Bashing heads

We have just obtained the pre-official minutes from the July 1st BOC meeting (as of the time of this post, these are still not available yet on the club's site). Incase you missed it, the meeting was even nastier than usual, as the minutes show. The two main agenda items were to (1) bash former J-fleet Captain Paul Grinstead, and (2) bash Vice Commodore Bridget Maniaci.

The best of the Paul bashing (by Commodore Matt Duerst and General Incompetent Chris Frye):

• Paul received the agenda and failed to show up [for previous meeting]...
• I specifically stated that announcements should be posted to the forums for the Club to see instead of unofficial mailing lists or other methods. [Could Matt mean this blog..?!]
• Administered the [Rhythym & Booms] lottery, with himself in it, and won the J29.
• I was extremely disappointed with his attitude and childish behavior.
• all 3 keelboat fleets are approximately $1100 over [budget]. Editor's note: Is that a lot..? The club's budget is, like, $300,000.
• and from Chris: I was J-Fleet Captain for many years and don’t remember any
incidents. Editor's note: Um, no incidents..?! Has Chris forgotten about how the J24 mast snapped off at lift-in because he didn't secure the stays? Or how the J22 sank because he forgot to seal it..? Or a host of lesser incidents that occurred while he was J fleet captain??

This was perhaps Paul's best response to the bashing:

"I was not at the last BOC meeting because I was taking a much-needed break from Hoofers... the political bickering and disrespect at the BOC meetings are counterproductive to [looking after myself]."

Political bickering and disrespect at a BOC meeting..?! C'mon! You just weren't drunk enough.


And here's what C. Johann Sung wrote—on official Hoofer stationery no less—about Maniaci:

• INTERFERED with Pirate’s Day 2008
• FOLLOWED POORLY at Commodore’s Cup 2008
• LED POORLY at MU Bash 2008
• UNILATERALLY Pushed for Statue of Liberty 2009
• INTERFERED with Hoofer Council Election 2009
• INTERFERED with Friday Night Socials 2009
• INTERFERED with Pirate’s Day 2009
• INTERFERED with Rhythm and Booms 2009
• INTERFERED with Commodore’s Cup 2009

Wow. Amazing that one human being could interfere so much in half a season.


Hear ye, hear ye! The finding of this blog is that:

• Bridget is exonerated because she uses better grammar than C. Johann Sung.
• Paul is not reinstated as J fleet captain because he doesn't really want that dirty job anymore anyway.

The full nasties, er, minutes are available here and here. Thanks to our operatives.

Run, Borko, Run

Hoofer Sailing's head of instruction (HOI) has announced his departure, effective before the end of this season. We commend him on his decision not to linger. The HOI position should be a revolving position to let as many individuals as possible get experience at this important job. It also ought to be an unpaid position, but that's another post.

Nevertheless, Brian's move is surprising considering that Hoofer Coordinator/Advisor Jim Rogers promoted Brian earlier this year to Assistant Hoofer Advisor. We wonder: Did JimR promote Brian in the hope of influencing him to stay longer..? After all, three years must seem like mere seconds to the Hoofer Coordinator who was HOI for fifteen years. Yet, Brian has chosen to flee to the business school. Perhaps he is going to reunite with former Hoofer Advisor Steve Schroeder to discuss ways to fix all that is wrong with Hoofers.

But what a run Borko has had! Sailing instructor. Commodore. Head of Instruction. Assistant Hoofer Advisor. Yet, one wonders if he ever actually made it into the most elite clique in HSC, which is by secret invitation only. Not even as commodore is a person necessarily invited into that club! Of course, some don't want to join. Among other things, it requires an unpublicized nighttime cruise with certain long-time male Hoofer leaders who all get naked and jump into the water together. Or maybe that's why Brian wanted out—he was invited into that club, known to some as the pole jumpers....

Unofficial minutes of Monday's unannounced meeting to form an unofficial "committee" to look for Borko's replacement are here.

Let's have a ball

Fabulous weather made for some great sailing on Saturday night for the conclusion of the Commodore's Ball and Commodore's Cup week. In fact, there's great sailing anytime now that the club has ten (or is it 11?) keelboats. Sign up for a keelboat cruise and check out the Hoofer "cruising" scene. Cruises are open to all club members and their guests, and sometimes to the public. Of course, most cruises only happen for special events, e.g. Rhythm & booms, C-Cup, sail-free day, the forthcoming commodore election, etc., so it's hard to actually get on a cruise. Please check with the skipper before bringing alcohol or other drugs on board. Also get the skipper's okay before jumping overboard.

Fear mongering for non-swimmers

Last week, the university and union started their annual stay-out-of-the-water campaign, warning of the terrible dangers of... algae. Well, I've been swimming in L. Mendota many times over the past ten years, and so have my friends, never with any ill effects. You've got a better chance of being attacked by a large fish than of encountering toxic algae. Unless you dive straight into something that looks like the photo above (taken recently near the swimming pier), you've got nothing to worry about. If you do dive into something that looks like the photo, well, then you deserve what you get. Not even a dog would jump into that. However, the "pea soup" stuff that floats suspended throughout the water column out on the open lake is not dangerous except rarely to people who don't know how to swim. See www.news.wisc.edu/16894 for more "info".

How do you know for sure that there's no danger..? Because Hoofers never cancels any classes—not even sailboarding or dinghy testouts (which require a dunking in the lake)!

Secret government authorized?

Well, the previous post went to seed after about 25 comments, most of which focused on open meetings issues and not on why all three keelboat captains were kicked off the BOC. That's interesting because our operatives have obtained a copy of a recent letter to the Wisconsin Attorney General's office asking whether Hoofer meetings are indeed public. In the interest of fanning the flames, we've decided to make the letter available as a PDF.

Here's the link (it's only about 750K and quite readable quality):

letter to AG Re:Hoofers

Although the letter asks about Hoofer Council meetings, it seems like it would also apply to BOC meetings. Some names have been blacked out for privacy interests and because they have no bearing on the contents of the letter. Keep in mind if you read it that it is only an opinion based on the documents that were apparently provided to the AG. It sounds like there may be other, more relevant documents that might have led to a different opinion. Perhaps someone can get ahold of those.

Boinked!

This week in a contentious Board of Captains (BOC) meeting, two of the club's three keelboat fleet captains were removed from office by Commodore Matt Deurst, and the third resigned in protest. The keelboat fleet consists of the club's ten largest boats and is thus the most significant fleet in Hoofers. Apparently the blow-up was a personality conflict between ROTC-officer-in-training Duerst and hard-working fleet captains Paul Grinstead and Kyle Ankenbauer. The public meeting took place on 1-Jul-09 in the Hoofer Chartroom, but Duerst did not announce the agenda in advance (contrary to Wis. law). A full analysis will be forthcoming.
[def. boink (boingk). boinked, boink·ing, boinks. slang v.tr. 1. to hose. 2. to ball sack.]

July 10 update: The promised full analysis will be limited to what is obvious: Kyle and Paul (and indirectly, Barry) were all removed against their will, with no reasonable chance to remedy the situation, for reasons we'll never really know. Heck, the commodore doesn't even know why he removed them. In Hoofers, shit just happens. Sometimes it's illegal, and sometimes it's not.