News - 2011

January

Mesage from the President

Welcome back everyone to the 2011 rowing year.

2010 was an extraordinary year for rowing and one that we are not likely to forget. 

In a day we saw most of the course swept away and a massive amount of debris being channelled through the Lake, with most going over the dam wall but enough remaining to pose a significant safety hazard to rowers.  It resulted in a spontaneous clean-up effort by the rowing community with the Government eventually doing the heavy lifting.  Many rowers were involved in the cleaning up with Alex and John Simson at the forefront in salvaging the old course – hence the buoys and rope stacked in our club.  David Bagnall has devoted considerable energy negotiating with government officials on behalf of the rowing community as well as assisting in the placement of some strategic buoys on Yarramundi Reach.

The next regatta will be a significant challenge for both rowers and BROs alike.   We have already seen that most rowers are not familiar with navigating Yarramundi Reach and the pressure will be greater in racing conditions.  Patience and care will be required for these events to be conducted safely.   All indications are that a more permanent solution will be put in place later in the year by the Commonwealth, which manages most of Lake Burley Griffin.  The rowing community, through Rowing ACT, will certainly be continuing to work with Government to encourage this to happen.

The last twelve months has also seen the turnover of two admin officers at Rowing ACT.  Both Anthony Pardy and Tom Vincent resigned following offers of full-time employment – Anthony with Radford and Tom with ACT baseball.  To reduce the impact of staff turnover, Rowing ACT decided to retain Anthony for financial duties so it is business as usual on this front.  The Committee, to further reduce the impact of change, has created a regatta entry coordinator role which is being filled by our very own Kerri.  This will allow the next admin officer to focus on development and broader administrative duties.

At the Club level, our fleet is in good shape although not without the efforts of a number of members, Alex and Peter Davies in particular.   A number of singles are in the process of being disposed of because they are not in good condition and were not being used.  Alex organised the refurbishment of the singles trolley to more safely take some private boats, reducing space requirements in the ‘public’ bays as well as becoming a money earner for the Club.

Financially, we remain very tight. 

On the positive side, the quarantined Steve Fairfax Fund will, properly managed, periodically deliver us new singles indefinitely.  We have been able to save, on the back of the Rowing Australia insurance initiatives, significant expenses on our fleet insurance.  This is ahead of a national fleet insurance program being put in place by Willis on behalf of Rowing Australia which may deliver some smaller further savings next financial year.  The Rowing Australia initiative has also delivered Association (/director) insurance to Clubs for free providing greater protection for those serving on committees.   The very successful solar initiative orchestrated by Kathy Howard in 2010 may well eliminate our electricity costs.  The LTR and transition programs continue to be successful adding fresh faces to our membership.

However, it is clear that we will need to supplement our income if we are to continue to build our fleet and ensure that it is adequately maintained.

As I foreshadowed in 2010, a proposal will be put to members to increase the base membership fee by $50 to $400.  I would expect that a General Meeting will be called in March.  The increase, if agreed to by members, would apply to all the membership fees falling due from 1 July 2011, irrespective of when the membership is actually paid.

While this will help, it will not be enough in itself.   We need to consider other revenue raising initiatives.  For example, you will know that Mary Quilty sought to run a corporate rowing program but it did not attract any applications – we need to be organised much earlier future and we will need wider buy-in from members.  The Club has put its name down with Bunnings to provide a sausage sizzle for which we expect a slot to be available later in 2011.  We need to continue to identify and apply for suitable grants.  For this to occur, we need volunteers for a fundraising sub-committee.  If you are interested, could you please email me."

On Australia Day the History of the Club, in the context of Rowing in the ACT, was published on the BMRC website.

February

Work continued on the course led by Alex and John Simson. A rudimentary course has been re-established.

March

March was a very big month - a lot bigger than we ever wanted or expected.

Sadly, Greg Williams passed away while rowing on the water. This was a great shock to the Club as he was a person who was universally liked. The Eulogy by the Club President is on his webpage. Greg had helped out for many years with learn to row, as reflected in the photo below.

BMRC successfully hosted a regatta earlier in the month. It also, in what is becoming a tradition, hosted a function thanking the BROs and the 'buoy boys'.

Again. BMRC fielded a strong contingent in the ACT Championships.

A General Meeting was held on 30 March. It reasulted in the annual membership being increased from $350 to $400.

April

Vince announced that the Club would be hosting, for a couple of months, a very talented Radford senior boys quad in preparation for the early July Fawley Cup for under 19 scullers at Henley Royal Regatta (UK).  This crew, which is trained by David Bagnall, had a superb season winning all of their races since the crew formed in January. They are NSW State Champions, National Champions, Independent Schools Champions and NSWRA Head of the River Champions in Schoolboy Quad Sculls. They won the Under 19 ACT Championship for Quad Sculls for men. Members of the crew were also place getters at the NSW Championships in Schoolboy Single and Schoolboy Double Sculls, against the very best specialist small boat rowers in that State.  David Bagnall said that one impressive aspect of the crew has been their ability to vary the tactics to suit the conditions, whether that has been leading from the front or rowing from behind.  

The quad that raced through the season comprised Keiren Northam (bow), Luke Letcher, Alex Stutchbery, Jordan Davies (Stroke) and Marnie Mount (cox).  Luke is the son of Graham and Vicky (Club members), and Jordan is the son of Peter (another Club member) and Sue (member of the RACT Committee and occasional contributor of photos for our website).  Marnie and Keiren are not available to travel overseas, with trials being conducted for the fourth seat.

May

Over a quarter of the Club competed in the NSW State Chanpionships, taking a swag of medals including a number of gold.

BMRC actively participated in the RACT Regatta sub-committee meeting, which essentially sets the regatta and championship structure for the coming season.

June

July

August

September

October

November

BRO’s wanted

The ACT Rowing Association needs Boat Race Officials to run the Regattas: umpire, marshall and run the Finish area. Black Mountain Rowing Club has had one or two members who have volunteered for duty in the past, but our only regular volunteer currently is Rodney palmer..good on you Rodney.

I am looking for several Club Members willing to undertake BRO duties for even a couple of Regattas for some of the time. You will be trained and can undertake tasks at the Finish Line, or in a boat depending on your preference.

If you are willing to put some time into BRO duties over the rest of the season I would love to hear from you.

Regatta dates  for the rest of 2011/2012 are :

Dec 10 Regatta

Dec 17, 18 Head of the Molonglo

Feb 4 Regatta

Feb 18 Regatta

Mar 3,4 Independent Schools Regatta

Mar 17, 18 ACT Championships

Corporate Rowing

Club Members recently all contributed to a successful Corporate Rowing program for a dedicated group from the ANU.
Peter has sent through a report which I summarise below. I would like to thank Peter Wright and Mary Quilty for driving the program and providing most of the coaching. Well done to you and all Club members who worked co-operatively on this venture.
It was a mixed crew of 10 comprising 7 women 3 men.
Two participants withdrew through the 4  week training period which worked out quite well as the  remaining 8 participants rowed in all 3 races at the final regatta.

The crew rowed Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

The crew was coached by Mary and Peter with great support from Ted and Kate who supported with coaching  as well as driving  tinnies one morning a week. In addition we always had two “spare” rowers available each morning . Their support was invaluable as there were the odd mornings where we were one or two short.

Also we had four club members who coxed the crew over the 4 weeks , Ann, Evelyn, Simone and Judith

Kumar was the coordinator and he did a great job keeping the communication lines open, answering queries and coordinating volunteers.

The crew had a fun regatta day coming second in all their three races which was terrific for  their wet but enthusiastic supporters.

Five of the participants have expressed interest in now doing Learn-to-row. One of them has already started LTR.

The Committee will be discussing the viability of running the program in 2012. Please talk to a Committee Member if you have any comments on how well the program ran.

Committee

Your new BMRC Committee meets on the 1st Wednesday of the month  at 6.15pm. Minutes are on the website are available for perusal.

Office bearers are listed on the website. Note that Kumar and Charles have offered to manage the website, so if you have photos or information you think should go on the web, contact Kumar Jadav or Charles Huxtable.

kumar.jadav@gmail.com charleshuxtable@aol.com

Boats

Our Vice Captain and Captain are actively pursuing boats to improve the quality of the fleet for all rowers. We expect a double scull to be added to the fleet before Christmas and a single scull in January 2012. We will also be looking at producing a Boat plan to look strategically at updating the fleet in the future. More news about this to follow.

Juniors

The club has agreed to run a Junior program for Under 18 rowers. I am currently coaching the program, but am still looking for a coach to take on the program for the 2012 season. Any members with Juniors who would like to participate in the program, contact me. The squad has had some good successes in the Regatta season already with strong performances in the E singles, and a good time in the quad at the last Regatta.

December