I attended the Great Sacandaga Lake Association’s annual membership meeting Aug. 16. There were 32 people in attendance, of which five were GSLA board members, three were Sacandaga Protection Committee members, one was from the Hudson River Black River Regulating District, Mike Clark, one from the Sacandaga Express, Carla Kolbe, and Edinburg’s town supervisor, Jean Raymond; leaving 21 members of the GSLA in attendance.
Considering there are about 500 members, this was not a very good showing.
Also, considering there are about 4,900 lake permit holders, 500 GSLA memberships is also not very good participation.
What can explain such a small membership? Are people uninformed, or perhaps they think it’s too expensive. Here is an organization that provides free boating safety classes, monitors lake water quality, provides awards to high school seniors in six school districts for advance education, supports lake fish stocking, etc.
It can’t be uninformed. There were 17,000 hits on the website in July. But maybe 500 members were checking the water level every day. Affordability shouldn’t be an issue – a membership cost is $25 for a family, $15 for an individual.
Think about joining the GSLA. Check it out on www.gsla.org.
JOE MEUSE
Broadalbin
