The legacy of Jim Rogers

As promised, here's a plot of HSC instructor pay over time. Compare this graph with the previous post. It should be pretty obvious why membership dues have outpaced inflation over the past 15+ years.

Note: (1) "Total instructor pay" includes the head instructor's salary as well as the Youth program and instructor training (i.e. all wages), but does not include things like manuals, lifejackets, etc. (2) It also doesn't take into account the free club membership that all sailing instructors get (a $200+ value in 2011), which is a total cost to the club of around $200 X 75 instructors = $15,000. May or may not be significant depending on your point of view.

Note that instructor hourly pay has doubled since 1994, far outpacing inflation. WHY? And total dollars going to instructors is "off the chart." This seems to imply more paid instructors working ever more hours. Not coincidentally, over the same period of time, the price of a general club membership has climbed much faster than the rate of inflation. Aichee wawa.

If you want to do your own analysis or check ours, ask Margaux or Michelle or another BOC member for the relevant data. I couldn't find info for all years (some disposed of perhaps by Mr. Rogers?), but I didn't spend that much time in the files either. However, all years aren't necessary to plot the overall trend.

Milking the Cow

Alright... after a mostly successful lift-in, it's finally time to start thinking about sailing!! And the first thing that comes to mind is how much it's going to cost. If you're not buddies with current club leaders (in which case it costs nothing), then it's cash up front, and non-refundable.

The graph shows the change in membership prices since the early 1990s, compared to the overall rate of inflation. Ouch. The numbers plotted are the price of a regular annual membership. It's apparent that the cost of joining Hoofers has far outpaced the rate of inflation. But why..?

Next time, we'll plot instructor pay over time and find out. :)

NOTE:
1. Some (but not all) years offered an "early annual" discount which explains the apparent dip in 2001. Most people took advantage (the regular price, if you waited, was typically $30 more), so the discounted price is what's plotted.
2. The prices include the "deposit" since fewer than 10% of club members ever get that money back.
3. Some years had additional fleet-specific fees (e.g. J skipper, Keelboat, short board, etc.); these were problematic and are not included here.
4. The cost for current students and non-student Union members was the same until the 2003-04 fiscal year, at which point they decided to really stick it to Union members.
5. The fiscal year doesn't match the sailing season, so in a sense, the years are +/- six months either way.
6. The chart was generated using CricketGraph for Mac.

Daddy's watching

The law says you can't expect privacy in a public place, and in that spirit, the new Union South--which is now officially open for business--is saturated with security cameras.

A quick, cursory, non-comprehensive count found 27 security cameras on the first floor alone, plus at least three outside. The actual total is likely higher than that assuming some of the cameras are mounted discreetly. Given that Union South is five stories tall, it's quite possible that the building contains more than A HUNDRED security cameras.

Does that sound at all unreasonable or scary to anyone..?

Next, we'll count security cameras at Memorial Union and Hoofers.