VISION OBJECTIVES STATEGY AND PLANS

OUR VISION: To build a sustainable and adventurous rowing club

OUR VALUES. We value

  • Fun: Above all else, we want to have fun. Lots and lots of fun
  • Adventure: We like doing adventurous and interesting things.
  • Friendship: We are welcoming not elitist (hardly surprising when you look at current members). Any ability, age, shape, size, or flavour is welcome here.
  • Simplicity: The default answer is yes. We have a “can do” attitude and think of reasons why you should, rather than a bureaucracy that places hurdles in your way.
  • Safety: We enjoy and value life, we are not reckless.

OBJECTIVES. We will steadily establish a sustainable club that enables people to have fun rowing. Our initial objectives are:

Membership

  • Try rowing: Over 50 new people will try rowing in the club boats
  • Membership; Over 15 new members (30%) will sign up and row at least once per week
  • Leadership: We will form a larger committee from active members to help achieve our objectives and lead the development of the club
  • Welcoming: We will establish at least one women’s crew

Facilities

  • Boats: We will raise enough money to buy a new Celtic Longboat, and trailer, to secure our future
  • Location: We will renew the lease on our boathouse

Events

  • Events: We organise or take part in at least 6 major endurance challenges through the year, and a number of minor challenges
  • Weekly rowing: We will organise at least two rowing sessions a week on the Severn to enable people to train, with a stretch target of 3
  • Anytime, anywhere: Our philosophy will be to enable people, and their families, to use the boats anytime anywhere

STRATEGIES AND PLANS

Membership plans

  • Recruitment: Current recruitment happens very successfully through word of mouth. Plans include;
    • Membership Secretary: We will recruit a membership secretary to help us recruit new members
    • Web site: We will maintain the web site to enable people to find out what we do and how to join
    • Use events to recruit new members. 50% of people who have trained for a particular even have maintained their membership as an active rower. We will actively welcome new members who take part in major events
    • Ladies. We have a small number of lady members. We will search for a ladies membership officer to drive female membership.
    • Cox: We will actively recruit coxswains as well as rowers 
  • Low and accessible membership price:  Overall, we will charge less than other rowing clubs, to encourage membership. This is possible as we do not aspire to have expensive buildings to maintain. The membership fee will pay for the cost of storing and maintaining the boats, affiliation and insurance.
    • Adult Membership: £30 joining fee plus £10 per month, payable by standing order. This low price compares favourably to any other club and any other way of getting fit/having fun
    • Try before you join. We will not charge for 3 x initial rowing sessions, enabling people to try out rowing in our boats first.
    • Event costs; these will be paid by members who are taking part on a non-profit kitty basis. These costs are generally to cover fuel, entry fees, camp site fees, but exclude food and booze.
  • Bank account and simplicity. We will encourage all memberships will be paid monthly by standing order. This enables members the freedom to leave the club and removes the need get people to sign up again every year.

Events

  • Participate in organised events. We will try to participate in 6 organised events annually
    • Biannual: Celtic Challenge: Bi annual event crossing the Irish Sea from Arklow to Aber. The club holds the time keepers trophy for participation in 2012
    • April: Milford Haven Marathon row: 22 miles up the estuary.
    • June: Cork Ocean To City
    • July: Eddystone challenge
    • August: Castle To Castle race
    • September: Great River Race
    • One or more of the WSRA Joint league events
  • Organise events of our own. Any member can organise a trip on behalf of members. We would especially encourage this when it brings in new rowers. Illustrative examples include:
    • Long weekend trips:  e.g. Caledonian canal trip …60 miles in 2 days (August 2012)
    • Day trips:
      • E.g. trips up the River Severn to Monthford bridge pub (4 hours rowing up river)
      • Shrewsbury to Bridgenorth (30 miles)
      • Bala Weekend rowing on the reservoir in 8 x 1 hour sessions, camping overnight.
      • Weekly rowing sessions.
        • Midweek We row on Tuesday nights. We will test demand for Thursday nights and a weekend row
        • Row when you want. Members can use the boats when they want

Culture

We will continue to develop our unique inclusive, adventurous and fun culture in everything we do.

  • We don’t have first teams…we have fun teams. Boat booking will continue to be on a first come first served basis
  • Team selection for major events comes by drawing names out of the “Hat Of Fairness”.
  • We will finish anything we start, without fail
  • We will go via the pub
  • We do it in all weathers, day and night, often camping overnight