Club of the year
For explosive growth since 2011, the Kelowna Yacht Club won the medium-sized club of the year award from the Canadian Society of Club Managers.
The most obvious expansion was in 2014 when the new wave-shaped clubhouse opened on the downtown waterfront with club offices, restaurant, patio, change and meeting rooms upstairs, and a Cactus Club restaurant open to the public on the ground floor.
The club, which opened with only a handful of members and boat slips in 1945, has ballooned to 1,692 members, plus their spouses, and space on network of docks for 1,006 vessels.
The Canadian Society of Club Managers represents 550 managers of 400 clubs of all kinds across the country.
Sally Howard is the manager of the Kelowna Yacht Club.
With the win, the club’s community-focused events were also recognized, from its Blind Fishing Derby and annual Boat Show to Boat for Hope.
Pay online
The City of West Kelowna has introduced a program where payment can be made to renew business licences through the online banking systems of most financial institutions.
Ironically, renewal notices for 2017 have been snail mailed to all of the 1,800 businesses in the municipality along with instructions of how to make online payments if they want to.
The deadline for 2017 business licences is Jan. 31.
A $25 late fee applies for all renewals after that.
Steve MacNaull is a business reporter and columnist with The Okanagan Saturday. Reach him at steve.macnaull@ok.bc.ca.