Nominees for Commodore must have previously served at least two years as Officer or a committee chair.
I started at SMSA only 6 years ago shortly after we moved down here to Solomons. Since then, I have been the Facility chair, the Cruise chair, the Rear Commodore and last year Commodore.
I asked the question as facility chair “what did we want to be when we grew up?”. The issue then was frustration with making improvements to a building and facility that we didn’t own. Luckily for me that was answered by having a board group that was in favor of trying to own our premises. The board group led by David Meiser included myself, and we all worked to get a purchase agreement added to our lease and then a financing structure to allow it to happen.
Membership stood by us, voted overwhelmingly to support the purchase and provided us the financial means to actually achieve it. As your Commodore, my role was to support the club, invest in it, and as the officer in charge sign the checks and documents which I did. We couldn’t have done that without consistent member direction and a team with that same focus. We did it. Thanks
My 2025 focus will be to ensure that we can continue to operate our club while making sure that we are addressing our future financial needs. The current financing is member provided but in the next 10 years we need to be able to repay our lenders and be ready to pass the requirements for performance metrics that any commercial lender will require us to provide. Some of those are the number of members and retention of them as dues increase gradually, our loan to assets ratio, our income to expenditure ratio and others. So, my 2025 job is to start collecting the data and provide future boards with a sound financial basis beyond that. We need to do this before we can consider any grander plan of premises improvements.
Our club is a primarily a volunteer organization and some of the positions have been difficult to fill and keep filled. Our organization structure particularly that of Treasurer has been an all-encompassing one and so we need to add a support structure to the role to simplify the various aspects of it. I will be looking to have a service provide some of this support which we audit, manage and direct. The way we are setup there is a possibly annual turnover in personnel and that happens to coincide with tax season. A 3rd party service will help with those transitions.
Many of our tools were selected to solve a problem without necessarily looking at the big picture to see whether they would create other problems. The complexity has also led to a consolidation that doesn’t support volunteering. So my plan is to look at simplifying how we do things, what tools we use, how they interconnect, and who can use them.
I’m offering up my services for a 2nd and final year as your commodore and look for your support to do so. Thank You for the privilege.
My family joined SMSA in 1973, shortly after we moved to the area, and I have actively participated in all SMSA programming since that time. I am married with three children, Mallory (33), Ellie (31), and Henry J (18). My wife Jacki (SMSA member since 1979), son Henry J (SMSA member since birth), and I have been very involved for decades, in many club activities including racing (currently on our Melges 32, “One Trick Pony”), cruising our Baybuilt, teaching at summer camp, participating in and helping with the Small Boat Program, and organizing Screwpile Race Week. For the past year, I have served at Vice Commodors, prior to that, I served for two years as the SMSA Commodore. In prior years, I have served as Facilities Chair, Keelboat Racing Chair, Yearbook Chair, and I have served as a Director on the SMSA Board for several terms. SMSA has been a large part of my life and I hope to keep the Club in a position to help others, for generations to come, to learn and enjoy the world of sailing as I have been able to do. My goal is for SMSA to be a club that excels in providing membership programming, runs efficiently, and is positioned to be sustainable into the future. I hope to attract and maintain a membership body that views sailing as a lifestyle and has long term commitment to SMSA.
I first started racing with SMSA in 1999 while still a student at St. Mary's College. I joined the club a few years later after getting a job with NAVAIR and buying a small boat of my own. Along the way I served as small boat chair or co-chair from 2015-2018. Prior to that I also served a year as vice commodore, as well as a partial term filling in for a gapped treasurer position. I appreciate the time and effort it takes to keep an all volunteer organization running. After several years of just enjoying the benefits of our race programs, I am running for Rear Commodore and I am happy to do my part to contribute once more.
I am currently an Emeritus member. My wife and I joined SMSA in 2004. Over the past 20 years I have served in multiple Chair positions and Officer Positions. I have served as Club Treasurer, Vice Commodore, and Commodore.
In 2012 I stepped in as the interim Treasurer to fill out the term of the elected Treasurer, and was elected to the Treasurer position in 2013 thru 2015. I served as Vice Commodore in 2016 and 2017, and was elected to Commodore in 2018 and 2019. I retired from Commodore to the Bar Manager position.
As Club Treasurer I want to simplify and streamline our financial reporting. With the acquisition of our clubhouse we will need to provide our investors and membership timely and accurate financial reporting.
As a member of SMSA since 2000, I have served in various capacities, most recently this year as your Secretary and previously as Secretary, Membership Chair, Social Chair, Small Boat Program Co-Chair, Summer Camp Administrative Coordinator, and Clew Editor. I am an active race participant in the keelboat program and was active in the small boat and women’s programs. Having served as a member of the Capital Planning Committee in 2004 to explore and report on the feasibility of possible future sites for a clubhouse and supporting facilities for SMSA programs, I am thrilled about our recent property acquisition and appreciative of the vast efforts of many who brought this to fruition. It is a monumental accomplishment for SMSA, and its members and I am looking forward to the opportunities this creates for all of us. My profession as a Corporate Secretary has provided me with the knowledge and necessary skills to perform the current and expanded duties of SMSA Secretary and I look forward to continuing to serve on the Board in 2025 and hope that the membership will allow me the privilege
2 candidates from those listed below will be elected.
I have been a member of SMSA for about 2 years. In that time, I have served as Junior Co-Chair, have made various repairs around the club, helped out with RC duties, and actively raced on Stingray. My wife and I are also frequent participants in club social events. My sailing experience spans over 5 decades, from local and ocean races to trans Atlantic passages, in boats from under 10 feet to nearly 100 feet, and my wife and I have cruised our 43' sailboat almost 10,000nm in remote and rugged parts of the US and Canada. I have been on the Board (Vice Commodore) of another sailing club with over 700 members. I am also a degreed and licensed engineer, with a career that frequently included profit/loss responsibility, as well as a strong focus on budget responsibilities. I am now retired, and have the time to commit to a responsibility such as this. I believe that over the next several years, the club has to keep a keen eye on financial management, with the goal of ensuring that we are well positioned in 2032 or 2033 to pursue follow-on financing for our club mortgage. This does not mean that we pinch every penny, nor does it mean that we make no improvements on the club -- but it does mean that we keep a fiscally conservative foundation while also working to attract and grow membership. I welcome questions from anyone, and I hope I can count on your vote.
My name is Elliott Peterson and I’d like to ask for your vote as one of the 2025 SMSA directors. I’m currently finishing my first term as a member of the Board of Directors and would be honored to serve another term during this exciting time in SMSA's history. For those that do not know me I’m a lifelong sailor and a racer/cruiser with my wife Alexa on our Dufour 40 STINGRAY. We enjoy visiting new places on our boat while meeting and teaching new people to sail. We also love racing Wednesday nights and the competition and friendships that sailing brings. I enjoy helping new racers get into racing on their new boats, so it’s fun seeing boats like Dangerous, Red Baron and T-bone improving with each week they race. I’m so happy SMSA is the growing, welcoming organization it is and look forward to passing on some of the sailing stuff I know to other SMSA sailors. I think my experience in both sailboat racing and cruising helps me better represent a pretty large group of SMSA sailors! I hope you are one of them that will vote for me!