A meeting of the ARA Council took place on the 16th April 2005.
Full minutes will be provided in due course when they are published. Item Nos. are as per ARA Agenda
The main points of interest were:
Item 5 a) Testimonials
Stimulated by the retirement of Matthew Pinsent, the ARA are looking into the possibility of testimonial "years" or "events" and are seeking guidance for appropriate rules to govern these. This is of interest to any club because there is no reason why, for example, a well-respected club coach could not be given a testimonial. Comments to the ARA please – Rosemary Napp.
Item 10 a) National Competition Committee
Anyone wishing to suggest new rules or changes to existing rules if of should get to any changes to Chris Llewellyn by the 8th of May. [Later advice is still welcome].
The ARA insurance scheme
Perkins Slade, the ARA insurance brokers, reported that, although in general insurance premiums had escalated for the past two or three years, the ARA claims’ record and policies were so far ahead of the rest of the sports field, that the insurers were able to keep the increases down to 5%. Additionally, benefits have been improved. Perkins Slade stated that a significant factor in keeping future premium increases low was what they regarded as excellent policies in child protection and risk management (the Water safety code of practice).
The National Water Safety Sub-Committee
The report to Council was as follows:
Item B 2 Next year, it was considered that a completed audit form should be required to be included with the clubs affiliation payment. A system to send an electronic copy should be investigated.
Item B 3 Clubs are going to be asked to return a copy of the 2004 summary sheet but the ARA are also to provide club water safety advisers with an analysis sheet to enable them to present a report to their club committee. Methods need to be addressed for rewarding good reporting and avoiding fear of the remand for so doing. Online are reporting is being investigated.
Item B 5 Remploy Ltd (marketed as Ge –Tech) have developed a new life jacket that can be used for sculling. This should be on the market by the end of May. It will be called Pro-Sport 1 (for the manual operating system) and Pro-Sport 2 (for the automatic operating system)
Item B 6 ) Boat ID
Council approved the introduction of a boat identification scheme, which will initially apply to all boats using the Tideway part of the Thames, whether for racing, training or recreation. Safety and coaching launches as well as private craft must also be identifiable, including the boats from any visiting clubs using the Tideway being hosted at the Club. The scheme may expand to other navigation authority waters when the situation demands.
The Boat ID must be a three letter code (based on that used in the National Championships and available on the ARA’s website), together with a three digit fleet number (including zeros) as determined by the club. (e.g. GBR 001) Lettering shall be in capitals, in a regular sans serif (Arial “style”) font, with a minimum height 6cm and clearly readable (in a contrasting colour) on both port and starboard bow saxboard or vertical surface.
Clubs will be required to keep an up-to-date list of their fleet number/boat reference.
The Port of London Authority regulations have always required boats to be identified by a name. As clubs are responsible for educating and training their members in navigation and good practice on the water, the PLA are keen to be able to easily identify both the club and boat. The suggested “number plate” identification achieves this and will also be an easy point of reference for other water users besides the general public. It is also one of the recommendations coming out of the recent risk assessment of the Thames between Putney and Teddington, undertaken by the Salvage Association for the PLA.
Clubs will be required to implement the boat identification within six weeks of being officially notified about the scheme and their three-letter code. Those clubs who are not on the Tideway, but either occasionally train or compete on this water, would only need to add the identification code to the boats they take to the Tideway.
Item B 12) FISA Safety guidelines
FISA endorsed at its last Congress, Minimum Safety Standards for Rowing, which are apparently substantially based on the 1994 ARA Water Safety Code with additional cold-water guidance from Canada. They have stated that they will not be testing this at FISA regattas, but will be relying on the builder’s plate for verification.
Item 13 A system of Buddy-Buddy rescue has been developed for rescuing a person in the water using a single sculler and this will be developed and disseminated nationally.
TRRC The Council met on 18th April 2005
Items to report Hon Sec
4.1 Content Management System
The region has commissioned a new website with a Content Management System
Elizabeth Wray, (PR & Marketing Officer) met with Mike Fabricius to finalise the specifications for the CMS.
Report of Activities of Thames Upriver junior group
Recommendations for action
Consider: the benefits and challenges to having a Thames Upriver and a Thames Middle inter-regional team
To note: next junior group meeting at Dorney Lake, 16/05/05
· The trials for the Inter-regional team, organised by Chris Boothroyd (Henley RC) produced 119 entries. A full team of 11 boats has been selected. With an average of 11 boats trying for each place, there is potential for a Thames Upriver and a Thames Middle team.
· A third Junior Officials Training Day has been run this term at Dorney Lake, organised by Judith Packer (Weybridge RC). Around 100 have been trained and over 40 are available and suitable for the World Cup event. Children have now taken part from:
· .The Thames Upriver junior group met on Monday 11th April, and are progressing ideas for a J15/16 training weekend in October with one night’s residence. The group is small and highly influenced by geography, but will present a full proposal to the TRRC in due course.
· 318 children are now confirmed as coming to the World Cup 2005. The target has been lowered to 450, from 750.
Junior interregional Regatta and Junior girls on the Tideway
Chris Williams and Nigel Weare (Junior Commisioners)
Report from Chris Williams
- I took on organising the inter regional team for Downstream at a very late stage because no one else was doing so and I wanted our young juniors to get experience of racing at this level.
- Very few clubs responded at all – only Tiffin, Kingston, KCS Wimbledon, St Pauls boys, Putney Town, Putney High, Westminster, and Thames (one sculler) plus TSS did. A number of major schools and clubs in the region have not responded to any of my requests.
- One problem is that some of the schools have only just come back from training camp, but I get the overwhelming feeling that no one really cares about the inter-regionals much. If it has a point and place in the structure of developing juniors towards coupe etc teams this needs to be firmly spelt out then people may pay attention!
- The other problem is that I have identified that there is a fantastic dearth of opportunities for girls in our area. Thames have very few girls, the largest number of girls come from ASL! This needs to be addressed, how the ARA has got itself into a position to develop Junior rowing in small provincial areas (no offence meant, that’s where I come from) while the area its headquarters is in is so badly served beggars belief. What steps are in place to promote girls sculling in our area? If none why not?
Report of Activities of Sarah Birch and Simon Blackburn (CDOs) for the period 17 March to 13 April 2005
· There will be a “club clinic” before the TRRC meeting on 18 April. This is an opportunity for all clubs in the region to meet a CDO and raise any issues that they wish to discuss. A similar meeting is being held in Henley on 20 April for some of the clubs with which Vicky Foad was working.
· Tutor (for the Instructor’s Award) Training and Course Leader (for the Dry Instructor’s Award) training was held in early April. Demand for the latter course has led to the decision to run a second course, on 9 May. This course is also now nearly full.
· There are currently three IA courses running – at Upper Thames, Maidenhead, and Weybridge. There are no other IA courses scheduled in the region until July, mainly due to a lack of demand at this time of year. A Bronze Award will be held at Kingston Upon Thames in August. Details are available on the ARA website.
· I attended a meeting between Hammersmith & Fulham Council and Auriol Kensington RC on 4 April to discuss junior rowing initiatives in the Borough. The CDOs are happy to attend similar meetings with clubs if invited.