they can easily capsize, and no windsurfing unless you want to end up with an eye infection, ear infection, or amoebic dysentary. The Union's swimming pier was closed (and fenced off!) today.

Latest info: http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/news/view.cfm?news_id=927

NOTE: As of 6/30/08, there are toxic blue-green algae warnings that will probably continue for the rest of the summer.

Predators, parasites, and prey

Hoofer Sailing Club as currently organized functions as an active farm where those in charge prey on the vast majority of club members in parasitic fashion, like tapeworms in the gut of a large mammal. They do this by:

(1) falsely advertizing the benefits of club membership.
(2) obtaining membership fees from lots of people and using those fees to pay themselves.
(3) making sure that they don't give out too many ratings (except to eachother).
(4) by re-hiring eachother to teach lessons year after year.
(5) by appointing eachother to key Board of Captains positions after electing eachother to commodore and vice-commodore every year.
(6) by using a "work hours deposit" to coerce general club members into doing the menial supporting tasks such as data entry, boat repairs, food preparation, cleaning up the lakefront, etc.

Note that the work hours deposit recently got doubled. That was a clever move. And yet, 90% of club members have no say whatsoever in how the club is run, except (laugh) when they get to cast their vote for commodore each August. Only about 5% of club members even bother to vote in that election.

Thus the 90% are there (i.e. join the club) to serve the 10%, although of course they don't realize it at the time. They think they joined to learn how to sail. If someone pays their $200 membership fee, takes a couple of lessons, gets disgusted, and is never seen again, do club leaders care..? Of course not--that's the best kind of club member: Leave the money and run! The worst kind are the complainers--the ones who demand ratings on boats they're qualified to sail. They have to be dealt with, with disciplinary action for example, or by deleting the entire Forum in 2006. Club leaders have even been known to consult with attorneys so they could change club rules and administer more severe punishment to unsuspecting club members.

Hoofer Sailing wants your cash!

Hoofer leaders urgently need a large influx of cash to help pay their friends, er, the hired staff. All major credit cards accepted!

New this year, you can join the club for four years at a time. No more having to get your checkbook out every single year! Why did the club come up with this insidious plan?

Could it be because membership is dropping and they want to snare people for as long as possible up front..? Read the fine print: NO REFUNDS. If you join for four years, and then find out a month later that the club sucks or that you don't really care for sailing, you just dropped more than five hundred bucks. Or your parents did.

Paid staff, eels, and other slippery things

So today I'm walking past the 420s and scows and there's this guy standing on the foredeck of an I-20 looking up the mast. He says, "Hey, can you show me how to rig this thing? I've only sailed it once, and I have to teach a lesson in half an hour!" He wasn't talking to me. He was talking to another "instructor" working on a 420 a few feet away, and he wasn't joking.

Now, I've been taking I-20 lessons for two years, maybe once a month, not spending a whole ton of time but I'm not all that keen on sailing them. Yet, although I can sail one heeled in 15 knots and jibe it without capsizing, I still don't have that goshdarn rating for some reason. Meanwhile, here's a guy who is obviously clueless, and he's instructing..!?

What if I'd been on his lesson today..? Would I be getting my money's worth? Not only does he not know what he's doing, and not only is he getting a free club membership to sail whatever boats he likes, and not only is he also getting paid by the hour--by me--I obviously know more than he does, and if I'd been signed up for his "lesson", I would have ended up teaching him!

This sort of thing is not the exception but rather is the rule at Hoofers. Instructors can check off whatever ratings they'd like as soon as they're "hired", and it usually takes one quick sail on a boat to get rated. On the other hand, I'm just a "general" club member who paid dues (i.e. a cash cow). Welcome to Hoofers.

Paying wages in a club environment is the root of the problem. If you've got a cush job, you'll do whatever you can to keep it from one year to the next. That means denying volunteer applicants and rehiring your buddies instead--regardless of their sailing or teaching skills. The official interview guidelines (obtained by our operatives) actually state that "how fun" a person is is the most important hiring criterion!! And since it's last year's instructors who do the "hiring", they are naturally inclined to re-hire their friends instead of someone who might actually be better qualified. Think about it. If you're not their sailing or party buddy, your fun level (to them) is zero.

The official explanation is that the quality of instruction must be maintained and that paid staff are the answer. That's a load of bull because (1) there's no way to know if someone will be a good teacher unless you let them try it, and (2) many of the paid instructors are incompetent. Paid instructors are offered whatever ratings they want as soon as they're hired, at which point they can immediately start teaching lessons on those fleets (for an hourly wage, no less). This often leads to poor instruction on the sloops, scows, and J-boats, especially by paid staff (as seen from the true anecdote above). That is to say, paid staff have a shortcut to ratings while everyone else has to earn them. Thus, volunteer (unpaid) instructors, i.e. regular club members, are often better sailors and better instructors!

A final concern is the question of education. It can be expected that any and every organization which is part of the state's largest university has education as its fundamental goal. In particular, this includes teaching teachers. Thus, in Hoofers one should expect to learn not only how to sail but also how to teach sailing. It seems therefore that every club member who wants to teach lessons should be allowed to do so at some point. Yet, the archaic system of entrenched favors persists, its purpose being to serve itself by rewarding popular, fun guys who also happen to be passable sailors.