Message from FOCS President | Jan. 2011
Dear Alumni, Parents and Friends,
It has been a monumental two years for Cornell Sailing, first with the completion of the Merrill Family Sailing Center and second, this fall Friends of Cornell Sailing hired Brian Clancy as Head Sailing Coach.
This was the culmination of years of dedicated efforts by Coach Fund Raising Committee, including Ted Moore ‘71, Robert Swanson ‘74, Doug Merrill ‘89, Prof Charles H.K. Williamson, and Andrew Davis ‘02. I want to specifically thank Rob Swanson ’74 for chairing this committee the last few years, and Terry Kent and John Webster from Alumni Affairs and development for their support.
The current fiscal environment at Cornell, like at many universities, made it quite challenging to bring new personnel onboard, but thanks to V.P. Susan Murphy, and diligent negotiations by our alumni, especially Doug Merrill ‘89, we were able to work out bringing a coach on board as an employee of FOCS.
Coach Clancy started in mid August and has done a tremendous job working with the team officers to transition the team to having a full time coach, while working to maintain the team’s leadership strengths and traditions of being a strong club sport team. This fall he led the team to ICSA single handed nationals for the first time in 20+ years. Brian’s energy, dedication and sense of team is apparent in every thing he does. You can read more about Brian in his bio, and hope you will all get a chance to meet him at our next alumni event.
Moving forward, in addition to coaching of our team members on and off the water, our alumni should notice an immediate improvement in communication. FOCS remains a volunteer run organization, but now with Coach Clancy, regular weekly results on the website have been a reality all fall, so please check out www.cornellsailing.org.
Brian will be taking over as editor and driving getting the FOCS newsletter back on a schedule of communicating with all of you twice a year. I would encourage our alumni to contribute content to share with classmates, reconnect, or volunteer and get involved. I would ask all of you to support Coach Clancy in his efforts ahead as he leads the team in our annual Phonathon effort in the coming weeks and he focuses off the water on development efforts. Instructions to make a gift are on the back of the newsletter and as always please feel free to contact myself or any member of the Board.
Hiring Coach Clancy, is not the completion of our efforts but only a stepping stone. Our goal remains to establish a permanent endowed coaching position for the sailing team. In assessing our progress towards completing the endowment, the board made the decision along with our major supporters to use available funds to hire a coach immediately. We have a multi-year horizon of funding available, without significantly impacting the endowment, but we need the continued support of all our alumni to complete the endowment.
If you have been considering supporting our efforts, now is the time to get involved as you can make a significant impact and make a full time coach a permanent part of the Cornell Sailing experience. A coach for the Cornell Sailing team is no longer a theoretical future goal, but a reality on the ground and on the water. The efforts of FOCS have been focused on making sustainable improvements to Cornell Sailing experience we all cherish. Phillip Merrill ’55 and family believed in protecting the long term existence of the sailing program to benefit future Cornellians by building the Merrill Family Sailing Center. Now it is up to all of us to follow through and make sure there is always a coach in that office.
See you on the water,
Andrew E. Davis
President, Friends of Cornell Sailing
aed13@cornell.edu
607-592-0643(mobile)
©2010