OWSA ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hello to all of my beautiful sailing sisters!

This month, I'd like to take a look at the word responsibility. Responsibility defined, is the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or having control over someone. Used in a sentence, "A true leader takes responsibility for their team and helps them achieve goals."

In the art of dance, each participant is held with the responsibility of maintaining their own structure during the movement to allow a safe space for the other. If one partner is too loose, the other might trip on some toes. If a partner is too rigid or controlling, it could cause the other to lose trust or feel the dance is too aggressive. Either way, one person (or both) inevitably lose interest in the dance and stagnation can form. It's an interesting way to look at the positions we find ourselves in.

If we are able to take responsibility for the dance in life we have entered, we can find space to build a solid structure and allow room for beautiful, flowing movement and away from stagnation.

I am astounded when I look into this beautiful group of volunteers and I see us all taking responsibility for the tasks we acknowledge or take on. When this happens, trust is formed and we are all able to take a breath of fresh air, stability is found and we can trust that each other's tasks will get done in good faith and in a timely manner. What once seemed overwhelming can become very manageable and beauty is born.

The last thing I can truly say here is, Thank You. Thank you all for showing up and taking responsibility throughout the easy times - but especially for taking responsibility and being here for yourselves and each other through these especially hard times we have faced.

Now that we can all see the sun shining, the kids are playing outside, it's not raining anymore and we're all coming back out of our seclusion, let's be thankful for the feelings of responsibility that have gotten us all through all of this.

I look forward to whatever the rest of the year brings us and am excited to see you all at the picnic. Stay safe and have fun!

Commodore Jen

ANNUAL PICNIC

The OWSA picnic will take place on Saturday, July 10th from 2:00pm to 4:30pm.

The picnic will be held at Cathedral City Park, a historic 22-acre park, located at 6635 N. Baltimore Ave., Portland, OR 97203.

Cathedral Park sits under the historic St. Johns Bridge on the banks of the Willamette River. This park, historically a Lewis & Clark landing site, has a boat dock, paved paths and overlooks the St. Johns Bridge with its 400-foot cathedral-like arches. There is a nice dock to walk on and boats can dock during the day.

Hamburgers and hot dogs will be provided and grilled, and beverages will be provided. Please bring whatever other food you would like to eat; sharing a dish is ok, but not necessary - so please do what is comfortable. Please bring folding chairs, a blanket and any games you may enjoy. Look for the balloons or friends you know.

It will be fun to see everyone now that restrictions have been lifted and we can meet in person!

Sail on over on July 10th!

BOAST PROGRAM

Summer has just hit and we have two open spots in our BOAST Program!

If you'd like to get your hands on a boat but were too late to make it in to BOAST please feel free to contact Melissa boast@owsa.net and get your application in ASAP for a prorated fee!

BYLAW REVIEW

The Bylaw review is finally here! To recap our efforts, after the completion of an hour-long Bylaw Review meeting, which was held in the evening on May 13, it was realized that there was insufficient time within which to complete the entire Bylaw review.

In order to get us all on the same page so we have a more complete picture of our Bylaws to discuss, OWSA's Board has decided that it would be best to allow it's Commodore to complete the entire Bylaw review, describing the document as it is written, in video format and get it to each of you as promised at the May General Meeting, for your review. Now that is completed, we can have another meeting to discuss the Bylaws and Nomination Policy in their entirety. The meeting time and date are below.

This is an effort to help us all understand the election process that will face us at the end of the year. Knowledge is power and we believe it may be helpful to share the reasons why behind how our elections are meant to take place, as it is written in our governing document.

Please follow the link below to the Bylaw review and a copy of our Nomination Policy, which is also posted in the member portal of the OWSA website.

Thank you for reaching the end of the video so that we can truly hear the entire document out as we work to come to the same page. We are happy to share what we have learned and are truly looking forward to whatever discussion shall follow.

Link to Bylaw Video:

https://youtu.be/hU3Dxm8DJVM

Link to Nomination Policy: In case this link doesn't work, there is a copy of this Policy saved in the Member Portal once you login to OWSA.net. To find it, click on "Member Portal" at the top of your screen and you will find a link to the Nomination Policy in the grey box to the right of the screen.

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Location: Zoom - Since this is a meeting for members, you will need to login to the Member Portal to get the link from the OWSA Calendar. For any questions, please email commodore@owsa.net.

Date: July 14, 2021

Time: 6:30-7:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT SAIL (WNS)

YES, it IS happening!!! WNS!!! AWESOME!!!

July Wednesday Night Safe Sails are next Wednesday July 7, 2021 and Wed. July 21, 2021. Want to come out? You need to be at the dock at 5:30pm.

To signup, login to OWSA.net, across the top of the page ... just under the OWSA logo you will see "Calendar/Book Event", select that and a new page will show the calendar events. You will see July WNS, on the right side click "Book". You will get a new screen and at the bottom, under "WNS Crew" select "Book". You will get a confirmation email.

NAUTI DRINKS

Come hang with your incredible sailing sisters at The Sextant, 4035 NE Marine Dr, Portland, OR. This is a great way to connect with other OWSA members off the water. See you there!

Location: The Sextant, 4035 NE Marine Dr, Portland

Date: July 16th

Time: 6:30pm

EDUCATION

As of June 28, OWSA racers wound up a very successful series of Race Clinics with the OWSA Women’s Regatta. The OWSA Women's Regatta was postponed due to heat, but kudos to the Race Committee and Steph Walker for coordinating this amazing Race Clinic! This great event celebrated all the fun and growth of sailing skills that the participants experienced during 6 weeks of racing practice and guided learning.

OWSA Cruising Basics class is up and running as of June 23rd, and is sold out. Whether chartering, taking your own boat or just crewing, we are taking a look at the details involved in taking a boat out for an extended time: where, when, planning, skills needed, basic navigation, health and safety, and more. Yes, the itch to travel is still with us, and travel on water has its unique qualities.

OWSA is also pleased to offer a two day Basic Motor Maintenance class, July 9th and 16th, led by our major supporter, the inimitable Alison Mazon, A.M.S.. The class will cover both outboard and inboard engine maintenance. No matter what type you have, knowing the basics of both will grow your confidence and will assure you of having an idea of what to do when the old (or brand new) iron horse won’t go. Space is limited for this small hands on class.

CODE OF CONDUCT SURVEY

Thank you to everyone who responded to this survey! The Board wanted to get as much feedback from as many members as possible, so thank you to Fernanda, our amazing Communications Coordinator, for suggesting an incentive. Of our 149 members, we had 36 responses to the survey and 11 of those were received after the last reminder was sent out. The winner of the $50 West Marine Gift Card is Emily Hackett - Congratulations Emily!

Less than 25% of our members responded to the survey, of which 26 think the Code of Conduct is a good idea, 8 are unsure and 2 members didn’t think it was necessary. The Board values your feedback and we will use this information to continue the work to finalize the Code of Conduct. Check out the survey results on the OWSA member portal for more information:

https://owsa.net/member-page/code-of-conduct-survey

VOLUNTEER OPENINGS

OWSA is always looking for members that can volunteer to help OWSA meet our mission of getting more ladies on the water. If you are interested in volunteering with a fun team of ladies, please contact Oshra Rapaport, our Volunteer Coordinator at volunteer@owsa.net.

- Wednesday Night Sail Coordinator

- First Mate Coordinator

- Fundraising Coordinator

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We are also looking for Board Members to fill vacancies coming in 2022. Open positions are as follows:

- Vice Commodore

- Education Director

- Secretary

- Treasurer

If you are interested in volunteering on the Board next year, please email Jen at commodore@owsa.net.

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COVID GUIDELINES UPDATE

We support our Community Skippers and it is important that all sailors feel safe during OWSA Events given that we are still in a pandemic.

OWSA Safety Guidelines will be altered to align with OHA guidelines.
OWSA on the water events align with the decision of the sailors. Ultimately skippers are property owners, thus if OHA allows a business owner to make decisions on masking policies, OWSA honors the skipper to make those decisions for their crew. OWSA members are encouraged to show vaccination cards to skippers, and encouraged to advocate your needs to feel safe with your skippers.
OWSA Meetings and OWSA held events held outdoors: Masks are encouraged, but optional if vaccinated, and is managed on the honor system. Social distancing is recommended.
Indoor OWSA held events require all attendees to wear a mask until further notice.

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VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

Berry Kruijnin has jumped into OWSA's pool with both feet and has been an outstanding source of support as the Class Registrar for the Education department this year.

Berry grew up around water in The Netherlands and has sailed her whole life. She learned to sail when she was 5 on a pond behind her home. From there, she graduated to a lake. By the time she was 13, she had done her first 16-day off shore trip to Norway (from The Netherlands). She has sailed many nautical miles off shore on the North Sea, English Channel and Atlantic, to Scandinavia, England, France, and Spain. Logged over 15K nautical miles. She has owned and skippered 3 sail boats so far and co-skippered her 30-foot boat for 5 years on the ocean.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, she has gained a ton of racing experience as crew on the Columbia on a J30 and later in the Cal 20 fleet for about 12 years, as well as cruising in the San Juan Islands.

At OWSA, until becoming the Class Registrar she had mostly participated in the Wednesday Night Sail program. She loves being out on the water either on a sailboat or in a kayak and has rejoined OWSA after a few years break. We would all be pretty lucky to get to know Berry a little better and are so thankful for her time and effortless effort as she has taken on the roll of Class Registrar. Thank you so much Berry, for all you do!

"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us."
—Unknown

Oregon Women's Sailing Association
(meetings are not at this address)
865 NE Tomahawk Island Dr
Ste 102-198
Portland, OR 97217