F16 class structure for wannabee volunteers

From some private and public communication I gether that there is a misunderstanding with regard to the F16 class structure and whether or not to start more conventional (local) associations.

This post intents to explain the F16 class structure, the reasons for this structure and it freedoms to (local) volunteers. And that freedom is really big. This should also explain away several misconceptions.

The structure may sound weird at first but if you give it a little time and thought everybody will see how logical, inclusive and powerful it is. For this reason I would like to stress that everybody will give it ample time before running off in all kinds of directions, causing needless confusion.

The structure that I'm about to describe was designed (and that is the only right word for it) to satisfy several stated goals.

-1- The structure has to be maximal inclusive to all initiatives and all people.
-2- The structure has to be resilliant to abuse and hostile take-overs
-3- The structure has to be very cost efficient
-4- The structure has to be very easily scalable
-5- The structure has to place relatively minor demands on the volunteers (officials).
-6- The structure had to be designed so thats is very structure focusses on concensus over powerplays.
-7- The structure had to be inviting to all kinds of unorthodox class activities. It had to be more than just a board of whigs.
-8- The structure had to reward out of the box thinking and stimulated that even thus making the class and class work more fun to both members and the volunteers

A prologue

The structure that was chosen, designed and evolved over the last years is not unlike a cel-framework. It is far from hierarchical. It is a lot closer to franchising than to IBM. It is more anarchistic than structural. I know that a lot of people get chills when reading the word anarchistic, but that is because they don't know what it really means. They think it means hooded men blowing up government buildings, but in fact it means a cooperation between people and groups without a single leader or group being the boss. In this sense we are way more close to pure grass roots democracy then even most western governments are. The F16 class doesn't have a leader in the sense that he has power. If we have a leader than it is merely because all the individuals and individual groups recognize the benefits of his or her style of leading and have chosen to honour this lead for this reason only. Therefor the structure always focusses on building a concensus and thus garantees inclusiveness and prevents powerplays. This setup is not new, in a different shape I've been working in a framework like that in a volunteer run movie art house. In 5 years we have grown from 23.000 customers per year to 43.000 customers and have build up the 3rd most important movie art house in the Netherlands. Simply because this structure puts all individual efforts to such good use and gives the volunteer the freedom they need to excell in what they do best. So we may be new with this in the beach catamaran scene, but the system has been used and proven itself in other places already.

I know this sound weird to some but please bear in mind that this setup has already allowed us to do many difficult things over the past years.

First how does it work !

There is a basic framework that acts as sort of a constitution to the framework. This is the F16 class rules. It defines the goals of all efforts and guides us in cases of conflict. It acts as a reference un which choices can be weight and decision be justified. It also gives direction to all volunteers.

Than a cores structure is formalized. This is the chairman role, advisors, local class heads. These act as the backbone to which all additional projects are fixed and by which all is supported and coordinated. The named officials have as main functions : To gether and spread information over the class, to stimulate and support further growth with advice and some mild efforts (mentoring), act as a judge in conflicts.

Apart from this basic structure everything else is free. That means that any individual, group, club or framework can do whatever they want of please AS LONG as none of their actions conflict with the F16 class rules or go against the stated goals of the class. All and every small action or large project will be supported and stimulated through the core structure. Volunteers can decide to tune in or tune out when ever they want. Volunteers can choose to do whatever work or action they prefer or are good at. And volunteers can reap all the credit for whatever they did fully as indeed they themselfs did fully achieve that.

So what happens is that somebody has an idea that he or she feels will help the class and so will try to implement it. First two actions will be to establish a link with the core structure so that actions can be coordinated and making a plan to implement the idea. Something this can be done by one person. at other times that person may need to form a project group dedicated to that implementation. That person or group will from then onwards act as an independent and free entity that does coordinate its efforts with the larger structure of the core and other project groups. And of course the entity can never do things that conflict with the class rules, that is a law.

Everybody must note that the Blade F16 design project team is in principle no different then say the teams that organise the Gulfport championships or that are now building a class in locations like California. We are all small project groups dedicated to a multitude of single achievable goals. Some of us sit in on more than one project group; others are only linked to a single one. This only dependents on the time investment that each individual wants or can make.

Why this structure :

There are many reasons for this, both great and small reasons. I will name only a few important ones

-1- It allows every body to tailor his volunteer work to his available time and resources.

Conventional classes often make a big demand on a few volunteers while many volunteers all doing little pieces of the total can do very much the same thing. Also it allows members will small expendable resources to do what they can and when they can.

-2- It taps into to different ways of support and resources far more easily.

By entlarging the group of volunteers and blurring the line between member and volunteer we great a far larger network of contacts. We found that there always was a member that had a friend in such and such trade that could help us out AND that said member was willing to set things up to that extend. It requires only a small effort on the part of that member but the return of that effort is always disproportionally bigger.

-3- It stimulated natural leaders to stand up and grow the class

We have few good examples. Steve Mellet (Africa) and Scott McCook (south east Asia). Which of the big boat builders even think of these area's ? How could a small and young class like the F16's simply grow fleets the size of the US and EU ones in those places. Simply because of the fact that in every population there are natural leaders and achievers who are more often then not shot out of the air by an overprotective class official. These natural leaders are into organising stuff for a few reasons. Pride, honour and influence is one and "taking on a challenge" is another. What better than to give them free reign in their local area's with the promise that they can be whatever they want to be. In frameworks like this you won't find more active volunteers than these. And as long as they adhere to the F16 class rules than there is nothing that can go wrong. And if they fail for some reason then there is always another natural achiever in the local pool. If they is more than one at the same time than they simple coordinate who does what area or what part of the project.

-4- It stimulated developments

Because every idea can be chased to its natural end unhindered we find that we can develop a lot more things a lot quicker. Several projects failed and several succeeded, the ratio between these is always the same. So the trick is not to choose the most promising projects but to simply create maximum "turnover". We must get away from only having a single design team at some builder. By linking in the tinkers and home designers to the class in this way we can development things alot more quickly and better. The whole Blade F16 design came about this way and it sure woke up some design teams at the builders. Simply put if we did this the conventional way then we simply would see more 140 kg singlehanders using cut-down F18 masts. The trick is to decentralize and create turn-over.

-5- the class can be easily and quickle scaled to need

The creation of cels is very easy. Pretty much where ever a small group of owner is established a local cel is established as well. Because they can play a much bigger role in the whole picture their activities are more developped and valuable. Look at Eric Poulsen in California and Gary Maskiel/Tim Sheppard in Aus. If need be we can form a project group that would design, produce and market a carbon wingmast design for halve the price of the big boat builders. Right now the structure and required people are available. The project is dormant because we can achieve better results with the Alu superwing mast but never the less we can kick-start this project within weeks when the need arises.

-6- This setup is very inexpensive

We don't ask membership fees and never have still we did all things other classes did, In several cases we did more. As a class we simply ask for a little volunteer work as membership fee. We ask each owner and member to give back to the class and to other volunteers by doing a little volunteer work themselfs.

-7- The setup stimulates inclusiveness and concensus

As we all need the others all projects do focus themselfs in inclusiveness and concensus. The sharing of the Goodall superwing mast section with other builders is one great example in this. Also a lone FX-one sailor can be a very welcome addition to smaller local races and the class. We are all doing this sport for fun and enjoyment. The more the merrier so why draw lines in the sand ? A great example is also some cross class actions like the shared A-cat/F16 Gulfport championships. Also no single group in the F16 class can dictate other groups. The other groups simply won't have any of that and refuse to follow the new lead. This in it self forces all groups to work towards a concensus

-8- It prevents conflicts

This may sound funny but it does really prevent conflicts between great ego's. We all know that there is a great correllation between valuable volunteers and great ego's. In more conventional classes this always leads to turf wars and power struggles for a few high profile positions. In the current F16 class however we lack these high profile positions and anybody who wants to become influencial and important will can and must proof himself from individual projects. With increasing achievements he will win the respect of his/her peers and gain influence and respect. There is of course an endless list of possible projects so in theory we can have infinite amount of great ego's working side by side together building and strenghening the class.

It also prevents powerplays as there is no quick route to power. You can't just win the threasurer position and dominate the board. There simply is no position like that. Not even the chairman is a powerful position.

-9- The setup has very little legal requirement we need to adhere too

As we have no money flow we are left alone by all sorts of bureaucracy. As we don't provide servives as a class for money we don't have any serious issues with liability. We don't have a need to have a series of official positions like threasurer that mostly take up valuable volunteers. We can run our things on less required volunteer time. We spend (waste) more resources on things we don't really need.

-10- Cels are resilliant

For any reason a cel may fail but the whole class will just keep going and sooner or larger restart a new cel were the old one died. When a conflict takes out the core of a conventional class than you have a serious problem. In a cooperation of independent cels you don't have this problem. Even the core structure itself is shaped like cel and can easily be replaced by any project group, mostly because of the simplicity and the lack of legal requirements. All that is needed is another volunteer with average skills. There are no legal loose ends that need to be retied or something. Just exchnage passwords of the website; print a copy of the lastest class rules for save keeping and contact the leaders of all cels to exchange project information. This all garantees survival and assured continued existance to all its members. The decentralized nature of the setup also makes sure that all important information can be recollected by establishing the links with all independent groups. And of course these independent groups will just keep functioning what ever happens to the core. Most often the core only acts as an operator linking people and groups up who will then handle things bilaterially.

-11- This setup is really all that is needed.

Why do something the hard way when it can be done the easy way. Of course it is very cool to have a big class in a shiny office with a large conference table able to seat all officials of geat stature. But do we need it ? Afterall, all we need is a set of class rules, boat owners and volunteers organising some events and activities. The first 2 really don't need a high flying class body and the last really know best themselfs. Most of the organiser have longer track records than most class officials. They don't need any official telling them how to run their events. All that is need is the boat owners voting with their feet. If the organisers run great events than the owners will come. if they do not then the owners won't come. It is simple as that. In nature it is called evolution and it works by keeping the best and letting the bad die off. This process will selfregulate, no need for guidence from a class body.

I leave it at that with regard to the reasons.

What to take away from this ?

Simply that we are "non-existant" by design and that we have good reasons for that. We simply don't need more. We cut away what we really didn't need and focussed on getting what we needed right (class rules, new designs, owners groups all over the world). We can create again what we don't need but what would be the point ?

Another thing is that all are free ! The international class or even I will not forbid anything that is not explicelty in conflict with the class rules. If a local owners group wants to create a conventional class then they should do so. If they want a mailing list to work owners over to attend events, then by all means create one. You are totally free within the limits of the class rules so surprise us !

As a side note; you will not get teh e-mail adresses of the international class organisation as we gethered these under the agreement that we would only use them for very important issues and very infrequently. So you guys will just have to compose a list yourself of the people that have no problem with their e-mails being used like that. And ohh, be sure to place announcements on the F16 forum as well as that is our official communication channel. With respect to national classes, you can't ban non-paying members as that goes against the spirit of inclusiveness. You can however give paying members discount on what would otherwise be a normal regatta or activity fee. So all financial support must be voluntarily and no financial links may be made to the international class or the core structure. These will not garantee any financial adventures. You must all covered that in your local independent project.

As already clear in the comments above the international class and the structure will remain open and cel based. This doesn't forbid more conventional or formal structures from being implemented but it does prevent any of these organisations from acquiring any exclusivity rights. They may not limit any group or individual from starting up and implementing their own projects in relation to the F16 class.

So the basic idea is do what you think is needed or what you want to do ; just leave room for others, be inclusive and don't conflict with the F16 class rules. You may ask money for the services you provide but you may not force it. You MUST earn sufficient respect so that the members are willing to voluntarily give it to you. And others must be allowed to "pay back to the class" by their own volunteer work.

This way we keep things free, welcoming, simple, open, enjoyable, powerful and resiliant. All things that are very important to a beach catamaran class.

There is a lot more but ... maybe for another time

Wouter