Celebrate Your Birthday...On CYC!

By Anne Scully

You say it's your birthday? Come celebrate it on a Saturday or Sunday during your birthday month with a dinner on CYC!

We're not counting candles here! CYC is sending all members a "birthday card" that can be exchanged for one free dinner for the person celebrating the birthday. Please contact Frances if you have not yet received a card or if you received a card reflecting the wrong birthday month so that we can have your correct birthday info. But, we promise we won't spill the beans and tell anyone how young you really are. Honest!

CYC's birthday dinner offer is valid on Saturday or Sunday during the birthday celebrant's month. Please be sure to make a reservation as well.

So, bring your spouse or guest or a group of friends to celebrate your day. It's our way of saying thanks for your membership as well as an opportunity to put our club to more use.

CYC House Rules Review: Finding The Balance Between "Family Friendly" and "Adult Oriented"

CYC House Rule #5: "Children under ten years of age shall be accompanied by an adult Club Member while on Club premises and no children shall run about the Clubhouse or Harbor docks unattended. All children should identify themselves when requested to do so. No person under 21 years of age is allowed at the bar."

Whew! House Rule #5 sounds pretty stringent, doesn't it? In reality, however, it reflects a remarkable balance between competing and quite often, conflicting goals of CYC. More importantly, it's a rule in which everyone wins when it is honored in the 'observance' and not in the 'breach'. Here's why:

The House Committee strongly believes the Cub should be a "family & kid" friendly place. Indeed, "family" is a key component to our CYC membership promotion as well as to what helps create the breadth and diversity of our CYC culture. At the same time, however, we must also ensure that our focus on 'children' neither undermines the Club's adult-oriented environment nor exposes our facility to undue risks of liability.

Why do we raise this issue? Simply because incidents of Club Members' unsupervised children engaged in exuberant yet disruptive activities -- from tightrope walking on deck rails, climbing on scaffolding, skateboarding on the docks, to running through the CYC Bar and into Member patrons during cocktail hour -- are increasing.

And, as the number of incidents increases, so does the Club's liability exposure as well as concerns raised by CYC members. This should concern every CYC Member because both issues can severely undermine the Club's future financial viability, either through prospective injuries and litigation or through Member nonpatronization of the Club. This is a very real situation and we're beginning to experience the tangible adverse fallout of these events.

Help Us To Help You. CYC has taken an active role to create "family friendly" events for our Club Members with children:

CYC hosted numerous events and activities throughout 2004 which involved children, including: Easter Brunch; Opening Day; July 4 (outdoor party); Clambake (outdoor party); Commodore's Picnic; and Santa's Party.

While our Club's physical location -- albeit spectacular -- precludes establishment of "kid friendly" amenities, such as a playground or swimming pool, we heavily promote certain CYC cruise-outs to other yacht clubs (e.g., Marin, Benecia, Tinsley and Encinal Yacht Clubs) whose facilities do provide these options.

In addition, the House Committee is exploring several options to enhance the current environment and activities for Members' children, including:

• A specifically designated "children's area" within CYC's facility, where the children can play games, watch TV/DVDs or listen to music in their own special area;
• A family day on Angel Island;
• A family treasure hunt by boat;
• Adding family nights to Bistro Nights;
• Installation of a basketball hoop in the parking lot.

We cannot resolve these challenges and achieve the "family friendly" goal without the active support of Club Members -- both with and without children! If you have any feedback, please contact John Warren (Vice Commodore) @ john@warren-peace.us.

Finally, the House Committee doesn't want to become the "Rules Enforcer"! The Club should be a place where everyone can relax and have fun. Here's how Members with children can help us to jump-start our efforts toward implementing a more favorable and "kid friendly" environment:

If your children are under the age of 10, please keep them within your eyesight and active supervision at all times at the Club, particularly in the Bar and during times of heavy club use (i.e., Friday).

Please refrain from having your children actually sit at the Club bar -- it's a violation of the California ABC regulations and the terms of the Club's ABC license.

Bring books or activity materials for your children. One very clever Member has procured a portable DVD player and disks that are "just for watching at the club!" Now the kids clamor to go to CYC.