Why we're asking about names and photos

Where we've been

Until now, we've kept things simple: updates and photos about what our youth sailors have achieved have gone directly to the participants and their own parents — nothing shared more widely, and nothing posted online without asking first. Part of that is a genuine discomfort with putting kids' names and faces online by default, the way sports clubs and schools often do without much thought. Part of it is also that managing individual consent properly is real work, and we hadn't built the process for it — so the honest answer, until now, has mostly been “we just haven't asked.”

Why we're reconsidering

A few things are changing our thinking.

The first is wanting our youth sailors to feel like a visible, valued part of the club community. PMYC's Flash newsletter is probably the best tool we have for that — it's sent to members, but realistically it's de facto public, so it deserves the same care as anything else we'd publish.

The second is more practical. Port Explorers is entirely volunteer-run, and we're reaching a point where we need more boats — including some bigger ones, like the RS Quest we already sail. To attract grants, donations, and run any kind of dedicated fundraising, we need to be able to show, not just tell, what an active youth sailing programme actually looks like. The club more broadly relies on the same kind of story to keep the support of the local community and council — being able to demonstrate a genuinely active youth programme matters for that too.

The ask itself

So we're putting the effort into doing this properly: asking each family — and each young sailor directly, not just through their parents — exactly what they're comfortable with, channel by channel. Not a blanket yes, and nothing assumed. If the answer is no to some or all of it, that's completely fine and has no effect on anyone's place in the programme.

You can change your mind at any time — just email gregor@ausail.ing or let us know in person.