2024 Election Info – Na Hoa Holomoku

The 2024 annual membership meeting is being held Tuesday, 12/10, 6pm HST, on zoom #956 1266 1589, password 126839.

Thank you for participating in this year’s election.

You’ll be asked to vote for new Directors & Officers, and to ratify the club’s new non-profit bylaws. Look for candidate bios, new bylaws and the upcoming election schedule below.

Directors who will continue to serve out their term include Bob Grove, Ben Berkey, Dean Teehee, Debbie Weeks, Kimberly Ino, Kri Howland. Any member interested in serving on the board in the future, please let us know.

Please send your questions to Membership@HiloSailing.org.

And please send a note to Commodore@Hilosailing.org to thank our outgoing Commodore, Dean Teehee, for his tireless service over the past year.

New Bylaws

Your board has been working very hard to address the club’s new 501(c)3 non-profit status. As you can imagine, there were quite a few bylaw revisions needed to not only meet the fiduciary responsibilities of a public charity, but to help make the club more effective in bringing you new educational and sailing opportunities.

Please review the new bylaws HERE.

Candidates

Meet the Candidates at the Annual Membership Picnic on Sunday, 12/1

Debbie Weeks, running for Commodore

Dr. Weeks is currently serving as a Board Director

I learned to sail on a Sunfish nearly 50 years ago and since have had extensive sailing experience on various craft in and around San Francisco Bay, the Florida Keys, Australia and here in Hawai’i. I was recently Captain of S/V Golden Rule for a month along the coast of New England and in New York Harbor with a crew of 1-3, a tight schedule and lots of deferred diesel engine and boat maintenance to coordinate. I have single-handed a 28.5′ Pearson Triton from SF Bay to Hilo twice; in 2003 with no motor and no roller-furler and in 2017, when my forestay broke early in the trip. I am also quite proficient in woodworking and fiberglass build and repair. I made a custom dinghy for my 2017 trip and have done the repair and maintenance on all of my various boats over the years, including bottom jobs, blister repair, thru-hull and port replacement, re-rigging, electrical repair and antennae installation, plumbing, topside paint, deck paint and non skid.

As an educator (I am an Instructor of Chemistry at Hawai’i Community College) I believe that learning new skills is very empowering, especially for youth. As a former Manager of technical personnel in various industries, I am an advocate for safe and positive environments. My vision for Na Hoa Holomoku Sailing Club is to continue to provide safe, fun sailing instruction and experiences to our community, to work cooperatively and collaboratively with other related clubs and entities, and to continue to maintain our fleet and support vehicles so we have resources available for safe use. Putting some Standard Operating Procedures in place for assuring people know how to run and supervise the beach safely and having additional training tools for members would be great – some of this is already in the works by knowledgeable, creative, active members – good job!

I was the Director of Disaster Services for the Red Cross in Hawai’i County for over two years in 2016-2018. I managed over 200 Red Cross hundred volunteers. Red Cross volunteers get fairly regimented training to operate disaster shelters, respond to home fires, give disaster preparedness demonstrations and even install smoke alarms. We deployed dozens of trained volunteers to the various wildfires and hurricanes on the Mainland, responded to many home fires and conducted a record number of disaster trainings island-wide during my tenure. I was also frequently invited to speak about disaster preparedness island-wide. In Australia, I served on the Board of the Gladstone Yacht Club’s Sailing School 2009 and 2010 where I wrote standard operating procedures for the safe use of the dinghies.

Tamar Elias, running for Vice Commodore & Director

I’ve had some great opportunities since I started sailing just a handful of years ago. I’ve spent time on big boats sailing up and down the pacific coast, on the Great Lakes, from San Diego to the tip of Baja California, and around Kauai on Saphira. I have volunteered for kids camp, regularly drive safety boat for club sail days, and have spent many hours helping maintain the folk boats. I look forward to improving my beach boat skills and learning as much as I can about sailing a variety of sailboats.

I hope the club continues to offer accessible sailing for the community. I’m pro-education, pro- kid sailing, and pro-fun.

I’m fairly new to non- profits, as I had an all-consuming job. with the federal government (USGS, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory). I’m currently working on the non-profit Golden Rule committee (original 1959 peace boat) and have served as treasurer for the orchid Isle dog agility club.

Luke Caldwell, running for Treasurer & Director

My sailing experience has been limited to Hilo Bay. My main interest in this club is inspired through my daughter Cassidy. I have been motivated for the past 4 year to support, improve, and sustain the opportunities this club provides to each of us. I have loved to see how people, especially the keiki, develop and build confidence, self-reliance, and have so much fun building friendships through sailing. And I really want to help more people experience the joy and the challenges and the joy through the challenges on a boat.

I am the current Treasurer and would like to continue for one more year as Treasurer. I believe I can continue to making sure the club’s finances are handled competently and that we stay in compliance with federal, state, and local laws. I hope to help expand our educational programing and start working on grants to support the work we do.

I have extensive experience being on both citizen advisory and nonprofit boards. I joined Na Hoa Holomoku’s Board in 2021 moving to become Treasurer in 2023 (I am in my second term). I also am the current PTA president for E.B. deSilva Elementary School after being a Treasurer there for 2 years. Prior to moving to Hawai’i in 2019 I was the Chair of the Bicycle Advisory Committee and Vice-Chair of the Natural Resources Advisory Board for the city of Fort Collins, CO for 4 years.

Kri Howland, running for Secretary

Ms Howland is currently serving as a Board Director

I grew up sailing small sunfish boats on a lake in New England, with no formal instruction. I’ve been an active member of the Na Hoa Holomoku Sailing Club for this past year, and have gained a lot of skills and knowledge through the classes, Sail Days, and the rigging video series I’ve filmed and edited of Mica. My interests include real estate (I’m an agent), traveling, language learning, hiking, drawing, paddleboarding, spending time with my husband and son, and of course sailing!

I envision a continuation of the great volunteer work that has improved the club already. I’d also like to contribute to creating more resources like more rigging videos, study guides, sailing technique explanations, etc. I hope these will help decrease the learning curve from novice to experienced sailor on all types of boats, and it will help capture the knowledge that already exists in the club so we can pass that on to new sailors in a streamlined way.

I’ve worked in higher education as a study abroad advisor for over 10 years, and was a part of numerous committees. My favorite committees involved advocating for first-generation college students and scholarship reviews.

Election Schedule

Annual Membership Picnic – Sunday, 12/1
- Big picnic! Come hungry and Meet the Candidates. This is also a sail day!
Voting Begins – Sunday, 12/1
- Cast your ballot online. All members get one vote. For those that prefer a manual process, please contact Membership@HiloSailing.org. Voting closes at noon on 12/10.
Annual Membership Meeting – Tuesday, 12/10
- Ballots will be counted Tuesday afternoon and the winners announced at our Annual Membership Meeting on Zoom. Zoom will allow club members around the islands and on the mainland to join us. For those who are local, look for zoom watch parties in selected homes.