bax912

The Queerschlag Berlin rowing team and many of you have been competing in the Outgames Antwerpen/Gent in 2013 and/or in Copenhagen in 2009. In 2015 the EuroGames Stockholm Rowing Championship are announced to take place from 7th to 8th August in the Swedish Capital and it would be great to see each other again! There are quite a number of Queerschlag rowers (male/female) interested in taking part. However, we do remember that the event in Gent - which was organised by local rowing clubs without special interest in the queer aspect of the Games - took place under suboptimal conditions. After the wonderful Outgames in Copenhagen, this was a little disappointing and may have an effect on further queer rowing events, especially the EuroGames Stockholm. This experience in mind and since Rowing in Stockholm is dependent on an adequate number of participants, we would like to ask you: What are your thoughts/feelings about the EuroGames Stockholm? Will the Swedish rowing event be more like the one in Gent or in Copenhagen? Will many of you take part? Have you registered already? Best Andreas e-mail: bax912@gmx.de mobile: +49 171 6130980

I'll be volunteering, too. Will show up in the morning. Andreas

This would be perfect! All Queerschlag Berlin rowers would love to check in directly in Gent! Andreas

Hi Lisa, could you send your contact details to my e-mail address bax912@gmx.de, so I can forward it to the ladies? Thanks, Andreas

First time ever racing Queerschlag Berlin Female Crew is looking for someone to hop in the boat! Alex, Carola and Tatjana

+++ Open Letter to the Rowing Organizing Committee of WOGA 2013, sent 2013-07-10 +++ on behalf of nearly twenty rowers from Berlin registered for rowing at the World Outgames 2013, I would like to address to you a matter of great importance: Following latest information given on the Outgames website, a boat rental fee of 30 Euro is to be charged per seat, event and day, for training as well as competition. Only at first sight this might appear reasonable. However, compared to earlier rowing competitions e.g. Outgames in Copenhagen or Montreal, our own Queerschlag-Regatta or Gaygames in Amsterdam, boat rental fees in Gent simply are exorbitant. To understand our concern, please consider that most of us rowers regularly sign up for two to four boat categories respectively races. The expenses for renting boats in Gent will reach an amount of 200 to 300 Euro per person. This is to be paid on top of the registration fee of 129 Euro and an extra fee of 55 Euro for participating in WOGA 2013 rowing events. In earlier events the following participant fees incl. boat rental fees (!) were charged: 1998 – GayGames Amsterdam: 125 € 2001 – Internationale Queerschlag-Regatta Berlin: 40 € 2006 – Outgames Montreal: 235 € 2009 – Outgames Copenhagen: 165 € The total costs for a rower in Gent easily will reach an amount of 400 Euro! You might understand that not all participants are in a comfortable financial situation that allows them to counterbalance these extraordinary expensenses. Consequently, they will have to reduce the number of events they actually planned to register for. Teams which have trained hard for a long time will fall apart! Above all, participants were kept in uncertainty regarding the final costs of boat rental for a long time. In spring 2012, a few months after registration had started, a charge of 10 Euro per seat/day/event was announced on the website: http://www.world.out...n/sports/rowing Today (2013-07-09) it was changed to 30 Euro all of the sudden. Only a few days earlier, for the first time we achieved unverified knowledge about the actual facts because one of us visited occasionally the all oars forum of GLRF. This information should have been communicated via e-mail and directly to all registered participants and on the official Outgames website, too. Beyond that, it was given far too late. Generally, it is to be feared that the pricing and information policy, which we are experiencing right now, subsequently will result in less participants for future Outgames rowing events. However, we do see a chance to turn the tide: Find a way to reduce boat rental fees and communicate it as soon as possible to all registered rowers. met sportieve groeten Andreas Böttcher Queerschlag Berlin / Sportclub Berlin-Grünau e.V. Andreas Böttcher Bülowstr. 29 10783 Berlin bax912@gmx.de

As mentioned before: 1: Yes! 2: No preference 3: Sunday Evening