Newsletter #4 - Our Annual Meeting at Alice's

November 2023
Bob Rice

The Annual Meeting has been a wonderful prelude to the Holiday Season for many years, and this year was no different. It was a beautiful day for fifty-eight members to convene at Alice’s Restaurant for a food buffet that was both delicious and plentiful. (check out this interesting article on the restaurant - https://share.newsbreak.com/5hp2w93m) The meeting, itself, was a combination of elections, the presentation of well-deserved awards, the passing of the gavel of leadership, and an ample dash of tomfoolery.

After we enjoyed the buffet, outgoing President, Jackie Loughridge, called the meeting to order and shared a poignant family story of her grandfather’s Century Resorter. She was an outstanding President and will be remembered as just that. She navigated our ship of state through the tumultuous waters of Covid with a calm demeanor and a steady hand. Our Chapter was wellswerved by her leadership. And happily, she’s, “not going anywhere”...her words, so her contributions will continue. Jackie completed her initial comments by thanking the Board of Directors for their contributions, and she presented plaques of recognition and thanks to those Directors completing their terms…..Harry Gedicke, Tamara Petterson, and Wyn Ginter.

Jackie then passed the gavel of leadership to incoming President, Ray Reynolds, and Ray’s first act as President was to present Jackie with two awards….firstly, a “Gavel” plaque to honor her leadership, and secondly, he presented a specially crafted plaque on which our logo was beautifully depicted along with Jackie’s name and the years of her Presidency. On the back, all of the Board of Directors signed their names under congratulatory comments and thanks. Ray noted that Elinor Weiland had designed the logo many years ago with the assistance of Cindy Heaton.

The reader may recall Ray’s hilarious presentation at last year’s Annual Meeting in which he chronicled the foibles of Kenny Heaton repeatedly attempting to leave the yacht club docks after the show without success. That presentation established Ray as a very funny man, and after last year’s performance, he had a hard act to follow. How could he possibly measure up to last year’s performance? But measure up, he did! Ray shared a very personal story of a long-standing disagreement between him and his lovely wife, Marylee, regarding how to properly pronounce the word, “Hopatcong”. Both were firm in their position, and neither was able to convince the other. They finally agreed to resolve the issue by asking a “local”. Their plan was to go into the first business that they encountered in Hopatcong and ask the proper pronunciation. Finding a place to ask, Ray was as clear as he could be in asking the clerk to speak very slowly and clearly in telling him and Marylee precisely, "Where are we?” The young girl responded with the requested clarity and slow pace saying, “Bur…ger….King”. So the bar remains high, once again.

Lest one think that our Chapter has but one comedian, John MacKenzie, often noted for his love of food, presented an amusing slant on the effects that sending in registrations late has on his food. His bottom line….PLEASE send your registrations for events in early.

Awards are always an exciting facet of the Annual Meeting. Jackie honored Mike Schillizzi with the President’s Cup for his many substantial contributions to the events of the chapter., notably at the Block Party and the Boat Show. She also presented a “Scanlon Hat” to Dave Neal…an award given to honor someone who, like Frank Scanlon, used their boat a lot.

Harry Gedicke, Chairman of the Nominating Committee, presented the slate of those proposed for elections noting that the vice-President slot will remain unfilled. To be voted on were Ray Reynolds as President, and as Directors, Dennis Moran, Barbara Edwards, Sue Pesco, Joe Fleming, Jr. and Mike Schillizzi. With some trepidation in the wake of last year’s unprecedented floor nomination, Harry asked if there were any nominations from the floor. THERE WERE! Mike Smith nominated Mike Schillizzi for the vacant Vice President’s slot. A vote by the membership followed with a unanimous positive response.

As the proceedings continued, next was the presentation of the Excellence in Boating Award ...an award of dubious distinction presented to someone who had some sort of boating mishap…most often for those who fell in the drink in an ignominious manner. Previous multiple time winner, Kenny Heaton, Head of the Panel on Tomfoolery, and his able henchman Mike Smith, also a multiple time winner, presented the award. But they had a dilemma. It had been an atypical year with no one with a qualifying event. Undaunted, Kenny and Mike conspired to present the award to Bob Griswold, our Safety Officer for an eventfree year. Bob’s signature now appears on the commemorative life jacket, and he stands among the august group of former recipients from years past.

With Bob in close proximity to the Excellence in Boating presenters, he was asked to draw the winning tickets of the 50-50 raffle, with Toby Nelson pocketing $80 and Cindy Heaton $110.

With the meeting seemingly concluded, a discussion was initiated by Dennis Moran regarding the flawed system of managing non-renewals by ACBS Headquarters. Past Presidents of ACBS Brian Gagnon and Stan Struble weighed in, as did membership Chairman, Bob Kays, all reporting that the system would be well-served by some modification.

In summary, it was a most enjoyable affair.