NEWS FROM THE COMMITTEE

Written on 14/09/2021.

Hi everyone

I’ve been meaning to write for a while to update you on club news. So much has happened, it’s hard to know where to start. We seem to have left the COVID era behind. Although some risks remain and just today a couple of members have reported positive tests, many of you have emerged from the shadows and are once again paddling in groups. We can’t let our guard down yet, but the return to normal activity is great to see.

Competition

The end of lockdown enabled us to return to competitive paddling. We’ve started time trials once again, held local events at Chippenham, and sent big teams to the national marathon championships, Nottingham sprints, and the Reading and Pangbourne Hasler races. Our results are outstanding. They demonstrate hard work and commitment during the year by our paddlers, coaching team, and parents. Well done to you all. As I write, this Mollie Ball is at the Olympic Hopefuls regatta. Good luck to her.

Looking forward, I urge you all to attend SW Region marathon events. Our attendance, at strength, in the more local events at Gloucester, Bradford on Avon, Exeter and Saltford, with our marathon race at Chippenham or potentially Lechlade give us an excellent chance of qualification. We should be aiming to be at least number three in our region this year with the depth of talent we now have.

We know many of you and your juniors are keen to compete, but please follow the guidance provided by our expert coaches. Everything they do is in the best interests of paddler development and they have an enormous collective experience. When they say ‘race’ you should race in the events, classes, and crews they propose. When they say ‘rest’ they do so for a reason, and you should follow their advice.

Investment

Club trustees met recently to agree on nearly £12,000 of investment in our club facilities. This is in addition to the £20,000 of grant funding we have secured for boats over the last two years. We will spend the bulk of this money on enhancements to security and safety, including CCTV security cameras and improved main gate access. Part of this programme will ensure every member has a digital key fob for access. It would well cost over £250,000 to replace the boats we now store on site, so we need everyone to play a role in keeping the club secure and preventing unauthorised access. We will be completing some long-term planned maintenance, installing an automatic emergency defibrillator onsite, and have allocated a budget for club boat maintenance and repair – this is very necessary with the use they are now getting.

Committee decisions

We agreed to put the committee minutes online. This is a work in progress as our website continues to develop with Lindyanne Ehrnrooth’s welcome support. We will soon have about six months of committee minutes and the last AGM minutes available to all members.

Programme and activity update

At our last committee meeting, the first face-to-face meeting since February 2020, we made a lot of decisions about restarting the club programme. Here’s a summary of things everyone should know about:

Supervised Club Sessions

Club sessions play a vital role in social integration and paddler development. We have restarted Tuesday and Thursday club evening sessions. A supervised session means a coach will be available at the club between fixed times to help people select equipment, put people in groups, prepare to get on the water, and offer advice. The coach will then be free to paddle or join a group. Sue and Dan Colby will publish a rota for these sessions on the club notice board and website. Timings for coach supervision are as follows with effect from the end of September:

- - Tuesday 6:30 pm – 7 pm
  - Thursday 10 am (booking through RE only) and 6:30 pm – 7 pm
  - Sunday Open Adult session (not supervised unless part of the DW training group)

- We will be restarting monthly club time trials, crew boat sessions, and occasional Sunday events including tours. Details of these will be circulated as they are organised.

Club Boats

Club boats were available to competent adult members during the lockdown. We’ve decided to continue to allow adult members to use club boats outside supervised sessions subject to them having proved competence. This permission will be adjusted, if necessary, to ensure sufficient suitable boats remain available for novice paddlers taking part in organised group activities and courses. For now, if you are using club equipment and prefer stable craft, please avoid doing so at peak times when novice courses are running or if a boat is tagged to indicate it is reserved for a course.

Adult paddling groups

We intend to formalise paddling groups to provide opportunities for people to paddle together. This has worked with great success in the junior section. Paddling groups are intended to be self-managing, use WhatsApp groups for communication, and may request support from a club coach. The following groups have been identified:

- - Progression to racing groups. (Dan Colby/Ian Thackray/James Mahoney) Intended for those who wish to take part in entry-level racing – Divisions 9-7
  - Race training groups. (Trevor and Beverly Hunter) Intended for mixed ability racing paddlers with some racing experience – Divisions 6+
  - Adult novices groups. (Sue Colby/Roger Edwards) Intended for paddlers who have completed the novice programme to integrate them with the club and other paddling groups.
  - Women’s Group (Anna Overton/Katie Scaplehorn) Intended for adult women of all abilities (U18s welcome).
  - U23’s Elite Paddling Group (We need to identify a suitable coach for this group).
  - Old Folk Paddling Group (Stuart Bell and others). Intended to get adult members to paddle and train together more often. All welcome.
  - DW Group (Dan Colby) intended for DW paddlers and will form in the Autumn to help people prepare and train for DW. Focus on long-distance marathon paddling and course familiarisation.

We will continue to identify new groups as required e.g. open canoe and recreational groups.

Sessions have restarted in some cases. Group details will be published on the club noticeboard or may be requested from the group organiser. Feel free to form your own groups too!

Club communication

We rely on several communication channels. These include:

WhatsApp. Used for informal communication between members and paddling groups to inform people of day to day changes in timings, session content and so on. We will not use WhatsApp as the primary means to communicate club policy.
Facebook. DCC private Facebook page covers most senior members and many parents but is not routinely used by juniors. The junior Facebook page will be closed. A notice of club sessions will be added to our private Facebook page.
Website. The club website is a primary means of communication with members and non-members but relies on members accessing the site – it doesn’t ‘push’ information to you. The website will carry news about events, courses and the programme and now has an updated governance section with details about the CIO, committee and the decisions we take.
Instagram. Used by the junior section to promote events and share pictures. Instagram is a primary means of communication for club policy and it is not regularly used by the committee.
Email. Email is our primary communication tool. We will be using email addresses from the BC membership database to communicate with you, so please ensure these are up to date.
Noticeboard. The club noticeboard will carry essential information about sessions content, the welfare team, events and paddle groups. Organisers and coaches will update this as necessary so please keep an eye open for changes.

We decided to cease postal communication altogether and will revert to using the club noticeboard to reach one or two members without access to email. Club communication is an area we have identified needs some improvement, but we cannot do so without a volunteer to act as a communications manager for internal and external communications. They would liaise with programme and event organisers, coordinate messages across the various platforms, manage the distribution list and associated data. Please let us know if you would like to volunteer to be at the centre of what is going on at DCC!

Competency assessment

We agreed to establish some simple competency checks to govern individual or group use of club equipment outside supervised sessions. We’ve agreed on a competency list that is now in use. Novice paddlers will work through. Competency list during their novice and induction programme and when complete will be able to use club equipment as individuals. Any coach can sign off competency as a skill is demonstrated.

Loan of equipment

We have decided to call in COVID equipment loans. We have a list of everyone who has signed loan agreements. Please contact the chair if you have club equipment on loan to get your agreement cancelled and any deposit returned. Note: this does not include. Paddle loan scheme to juniors which remains in place.

Buoyancy Aids

We are pretty relaxed in summer about buoyancy aids/PFDs. With winter approaching we encourage you all to wear them when paddling alone, in poor light or inclement weather, irrespective of your racing status. If you are taking family members or non-members out on the water they must be wearing BAs. We will publish winter rules at the end of September. This will mandate the use of lights and BAs for all paddlers under certain conditions.

Digital fobs

It is essential that you use digital key fibs to access the changing rooms and record your visit to the club. We need this data to obtain grants (which we use to buy boats, ergos gym equipment and so on). We’ve got out of the habit of doing so during lockdown with the changing room out of use. Please start using them once again, using the fob readers on the changing rooms, whether you want to use the changing rooms or not. In the next membership year, all paddlers will require digital key fobs. If you don’t have one, or your fob doesn’t work, you must get in touch with us now to ensure you can access the club.

Committee Roles

We welcome two new appointments to the club committee:

Nigel Chivers. Our race coordinator and event safety officer assumes a new role as ‘Captain of Boats’ or ‘Admiral of the Club Fleet’! This vital role means Nigel is now responsible for the storage, support, and maintenance of all our club boats.
Sue Colby. Sue has been a trustee, committee member, adult novice coach, and entertainments organiser for years. She now steps into the role of deputy chair and will assume responsibility for the day to day club operations. As chair, I will focus on club strategy and development.

Other business

We intend to hold the club AGM in November this year. We will publish dates and details in due course.

We will be organising some deep cleaning and decoration teams to keep the club building in good order. Please do let Emma O’Hare and Stuart Colby know if you have useful skills, are willing to get involved. We will need ‘many hands to make light work’ on the day when the work is organised.

Best wishes and happy paddling!

Mark