The JSA of LIS Program Staffing Discussion was held via Zoom video meeting during the evening of February 22, 2023, from 7:05 to 8:20 pm. The meeting had registrations from representatives of 23 organizations.

The resources from the meeting may be viewed at this link.

The available meeting resources include video and audio recordings and a chat log with commentary by the JSA chairperson Tim Clark, executive director Bob Whittredge, and various junior program leaders who described their experiences with staffing topics during the open discussion among the attendees.

The discussion started with a few open-ended questions like these:

• General lack of available coaches to hire.
• Where are clubs finding more candidates?
• What websites are there to post jobs (aside from JSA and Sail1Design)?
• How are we supporting high-school-age instructors, while supporting sailors remaining in our junior program who are also in high school?
• Do clubs offer discounted tuition if families offer to provide housing to instructors?
• How intense is the VISA process if we do need to consider foreign instructors?
• Do all programs mandate US Sailing Small Boat Certification courses for their instructors?
• Is instructor pay tied to certifications?
• We have ideas to share about how to encourage younger kids to want to teach sailing.
• Where can our first year instructors find a Level 1 in-person course nearby?
• What is highest level of certification typically held by instructors?
• Is Head Instructor certification required by programs?
• Clubs making job offers with early fall deadlines has increased the pressures of recruiting.
• Coaches leaving early for internships or to become coaches.
• We are understaffed at the senior level.
• Several prospective instructors applied in January and not in the late fall as in past years.
• Always looking for more ways to adjust my program to its fullest potential.
• Only people we’ve seen are from overseas, and we’re not sponsoring international applicants.

Please review your junior program’s job ad posted on JSA’s Classified Jobs page and reply to advise if you wish to update or remove the ad.