Update from the General Manager

It is always amazing to me how fast the year goes by. If only we could simply drag our feet to slow the circles down.

We will be shutting the marina down for two weeks beginning on Saturday, December 15, 2012 and ending on Sunday, December 30, 2012. Melinda will be here on Monday, December 31, 2012 for a half day and will return on Wednesday, January 2, 2013. Tim Hanna and I will be taking off one additional week and will return on Monday, January 7, 2013.

When I return to the office I will be turning my full attention to the 2013 Minneapolis Boat Show. This year the Show begins on Thursday, January 31, 2013 and wraps up on Sunday, February 3, 2013. I will be calling all of our renters from last year to make sure they have secured their slips for next season. Please remember that if you rented your slip directly from a Slip Owner last season, I will not be calling you. If you need any assistance contacting the Owner of your slip, or if your slip from last season is not available for next season, please do not hesitate to call me. Once I have made my calls we will make our final list of available slips for the show. Although it is the dead of winter, the Boat Show is always a great time for us. We get the opportunity to meet new people and tell them all about Sunnyside and we get to renew old friendships. Please stop and see us.

Check out the official Show website at http://www.minneapolisboatshow.com/

In the fall of 2009 a group of marina operators and state agencies joined forces to create the Minnesota Clean Marina Initiative Task Force. I volunteered to be a part of the Task Force and ended up being the Secretary of the Clean Marina Program, which was established as a 501 C 3 Corporation in 2011. I am very proud to announce that on December 5, 2012, Sunnyside Marina will become a Certified Minnesota Clean Marina along with Bayport Marina, Afton Marina, Windmill Marina and Rockvam Boat Yards on Lake Minnetonka. It has been a long road, but it has been worth it. A special thanks to our Sunnyside Board of Directors for making this one of their goals for the past four years and to our slip owners for agreeing to let Sunnyside use Capital Improvement dollars to build our storm water drainage system and our boat washing recycling system.

As this is our last Prop Talk for 2012, I want to say my last “Thank You” of the year to my wonderful staff. You guys are the best in the business and I consider myself lucky to have each of you as employees. I also want to thank all of you, our boaters. We love taking care of you. We sincerely hope this was obvious to you with each interaction we had with you throughout the year. Our Goal for 2012 was to “Exceed Expectations”. I hope we have succeeded. Finally, I want to thank the Board of Directors for their tireless efforts. You guys have been a sincere pleasure to work with. Each year I have the unique opportunity to work with a new President of the Board of Directors. For the first time in many years we had a President serve for two years in a row. Working with Barb Piotrowski for the past two years was a dream. She simply gets what we do and offered her complete support of us doing it. Thanks so much Barb, and thanks to the 2005 hiring committee for taking a chance on me seven years ago. I promise I will never let you down.

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful Holiday Season. Please stop and see us when you can. It gets lonely around here through the winter.

I love my job!!!!