Covid Officer Marianne – ‘making none of your dreams come true’ – writes: As most of you will know, the First Minister has announced further Covid restrictions, but happily they don’t affect coastal rowing, in so far as it is part of specific organised sport exemption. Fingers crossed this continues.
Fourteen RPs now up to speed with our club Covid precautions – thanks everyone!
Mike’s busy working on a booking system and Tansy’s rowing survey will help inform this – thanks to everyone who filled it in. Making sure everyone is able to book a row, not just discrete groups (hands up from me – part of the W50+!), is very important because we’re a community club.
Otherwise, the updates from the last message still apply – see the previous post.
Marianne writes: A wee update on where we are with the return to rowing …
Twelve RPs have been out and had the full-on ‘return to rowing’ protocol experience. Thanks to all of you for stepping up and providing valuable, positive feedback. We’ll hopefully have two more RPs out today, as grand total of 14 (12+2=hard sums).
Industrial quantities of sanitising/cleaning supplies are either in the Shed, or on order, but there’s plenty to be going on with. The delivery guy thinks I have a cleaning festish… or I’m planning a crime.
Washing down the Maid with soapy water post-row. The boat has never been so clean.
This website now has a Covid page, where you’ll find the most up-to-date information as it comes out. When changes happen it may take a day or two to be updated.
Tansy has sent out a short questionnaire on behalf of the Committee which should help inform us about how members feel about getting back to rowing. Please fill this in.
Anne F has sought the views of RPs.
Risk assessment complete. (What a fun night that was).
Reflecting the community club we are, Mike B is investigating a booking process to allow us to return to rowing as fairly and equitably as possible, i.e. so everyone who wants to has a chance to row in a group they are comfortable with, e.g. with others taking extra health precautions.
Some of the actions sit with the RTR subgroup, some with the Committee. As ever, everyone is working incredibly hard to make this happen!
We’re obviously seeing a move to greater lockdown at the moment. There’s currently no suggestion that organised sport is going to be impacted. It does makes it all the more important that we ALL follow the ScotGov and QRC guidelines the Committee have approved to keep everyone safe.
Finally, it’s obviously a bit disappointing we’re not able to take part in C2C, but no reason why we can’t do it in a few week’s time when we’re fully back on the water – something to look forward to! … And we can love-bomb social media with photos of us with our beautiful bridges!
Club secretary Lorna writes: Below please find the Calling Notice for Queensferry Rowing Club’s AGM. It is being sent out slightly earlier than normal this year, due to the unusual way that we will be conducting the meeting (via Zoom), and the possible need to involve a postal voting system. More information will be sent out on this later, should it be required. Please read the notice carefully as there are a lot of important dates to remember. If you have any questions regarding the notice, please contact myself, or any other committee member.
The Annual General Meeting of Queensferry Rowing Club will be held on Thursday the 29th of October 2020 at 7.30pm, via Zoom.
A draft agenda and minutes of the previous AGM will be sent via email or letter to members at the start of October. It will also be posted on the Club website. Any additions to the agenda should be made known to Lorna Bark, Secretary, secretary@queensferryrowing.org by 15th October 2020.
Nominations for any position in the committee should be notified to the Secretary by 5pm on Thursday the 24th of September 2020 with Proposers and Seconders (Please remember to propose or second next to the nominations). In the event that there are more nominations than the required four Office Bearers and not more than seven members, a postal vote will be held and the deadline for this will be Thursday the 22nd of October. Any current Committee member who decides not to stand for re-election should inform the Secretary by the 24th of September, along with the other nominations.
The current Committee are: Anne Purcell, Captain Dónal Ferrie, Vice Captain Marion McDowall, Treasurer Lorna Bark, Secretary Members: John Howell Alan Sutherland Marianne Sandison Mike Breewood Stephanie Durning Stevie Leask Tansy Lee Moir
Due to the pandemic this year, a sheet will NOT be posted in the Shed for the nominations.
Club captain Anne P writes: I just wanted to give you a quick update regards progress with our return to rowing.
The crew testing the protocol – Marianne, Mark, Peter and Stevie L
As you are aware, our first successful launch with our new Covid protocols took place earlier this week. Following feedback from the crew some adjustments have been made. Our second crew of skippers will take to the water this evening and again feedback will be gathered as we refine our procedures. A new tab has been created on the website where the relevant documents and links can be found. We would recommend that you familiarise yourself with these as we move towards members returning to rowing.
At the committee meeting last week we agreed that we need to gather the views of members in preparation for putting crews together. As our membership ranges from those who are and have been working with the public throughout, to those who have been shielding, there may be some matching required to ensure that everyone who wants to row is comfortable with the options available.
A survey is being prepared for club members to be able to share any particular requests regards their comfort level and needs when rowing with a particular crew and skipper. A similar survey has already taken place for skippers. We are also exploring the best option for gathering a crew and booking a boat. It is important to us that everyone who wants to row, has the opportunity and that we manage this in as inclusive and equitable a way as possible.
Further updates will continue as we proceed and in the meantime feel free to raise any questions with any member of the return to rowing subgroup i.e. John Howell, Maria Van Dalen, Marianne Sandison, Anne Flannery and myself.
Nearly there!
In other news, Mark reports that Ferry Lass received a coat of varnish this morning and will be ready to row next Monday. He gave a big vote of thanks to Douglas for keel band bending and fixing with Alistair, as well as to the boat turners, plus Mike B and the RTR team for access permits.
Club captain Anne P writes: Yesterday saw an important landmark in our return to rowing – the first RPs, Mark, Stevie L and Peter, tried out our new return to rowing protocol with Anne F and Marianne (as club Covid Officer). We’d like to thank Peter, Mark and Stevie L for engaging so positively and enthusiastically.
Photo by Lorna Bark
The RTR Group have been working very hard behind the scenes to get to put this protocol together. Live testing it, it proved robust, practical and what we need to do to get back on the water, while complying with SCRA and Scottish Government rules. There was only one tweak (thanks, Peter!), so I am now able to share it with the Club. Click here to view or download a PDF of the document. The Committee and RPs have already had sight.
While it may at first look daunting, this is what we will all need to do, without exception, to keep us rowing. It is for our own safety as individuals, as a Club, as a community, and as part of the Scottish coastal rowing family.
The protocol might best be summed up as:
Sanitise the boat and equipment
Row!
Wash the boat and equipment.
It’s not a barrier to rowing, but something that will ENABLE us to do the thing we all love.
We hope to have more RPs out as soon as possible, so if you spot a boat out, as some of you with eagle eyes did, that’s what’s happening.
We are a community club and we want to ensure that everyone who wants to has an opportunity to row, so the Committee are also looking at a booking system to make this happen.
While some smaller clubs are out, many clubs are moving at a similar pace to QRC. It’s important we get this right, so please be patient for a little longer.
And once again, thanks to Peter, Stevie L and Mark for stepping up and supporting the process!
