Tag: News

Chairman’s & Website Update

On By brianrower100In UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Chairman has provided the following update following our committee meeting on the 9th June 2025:

Dear all,

We had a committee meeting last week. Below is a quick summary of the highlights:

  • We have been offered a coastal rowing boat as a gift from Exmouth rowing club. As a committee we have agreed to accept this wonderful offer. The boat will be stored on Coronation Park in due course. Look out for some pictures on our website
  • Membership. After growing last year quite substantially, we have lost 13 of our members. It would be great if we could try to recruit some more members. Please help, via word of mouth, if you can.
  • We had a great skittles evening. Not only was it fun, but we managed to raise nearly £1000. Thanks to all of you who supported this event.
  • Water based events:
    • The Seine boat regatta takes place on the 26th August. Kerry will publicise this event. If you want to take part you will be very welcome
    • We are sending a boat to the Great River Race in London in September. 9 of our members are keen to go to this event
    • In September we plan to do a row around the Mewstone and then picnic at Newfoundland Cove. All are welcome
    • In October we plan to do a row to Galmpton to grab one of their delicious pizzas
  • Reburbishments:
    • Morwenna has been refurbished
    • We have all refurbished one of the 440s
    • We plan to send Nancy to be refurbished over the next few weeks

Happy rowing!

Noel

Website Update

Our Constitution has been revised and the updated version (7 March 2025) is available to view and download HERE.

The Agenda discussed at the 24 Feb meeting is available (members only) HERE.

AGM – Chairman’s Presentation & Answers to Questions Raised

On By brianrower100In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Chairman’s Presentation

Our Chairman provided an excellent presentation at the AGM which set ot the Club’s objectives and the progress made towards their achivement.

Those present at the AGM would have also seen our planned expenditure and intended maintenance programme and heard about our financial situation and the financial challenges ahead.

The presentation is presented in AGM Minutes so all club members can see our achievements and intentions.

If you are a subscriber to the website, but not a RDRC member, you will not be able to access the AGM page.

Website Capability

Cost and Scope

In committee, and at the AGM, members asked about enhancements to our website based on capabilities they have seen in other websites. Videos and membership application forms were of particular interest. The situation is too complex to have been dealt with fully at the meeting.

Our website is based on a personal subscription which costs £36/year. In addition, we pay about £15 for website hosting. It is possible to process financial charges through the website, but these would be subject to a surcharge of 8% per transaction. Upgrading to £74/year Premium subscription would reduce the transaction charge to 4% and give a limited video clip capability + better interface to social media. However, this would not enable plugins which provide most of the nice to have “bells and whistles”. See WordPress prices HERE.

Membership Forms and Fundraising

At present, forms can be downloaded from the sebsite, but cannot be completed and submitted online. To use forms and the many other enhancements and ease of use features of WordPress requires a Business subscriprion which costs £240/year. This would enable me to install plugins such a forms, but many plugins are only available at an additional cost / item. This level of subscription would also enable me to provide most of the other features you see on commercial websites. There would still be a transaction charge of 2% unless you upgrade to eCommerce which costs £432 / yearand has no transaction charges.

Alternatives

An alternative, would be to host our membership activities on a seperate (but linked) site such as MemberMOJO which is used by many small clubs and organisations. This would streamline and automate our membership processes, it has no transaction charges and would cost £50 / year. See MemberMOJO HERE.

Charitible Funding and Donations

While the website can promote the opportunities for fund raising, the transaction charges make direct fundraising through the website unviable. Just Giving and Go Fund Me were suggested, but both of these take either a flat fee or transaction charges or both. Of the two, Go Fund Me seems best suited for our purposes and has a transaction charge of about 2%.. Links for donations can be made from our website to whichever charitible funding site we may use for this purpose.

Family and Friends Rowing

The website page (How to Get a Row) has been updated to reflect, the 3 rows under “taster” conditions before payment is required at £5 per session. This update includes payment details and a will have a link to the forms which are required to be completed for safety / insurance purposes. BACS details for payment have been included.