Club Committee

2004 - 2005 Manifestos

Jenny Lee - Women's Captain

I am a second year maths student who noviced at 1st and 3rd as a rower in 2002 and as a cox in 2003. I have rowed in the 1st Fairbairn IV, 2nd Lent and May boats and am coxing the men's 2nd May eight.

Why am I standing?

I first considered standing for the post of women's captain last term. Since no-one stood before nominations closed, I then seriously considered whether I wanted this position. I decided I did, for the following reasons:

• To become more fully involved with the organisation of the women's boat club
• To be a major part in the continued development and improvement of women's rowing at 1st and 3rd
• I'm genuinely excited by the potential we have in the club at the moment, and want to enable everyone to realise that potential

Why do I think I will be suitable?

• I have excellent organisational and time management skills needed to co-ordinate the arrangement of outings/coaches
• I understand the commitment involved in rowing/coxing at a high level for the college
• I am willing and ready to learn so that I can do an effective job

Rowing

The main focus for the year will be bumps, both Lents and Mays, with the aim to put together strong boats to continue the rise in bumps over past years. On the way towards this, a club of this size should be able to enter a competitive eight in Fairbairns.

The training plan will consist of both water and land training (ergs /weights). I will develop these plans in consultation with senior rowers and coaches who have more experience of such programmes than myself.

The selection process for top boats will be based upon a range of criteria; advice from coaches, performance in erg tests, commitment and attitude to rowing. This process will be ongoing, with a top boat initially chosen in the first two weeks of term to allow sufficient time to row together as a crew before bumps. I would hope that the selection would include 2nd boat rowers, to continue the competition for 2nd boat seats we had this year.

I will follow on the tradition of a pre-Lents training camp, in conjunction with the LBCs to introduce novices to senior rowing. It will be important to get as many experienced senior rowers to take part in this camp, as well as high quality coaches, so that promising novices will be able to improve more quickly.

Coxing

It seems that recruiting and retaining coxes is an annual problem for the club. I would like to work with the coxing captain and LBCs to integrate promising novice coxes into senior boats during Michaelmas term. I believe that coxes can learn more quickly if they are in a boat with senior rowers. Combining this with a coxing mentor/coach will hopefully encourage more coxes to continue.

Summary

As women's captain, I will:

• be organised about the day-to-day running of the club
• communicate directly with senior rowers where necessary and take their opinions into account
• continue to make rowing enjoyable for everyone in the women's club by building on the success from this year

Proposed by: Aileen Dennis, Women's Captain