FROM THE EDITOR...
By Steve VanderVoort, Telltale Editor
The weather's a bit warmer, and that signals perhaps Spring may be just around the corner. And things are certainly heating up at Sail Chicago! A lot is starting to happen as we prepare for another fantastic sailing season on our beloved Lake Michigan. Just look above at the Table to Contents to see what's happening, but then make sure that you get all the details by reading this newsletter completely through. You'll find that exciting things are happening, and we don't want you to miss out on something you might enjoy!
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ELECTION FOR THE SAIL CHICAGO BOARD OF DIRECTORS
By Gerry Stacy, Board Chair
 The election for the Sail Chicago Board of Directors opened this past Tuesday, February 28. All Sail Chicago members who have paid their 2023 membership fee are eligible to vote. Current members have been e-mailed links to their online ballots, so check your e-mail (and your spam folder!) to look for your invitation to vote. And if you have not yet renewed your membership, you will be e-mailed a link to your ballot no more than 24 hours after you renew.
Voting will close with the start of the Annual Meeting on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 7:00 pm. In order to ensure that you receive a ballot and are able to vote, please renew your membership no later than noon on Tuesday, March 7. And please plan to attend the Annual Meeting, where the results of the election will be announced. You can find information about the Annual Meeting including an online link to attend on the landing page of my.sailchicago.org.
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OPEN HOUSE AT THE BOATYARD APRIL 1
By Rich Costello, Maintenance Coordinator
 Come join your friends and other Sail Chicago members at the Canal Street Marina, 2059 S Canal Street in Chicago on Saturday April 1, 10:00 am to Noon, rain or shine. This is a great opportunity to see our fleet drydocked and all in one spot. Did you ever wonder what's under the waterline on a boat that you're sailing? Well, now's your chance to find out. See our maintenance teams at work and discover the fun involved in getting our fleet ready for the coming sailing season. Also, get a first peek at the newest addition to our Colgate fleet, Cretin Hop and see our newest maintenance trailer. Our Maintenance Teams and Social Committee are joint sponsors of this event. If you'd like to share in the free donuts and coffee that will be available, please register here so that we can know how many people will be coming.
Things you can do when you get there, or simply walk around on your own.
- 10:00 am Registration and meet and greet
- 10:30 am Tour of the boat yard and the Sail Chicago fleet
- 11:00 am Scavenger hunt
- 11:30 am Knot tying demonstration and competition
- 12:00 pm Attendees are invited to come to lunch in nearby Chinatown, pay-your-own-way
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NEW SAFETY AT SEA REQUIREMENT FOR PROGRAM SKIPPERS
By Gerry Stacy, Board Chair
 Sail Chicago has a new requirement for all Program Skippers aimed at bolstering our collective preparedness and promoting safety. Effective May 1, 2023, all Program Skippers are required to have passed US Sailing's Safety at Sea: Coastal online course in order to continue in these roles. This requirement applies to all Instructors, Tiller Time Skippers, Member Cruise Outing Skippers, and Community Cruise Outing Skippers. The course costs $50 ($45 if you're a US Sailing member), and Sail Chicago will reimburse you this cost once you provide proof of having passed the course.
You can upload your course completion certificate and apply for your reimbursement here.
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CLASS ROLLOUT IS COMING SOON!
By Gerry Stacy, Board Chair
The days are getting longer, brighter, and warmer. Spring is getting closer. And that means that sailing is on the horizon! The instruction program is gearing up, and we're eager to welcome both our returning students and all the new students who are looking to give sailing a try.
We're still finalizing our 2023 schedule of classes, but here's some information about how our course rollout will take place this season.
- We will publish the schedule of classes by late March. Everyone will have several days to review the course schedule before registration opens. And remember: you don't have to be a member to see the class schedule or register for classes. If you find a class that fits your schedule, you can pay your membership fee at the same time you register for the class.
- Our registration rollout will begin with students who completed the First Mate class last year. They will be given several days to register for Skipper Prep classes. We hope this wave will start before the end of March.
- After this first wave, we will open registration to students who completed the Crew class last year. They will be given several days to register for First Mate and Skipper Prep classes. We hope this wave will start in early April
- Finally, by mid-April, we will open our entire course schedule and our Crew classes to the public.
Demand for our classes is very high, and the fact is that our learn-to-sail courses will likely fill up completely before the season even begins. But people's plans change and seats do open up through the summer. So, as in past years, we will maintain waitlists for each class, and we'll do our best to get as many students into classes this summer as we can!
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CLASS REGISTRATION AND CANCELLATION POLICY
With the start of the 2023 instruction season, Sail Chicago is rolling out a new registration and cancellation policy which provides information to students on everything from selecting the right class to dropping classes, class cancellations and makeups, and refunds. You can read the new policy here and on the Sail Chicago website. And all students will be asked to acknowledge that they have read and understand the policy when they register for classes on my.sailchicago.org.
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2022 SURVEY RESULTS
By Rachel Granneman
 Thank you to the 125 people who completed the 2022 Membership survey! The survey is a great way for the DEI Committee and Sail Chicago leadership to track not only demographics but also satisfaction and feedback across many programs and areas.
A few interesting data points from this year’s survey (please keep in mind that this was an entirely voluntary survey and that information has not been validated):
- The #1 reason that people joined Sail Chicago is that it is an inexpensive way to sail (80% selected this as one of the reasons – multiple reasons could be selected); other top reasons included that Sail Chicago offers sailing classes (73.6%), and that Sail Chicago has boats available for private reservations (65.6%).
- The largest age bracket was 35-44 (with 24.8% of respondents), the next bracket was 55-64 (19.2%) and then 25-34 (15.2%).
- A large majority of members identify as male (72.8%), with 22.5% identifying as female, and the remainder choosing not to answer. This appears to reflect some progress toward greater female representation, as a larger percentage (78%) of respondents identified as male in the 2020 survey.
- A large majority of members identify as white or Caucasian (86.4%), which is more than in 2020, which indicates that there is still a lot of work to do for Sail Chicago’s membership to reflect the general demographics of the Chicago area.
- About 5% of members identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, which is less than in 2020, indicating that there is still work to do for Sail Chicago’s membership to reflect the general demographics of the Chicago area.
- There is strong overall satisfaction with Sail Chicago and its various programs; for most of these questions, the most-selected answer (on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 indicating the highest level of satisfaction) was 4 for most questions; there were only 3 questions where “3” was the most-selected answer, indicating a desire for more classes, MCOs, and opportunities for non-Skippers to go sailing.
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SAIL CHICAGO 2023 SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
By Ashleigh Luttery
 The DEI Committee is continuing our scholarship program as part of Sail Chicago’s commitment to increase diversity, equity, and inclusivity among its members within the organization as well as in the sport of sailing. The goal is to promote the sport of sailing to groups that have historically faced barriers to participation, such as people of color in the United States and people from low socioeconomic households. These barriers have included racial segregation in/exclusion from boating clubs, actual or perceived lack of access or acceptance, and/or high costs of participation in the sport.
The application is open until March 18, 2023. Recipients will participate in Sail Chicago’s beginner Crew classes (including Pre-Sail Orientation and US Sailing Basic Keelboat online course fees), have membership fees covered, along with priority access to class sign up. New this year, scholarship recipients will also have Racing sign up fees covered if they complete their Crew course and would like to try Racing!
If you know someone within your network who may be interested in applying, please share the application link here. The application can also be found on Sail Chicago’s homepage banner at sailchicago.org.
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VOLUNTEERING IN 2023
By Gerry Stacy, Board Chair
As we all look forward to the start of the 2023 sailing season, the volunteerism team would like to remind you to start thinking about how you’re going to contribute to the life of our organization this year. There are many opportunities to fulfill your service time requirement which can take advantage of the skills and abilities you already have, or perhaps teach you something new.
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Our volunteerism site is now showing all the positions available for 2023. If you reported your volunteering hours last year and indicated that you wanted to continue in your current assignment, you've probably been re-assigned to that same position or positions. You can check your 2023 volunteer assignments on the volunteering website, too.
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If you’re considering joining Sail Chicago as a new member, remember that your service time requirement is waived for your first year.
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Returning members, if you don’t think you’ll have time to meet your service time requirement in 2023, please get in touch with the volunteering team at volunteer@sailchicago.org. The team can adjust your account so you can select and pay for the Service Time Waiver when you renew your membership. This will waive your need to volunteer during the current season.
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And remember, if you fail to meet your service time requirement in 2023, either because you didn’t volunteer for a position or you failed to fulfill the responsibilities of the position you were assigned, you will be required to pay a service time waiver for the 2023 season before you can renew your membership in 2024.
There are plenty of volunteer opportunities available each season, and many of them can be carried out in just a few hours each month. If you're not sure where to start or what you'd like to do, reach out to the volunteer team at volunteer@sailchicago.org. And keep an eye out for the Volunteer Job Fair which we will host later this spring. It will give you a chance to meet with leaders in all of Sail Chicago's programs and explore ways you can contribute.
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RHODES 19 BOAT MANAGERS AND ASSISTANT BOAT MANAGERS NEEDED!
By Tim Rice
 We are looking for a few motivated and organized Sail Chicago members to help lead one of our Rhodes 19 boat teams. No experience is necessary, we will train you on the job. All that is needed is a strong willingness to learn. The primary duties are assuming shared responsibility for one of our Rhodes 19 boats and helping to lead a small team of volunteers during pre-season, in-season, and post-season maintenance. You should either be a Rhodes 19 skipper or be on the path toward becoming one. Our pre-season maintenance begins in April, so now is the time to get involved. If you have any questions or if you are interested, please contact Tim Rice at ricetj@gmail.com.
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VOLUNTEER NEEDED: HELP US ARCHIVE OUR OLD NEWSLETTERS!
 Are you looking for a volunteer opportunity that you can:
- Do at home?
- Do in your spare time?
- Make a huge contribution to Sail Chicago?
Look no further!
We recently switched the service that we use to publish this newsletter. But before we can cancel the subscription to our old newsletter publisher, we need to download and store all of our old newsletters that are stored on that site. This is an easy task that can be done from home on your computer. We'll walk you through how to do this work then you can work at your own pace to finish the job. This will help us to preserve our history and maintain the newsletter archive on our website.
If you think you can help us out, please get in touch with the volunteer team at volunteer@sailchicago.org. We really need someone's help with this!
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CALL FOR VIDEOGRAPHERS
 By Doug Sink
We’re looking for a team to create instruction videos this season. The video team will create the content, record the video, edit and post on our Sail Chicago YouTube channel. Interested? Do you have video production skills? To prepare we'll have a pre-season meeting. Please contact me at ddsink@icloud.com or 630-418-1318.
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UPCOMING SOCIAL EVENTS: SAVE THE DATES
By Jack & Deb Griffin, Social Coordinators
 The Sail Chicago social calendar is getting into full swing. Here are some upcoming dates that you should post to your calendar. More information will follow later.
- 2023 Spring Kickoff Party Columbia Yacht Club May 20, 2023 3:00pm-5:00pm
- 2023 Family & Friends Picnic Belmont Harbor August 12, 2023 10:00am-5:00pm
- 2023 End of Season Dinner October 12, 2023 Columbia Yacht Club 6:30pm-9:30pm
- Happy Hours for the months of June, July and September are also being planned with dates and locations to be announced later.
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LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER NEEDED
By Kenn Sinko
 If you’ve ever admired lighthouses from a distance and wondered what it might be like to spend a week in one as a volunteer “keeper”, here is your chance. The Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum located at the tip of Michigan’s little finger has vacancies in their volunteer keeper’s program. As a keeper, you live on site in part of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse, while your duties for the week involve guest services to the visiting public and varied maintenance tasks. General information on the keeper program is available here. And there is an online calendar that shows which weeks have keeper vacancies. Sail Chicago member Kenn Sinko and his wife have been keepers on multiple occasions, and found it to be a fascinating experience.
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BASIC NAVIAGTION COURSE TO BE OFFERED AGAIN
By Dan Pilch
Sail Chicago will be hosting a Basic Navigation charting course again this year. Keep an eye on Sail Chicago's Slack messages and the online class schedule for details.
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SAIL CHICAGO MEMBERS VISIT MARITIME MUSEUM
 Sail Chicago members had a great time at the Chicago Maritime Museum on January 21. After examining all of the exhibits and learning about the city's great maritime history, there was plenty of time to socialize with fellow members and with museum staff. If you'd like to see some photos of the event, please click here.
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U.S. SAILING SURVEYS ONE DESIGN RACERS
 Every two years U.S. Sailing surveys one design racers across the country. The results of the 2022 survey were presented at the recent U.S. Sailing Leadership Forum. Sail Chicago members, particularly those participating in our racing program, may be interested in those results. They contain a lot of useful information. To view the results of the survey, please click here.
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SAIL GRAND PRIX TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW
On June 16-17 Navy Pier will be transformed into the SailGP Race Village featuring stadium viewing – the only way to watch the racing from land. Tickets start at $35 and are on sale now. For more information, click here.
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SAIL CHICAGO REMINDERS
Who to Contact
Need information on an area in Sail Chicago, but don't know who to contact? Just click here.
Join or Renew Your US Sailing Membership at a Discount Through MVP
Sail Chicago members can join or renew their US Sailing membership at a $10 discount through the US Sailing Member Value Partner program.
Sail Chicago Gear
Purchase gear with the Sail Chicago logo on it. Caps, shirts, pants and other gear are available. To shop now, click here.
Like us on Facebook
You'll get updates, reminders, and other information on Sail Chicago events and activities. Click here.
Missing Previous Issues of The Telltale?
You can always find the current issue and an archive of previous issues of The Telltale at the first (and open to the public) page of the Sail Chicago website.Look under "News/Newsletter."
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Click on the links below to find more information about Sail Chicago.
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