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Planning for the forthcoming EuroGames 2004 Rowing Regatta can now proceed after securing the required minimum rower registration. A spokesman for the Regatta, Frank Tjaben, indicated that over 40 rowers had registered for the EuroGames event as of 01 Mar, ensuring that rowing would have a place at the EuroGames in Munich this summer.
Both 1000 meter Masters events and 2000 meter Open events will be offered to rowers, in 3 age groups, and in every boat category: single, double, pair, quad, four, and eight.
Although regular registration has closed, late registration is available until 30 Apr 2004 for a cost of 78 EU for EGLSF members and 88 EU for non-EGLSF members. For more information about the fees, click on the EuroGames Participant section.
Following a three-month process in which Los Angeles and Chicago both applied to be the new, alternate host for Gay Games VII, the Board of Directors of the Federation of Gay Games voted today to select Chicago as the new host for the Gay Games VII. Both cities included rowing as one of their additional sports in their submitted bids. As a voting member, GLRF cast one of the deciding votes based on what would be best for both the athletes attending Gay Games VII and the financial viability of the event.
Since rowing is one of the three additional sports and not a core sport, it is not a guaranteed sport that must be presented at a Gay Games. Chicago has indicated that the sport is very popular in the region but that the rowing community must help to identify potential sponsors, help reduce costs, and ensure there are sufficient rowers who signed up to participate. So rowing is still in flux. The proposed participant fee is $85. This is in addition to the proposed base registration fee schedule: $125 for 2004, $174 for 2005, and $195 for 2006.
The proposed dates of the event are 15 Jul – 22 Jul 2006.
The Melbourne Argonauts hosted their third annual, and most successful, rowing promotion at the Melbourne Annual Gay and Lesbian Midsumma Festival.
Held in what is called the sport precinct of the carnival, the Argo’s large stall was divided into two sections: the information area and the erg section. Over 60 forms were collected as visitors thronged the very popular booth. Festival organizers gave the rowers the premium space in large part due to the unique interactive style of the booth. At first, the Argo’s demonstrated the use and proper form of the ergs but soon had visitors on the machines for a few quick pieces. Brochures were handed out and everyone was able to review the posted articles and pictures of the Argonauts rowing to victory across Australia!
The event also marked the GLRF Melbourne City Launch GLRFReadyAllBoatsAustraliav1.pdf, held to increase awareness of GLRF and foster interest in forming boats for the 2006 Montreal Regatta. Local Rower Brian Barry did his duty in front of the stall, passing out brochures about the Regatta and answering questions.
During the event, the local gay and lesbian radio station, JOY, conducted a live interview that, although intended to promote the Melbourne Argonauts, spent most of the airtime talking about the GLRF City Launch initiative! Club President Chris Thomas was heard to remark: “I’m sure that ours was by far the best marquee of the day.” Sixteen cheers to all the Melbourne Argonauts for making the day and the GLRF Melbourne City Launch such a success. Bravo to Lorelle, Beck, Annie, Dimitri, Mark, A Misting Fairy, Cliff and all those whose names were missed!
Rain, sleet, and snow did not stop Row Team Austin (RTA) from having their fifth annual Winter Retreat this past President’s Day (US Holiday) weekend. The event began Friday, February 13th and concluded Monday morning the 16th with a scratch regatta. Twenty participants from the District of Columbia, Virginia, California, and Texas attended the four-day retreat. Jeff Mork of the University of Texas Men’s Crew and Brad Smith of DC Strokes assisted Head Coach Melissa Bray.
The retreat began Friday morning despite the 1°C temperature. Participants spent the morning indoors, watching video-clips and competing in a four-team 2000 m erg relay. By the afternoon, the group ventured outside and headed for Red Bud Island in two eights and a double. Melissa Bray focused on timing and posture during the afternoon clinic.
That evening, beer and multiple martinis slowly melted the frozen faces and limbs at Austin’s 1920’s Club as the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation hosted their Austin City Launch. Executive Director Brian Todd distributed information about GLRF and announced the Ready All Boats!2004 campaign, which encourages rowers to start thinking about Rendez-Vous Montreal 2006 and the Gay Games 2006 After dinner, RTA hosted separate men’s and women’s parties. Naturally, at the men’s party, everyone stood around and drank while at the women’s party, the ladies relaxed in a hot tub and ...drank!. Sheesh!
Over an inch of snow greeted anyone who awoke early Saturday morning to row in the Austin Rowing Club 5km Dam to Dam Winter Warrior Regatta. The race went ahead as planned and so did the coached row Winter Retreat activities with Jeff and Melissa. Retreat participants re-convened that evening at the home of Chuck Boudreaux for drinks, socializing, and music.
The rowers faced two obstacles on Sunday morning: traffic due to the Motorola Marathon AND (for some) recuperation from the previous evening’s festivities. However, with the temperature 5°C warmer than the day before, and the sun out for the first time in seven days, the group was excited about getting back on the water. Jeff Mork and Melissa Bray decided that Sunday would be devoted to sculling. Rowers spent the morning and afternoon sessions in 1x, 2x, and 4x’s. By the end of the day, everyone was a little sunburned and was ready for a fine Tex-Mex meal. . The group gathered at El Arroyo for a fajita dinner and some networking. The retreat participants remarked that they had learned a great deal from Melissa, Jeff, and Brad’s hands-on instruction.
Monday morning was sunny and warm. The remaining retreat participants gathered for a scratch regatta. Two quads raced from the Congress Avenue Bridge to the east dock of the Austin Rowing Club. The highlight of the race was the gymnastic hot-seating that took place between race one and two. Regardless of who won, everyone left with smiles on their faces. Information and retreat pictures are in the 2004 Austin Rowing Camp gallery.
Independent Rowing News, the premier rowing magazine of North America, published an article in their Transmissions section about the GLRF Ready All Boats! 2004 Campaign that included a brief profile of GLRF and highlighted the 2004 Regattas at the EuroGames and in Montreal. Copies of the Winter 2004, Volume 11, Issue No. of Rowing News are now available for purchase at Barnes & Noble Bookstores and Borders Bookstores. Subscribe to Rowing News and support GLRF.
The GLRF Regatta Advisory Group, after two weeks of internal discussions, submitted their first recommendations on the Rendezvous Montreal 2006 Regatta to the Comite Organizateur Sports Director. The Group wanted to incorporate some of the lessons learned from the Amsterdam Gay Games. First on the list was a recommendation that the race length be 1,000 meters to allow for more frequent scheduling of races with heats in the morning and finals in the afternoon. Second on the list was a recommendation that the competition be limited to two or three days of races and perhaps one day of practice. Third on the list was the issue of equipment. Rendezvous Montréal 2006 indicated they would place a high priority on developing a network of clubs, schools, and boat manufacturers to provide competition quality boats for rental by visiting teams.
In terms of racing events, the Group recommended a full complement of events, from single scull to eights, male, female, and mixed. The Group also asked Montreal to consider adding several adaptive rowing events. Finally, the issue of transgender rowers was discussed. Montreal is proactively pursuing this issue and is awaiting guidance from the International Olympic Committee.
Finally, the Group recommended that the racing categories include collegiate, lightweight, and masters. More reports will follow. The Group meets quarterly and all inputs are encouraged. You can email the Regatta Advisory Group at regattaadvisory(a)glrf.info
After the enormous success of the first National Lesbian Rowing Camp at Nagambie in Victoria, Australia, the Melbourne Argonauts have announced the establishment of biannual rowing camps (twice a year for you erg monsters..) .
According to Annie Smith, “the Women’s Camp definitely achieved it’s goals of reinforcing the lesbian presence in the club and provided a secure and supportive base on which to build our female membership.” It is envisaged that the women only camps will have an ongoing place in the long term structure of the club.
Building on that success, the club is now extending the rowing camp model to incorporate the whole club twice a year. Each camp will have a slightly different focus. The first, scheduled towards the end of the season(Oct-Nov), will serve as a club building exercise with a bit of a recap of the season and an off season training focus as well as a large social component – open to all members and visitors. The second, scheduled towards the the start of the season (Mar-Apr), will focus more towards the competitive members and regatta preparation.
The next camp is to be held on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of April, again at Nagambie. The weather should be hot and the beer should be cold.
Team Paris, aka Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation aka La Fédération Sportive Gaie et Lesbienne FSGL will host its first International Tournament or Tournoi International de Paris, at the end of the merry month of May! Labeled as the first multi-sport festival of its kind in Paris, the event will focus on three concepts: sports, celebration, and party. Organized by both the FSGL and the local Parisian Sports Associations, the event is meant for all participants: gay, lesbian, and gay-friendly.
The tournament will feature 13 sports some of which will be holding their first major annual competition while others who regularly hold annual meets have consolidated their dates into one weekend. So since rowing is NOT one of sports on the list, I think everyone should invade Paris, hoist Franck on our shoulders and take to the streets shouting Aviron, Aviron, Aviron!@!!!!!
The schedule:
Friday, 28 Mai 2004 - 18h00 - 23h30, Welcome Evening Party..”So you come to Paris often, ehhhh?...”
Saturday, 29 mai 2004 - 8h00 Play Ball! Ladies to the left, Men to the right!
Sunday, 30 mai 2004 - 20h00 Dinner at one of several fine, delicious hottie French gay and lesbian restaurants...and then....23h00 --->> this is French for Party On Dude: “soirée officielle du Tournoi International de Paris 2004”
Monday, 31 mai 2004 - oh my head, ..yikes..hey, what’s your name, oh yeah...so maybe see you at brunch? - 11h00 - 15h00 brunch followed by a guided visit of the most beautiful City in the World, Paris. ...........for more information, click here!
The first Australian National Lesbian Rowing Camp was held over the weekend of 29 November, 2003, in Dimboola, Victoria. Dimboola is a small town (population of around 1500) in North Western Victoria, approximately half way between Melbourne and Adelaide. The attraction of this sleepy country town is the scenic Wimmera River which winds around the Little Desert National Park.The women of the Melbourne Argonauts Queer Rowing Club banded together to host the camp, which attracted 22 female rowers from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
The three day camp officially kicked off on the Friday evening, with rowers meeting at the Dimboola Rowing Club for social drinks. The relaxed and friendly atmosphere on this night was to continue throughout the camp.
Serious rowing began on Saturday, with three 90 minute sessions of rowing each day. Women had the opportunity to row in eights, fours, pairs and singles.
The focus of the camp was to improve rowing technique, specifically trying to establish a good rhythm and contrast through the rowing stroke. As we know, rhythm must be established as a crew, rather than individually, and poor rhythm can become part of an entrenched culture within a club very quickly. Having most of the women from the club able to work on this aspect across the long stretches of scenic Wimmera River gave us an excellent opportunity to establish a strong culture of slide control.
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Over the course of the camp, all rowers were cycled through a women’s eight, which had an accompanying coaches launch. The launch was set up to take video footage and this provided valuable feedback for the rowers. The afternoon session on Sunday saw a handful of rowers practicing a safety drill, which involves deliberately falling out of the boat, and getting back into it, from the water.
New rowers had the opportunity to try their hand at coxing. This led to a number of crews snaking their way up and down the river in a manner that was equal parts amusing and alarming.
The warm weather over the weekend made for perfect rowing conditions, and also for swimming in the river afterwards. The schedule was not all hectic, with sufficient time for sitting on the riverbank, reading and watching boats go by, and casually chatting to each other. One of the biggest hits of the camp was the food with ample supplies of fresh fruit, nutritious breads and salads.
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Probably the best moment of the day was saved for sunset, when the boats had been put away, blisters had been dressed, bellies were full and rowers could take time out to watch some spectacular sunsets over the Little Desert.
The attendance of women from Sydney and Adelaide delighted the hosts, and serve to mark the emergence of organised lesbian rowing in Australia. Probably, lesbians have been involved in rowing since women have participated in the sport, but to our knowledge, there was no organising body that aimed to cater specifically for lesbian rowing in Australia.
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Arguably, Adelaide has the claim to be the first presence, when a group of queer friendly women purchased their own boat around 13 years ago. They have been rowing together on a social basis ever since. Three years ago, they were joined by the Melbourne Argonauts, and this was followed late last year with the establishment of the Argonaut’s counterparts in Sydney.
Leading up to the camp, the Argonauts had worked closely with the members of the Dimboola Rowing Club to arrange access to boats, facilities and suitable accommodation. This is typical of the strengthening relationship between the Argonauts and the wider Rowing community, who have warmly welcomed the Argonauts into the sport.
Last year, Argonaut’s former President, Sandy Mitchell was invited to join as an executive of the Rowing Victoria Board, and the current Vice President, Annie South is a member of the Rowing Victoria Technical Board. The Argonauts have become a familiar feature at rowing regattas and often receive positive feedback and encouragement from other clubs.
For the Melbourne Argonauts, the camp was the culmination of a series of events designed to attract more women as members. This had become a recent focus when the proportion of women in the club dropped from around 50% in 2001 to 30% earlier this year.
In June, the Argonaut women held a meeting to discuss what could be done, and explore some of the barriers that may prevent women from participating or continuing to participate in the sport. With the support from the men, a number of strategies were devised, such as running women only Learn To Row courses. Since then, the Argonauts have run a series of women friendly events, culminating in the rowing camp in late November. For the Argonauts, these strategies appear to be working, with female representation within the club climbing back up to 38% and growing.
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There was great support for repeating the rowing camp on an annual basis at a similar time each year, and it is hoped that next time, lesbian rowers from other states and overseas may join the growing throng.
First, the quick background on bidding for a Gay Games. Every Gay Games has 22 required sports specified by the Federation of Gay Games (of which rowing is not one), and 8 additional sports that are selected by the Host City.
Then, it begins. It started with Montreal’s bid to host the 2002 Gay Games. That bid, presented in 1997, was unsuccessful. In October 2001, Montreal tried again and won, over three other bids: Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Montreal would host the Gay Games in 2006. Of the four cities that presented bids in Johannesburg, Montreal was the only city that did not select rowing as one of the additional sports in their bid.
Starting in January 2001, GLRF began to lobby to have rowing featured as one of the official sports at the Montreal Gay Games 2006. As a result, Montreal formally petitioned the Federation of Gay Games at their Annual Meeting in July 2002 to have rowing substituted for racquetball as one of the official sports for 2006. The request was immediately taken to “committee” by the Federation of Gay Games.
In the ensuing year, a battle ensued deep inside the Federation of Gay Games Sports Committee. Representatives from Rowing and Racquetball presented impassioned pleas on behalf of their sports. A recommendation from the Sports Committee was never forthcoming because the shadow of a dispute about the License Agreement began to darken everything. The word was sent out that the whole issue of rowing was not to be addressed until after the license agreement had been signed. Clearly, rowing was a bargaining chip for the Federation of Gay Games.
A week before the start of the Sydney 2002 Gay Games, with the entire event in jeopardy of being canceled due to extreme cash flow problems, Montreal was informed that their original bid of 24,000 participants had to be reduced to 12,000 participants, at least initially. Montreal balked at such a major change in their bid. Thus began the dispute.
On 02 September 2003, with negotiations at a standstill, Montreal requested that the issue of the License Agreement be put before a mediator. The Federation of Gay Games Executive Committee responded that they would not enter into mediation and instead sent all of the board of directors an eMotion authorizing the Executive Committee to pursue a continued negotiating strategy of 12,000 participants and the authorization of $20,000 for the use of an attorney to act as a third party negotiator. GLRF voted in favor of this option if only because it authorized continued negotiations with Montreal until 07 Nov and because it held out the hope that perhaps through third-parties, an agreement could be reached.
Up to this point, 12 separate versions of the license agreement had been discussed and presented between the two parties. On 29 September 2003, Montreal presented license agreement version 13, which it signed in advance, as a gesture of its willingness to come to an agreement. The Federation of Gay Games Executive Committee unilaterally rejected version 13 and developed a list of nonnegotiable items before any further negotiations could continue.
On 08 October 2003, Montreal requested that the dispute go to arbitration since no progress was being made. The Federation of Gay Games Executive Committee responded against such a request and again sent all of the board of directors an eMotion that authorized the “Negotiation Team” to pursue the continued strategy of 12,000 participants with the list of nonnegotiable items take it or leave it. GLRF voted against such a motion because it pointed in a direction of a failed negotiation process.
GLRF felt it was absolute lunacy to abandon a host city two years into the organizing process even with rowing not being one of the required or additional sports. GLRF felt that the Montreal 2006 organizing team had significant momentum in terms of reserved athletic facilities, blocked hotel rooms, worldwide publicity and awareness, advanced web site development, guaranteed initial public funding, and a paid, experienced staff to host a successful Gay Games. Furthermore, GLRF felt that a bird in hand was worth two in the bush in terms of the crucial license fee. Montreal 2006 was committed to paying the full license fee of $655,000. If the Federation of Gay Games were to yank the Gay Games bid from Montreal, what were the chances of a new host city paying the full license fee with only 2 - 3 years left to organize and ramp up their staff and funding sources? This fee is the sole funding source for the FGG.
Throughout October, media stories began to appear about the dispute. The two sides continued to position and posture and agreed to a final negotiating attempt on the weekend before the start of the Annual Meeting of the Federation of Gay Games in Chicago. Those negotiations ended with Montreal walking away at 2 am on Sunday morning.
On Monday morning, 10 Nov, the Board of Directors of the Federation of Gay Games convened the Annual Meeting. The entire day was spent in discussion and procedural motions for and against the Montreal License dispute. In the end, three motions were presented. The first was a complete cessation of negotiations. The motion at first carried and then failed. The second motion, in favor of the last license agreement presented to Montreal the previous Saturday night, carried and was relayed to Montreal. There were 4 no votes. GLRF was one of them.
The third motion, presented by GLRF, in favor of the version 13 license agreement from Montreal, was never considered since the motions were presented in sequence and the following motion would only be considered if the previous one failed.
On Tuesday, 11 Nov, Montreal notified the Federation of Gay Games that it could not accept the last offer and declared the negotiations over. With that, the Federation of Gay Games began to pursue an alternate host for Gay Games 7. The three cities that originally bid for Gay Games 7, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, will all be notified of the opportunity to submit new bids. A decision on a new host for the Gay Games will probably not be made until early in 2004.
