COMMANDER’S MESSAGE, Cdr. Dennis Johns, AP
Congratulations to Peggy Ciolino and Betty Koch for organizing and delivering a fabulous Change of Watch on February 17 at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club. The yacht club is a beautiful venue and the chef did a marvelous job on the dinner. In addition to the wonderful opportunity to socialize during the cocktail hour, the evening was full of entertainment with the imaginative raffle prizes and the touching and sometimes hilarious awards ceremony. Oh yes, and I was installed as your new Commander. As my bridge joined me on the dais, I was comforted by the fact that I will be supported by many of the most active and experienced members of the squadron.
I hope you will join me in welcoming some changes I plan to make and continue to enjoy the many traditional activities we will repeat this year. The first change is quite obvious and has to do with the Signal Hoist. The Signal Hoist will not be printed and mailed each month this year. Members will receive an email with a link that will take them to our very attractive and functional website where it can be read online or downloaded to be printed. Until we get this functioning we will continue to email you the newsletter as a PDF file.
Another change of which you will soon become aware is that the agenda of monthly meetings is being revised. We will have a business meeting only once a quarter and the other first Thursdays of the months will be special events. If you attend the Wednesday, March 7 meeting, you (and I) will have learned how this is working.
The Squadron Roster you recently received (thanks to Rich Ciolino) includes our squadron 2018/2019 Calendar of Events. The first activity at the district level is the District Conference coming up in March but the date and venue have not been determined.