Fishing Bay Yacht Club is a "participation" yacht club. Our Racing and Social events are run by our members.. Membership assistance is crucial. New members as well as old are expected to provide at least two (2) days' service to one of the committees set forth in the membership application.
   -  FBYC Membership Application

Membership participation in organizing, staffing, and running FBYC-sponsored events and club projects is the key to our ability to offer a robust and varied racing program. Volunteering provides ways for newcomers and experienced hands alike to increase their skills and knowledge and to get to know members they might not encounter in the course of their usual activities at the club. Early each year, various board members recruit Chairs for our many events. Chairs find their assistants primarily from the general membership. The Club cannot function without this valuable resource.

There are three keys to making this work: making sure people anxious to volunteer know who to get in touch with; making sure we know who may have particular interests; and keeping track of who has volunteered in what capacity, so future Chairs can find experienced help.

• The first is a matter of communicating the identity of Chairs for our events.
• The second requires members to let us know of any particular areas of interest or expertise.
• The third depends on our Chairs recording the names of the members who help out, for future reference.

We have developed web-based tools accessed via our club website that directly address all three needs.

VOLUNTEER TOOLS ON THE WEB SITE

Assignment of Chairs: The Sailing Events pages are updated continually during the year to show the current calendar and assignments of Chairs for each event. For Members only, their names are underlined to indicate a link to their contact information. Any member who is willing to help any particular Chair, or just wants to give Race Committee or any other task a try, is asked to e-mail or contact the Chair, or Division Officer if you don’t know the Chairs, to volunteer to assist.

Volunteer System on the Website: In 2006, we introduced MyFBYC, and in 2007 we completed and rolled out the system to record who serves as volunteers at each event. With the current web navigation, all volunteer-related links are found on the MEMBERS pages where Members will see the following volunteer-related web pages:

• MyFBYC- a page where Members can enter their volunteer preferences and update preferences for the entire family as interests change.
  • The System – how to use the system
  • Volunteering – has 4 subsections
  • Search Lists – search various lists
  • Recent Volunteers – displays who has been recorded as a volunteer

Event Volunteers: Every event web page has a listing at the bottom of the Volunteer Positions (only visible to Members who are logged into the website) that need to be filled for the event. Members are invited to fill any position by clicking the Email Interest link – which sends an email to the Event Managers. Or – the event managers have a link on the same page to a page where they can input the names of the volunteers they have lined up. When the names are recorded, their names then show up on the Event Pages – again only visible to Members who are logged into the website. The volunteer service is also recorded under each Member’s name; if you visit MyFBYC, you will see the events where your service was recorded.

Recording Volunteers: When an event is over, we ask the Event Managers or the Chairs to update the event by recording the names of any additional members who helped out, and the capacity in which they volunteered. This information is maintained in the archives so that future Chairs can see who may have helped out in a particular position in years past.

We are still learning how take best advantage of these tools, but they are already proving their worth, and as using them becomes second nature, we will find ways to make them even more efficient, which in turn will allow us to continue to elevate the level of what we accomplish with member volunteers.

Thank You for your Volunteer Service