After reading the Inverloch Windsurfing Club post it reminded me that there have been times that people have approached me about starting a Mandurah/Peel Wsurf Club.
Given I burnt myself out with wsurf admin with the GTC, I have deliberately avoided taking any such committments on, coz one disadvatage is, that its always just a dedicated few that end up doing all the work, and at the same time carry the burden of everything that goes wrong. Just writing that last sentence turns me off the idea.
However, what would be the Pros/Cons of strating up such a club? I'll start:
Some thoughts about pros:
A Generic Club that welcomes all, avoids the tribal rivalry of GTC teams, and becomes a forum for a wider community, so all team members from all GTC teams, would be welcome and united within the club.
REsources and Facilities? A Club House? Gear storage, boat? Racing, Rescues?
Some thoughts about cons:
The burden falls on the usual few who put their hands up.
Admin burdens associated with clubs
Interpersonal conflict and personal politices within clubs.
What do people think? In particular non-mandurah/peel residents would there be an advantage to join the club for you?
In response to your last question Hardie, if there's some racing on I'll pay any membership fee you want and I'll drive down from Perth to attend every single event.
Im with Shane.
Aside from the Windforce Wed night slalom (which is awesome) there's no regular windsurf racing (slalom racing in particular) held in or near Perth. The social side of things would also be of benefit too, everyone Ive come across windsurfing has been great, no nastiness to speak of. The sailing clubs I've been associated with over the years have been great too, but not cheap to join.
Thats what would get me in.
It is, as you say a can of worms though, and it always ends up being the dedicated few that run the show 
Good initiative Hardie.
For assistance in maintaining admin you should contact the WWA Committee and you can be provided with all the information you need to adopt Tidy Club https://tidyclub.com/for-clubs/ for your admin platform - could help make life a whole lot easier!
If you need me for anything give me a shout. I can speak for my old man Barry Sorensen - he will pitch in where he can, too.
Cheers
Adam
Hardie were your ears burning last night? The development of Windsurfing in WA, this was a big topic last night at the monthly WWA meeting. Your name came up as a person to contact in regard to ideas for growth and support of windsurfing in the Mandurah area.
From a WWA point of view, a Mandurah / Peel club is all positives and we would provide all support we can.
In other states there are numerous clubs and they focus on the aspect of the sport they love most and the state association provides support for permits etc. In WA we don't have many clubs so it is tough for WWA to provide enough events that cover the needs of all. If a strong community of clubs can be grown in WA we will have a strong sport as the workload is spread over many not just a few.
Tidyclub has been awesome for reducing workload through automating membership etc. The Tidyclub guys are really helpful and always improving the tool. One idea they have suggest is setting up the WWA site so any club is linked into the WWA site (https://tidyclub.com/associations/). This means a club would not have to start from scratch which is a win win for everyone.
I guess it could give us more of a voice with the "authorities".
Could we make the rockgarden markers more formal with perhaps an explanatory diagram at Novara?
The Mandurah yacht club has also offered to take a windsurfing club under it's wing, that could also have pros and cons.
I'm not into racing, so that side of a club has no appeal for me, but other benefits could persuade me to join.
We at Safety Bay Windsurfing Club would be happy to meet up with proponents of a Mandurah club and WWA to talk about how we might all work together. We are primarily a social windsurfing club so don't organise competitive events. And we have all the issues that Hardie raises about people not having much spare time for organisation. Our windsurfing events tend to be fairly informal as a result.
Euan and June.
Hi Euan, June and Hardie,
In the next few weeks (soon anyway) we are trying to organise a planning sessions to thrash out ways to build/support windsurfing in WA and you will be on the invite list.
Anyone else with a good idea, email them through to info@windsurfingwa.org.au
Tim
why not approach a sailing club ?
Kite racers now have two clubs in mounts bay and fremantle who hold weekly race meetings for us and those weekends we don't have anything formal like last sunday we had a safety boat at our disposal and dropped our own marks and had informal racing .
One idea the WWA committee is kicking around at the moment is to setup groups from each major sailing location.
Setting up a club is great but takes a lot of work to support and maintain from an admin stand point i.e. kills the fun. The idea we have is that the WWA infrastructure is used by a groups to minimise admin and enable the group to run the events, training or gathering they want to do at their spot.
Something like a sub committee.
The Rep for each location would attend the WWA committee meetings to act as the "go between". There would be no need to attend each monthly meeting but regularly to ensure good flow of ideas and support.
Thanx to all those that have responded, but the overall response as usual has been very under-whelming. Re: joining the Mandutah Yatch Club, we have made enquiries and the case for joining was presented to us, It was a $500 annual membership fee, and there was zero interest after that, people would rather spend the money on gear and sail where and when they want. The nature of most windsurders (In Madurah Anyway), is the free spirit type. So maybe WWA's last idea re regional groups is a good one? Only issue is who would be prepared to travel to Perth every couple of months for a meeting? With my committments, I would say my giving up 2 hrs road travel, and however many hours at a meeting will just turn me off that one. What about a phone link up when the Mandurah Events Agenda Item would be discussed at a WWA meeting?
At the moment we are testing a couple of ways to handle meetings remotely (Google Hangout, Google Community, maybe even skype). People having time for meeting is our #1 issue to resolve/improve on at the moment.
The first step to making this all work is getting all the admin discussion done outside of meetings so that meetings can focus on the real issues like events and development.
Hardie I don't think it would be impossible to find a delegate to attend as liaison though in the interest of keeping things simple the WWA suggestion of electronic media would be worth exploring.
Speak to Barry and myself on the liaison option. I am up here already and Barry travels up on business and also to see grandkids and may be interested as he could stay overnight up here. He is a past WA boardsailing association president incidentally.
He may shoot me for nominating him in his absence but as I recall from the early days and to this day, its often how these positions are filled.. ;)
