Club Committee
20014-2015 Manifestos
Samson Hedley, Kit Jenkins & Alex Strange - MLBCs
SAMSON HEDLEY - I am a 1st Year NatSci who noviced this year in NM1 before rowing lent term in M1. I have had a fantastic time rowing both as a novice and in the senior squad, and would love the opportunity to impart the same level of coaching and leadership as i have received from the novice programme.
ALEX STRANGE - I'm a 1st year Natural Scientist who learnt to row this year. Having represented FaT as both a novice and member of the senior squad, I can bring the experience I have gained to benefit next year's novices by creating a friendly and welcoming environment, but also one that prides itself in success. To this extent I aim to be rowing for Molesey Boat Club this summer and gain some coaching experience that I hope will be beneficial for the Lower Boats.
KIT JENKINS - 1st Year HSPSer and a novice. I rowed at stroke for NM1 in what was in so many ways a hugely enjoyable novice term in Michaelmas and have since been in M3. I'm hoping to allow the novices next year to share and benefit from that same excitement, fun and sense of satisfaction that I gained myself.
We will gear all efforts to achieve what we see to be three ultimate goals:- To widen up the recruitment of Freshers in order to capture the greatest amount of natural talent;
- To raise the retention rate of Novices throughout Michaelmas 2015 and into Lent 2015 in order to lose the least amount of talent;
- And to provide an atmosphere in which novices can meet and exceed their potential talent in order to have the best novice boats on the Cam.
- To provide an understanding that rowing can be balanced with other activities and lifestyle choices, and accordingly to provide a sense in which the novice is not overtly coerced into rowing;
- To provide, notwithstanding the above, strong encouragement, for those that can, to commit themselves to rowing; accordingly to work hard when the time is appropriate; and to understand that true satisfaction comes from near-death exertion;
- To impart a sense and provide a framework in which the above can be reconciled with the idea that ''rowing can be fun''; and accordingly to match our coaching and mentoring style to the individual's needs;
- To strengthen the bonds of friendship between members of each novice boat in a way that is accommodating of the shyness of some and the outgoing-ness of others, with the goal to make day-to-day outings more gratifying and to encourage stronger commitment to the collective effort whilst on the water;
- To provide, in cooperation with the Social Sec, a social atmosphere within the novice program that spans beyond the novice/senior rower barrier and beyond the Boat Club itself; to pass on an understanding that rowing does not need to become a novice's entire life and identity; and accordingly to reduce the amount of alienation from, and apprehension towards, rowing that remains the case in our year;
- To impose a sense of gravitas upon the Freshers through which they come to see the Boat Club as a large and elaborate organisation with a developed organisational machine; to give them the feeling of pride in their membership of it; and to reinstate the image of the Club as the most important sports group in College.
- to help organise, to set up, and to take part in Boat Club Cocktails, in which the vibe of the above approaches is to be put across (e.g. having it in College Bar, wearing Club uniform, making it not awkward - essentially doing everything we can so that it doesn't get described as ''shit'', the way it has been from our year's non-rowers);
- to advertise it forcefully through word of mouth, cards on doors, and a Facebook event (see below);
- to continue the use of two free drinks as a bribe for signing up for tubbing sessions;
- to have a summary of the social calendar available on the night; and put up a couple of posters of the committee at the Cocktails and in the Boat House for the first few weeks;
- to send out another e-mail at the end of Fresher's Week to allow Freshers who missed out to sign up;
- to have a strong presence at Chaplain's Squash (although to aim to have every male signed up is frankly unrealistic - will probably have a higher catchment rate at Cocktails);
- to recruit from within 2nd and 3rd years via an awareness raising campaign;
- to work with the coxing captain in particular to identify potential coxes;
- to encourage novices to attend relevant Pub Crawls, BBQs, swaps etc by being nice, warm and, if appropriate, by threatening shladness;
- to attend novice swaps and minimise awkwardness by lubricating conversation etc, and to provide rooms for effective pre's before and after the swap;
- to encourage social mixing and put on events with other College teams, e.g. the football and rugby boys for those that are interested, and to encourage genuine friendship outside of the Club by hosting normal Sunday/Wednesday pre's together with non-rowers;
- to keep an eye on novices' out-of-rowing activities to ensure optimal bumpers at BCD;
- to encourage mixing with the women's novices by working with the WLBCs to have joint crew pastas, etc;
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In accordance with the above approaches, we put forward the following ideas in which We will commit to:
A strong recruitment drive in Fresher's Week - in cooperation with the Captain and Social Sec,
- to develop a training program before term starts;
- to encourage senior rowers to act as coaches and to get to know the novices better;
- to encourage novices to have as many tubbing sessions as possible (at least 3, if not 4);
- to focus primarily on technique throughout Michaelmas;
- notwithstanding the above, to encourage building up stamina throughout with the occasional hard erg and/or optional morning runs (e.g. 2x2 miles fast jog before breakfast), with the aim of qualifying for the finals at Queen's Ergs;
- to put forward additional performance targets for Fairbairns and Lents, e.g. top 5 finish for NM1 and NM2 in Fairbairns, Bumps qualification for the highest Lower Boat
- to also encourage a couple to attend weights sessions, with the lure of a free high-protein meal in Burrell's afterwards;
- to minimise - when possible - morning outings;
- to take part in as many races as possible to gain experience;
- to set up a roster in which senior rowers indicate the times and outings at which they are available to sub in, in coordination with the senior rower coaching scheme;
- to encourage training over the holiday that is guided through regular e-mails and specific programs, and to provide added assistance for those likely to trial for upper boats;
- to continue current incentives for the above with rewards to be decided nearer the time;
- to work with the Captain to identify the most promising novices and to invite them on Rowing Camp;
- to encourage the best novices to trial for the upper boats;
- to decide crews as early as possible, using a non-2k test;
- to start training as soon as possible with a view to waste as little time as possible getting back into the swing of things;
- to continue our strong commitment to developing the social side of rowing, using similar methods to Michaelmas;
- to create a training program before the start of term that will account for flooding, freezing, etc;
- to generally continue doing what has successfully been done before coaching and development-wise in Lents and Mays;
- to use boat-specific chats when appropriate;
- to widen the use of the current FaT-wide group to coordinate activities shared between novices and senior rowers;
- in particular, to set up Facebook events for Boat Club Drinks, Week 2 Barbecue, the Firework's Party, and Boat Club Dinner, in accordance with the Social Sec's plans;
- to use these Facebook events to advertise beyond the Boat Club Sphere in accordance with the Social Sec's plan to widen the Club's social reach and to encourage novices to bring their non-rowing friends to attend (excl. BCD);
- to post in the first few weeks the daily schedule of tubbing sessions as a reminder;
- to heavily encourage Freshers to like the group to maximise the above's effectiveness, both before the start of term via the Fresher's Group, and after term starts at every occasion;
- to work with the webmaster to review the group's appearance in order to widen its appeal and impart a sense of gravitas on Freshers even before they arrive - e.g. change the profile and cover photo for a cleaner, more sophisticated look;
- to provide coaching for one - max. two - sessions a week;
- to make this fun and slightly less serious (unless they want it to be);
- but to do so only if there is demand and it is feasible based on circumstances of the time;
- and to assess the above when the time comes, all the whilst remaining committed to the principle and advertising it until then.
We consider all the above necessary to fulfil the three goals we set out at the start.
Proposed by: Rob Stroud
Seconded by: Barney Plummer