[CUCBC Captains] Quality / congestion of outings

[Mark Jacobs]

Dear All,

At the most recent Captains' meeting, I outlined my hopes for improving 
the quality of college rowing in the future. We skirted over a number of 
ideas, and I'd now like you to consider them all in more detail for a 
proper debate before the Mays. I'd like to then agree on some trial 
measures to be implemented in Michaelmas, subject to a review partway 
through the term if they are felt not to be working.

I believe that the areas for consideration are as follows:

  * A cap at peak times based on the size of the club. This would have
    to be flexible enough to allows clubs to grow and shrink in the
    usual way without any unfair advantages/penalties being applied. In
    order to give a practicable spread of outing quotas, it is likely
    that this would be measured in outings per week rather than per day,
    with difficulties in monitoring. CUCBC does not have any system
    beyond the early morning marshals to record outings, and while I
    hope I'm mistaken I don't believe we've been inundated with lots of
    people eager to serve their turn on the committee next year.
  * Streaming of men/women and upper/lower boats to even out speed
    differences, which may assist overall traffic flow. Likely to lead
    to less flexibility for scheduling outings though.
  * Better education of coaches - both in terms of knowing how to get
    crews effectively moving and in terms of consideration for other
    boats. We've all been frustrated when stuck behind boats doing
    inapproprite exercises, not all of which appear to benefit the crew
    in question! Any such scheme to improve the knowledge of coaches
    would only work with support and cooperation from the highly skilled
    and able coaches that some of you are fortunate enough to work with
    - if only half of them could be talked into giving an hour one
    evening/weekend to talk about a particular point, we'd soon have a
    pretty full calendar. I've not yet sounded anyone out about this,
    believing that it would be better coming from keen/interested club
    members than me trying to twist arms on the towpath!
  * Crew selection methods - at New Hall last term we had a first boat
    (that trained in the mornings) and two lower boats (one that trained
    in the mornings and one that trained in the afternoons). Our 'W2'
    and 'W3' were both pretty evenly matched for speed after 6 weeks,
    and both managed to qualify for the Lents. Our W3 had fewer outings,
    but at more productive times of the day. Could such a method of crew
    selection work at your club?

Please send this around the whole club (rowers, coxes, coaches etc.) and 
come prepared to represent their views before bumps. If anyone feels 
motivated enough to draft a proposal, please do so and I'll send it 
around everyone for consideration before the meeting.

There are a few things I'd like to make clear:

  * I don't want the meeting to turn into a forum for
    recriminations/accusations - these will not be productive!
  * Rowing in the hours of darkness is not an option. Likewise,
    significant relaxation of the flag system is unlikely (though we may
    be able to take slightly more lenient views on flag status if
    typical traffic density and quality of crews can be changed for the
    better).
  * My aim in opening this debate is not to simply cut participation in
    rowing, though personally I would gladly trade a division of lower
    boats in bumps for better rowing at the top. Luckily or otherwise,
    depending on your point of view, I don't get a vote on whatever
    measures are adopted!
  * The meeting is your forum, to represent your views. The CUCBC will
    endeavour to enforce whatever measures are settled upon, so long as
    they are safe, unlikely to cause problems to others outside the
    college rowing community and that we have the resources in place to
    do so.

Regards,

Mark Jacobs
CUCBC Safety Advisor
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