Decision Making in action

My yacht club, the Port Madison Yacht Club (PMYC), needs a new boat to serve as Race Committee for our big boat (keelboat) races. As the chairman of the big boat racing program, I'm involved in the search for a new boat. There are other members of the club who also are involved for various reasons, essentially, they're knowledgeable and active in the club. These are people who know of what they speak and also will benefit (or be hurt) by this decision.

Our committee consists of seven people. Of those seven, I'm certainly the youngest. That may matter to some, but it's something that I'm frequently aware of in these settings. I'm not nervous or cowed by that fact. I also don't get any pride out of it. I'm there because I should be. I joined PMYC in 1985 as a junior (I was 12) and have raced a ton in the subsequent years. I've worked on many projects at the club. I've served as work party chair for a few years before being asked to take on the big boat racing program. I know I've even been considered for a commodoreship. I do wonder at times if others who attend these meetings pass any judgment on me because of my age. Some of these people remember when I was a junior in the club and they were making decisions then. Many of them are friends/contemporaries of my father, who was commodore in 1999. As such, they may think of me as "Gary's kid." In truth, I'm proud to be his kid, but when it comes to these situations, I need to be Geoff, a bright, capable guy who's here because he has something of value to offer.

Well, last night we met at the house of Ken, one of the committee, and a former commodore. Also in attendance were Jim (another former commodore), Randy (frequent race committee, especially on the club's longest race), Ros (dinghy racing chair), Lubo (former commodore, top notch racer), Andy (current Vice Commodore, preceded me as big boat chair, excellent racer) and myself.

For about a half hour we went around the table and talked about what we felt the boat needed, coming to no consensus and frequently using very subjective terms. Finally, Lubo, to his infinite credit, asked, "Can we find one criteria that we can all agree on?" His question was indicative of any disagreement or fractiousness, simply that while we were all talking, we were circling the objective, but not closing in on it. Well, we started talking about a minimum size, came to consensus and a few more criteria rolled on in after to unanimity. Wow! How great was that! We had a framework! A rough sketch of what we wanted!

A few specific boats had been discussed, notably a 17' Arima that Andy had brought up. Additionally, I'd printed out a few listings from craigslist that showed a broad cross-section of what was currently out there on the market and some were overlooked and others received closer scrutiny, as one might expect of "a broad cross-section." The point is, we walked away from last night with something approaching a unanimous consensus on a fairly specific set of criteria for a boat.

Then, something happened today. But, that story is to be written tomorrow.