Aleria's Adventures

After being on the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) Committee as the Chair of the PR & Digital Communications SubCommittee, I also took on environmental programmes or citizen science initiatives and an effort to create a series of papers on Best Practices in cruising. Things calmed down and we stopped hearing complaints daily. In fact, we started hearing praise. When the Chair of the Awards Subcommittee stepped down, I was asked to co-Chair the subcommittee with Jenny Crickmore-Thompson. There was too much on my plate and it wasn't fun, so I wasn't unhappy to give up a portion of it, though I still maintain the PR aspects today. An opening came up for a new flag officer, and I was convinced by several Board members to run for the office of Rear Commodore. I wasn't sure that was a good idea, but they convinced me that the OCC needed my level headed thinking. I fell for it. I won the seat uncontested. My first act was to write a paper to the Board proposing rationale why ...

I've been a volunteer with the OCC since about the time we returned from our Atlantic circuit in 2010. I joined OCC after our third Atlantic crossing, having finally met a member who could sponsor me. It would have been much better to have joined before we sailed off, as some of the difficulties we experienced might have been ameliorated. But that didn't happen. It wasn't as simple to join then as it is now, with online applications and global referrals. There were serious obstacles then, one secretary in particular. So I joined when we settled in Ireland, and Alex joined several years later when the joining fee was waived for joint membership applicants. Soon after I joined, I was co-opted by John Franklin onto the Strategy Team led by Beth Leonard. Our purpose was to determine how the OCC could alter the profile of the organisation from stagnation to growth. For years, the OCC had barely enough new members to make up for those resigning and passing. Beth and I wo...