Club Committee

2012 - 2013 Manifestos

Peter Ford - Women's and Overall Captain

I believe the women's club has the potential to produce the fastest boat on the river next Lents, and to progress strongly up the charts in the Mays. I would like to help the squad achieve these goals, while also developing rowers throughout the club and ensuring everyone enjoys their time at First and Third.

To produce the performances we are capable of in the Bumps, I would like to as far as possible train from September with this focus for W1, while keeping the top 12 heavily involved through fours and small boats work in Mich term. The exception to this preference for long-term commitment would be with regard to university squads; I encourage anyone considering trialling to take advantage of the better facilities, coaching and funding which will be available at CUW next year, encourage them to stay in touch with the FaT squad, and would be happy to integrate them back into the squad at essentially any time.

At the other extreme, I'm keen to make 'casual' rowing at any level easier to organise; I'm aware that rowing for FaT has in general been rather either/or, and there hasn't been much opportunity to row once or twice a week. Rowers in such a squad would have to formally demonstrate fitness and coachability before racing in an upper boat, other than as one-off subs.

I would look to secure medium-to-long term coaching for the women's boats; in the event we struggle to do this I will be prepared to take on a reasonable amount of the load, ideally setting training plans for other experienced members of the squad to coach based upon. I would liaise with the men's captain to determine what use we can hope to get from Iain, but am aware we cannot expect to rely on him.

I'm aware that a lot of coaches are/were rowers, and aren't very good at coaching coxes; to deal with this, I would look to use some combination of technology, additional 'coxing coaches', and regular 'mentoring' meetings between the club's coxes and more experienced coxes.

Overall Captain

In my fifth year involved with First and Third and tenth year of rowing, I feel I have much to offer the club as overall captain. Having rowed, coached and coxed for crews including NM4, M1-4 and W1, I have a broad base of experience from which I can understand the issues involved throughout the club. I hope I would be able to draw on the experience of all our ex-captains to back up my judgement, and work as facilitator to help the rest of the committee carry out their roles effectively.

As overall captain, the financial affairs of the club would be a high priority for me. Obviously securing sponsorship is very important, and were we to do so I would ensure members of the club were encouraged to take an active interest in the sponsor and its events.

I would also work with the men's captain to make an informed decision as to what combination of professional and amateur coaching would be most valuable for the upper boats, and ensure a decision was made early enough to keep our options open.

For most of the last 4 years, I have seen keen novices unable to go on training camp because they had already booked flights/holidays etc., so I would make sure a January camp was organised over the summer. At that point we could tell the keen novices to keep the dates free early in Mich term, and later announce which of them had been invited.

Finally, I am keen to see links with Black Prince strengthened; there is a lot of experience, keenness and goodwill out there, and I don't feel we're making the best of it at the moment. In particular, I would like to see M1 and W1 specifically (as those likely to be involved on future committees) meeting the active members of Black Prince, by whatever means seems appropriate. I would further encourage better attendance at the existing sporting events, and investigate possible additions.

Proposed by: Thomas O'Neill
Seconded by: Sara Lackner