The nature of IBRSC means that lots of people do lots of things, and those on the committee tend to do more than one job. This is partly due to a slight shortage of volunteers from the busy lives that people lead, so go on - step forward!

The club is run by two committees: the sailing committee who organise everything to do with races, open meetings, start times etc, and the general committee who organise everything else. The sailing committee is headed by the vice-commodore, the general committee by the commodore. The vice-commodore and sailing secretary sit on both committees.

The general committee is headed by the Commodore, and also includes the vice-commodore, the secretary, the sailing secretary, the treasurer, the publicity officer, the bar manager, the trustees and several 'ordinary' members, drawn from as wide a selection of fleets and age groups as possible.

The club has four 'flag officers', although only the Commodore in fact has a flag: there are two club burgees, which one is flown depends on whether the Commodore is on the premises. Perhaps they should be called 'parking space officers'.

• Peter Curtis and Rob Petitt

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• The Commodore:
  the man in charge. Commodores are elected for two years, with an option to extend to three, and may serve one term only. The Commodore has the final say on everything to do with the club, represents us to the RYA and other bodies and is the host at Open meetings and at the AGM. Rob Petitt is the man with the flag.

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• The Vice-Commodore:
  Mike Curtis.

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• The Rear Commodores House and Works:

• House is everything to do with the maintenance, decoration and amenities for the clubhouse falls into the remit of the RCH. This includes items such as first aid, fire alarms and cookers. Works is responsible for everything except the clubhouse: the major items are the maintenance of berthing, launching, and fencing. The RCW organises the bi-annual working parties, making sure that the appropriate materials and tools are available and supervising the work on the day. No single mortal was able to take on either job this time, David Bean with Brian O'Connell is taking on the tasks.

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The other officers of the club are:

• Secretary: deals with correspondence, legal issues such as the lease, liaison with Thames Water, organisation and minuting of general committee meetings, the AGM, and a thousand other vital behind-the-scenes tasks. Laser Sailor and Trysail stalwart David Simpson has taken on the job.

• Treasurer: Keeping the books is now done by Dave Shewan (assisted by former treasurer Tessa Groves), who seemed quite cheerful about the finances at the last AGM - at least by the standards of Treasurers...

• Sailing Secretary: responsible for arranging sailing events, any changes to racing and all sailing matters. Gareth Griffiths is the new Sailing Secretary for 2010 - he can be found most weekends in his Solo (he's also Solo Fleet Captain)

• Catering Manager: in charge of keeping stocks up for general sailing and also for open meetings. June Curtis (Peter and Mike's mum) does marvels in keeping us all fed and watered, and has been doing so for an amazing 25 years! June's long service has been recognised by an RYA Community Award.

• Membership Secretary: acts as the main point of contact on all publicity material, keeps membership records, deals with subscriptions and renewals. Laser/Topper Sailor (and father of several more Topper sailors) Dave Baldwin is the current incumbent of this vital role.

• Team Manager: organises our duty teams to allocate new members, ensure a correct mix of ages, fleets and skills, and keep helms/crews in the same team, as well as setting the dates for each season. Hugh Jervis has this well under control.

• Bar Manager: orders and dishes up those important post-sailing lubricants, taking into account changing requirements as the club becomes more sober due to tighter drink-drive laws and more serious sailing. Eddie Holland has taken on the role, one well suited to his long experience in the field.

• Training Officer: We run our adult training from May to August on Tuesday evenings, and our junior training runs on Sunday afternoons from April to July, and then again in September and October. The adult training was run for many years by Mike Barnard, and then Helen Gerald was duty officer from 2001 to 2003, with the indispensable assistance of a cast of thousands. Noel Reeve ran the training recently, but for 2010 we welcome Malcolm Barnes and he will welcome your help. Mike Jones continues to mastermind the Sunday junior training with the help of Tessa Groves, Peter Curtis and many others, and the hard-working duty teams.

• Publicity Officer: the lifeblood of the club is its members. Responsible for advertising and spreading the word, via Yachts and Yachting, local papers, and local events. Topaz sailor Nick Marley has the task of spreading the word.

• Social Secretary: organises the off-water events.We adjust the programme to meet requirements, although sometimes some arm-twisting is necessary to get people along. However they always enjoy themselves once they are at the event. At the moment we need to arm twist someone into taking on the job...

• Trustees: are legally responsible for the club. These brave men are Paul King, Colin Mattingly and Glen Cole.

The fleet captains act as the first point of contact for sailing matters, and also organise the berthing for their boats - we have no berthing master. They are:

• Solo: Gareth Griffiths

• Laser: Terry McCarthy

• Handicap: Peter Curtis

• Topper/Juniors: Mike Jones

The other ordinary committee members, i.e. those without particular portfolios, are as follows:

• Bosun: Alexis Villiers

New volunteers for all these roles are ALWAYS welcome - many of the current incumbents have been in post for many years, and we should be starting to ease their burden. Help and suggestions from the rest of the members will be received with delight.

Finally, IBRSC honours very special people with honorary memberships. (Of course all the above are special people too!). The current honorary members are:

• Richard (Dick) Birkhead: the very first Commodore of the club on its foundation as Walton on Thames SC in 1959 on a gravel pit, still living locally and a welcome visitor at our 40th anniversary lunch.

• Alf Pettit: Alf and his family were instrumental in the move to Island Barn and had been with the club for some years before. Alf visits us fairly regularly and what he doesn't know about the history of the club, didn't happen! His son Rob (our commodore) is often on the water with us, and is thus the longest-standing member still sailing.

• Mike Barnard: our dedicated training officer for 17 years, now moved to the Isle of Wight and still sailing there in big boats and his trusty Solo, with considerable success, we hear!