By Dan Carrico

Havin’ fun at the Corinthian in 2002? That’s why we’re here! And from the Commodore’s spot it really seems that everyone is. The club has a happy bounty of active members of all ages and of long and short membership tenure. Many Corinthian friendships also follow this pattern—one of the best aspects of belonging to the Corinthian, don’t you agree?

Some examples: Most recently, Staff Commodore Diana Fischer and her talented committee of zillions pulled off a fabulous Opening Day. Her committee is made up of Corinthians aged from 30 to 90, new members and Life members. More often than not, club traditions and procedures for events are passed down in that fashion. The Corinthian Women have the same legacy.

Another example is our Men’s Chorus. Thanks to Jackie Taylor and Chorus Members’ unbelievable commitment of time for rehearsals they, again representing a spectrum of the club, have given us all another great home-grown tradition of Corinthian talent entertaining at events.

Opening Day 2002 was a huge success by any measure: a record number of boats decorating (way to go members); great organization (thank you Diana and Committee); smooth service, administration and troubleshooting (thank you Ingo and everybody on staff) and to every club member who participated! Doug Owen has more in this issue, so I just want to say to the volunteers that the Club is grateful for your hard work to make Opening Day 2002 the big success it was.

A few words about the CYC Commodore’s Cruise to Mexico (reported in this issue): As a sociological observation, all the hugs and kisses good-bye as we disembarked the Star Princess in L.A. harbor, from CYC’s Cruise to the Mexican Riviera in March were convincing proof that all had a truly great time. This cruise seemed to really have brought the group together in a most relaxed and memorable way. Forty-two finally made the gangplank, including one “stowaway”. Something about her not quite fitting into a suitcase??

Some of the highlights of the trip were of course Mexico and our three stops: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas; a wonderful cocktail party hosted by Ken & Ilinka Brehnan in their suite; the ship flying a huge CYC burgee; meeting the Captain and receiving a bridge tour; being at sea; and the warm weather! A special thank you to Fred Mayo and Cindi Marques whose assistance in planning and hard work made it special for the group and possible for Esther and me to relax and also to Doug Owen for being the “official” trip photographer and for writing his article also in this issue.

Rumors overheard from amongst the Mexican crew, perhaps started by Vice Commodore Roberts, are that this might well be the First Annual CYC Commodore’s Cruise. Who knows?

Recently I participated in a brainstorming meeting on membership lead by our Membership Committee Co-Chair Anita Dillon. About 15 or so members contributed ideas on a variety of topics related to membership, one of which was the attraction of new members. For those who may not know, ALL initiation fees go directly to the club’s Reconstruction Fund. To a person, we expressed belief that the Corinthian is a very special place, made so by its members and staff and that one of the best ways to keep it so was to recruit new members through our existing membership. We want to share what we have—it’s in our charter. The most actionable idea of the meeting was to encourage members to think about who among their friends might also enjoy Corinthian membership, and if warranted, provide an application or introduction to one of our Membership Co-Chairs. This is a good idea, one which I ask you all to try and act on.