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Thanks everyone for your patience while the kitchen and bar are refurbished.
The builders now expect to complete all works on Thursday 19 October so use of the main hall will return to normal after that.
The hall can be used this weekend as it has been cleared for a venue hire but the builders will need to use the hall again next week to store some of their materials and equipment.
Thanks,
Lucy

A reminder that the building works for the kitchen and bar start on Thursday this week.
During this time the hall is a building site and the builders have requested that members do not access the hall as it will not be left safe for use by members.
From today member access fobs will not access doors into the hall. To get to the terrace, please go through the MLC classroom (all member fobs will work for the classroom door).
The renovation will only take 4 weeks and then we can all be back to normal use of the hall.
Thanks for your patience and we look forward to celebrating our newly refurbished bar soon!

We have now signed contracts with Visual Builders for the kitchen and bar refurbishment. The works will commence on 14 September and will be completed by 12 October.  During this time members should use the classroom in preference to the hall.
We will need some assistance to empty the kitchen and bar of all items the club wishes to keep. If you are available to assist on Tuesday 12 September, please let Lucy know using the [email protected] email.
If anyone is interested in purchasing the fridge and dishwasher in the kitchen from the rowing club, please make an offer by emailing [email protected]
 

We have been working on designs for refurbishing the kitchen and bar. We wanted to refurbish these when we did the major renovation in 2014 but simply did not have the budget to do so. Our strong venue hire revenue in the last 3 years has positioned us to be able to do this refurbishment now.
What will change?
Firstly the look of the kitchen and bar area will change.

The kitchen is being extended so that caterers can use the kitchen for most events. This will mean fewer disruptions to rowing when caterers use the gym, classroom or boat bay as food service areas.
The furniture store will be removed and become part of the kitchen. A commercial oven, domestic oven and cooktop, underbench fridge and sinks will be fitted along the back wall. Catering trestles will be purchased for flexible set up of the kitchen. The floors and walls will be stripped and re-finished.
The bar service space will be extended by removing the door into the hall. A new dishwasher / glasswasher, sink and ice maker will be fitted along the back wall. A new bench will be fitted along the front of the bar with underbench refrigeration. The floor and walls will be re-finished.
The kitchen and bar will be joined by a sliding door making access more discrete for caterers and allowing the two rooms to be joined together for larger events.
When will it happen?
We plan to sign off drawings and specifications this week and for builders to provide quotes by mid June. The timing and duration of the works depends on builder availability and we will let you know as soon as we have selected a builder. Our hope is that we can get the works completed during the winter period.
How much will it cost?
It is difficult to give accurate costs until we have quotes from builders. We have worked with the caterers and our building designer to ensure that we are being as cost effective as possible while creating a kitchen and bar that will be workable for both venue hire and club events.
Any questions?
We will provide another update when we have quotes from the builders. If you have other questions before then, please contact Lucy on the [email protected] email address

With only a few weeks to go until the trivia night, we are desperate for items to auction on the night.
Here are a few ideas for items you could donate for the auction: holiday houses, a few years ago I sold a weekend away for $1500; wine, who doesn’t like a good drop of wine; tickets to events; sporting goods, including old rowing kit; food hampers; and any unique item that attracts a bit of interest, for example, Canter’s freshwater pearl earrings cultivated on an Olympic rowing course.
Another idea is to donate your time.  Handyman, house keeping, gardening and babysitting services always attract good bids as do professional services, including, tax returns, legal wills and life coaching.
Have a bit of a think about what you could donate to raise money for the club.  When you have made up your mind, send us an email ([email protected]) with the details and we will add it to the items to sell at auction.

Christmas club races/bbq and New Years Eve were both fantastic events at RRC and we also raised $3500 for our fundraising goals. As a result we’re nearly ready to order of the gym equipment (though we didn’t quite raise enough for the mirrors to help keep an eye on your posture). The good news is that annual RRC trivia night is under a month away on the starting at 7pm Saturday the 18th of March and it is often the biggest of the fundraising events.
The theme chosen ‘Saints & Sinners’ was one that if you still are dressed in the costume from the day before being St Patricks day it will save precious time. Justin Thomas regrettably can not board the ship back to Australia for the occasion he is writing the question and hopefully on the night won’t be captured by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland to look after animals. Simon Crunden is getting his voice ready to as the annual fundraiser auctioneer and he will MC the trivia.
It has previously been a great night and as always it’s great for friends, colleagues and family to enjoy each other’s company. Get your tickets through Try Booking. Donation of auction items / services big and small will be greatly appreciated. Please contact myself David Micallef [email protected] or 0414 907 075 .

We are booked every day this week so please make sure you are using the back stairs to access the boathouse.
Two events that will be a bit more intrusive than normal to be aware of.

1. Masterchef is filming an episode at the boathouse on Wednesday 30 November. It’s a great opportunity for us to promote the club but it does mean that from 5am until about 6pm the boathouse will be crawling with film crew and all the extra staff that go into such a production. If you can avoid the boathouse during these times, please do so as there will only be changeroom access.
2. On Sunday we are hosting a charitable event. Sunday hires are unusual for us, but this is for a charity and, being not for profit ourselves we try to support such events when it is reasonable to do so.

As Karen said in her blog, we appreciate your patience at this time of year as the boathouse is heavily used. It’s great to see another brand new boat being added to the fleet this year and we hope that the current hall hires will support buying more equipment next year.

It all started with accepting Sarah F. as ergo-buddy on the concept2 logbook homepage. Who would have known that this would end up in a team relay event at this year’s Australian Indoor Rowing Championships?
A couple of weeks ago she asked me, if I would like to join her team for a 2000 m-mixed team relay. Well, I though why not, it’s just 500 m each and I agreed to erg along with her and Nic. We also quickly found our fourth person and welcomed George to our team.
As they do not stop the timer after every 500 m, we agreed on practicing the changeovers and quickly figured out a good technique for that. Some of you might have seen us on a Sunday morning playing around with foot straps and practicing falling off an ergo efficiently.
The race Saturday came and I found myself catching a bus (I didn’t really know existed) from Chapel Street to Footscray, where Nic and Sarah picked me up and we made our way to Barwon Rowing Club in Geelong.
After a friendly welcome, it was already time for warming up. Nic was first, competing in a 2000 m race and he did a great job. Sarah was next, though as she was the only one in the 1000 m category, I agreed to row in parallel to motivate her with a bit of competition. After some school boy races, it was time for George to row his 500 m, where he smashed the other rower.

And then it was time for our team relay event. As we were the only team signed up, 4 others spontaneously formed a mixed team and even four of the school boys who rowed the 2000 m event earlier, joined the “fun”. With being flanked by the other teams on each side, it was time for me to get on the erg, set the drag factor and get ready for my 500 m. The screen informed us to stop warming up, to get ready and off we all went.
100 m: Yay! I can do this! This is easy!
200 m: Seriously just 200 m?
250 m: Half way through… This is going to hurt!
300 m: Just keep counting to 10!
400 m: I think my lungs are bursting!
450 m: Nearly there… 10 on the legs!
The change over at 500 m went smoothly and it was on Sarah to give everything for the next 500 m. I guess she had similar things in mind that I had. After she successful finished her piece, Nic took over and we slowly gained on the leading School boys and left the Mixed Masters Team far behind us. But we still had our secret weapon waiting. After Nic did a great job, it was on George to hunt down the School boys, which were still in front of us. He once again proved his strength and we just finished less than a second behind the boys with a fantastic time of 6:36.7.

We now need to wait for final results, which will be announced at the end of November. Then we will know our place in Australia, and if we even managed to get some bling J Fingers crossed!
By Stefanie Dudczig