Volunteer Needs
Please contact [email protected] with your volunteer choice.
Note: Volunteers who work directly with our young students must submit to a background check.

• Safety boat operators and crew. Generally all three of our safety boats are on the water during our training programs. The safety boat operator and crew member watch for on water emergencies and sailors in need. In order to operate a Safety boat, you must meet three requirements:

1. Hold a Florida Safe Boating card. There is an online course to apply for and learn the necessary fundamentals of safe boating. www.boatus.org/florida/This link will take you to the site.
2. You must be approved for small boat operations by the safety officer. We have a Safety Boat training day at the beginning of each year.
3. Safety boat operators must also have CPR/AED and First Aid training. 
4. Read ESA Capsize Recovery

• Adult class instructor. Our method of adult instruction is to put an instructor with two students on the sailboat. The instructor must be an experienced sailor and be able to teach others the basics of sailing. We offer partial payment for those experienced sailors who want to attend the US Sailing Instructor's Certification programs.
• Shore Crew. The shore crew consists of sign-in/sign-out monitors as well as the central radio operator. It starts with hanging our sponsor's banners and ends with taking them down.
• Class Administration. Our classes involve two levels of operation. First, to organize and conduct the class. Second, to do all the preliminary work to organize the teams, set up the Friday picnic, etc.
• Boat Maintenance. We have 46 boats. Enough said. There are lots of maintenance needs.
• Yard Maintenance. Our yard requires constant maintenance both to meet our county's desire for clean parks and to present a professional environment to our students and team.
• Indian Mound Park Workdays, in partnership with the Friends of Indian Mound Park, members join in general clean-up of the park.

• Youth summer camp. At the summer camps, most of the on board instruction is conducted by our youth sailors that have gone through our fall and spring program and coaching clinic. There is need, however for safety boats, shore crew, maintenance and other support. Adults are needed to check in/out, help organize our campers ages 8 to 17 and our youth coaches ages 10 to 17.
• Youth spring and fall program. We have three groups of youth sailors in this program: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Each group has one or two coaches that layout the learning exercises and generally coach the kids in their movement from beginner to advanced. 
• Boat trailer transport. Our safety boats are stored offsite and with each sailing activity we need volunteers who can move the trailers to the park and launch the safety boats. You must have a 2" trailer hitch and be able to safely back the trailer into the water.
• Marketing and Publicity. ESA has a Marketing Committee that oversees all of our publicity efforts. We need volunteers who are willing to manage social media platforms as well as our website. 
• Development. Each year ESA solicits sponsorships from local businesses. We advertise these businesses with banners at the Sailing Center and on our webpage.  Also, ESA participates in the biennial Giving Challenge - the next Challenge is 24 hours in April 2026.  We need volunteers to solicit donors: contributions up to $100 will be matched during this Challenge.
• Board of Directors. ESA is run by a 9 member board of directors. This is not a typical organizational board as the board members also participate in the above activities. Most operating and strategic decisions are made by the board of directors.
• Treasurer. Manages the source and use of all funds and provides monthly financial reports.
• Secretary. Takes minutes at each board meeting and distributes for board approval and then to all members.
• Safety Officer. Responsible for carrying out ESA safety policies.
• Events Committee. This group plans, publicizes and implements special events.
• Grant Writing. We have been very fortunate to receive grants from various sponsors. This work requires grant filing and appearing before grant committees.