Author: lucy.crunden

Our venue hires have been very successful in earning the club the money to spend on refitting the boat bays, the purchase of new boats and equipment, our club mentor and improving our general club finances, enabling us to continue to offer reasonable membership fees. It is our most significant income stream.
When we hire out the boathouse as a venue we always let the hirer know that we are an active club, but that our rowers will restrict their activities to the changerooms and gymnasium and will not interrupt or disrupt the event in any way.
Please ensure that when a venue hire is happening you stick to this and do not use the corridor as a training or social area. We do not wish to jeopardise our venue hire revenue by impacting on events.
Thank you to everyone for their consideration.

Our venue hires have been very busy at the start of the year with the boathouse being well used for conferences, training courses and a wedding.
Unusually we have a venue hire this Sunday so if you are not going to Barwon regatta, please be aware that the venue hire is using the hall and terrace areas this Sunday with set up from 9am and the actual function starting at midday.
On Wednesday it is the Herald Sun Jayco Bike Tour and there will be very limited access to the boathouse area. If you are training on Wednesday, please be aware that RRC is the coordination centre for the event from 7am to 9pm and the hall and classroom areas will be being used during these times. There will also be their volunteers coming and going during these times so the boathouse will be quite busy.
Thanks to everyone for their consideration.
Lucy

We have a conference booked in for this week. They are setting up today and will be in conference from Tuesday to Friday from 8.30am – 5pm. If you are at the boathouse during these times, you can use the gym and changerooms as usual but please ensure we do not disturb the conference.
In the evenings, please leave all furniture in the hall and classroom where it is so when the hirers come in the next day it is ready for them.
Many thanks for everyone’s help with this.

Come down this Sunday at 9am to find out more about plans for rowing this coming season.
We would like all rowers to come down as the coaches will be presenting how training will be organised for Winter and the racing seasons. It will be your chance to ask questions and let coaches know what you would like to do next season.
Stay for the start of Winter Training at 10am. Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine.
Enjoy brunch after your training session, from 11.30am and catch up with friends who have been having a break from rowing.
If you are able to help cook bacon and sausages for brunch or help put out and serve food, please let Lucy know ([email protected]). Thanks!

Hi Everyone,
We’ve just completed a packed Learn to Row course with 21 people taking part. A massive thank you to all the volunteers from the club who came down to help out!
It was a huge success and it looks like we’re going to end up with a new DS with somewhere between 12 – 20 rowers!
To help with resourcing (and boats) I have planned for the DS to train on Wednesday Evenings and a double Session on Saturday mornings avoiding likely squad training times. I’m now looking for volunteers to help coach /cox the crews on these days. I’m looking for volunteers who can help:
– Regularly (e.g. 1 or more sessions per week)
– Semi – regularly (e.g. 1 session a fortnight)
– Given period (i.e. for one week only, a single day, once a month or whatever every little will help)
It’s a great opportunity to practice coxing and improve your confidence if you’ve not done a lot but also gives an opportunity if you’re an existing rower who has considered coaching a great way to transition from Rower to Coach without impacting your own existing training schedule.  So even if it’s one or two days, every little would help and it will provide our new novices with a breadth of rowing knowledge and experience.
I will be running the coordination and programming so please shoot me an email ([email protected]) if you are keen to help and let me know what you are willing to commit to or which days you might be available.
Cat Hardie

Thanks to everyone who attended the Planning day on Saturday 20^th June and to those who completed the member feedback survey which is essential input into this day. We now have a draft plan for the year. We will publish the final plan in August when it is ratified by the 2015-2016 Committee.
You can read a summary of the input we received from the survey here: [wpfilebase tag=fileurl path=’End of Year Survey 2014-15.doc’ linktext=’End Of Year Survey 20…’ /]
RRC had a great season in 2014-15:
–          We opened our new Boathouse is October
–          Our WD8+ won Head of the Yarra
–          11 crews won medals at Victorian State Championships
–          We had about 50 people compete in the regatta season
–          We won medals at many regattas
–          Fundraising (excluding venue hire) raised over $15,000
–          There were lots of social events
–          We had fun!
Our goals for 2015-16 are:

1. Maintain membership numbers
2. Increase rowing participation
3. Improve our competitive level of rowing
4. Continue to provide frequent social events
5. Raise over $12,000 from fundraising
6. Re-rack the boat bay

One significant item coming out of the planning day is that we are trying to make the structure of the rowing program clearer, have really clear expectations of rowers and crews and prioritise our resources around these commitments. We will also work to improve our Selection procedures to make these more transparent and timely.
The coaching group is meeting on Sunday 5 July at 9am to flesh out the details further. If you are thinking about coaching next season, please head down.
To find out more about the rowing program, come down on Sunday 19^th July for the Winter Training Launch at 9am. We will explain how we want this year to run, give you key dates for the rowing year and answer any questions you may have. There will be training at 10am, followed by a brunch.
The Launch is applicable to rowers at all skill and commitment levels so head down if you want to be on the water this coming season (and at brunch you can catch up with everyone you haven’t seen since last season!)
There will of course also be lots of social events next year (possibly more than last year!) with regular Thursday nights continuing, club races and brunches, weekends away and more.
This of course needs lots of volunteers. Some people offered to assist through the feedback survey and we will be taking them up on it! However, the more the better so please speak to a Committee Member to find out how you can help make RRC even better in 2015-2016.
In particular we have had a couple of offers from people to be part of a Social Committee. We need some more volunteers for this group that would coordinate (but not necessarily do all the work for) social events such as regular Thursdays, Sunday brunches, Melbourne Head social event and the Christmas party. Please contact Karen on the [email protected] email if you want more information or to volunteer.
We are looking forward to a great 2015-2016.
Go Tigers!

It’s time to think ahead to next season so we have our annual planning day this Saturday, 20th June from 10am – 2.30pm (approx) at the Boathouse.
Thank you to all those people who completed the feedback survey which is an essential input into our planning. If you have ideas on what we can doing either on or off water next year or have opinions about how things can be improved, please come along to the planning day, it is open to all members.
The agenda for the planning day will look something like this:[wpfilebase tag=fileurl path=’Agenda Planning Day 20 June 2015.doc’ linktext=’Agenda Planning Day 2…’ /]
We are always a little flexible to allow for where the discussion takes us on the day. However, the outcome of the day will be that we have some initial plans and ideas of key areas where we want to change or improve things next year.
Given the agenda, if you are coming, please think about what you would like the club’s goals to  be next year.
These could be things like membership growth, increasing numbers of placing crews at states/hoty, increasing RRC competitiveness at certain grades, fundraising income, improved place in RV premiership ladder, more crews racing in season etc etc etc. As you think about it you may realise that some things are really secondary goals that feed in to a higher level goal.  It is easy to come up with loads of goals, if you had to pick just one or two goals for the club as a whole for next year, what would they be?
Some other information that may be useful is a summary of the member feedback from the survey which you can find here: [wpfilebase tag=fileurl path=’End of Year Survey 2014-15.doc’ linktext=’End Of Year Survey 20…’ /]
and the draft RV regatta calendar for next year which you can find here: [wpfilebase tag=fileurl path=’2015-16 Competition Calendar – Draft – 18Jun15.xls’ linktext=’2015-16 Competition C…’ /]
We look forward to seeing everyone who can make it on Saturday.

For those heading down to the club tonight, please be aware that the caterers are setting up the tables etc this afternoon for the function tomorrow morning as it will be an early start. Please do not use or move any of the set out furniture.
Please also note that because Pilates will be in the gym area tomorrow morning, all the gym equipment has been moved to the side of the gym area. If you are using an ergo or other equipment tonight, please put it back at the side again so the pilates group does not have to do lots of clearing away before they start their class.
Thank you for your assistance in these matters.

We received the sad news this morning that Bob Stanley passed away in the night. Bob was a long time Life Member of Richmond and was President for a number of years. He has always been an active member of the club, still coming down to train on Sunday mornings with Rod Stewart until recently.
I will always remember Bob’s ready smile and happy sparkle in his eyes, always welcoming and always ready to lend a hand.
Our thoughts are with Ivy, Bob’s wife, and we have organised flowers on behalf of RRC members.

If you are around the boathouse this Thursday please be aware that the Boathouse is being used for a conference. The caterers will be at the boathouse setting up from 7am, conference attendees will arrive at 9am.
Please help make this event successful by keeping to the changeroom and gym areas of the boathouse while the caterers set up and the conference is on.
Please remember to use the back stairs for access, even if the front door and stairway are open to allow the caterers to set up and for guests to arrive.
Thanks for your help. We would like to ensure this first conference is a success as we would like to aim to host more conferences during the year as these are hires that use the boathouse mostly when it is not being used and are also hires with no alcohol served which is beneficial for our Lease arrangements.