Detailed explanation of Saturday 3/5/16 open meeting
1. People gathered and were provided post-it notes on which to write down any
topic/issue/concern/suggestion &/or question they had about the GGR club. (Since
this meeting was called in response to the survey about a competitive racing
program [CRP], there were naturally many questions about racing). All these notes
were then collected and placed on a large table. Row by row, participants came to
the table to look at the notes and to try to organize them into related themes.
2. Different people volunteered to come to the table to read off the post-it
comments to the whole audience and to solicit feedback for how best to organize the
messages into related themes.
3. Here’s a list of all the post-it notes (there is no order here—I just grabbed them
out of the bag):
 How many “elite” racing teams will there be?
 For non A-team racers—will we be able to have 6 skilled rowers and a skilled
cox to compete?
 Please-if captains would kindly not call out single rowers on a rec. row. This
happened last season and set a tone for the row that did not need to be.
 Bad feelings among members
 How can we share feedback effectively?
 It is sad to have a pervasive sense of divisiveness cast a shadow on this
wonderful club. My first concern would be restoring some common mission.
 I am concerned about the inertia of “tracking”-not being very easy to go into
the category (competitive race training) in the future.
 What will happen if there are more people who want to race than there are
boats?
 The race committee got 100% of racers their first and second choice of races.
I hope that continues.
 Concern we be honest about where everyone falls in the A-B-C etc.
classification (for racers.)
 What happens to people who want to race but not at elite level? How do we
decide who gets to use boats for each race?
 If we start this program (CRP) I’m worried that we will not have enough
boats and captains for rec. rows and regular conditioning rows.
 Overall availability of boats with addition of several extra race training rows
 Too many chiefs!
 Way too much focus on racing, this is not what the basic idea of club was.
 I think it reels of an elites attitude
 I understand people want to win, and we haven’t won much in the past. Of
course people want to do better. We are a community club with many who
row for pleasure and they don’t race. Racing always seems to dominate—
take the boats, the resources etc. I’m concerned this (CRP) will just make this
more so.
































I’d feel supportive of CRP is it could truly (underlined on the post-it
note)practice at non-busy times and if more people could become captains to
help pitch in. Maybe they could pay more for it too.
70% rec rowers, 30% racers.
I think overall we are doing well. WE should continue to do that.
How does the club plan to manage various work schedules?
How will racers be chosen?
I’m concerned about being an “older” racer and being “aged out” of my
passion.
Self-selection of race teams.
Not enough rowing other than at 9 & 10 on Sat/Sun.
Race practice should be in off hours.
Personally, I want to improve—especially in technique. If there were an
appropriate race for me to participate in I would welcome the opportunity.
What if want to do CRP but can’t do all the races?
Shouldn’t sign up for a racae if you can’t make practices.
I am concerned that simply by not being here all season (i.e., vacay etc.) that I
will not be able to race as competitively as I feel I am able to.
People jumping to conclusions.
More rows that encourage community spirit—e.g., picnic at 10 pound island
Concerned about creating a club within a club. Wasn’t having “varsity”
enough?
Clear metrics and feedback regarding evaluation of rowers’ ability/strength
should be established and communicated—no one should get to “rest on
their laurels.”
More recreation rows at the 7:30 time slot.
Concern that rec rows will have enough talent to be well executed. Emphasis
seems to be on conditioning and racing
How will race category impact club?
How can we improve orientation so people feel more welcomed?
Not enough effective communication with members.
I’m concerned that people feel “harassed” on rec. rows.
Being corrected for style on rec. rows
Will opportunities for “lower level” races be available?
If there are self-selected racing teams (Seine or CRP) then other members
should also have the chance to row with like-minded similarly abled team—
not just lumped together as the rest.
Who are the coaches?
If I do CRP and don’t get selected for a varsity boat can I row in a non-varsity
boat?
Can I do a CRP practice if I am not part of the program?
The CRP will evolve with feedback as always.
CRP: Communicate well.
Opportunities to row—enough captains to offer row options.



Reduced availability of cox/captain
CRP: transparency and attention to public process.
Does racing command too many resources
As a group we determined that all these comments yielded 4 different, yet
overlapping themes :
1) community: How do we keep people with different needs, preferences, styles,
desires together as a whole club so that the club maintains a sense of wholeness and
purpose.
2) racing : How do we want to select teams for races (“varsity”, “first racers,”
“people who want to row together,” etc.)
and how do we want to determine who races in which races where? How do race
people practice in such a way that doesn’t overtax available resources
(boats/captains?)
3)feedback: How do we respectfully and appropriately provide feedback to rowers
who are creating safety challenges in the boat or who are rowing out of synch with
the other rowers?
4) resources: How do we maximize our use of our 3 boat fleet, our 25 captains, and
our energy in managing a club?
We finished the meeting agreeing that the Steering, racing, social, and training
committees and coaches would develop some solutions to these challenges. We also
agreed (actually, this was at the beginning of the meeting) that in crafting these
solutions we would rely on data about resource uses, number of members, of
different types of rows scheduled, number of captains/rows/captain and other such
information that we have available to us on the website. –In case you are not
familiar with this—on the member tab, you can click on “club stats” and see how
many and what types of rows were conducted on weekdays, weekends, am, pm etc
for the last 4 years!