Return of the Raffle Tickets

For those of us who have sold raffle tickets, it is critically important to make sure you return your books in a responsible manner.

As an incorporated body, WARC has a responsibility to make sure all money owed to the club is accounted for and looked after. So, here's some advice:

PREFERRED: EFT transfer

Transfer $400 (the value of the entire book) into the following WARC bank account

• BSB 036 011  
• ACCOUNT: 202083

Use your name and the number of your first ticket as the reference.

Please either

1. PRINT the remittance confirmation and return with your completed raffle book stubs;
2. Or EMAIL confirmation of payment to lou@reneagle.com.au AND functions@warowingclub.org. 

We have to manually match up the incoming cash with the ticket stubs so we ask you make it as easy as possible and make sure you tell us what you've done.

Not as preferred but ok: CASH

Carefully count that you are handing in $400 to either: Janet Smith, Lou Sammut, Lauren Reeves or Carolyn Murdoch.

Hand in the cash with all your sold ticket stubs. Please make sure all ticket stubs are filled out and match the amount of cash being handed in.

TAKE THE EASY WAY:

If you have the ability, the easiest way to manage this is to buy the ticket book yourself outright and transfer the cash to WARC straight away, then keep the incoming cash from ticket sales. This reduces the risk to you of losing or miscounting cash by reducing the amount of times cash changes hands.

We're talking big amounts of money and a lot of work behind the scenes to add it all up, so we're asking everyone to take this responsibility seriously.

CREATIVE WAYS TO SELL TICKETS

For some, selling comes easily. For others, it feels a bit like pulling teeth, so here are some creative ideas:

1. Gen tells us all her mates are broke uni students, so she's taking her raffle book when she walks the dog and goes to boxing classes. Don't be afraid to hit up people not in your normal social circle.

2. Perfect your two-sentence pitch: "Hi, did you get your raffle ticket for our 10,000 holiday to wherever you want? The tickets are $20 but we're only selling a limited number of them, so the odds are good."

3. Try not to hit up people who have already bought a ticket. Ideally we'd be given out "visual markers" to people who have bought tickets already - I'll look to line up some stickers for the Open Day or something.

Here a couple of resources:

• http://www.fundraisingdirectory.com.au/fundraising-tip-tips-for-selling-raffle-tickets
• https://www.raffleticket.com/tips-holding-successful-raffle/

Good luck, and don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any concerns or queries.

Rowing Open Day

Sign up: Put your availabilities here: 

WARC is taking part in the Rowing WA Open Day to promote rowing across the community.

This is a pretty decent marketing push. WARC Is already heavily involved in marketing both the club and the sport. This year we have appeared on radio shows, in the newspaper, have had a stall at the Barrack Square market, and have a high level of engagement on our social media accounts.

Thus it is important for WARC to join this coordinated marketing effort to raise the profile of rowing. Find out about the city-wide Rowing Open Day here.

Newly-appointed Head Coach Joe Tamigi is playing point on the WARC effort and here are our intentions for the day:

Task 1: Requires one person, tape and a printer. 

Putting up signs around Barrack square to direct people our way, even just big red arrows will spark some curiosity.

Task 2: Requires two people in zoot suits. We have sufficient fliers from RWA.

Athletes down at Barrack Square walking around in zooties saying hello and handing out the open day flyers. 

Task 3: Requires six people to wrangling the tent and gear, and someone to build a Top Gear style erg and watt bike leaderboard. 

Setting up the tent, an erg and a watt bike in the loading bay. (Watt bike on loan from Trinity) 

We can have a competition for a 6 second max wattage test on the watt bike in exchange for a water bottle and their contact info. The State-wide erg test will be 200m so they can do this also. 

Task 4: Requires a tech head to wrangle video and get footage from Dean. 

Put Dean's oarsome 2015 video on loop on the TV's upstairs to really show what we are about. I have shown it at schools and people are blown away and really interested in rowing afterwards.

Task five: Requires six people: one person with skippers ticket, four people on boat launch assistance, one person on deck control.

Joe has organised to borrow two of the flat bottom hardened plastic sculls from Trinity/St Hilda's, they are super easy to balance and great for beginners. We could set up a buoy 50m from the shed and time people getting around it. (they need to sign a waiver first that says they can swim) and have the tinny on the water for safety. Doubt many will take up this option so probably don't need members manning this station all day, it could be on a case by case basis.

Task six: requires two people on standby to conduct club tours, bring a whiteboard downstairs, have club details to hand out.

We could run one every 20 mins, (but only 15 mins duration). Listing when the next one starts on the white board out the front, could spruik Sassys on the board as a good spot to grab a coffee while waiting. (note: we've not set times on previous club tours - just taken groups as they arrived - but depending on number of people, this may work in this instance.

Task 7: requires a trestle table and someone to man it, and speak to Janet about getting the poster.

Selling raffle tickets is a no-brainer, we have posters to promote it that have been used at the Barrack Square markets.

Thankyou.

Beautiful things

It is my great pleasure as President to reveal three bits of lovely news.

Firstly, I just received this from the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority. We're down one of three approvals - now on to the Swan River Trust and the City of Perth. The fact the MRA has given our deck redevelopment the tick is a big deal. They have advised that we may need a Section 18 approval from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and should raise this with the South West Aboriginal Land and Swan Council, so there are still hoops to jump through but it is another step done.

Secondly: Cam from Curtin has directed a big thanks in the direction of WARC for our support of the crew from Clontarf. He is doing an amazing job getting this program off the ground and it goes to show how important the "vibe" out at a regatta is. In other news, Curtin has launched a new website and you can check it out here. 

Finally, the Department of Heritage has asked permission to use a picture of WARC to put up in the State Heritage offices. So it looks like a nice pic of Dean's will be up for all time on the wall to remind the Heritage people that we're here. 

There is much rowing news, which will be put together in the next newsletter. An early highlight now though: Man of the match would have to go to Jono who stroked the winning B-8 in thunderous conditions in a borrowed zoot suit. Well played. 

Bit fun

One of the (very few) good things about not rowing at the moment is that I have the opportunity to truly enjoy being a spectator.

I hope this video of not-quite-all Saturday's races gives all those who raced something to smile about. 

Well done team.

El Presidente PBR.

History of the Kings Cup

Writer at the West Malcolm Quekett has become the parent of a rower over at SRRC. He's also an avid historian and was tasked with covering the ANZAC centenary for the newspaper. He saw the honour board at SRRC and started digging around a bit to find out about the WA representative in the 1919 Peace regatta, which was won by the AIF crew where Westies member George Mettam sat in 7 seat. This is the article that appeared in the paper.

Saga of the Slips #11

RECAP

[This is like the start of a TV program which reminds you what happened last week]

The WA Rowing Club launch deck has become increasingly treacherous in the past two years and has started to rack up a pretty impressive injury tally, not least Bella's impressive leg scars and a rather memorable incident involving firefighters, ambulances and such servicemen when a wayward leg was caught between the planks.

LAST TIME

We secured a grant from the State Heritage Office worth more than $50,000 to help replace the launch deck. This replacement will allow us to extend the deck to the edge of our lease zone, which will mean we can launch eights without having to feed out the span of a rigger. Woohoo!

THEN:

Heritage Architect Bruce Callow, who has a long history with the Club, has been working together with Clem Williams, John Vos and the committee to draw up plans for the new deck.

For those who have often asked why we're not getting a floating deck, the answer is two-fold:

1. The anchor points are problematic in the long term and with unpredictable prevailing wind conditions, would ultimately lead to damage to the club

2. The tides mean at low tide, reasonably common in summer, the floating deck could in fact get "stuck" in the mud in the bottom of the river and not come back up when the tide rises... or when it does, it'll become unstuck and hurtle to the surface. 

So... no. there is not going to be a floating deck. 

NOW:

Our development application has been submitted to the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority. The MRA has not yet accepted the submission - they are seeking a few little bits of clarification but so far, it's looking pretty good.

See the DA documents here. 

From here they have a 42-day referral period during which they'll talk to other groups, perhaps the Swan River Trust, the City of Perth, Department of Heritage and/opr Department of Aboriginal Affairs and anyone else who might need to be consulted on the works. This might change, so don't take this blog as gospel. We've already engaged with the SRT and Heritage so we're hopeful this process will be relatively smooth.

If the works are considered major or controversial requiring more input, we may face a 90-day comment period - including the first 42 days - but that not mandatory. It's at the discretion of the MRA and we're optimistic we won't need to go through that process.

Here's some FAQs:

Q: When will construction start?

A: To be honest, we're not sure. Almost no one we are dealing with has been through this sort of approvals process since the MRA was formed. We do know we want to get it done and dusted this year before our lease expires in 2017.

Q: What colour will it be?

A: Something pretty neutral, perhaps a grey. We probably won't get away with something too loud due to heritage, however we're looking for a safety line around the edge to make it easier to see.

Q: How will we get speedboats up?

A: There will be a sloped front mid-section so we can get speedboats more easily up onto the ramp. HOORAY.

Q: What is the total cost?

A: Total cost is currently looking at the far side of the $100K mark. So we are expecting we'll need to put in some decent fundraising work to cover the cost of it this year. We'll need help not just with fundraising but probably also with construction. To get in early and help coordinate this, contact Janet on janetmcsmith@gmail.com. 

We hope this gives you a bit of update on the deck. This is real, and it's happening to us, gang. Exciting times.

Page Three Girl and a new coxbox

Jess Donnelly was our glorious page three girl today talking about the helicopter.

Just to update, Skyline Aviation has been in touch and is keen to work together.

This is the information provided in the City of Perth agenda, applied to a map:

I hope that helps paint the picture of what the situation is. In my view the issues we are facing are not insurmountable, but there are certainly issues.

In other news, your committee voted last night to buy a new NK coxbox. Just thought I'd share that :) HOORAY. 

Oh yeah, for any non-rowers reading this... a coxbox is not what you think.

The next newsletter will be drafted soon...ish. By popular request, we are re-introducing our "Dear Sam" segment, where people can write queries about boat maintenance and Sam will answer them. 

Here's a warm-up.

"Dear Sam: 

The shoes in the boat I rowed this morning are really loose. Could you please tighten them up so my feet don't move around?

Thanks,

Rower."

"Dear Civilian-posing-as-a-rower,

There is a difference between boat maintenance and repairs. Maintenance is your job. Repairs are my job. To help you figure out whether something is your job or my job, I put together this handy flow chart.

Best wishes in learning to use a spanner,

Sam."