Tuesday, October 20, 2015

What to do and find at the 2015 Crystal Classic

Tips to follow if you are planning on attending this year's festival

  • Check out our map layout of all the teams and sculptors competing for this year's $15,000 in prize money
  • Get your QR code scanner on your phone ready to obtain updates on the festival schedule and more information on all sculptor teams while on site
  • Get your reserved parking pass and avoid the hassle of parking at Siesta Beach any day during the event.  Shuttle service operating on Saturday and Sunday from 10 - 2 PM to get you from reserved parking to the south side of the entrance.
  • Come hungry and bring money!  With plenty of food, beer and drink to enjoy, why eat before you come out to the beach?  Check out the festival site map to find food, beer, tickets, gates and party tent depending upon where you park.
  • Shop til you drop at the Vendor Village featuring over 60 booths, open Friday through Monday from 10 AM til close.
  • If you come out to the beach after 12 PM, you may want to consider taking SCAT from the Pavilion or Southgate Malls.
  • Follow us on Facebook for the most up to date information during the competition.  See below to connect with us.
  • Come on out on Saturday and enjoy the festival followed by a showing of Surf's Up on the beach sponsored by the Sarasota Film Festival at night
  • Get your pails and shovels and carving tools ready and enter the amateur contest on Saturday.  Click here to register.  It's free!
  • Party Hardy at the Kona Brewing Party Tent followed by some moving and grooving to the variety of great music inside the festival perimeter
Sponsors tent open Friday through Sunday, 10 AM til close in front of the event stage

Friday, August 28, 2015

Position Available - Executive Director of Non-Profit Chamber of Commerce

Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce - Sarasota FL 

The Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce is a membership-based, business-focused organization which offers a wide variety of benefits and services geared toward promoting local businesses and strengthening the economic climate of the local community.  The Chamber is a 450+ member organization with a staff of three full-time employees, one part-time employee and  20+ volunteers and hosts many events designed to promote business interaction and growth.

The Executive Director will have overall responsibility for ensuring that the organization is successful in achieving its mission through strategic planning, fundraising, managing staff and volunteers, outreach to the public, coordinating programs, meeting financial goals and guiding the organization through stages of growth and innovation. He/she will be responsible to the Board of Directors for a range of activities in accordance with the policies, procedures and By-laws of the Chamber.  Additionally, he/she must be professional and personable while providing the “face and voice” of the Chamber.

Strategic Planning & Decision Making

• Provide leadership in developing and implementing strategic initiatives in conjunction with the Board of Directors.
• Oversee the allocation of resources such as funding, staff, and volunteers.
• Identify process improvements to maximize organizational efficiencies.

Management

• Manage daily operations and ensure programs are successful, by maintaining high standards of quality for client intake, volunteer recruitment, and responding to staff needs.
• Maintain the positive and mission-driven culture that exists within the organization’s community by strengthening relationships with volunteers, staff, members and sponsors.
• Recruit, train, motivate, and evaluate all paid staff and volunteers.
• Maintain official records and documents.
• Ensure compliance with government regulations.

Fundraising

• Develop fundraising plan in conjunction with the board.
• Expand, coordinate, and promote our fundraising events.
• Cultivate donors by strengthening existing partnerships and developing new donor relationships.

Outreach/Community Involvement

• Promote our mission, vision and values in our service area.
• Create new opportunities to expand organizational awareness by participating in community events and networking organizations
• Publicize the activities of the organization via email, mailings, public ad campaigns, social media, internal newsletters and our website.

Financial Management

• Work with the Board of Directors to prepare an annual budget.
• Maintain sound financial practices and manage the expenditure of funding according to the budget.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 3 years management experience
• Knowledge of tourism and visitor Marketing
• Chamber of Commerce awareness
• Passion for our mission and ability to communicate it in a compelling manner.
• Past success working at a nonprofit with a board of directors.
• Ability to prioritize a variety of ongoing activities.
• Experience managing program budgets and monitoring expenditures.
• Comfortable with public speaking to a wide range of stakeholders.
• Prior fundraising experience
• Ability to work effectively with diverse groups of people.
• Possess working knowledge of database technology, Microsoft Office Suite, and Quickbooks.

Hours: Full time (will include some evenings and weekends)

Salary: Salary based on experience plus bonuses and benefits.

Application Deadline: September 30, 2015

If interested, please send a cover letter and resume to: Employment@SKCCinfo.com

No phone inquiries.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Big Pass dredging peer review update

The county has moved ahead and contracted with Atkins North America Inc. for $49,000 to review the Army Corps of Engineers’ (ACOE) plans to harvest sand from the Big Pass Shoal for the Lido Beach renourishment project.
In an email to County Administrator Tom Harmer from Manager of Development Services and Environmental Protection Matt Osterhoudt in early June, “We expect the consulting firm Atkins North America, Inc., to complete the peer review by the end of September 2015.”
The county is spending the money for the review at the urging of the Siesta Key Association.
The ACOE has stated in permitting documents that the renourishment would have no significant effect on Siesta Key beaches. The Big Pass Shoal renourishes Siesta Key beach naturally.

Siesta Key - Siesta Fiesta 2016

Siesta Fiesta will continue for 2016, with a small modification to address the problem the village businesses encountered in the past during this event. Businesses complained that signs announcing Ocean Blvd. was closed were posted before entering the Village deterring customers from patronizing their establishments.

Ocean Blvd. will not be closed for the 2016 events was the case in previous years. Instead, booths will be set up on the sidewalks similar to the February Craft Fair to allow traffic to pass through. The dates set for next year are April 9 and 10. Howard Allen will also continue to host the event.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Big Pass dredging peer review update

The county has moved ahead and contracted with Atkins North America Inc. for $49,000 to review the Army Corps of Engineers’ (ACOE) plans to harvest sand from the Big Pass Shoal for the Lido Beach renourishment project.
In an email to County Administrator Tom Harmer from Manager of Development Services and Environmental Protection Matt Osterhoudt in early June, “We expect the consulting firm Atkins North America, Inc., to complete the peer review by the end of September 2015.”
The county is spending the money for the review at the urging of the Siesta Key Association.

The ACOE has stated in permitting documents that the renourishment would have no significant effect on Siesta Key beaches. The Big Pass Shoal renourishes Siesta Key beach naturally.

2015 Siesta Key Crystal Classic Master Sand Sculpting Competition


This November 13-17, twenty-four of the premier master sand sculptors from all over the world will once again be competing for 1st place on the #1 beach. The Siesta Key Crystal Classic has become a favorite of many of the professional sand sculptors who have competed here. Citing the beauty and cleanliness of the pristine white sand, sculptors have remarked that their sculptures look almost as if they are “carved in marble.”
Information regarding sponsorship is now available on the website as well applications for our popular Vendor Village: www.siestakeycrystalclassic.com.

For more information about Siesta Key Crystal Classic contact the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Expert says modeling behind pass dredging is flawed

By Roger Drouin

Panelists spoke to a full audience at St. Boniface Episcopal Church. Photo by Roger Drouin.

When a coastal geology expert hired by critics of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to buffer Lido Key’s beaches with sand dredged from Big Pass spoke at a meeting last month, he spent several minutes talking about the modeling used by the Army Corps.

The modeling used is essentially flawed, explained Robert Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University.

According to Young, the same exact method of modeling cited as support for the Army Corps conclusion that dredging Big Pass will have no negative, unintended consequences had been described as flawed by the very federal agency that used the model to prove it’s point, Robert Young told a full audience at St. Boniface Episcopal Church May 11.

The method of modeling is called GENESIS, and it is commonly used by coastal engineers to check to see what the potential impacts of a beach project could be on nearby coastal areas.

The problem is that GENESIS is not “well-suited” to determine the impacts of coastal projects on inlets (such as Big Pass) or environments close to inlets, Young said. The Army Corps has even stated in permit applications this shortcoming of the modeling. But nonetheless the agency still uses the modeling to “add confidence to its revised plans,” Young said.

Young was one of the panelists to speak at the meeting hosted by the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, Siesta Key Association, Siesta Key Village Association and the Siesta Key Cond Council. The other models used by the Army Corps are also flawed, Young told the packed community room at St. Boniface, because data entered into the models does not replicate coastal weather such as storms, which happen over time.
“The project engineers cannot predict with any degree of certainty at all the impact of the proposed dredging,” Young said.

Some of the models are interesting but “in my opinion,” Young said, “they cannot be used for project design.”

Young’s presentation was the focal point of the meetings, which included criticism of the project from other speakers, including: Save Our Siesta Sand 2 (SOSS2) Chairman Peter van Roekens; former Sarasota County Environmental Services Director Rob Patten; and environmental advocate and former director of the Environmental Studies department at New College Jono Miller.  Laird Wreford, Coastal Resosurces Manager of Sarasota County presented a neutral stance.

Young also referenced a 1994 study by David Aubrey, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and Robert Dolan, a professor at the University of Virginia.

“Siesta Key’s stability and low erosion is linked to Big Pass shoals,” Young said. “The study showed the shoals play an important role in sheltering Siesta Key.”

Phil Gilbert, an Illinois judge and seasonal resident on Siesta Key, spoke during the question and answer session at the May 11 meeting.

Gilbert said as a judge who has worked on cases involved federal environmental agencies, he believes the best route for advocates is to continue to push for the Army Corps to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which is more comprehensive than the Environmental Analysis (EA) that the agency has been willing to undertake.

“There are only two reasons why the Army Corps would not want to do an EIS: the time it would take; and they might not like the results of it,” Gilbert said.

If advocates do take legal action, Gilbert suggested, one option is to ask a judge to order the Army Corps to conduct an EIS before any aspect of the project continues. “A federal judge cannot just tell the Corps its idea is flawed,” Gilbert said. But it is plausible that a judge would require the agency to conduct and submit an EIS to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The EPA’s descriptions of the two types of environmental studies illuminates just how different the analyses are.

An Environmental Analysis is shorter: “Since the EA is a concise document, it should not contain long descriptions or detailed data which the agency may have gathered.”

The Environmental Impact Statement is more involved. It “is a detailed analysis that serves to insure that the policies and goals defined in NEPA are infused into the ongoing programs and actions of the federal agency,” according to the EPA.