In Attendance:

Berkeley High, Capital Crew, Delta Blades, Humboldt Bay, Long Beach Junior Crew, Marin Rowing Association, Marina Aquatic Center, NorCal, Newport Aquatic Center, Oakland Strokes, Pacific Rowing Club, Palo Alto, Tempe Town Lake Rowing, River City, San Diego Rowing Club, Serra High School, Saint Ignatius, Stanford, Stockton, Xavier High School, ZLAC, Los Gatos, Deep Water Rowing Association, Row Chabot

Absent:

Jack Long Aquatic Center, North Bay Rowing Club, Tempe Junior Crew, University Prep Academy, Utah Junior Crew, Waterford Crew, California Yacht Club

Election of Stewards

Zohar Abramovitz and Monica Hilcu’s Steward chairs up for re-election. Abramovitz re-elected by acclamation. Dave Hayashi and Monica Hilcu nominated for the second position. Hayashi declined the nomination. Hilcu re-elected by acclamation.

Report from Dave Hayashi

Junior Men’s Committee Report (Jim Andersen):

3 SW boys made the Junior Worlds team, 2 in the eight, 1 in the four. The eight finished 5th out of 8.

In addition, several SW boys made the “development” 4- that raced in Beijing.

Dev. Camp at Marin was named to send boat to CanAmMex Regatta. The boys won the 8, the 4+ and the 2-.

Discussion regarding the poor overall team performance at Worlds (8 made the final, every other boat finished next to last). One point of view is that the wrong kids are being invited to camp and/or being put in the boats.

Discussion regarding the fact that boys from the Dev. Camp are being sent to Worlds in place of (or in addition to) boys from Selection Camp. Frustration expressed about the Nat. Team’s decision to prioritize Dev. Camp kids’ over Selection Camp kids whose abilities are presumably higher.

USRowing has announced intention to send a “full team” to Beijing in ’08.

Junior Women’s Committee Report (Sandy Armstrong):

Women’s team overall performance was also disappointing. The eight finished 3rd in the final and the other boats fared poorly.

The Committee believes that the system in place is working and it’s just a question of getting the right kids in place.

Marin will be hosting an ID Camp in February.

Youth Committee Report (Monica Hilcu):

SW won 6 of the 16 National Championships awarded at Harsha Lake, in addition to a number of other medals.

There is some discussion within the committee to move the regatta to a different venue, possibly Oak Ridge in Tennessee.

There has been some discussion about tweaking the schedule to accommodate earlier loading of the eights on trailers.

New Business –

1)  Posting results on row2k. Everyone needs to do it by the Tuesday following the event. All SW Region teams are encouraged to make a donation to row2k.com.

2)  Ranking survey. Everyone needs to understand that the seeding survey is very important and can have a dramatic effect on the fairness of the regatta.

  1. Coaches are encouraged to complete the survey as comprehensively as possible given their knowledge of the specific events. In the event that a coach has little knowledge of a particular event, coaches are asked not to rank that event.
  2. Stewards are asked to conduct the survey and publish the results earlier so that people can see and verify the fairness of their teams’ seedings.
  3. For sculling events, coaches are asked to include the names of their single scullers on row2k results postings.
  4. Oakland Strokes moves that SWJRC entries will be due Monday, April 21st by midnight, the seeding surveys will go out on the 23rd and surveys will be due back on Monday the 28th. Motion was seconded and passed by acclamation.
  5. Oakland Strokes moves that teams who do not submit their survey by the deadline lose their ability to contest their ranking. Motion was seconded and passed by acclimation.
  6. Stewards commit to providing a copy of the rankings to all participating crews by the 30th.
  7. Petitions must be submitted by Saturday the 3rd in order to be considered. Events that are not contested will be up on RaceTrak as soon as Paul can do it. All petitioned events will be seeded and posted by Wednesday the 7th. Petitions will be vetted by the Stewards of the Regatta in consultation with the affected coaches.
  8. Late entries will be put in open lanes without seeding consideration.

3)  Clarification of participating in 3 events rule. General reminder that athletes can only row in three events at championships.

  1. Marin moves to exclude cox’ns from the 3 event restriction. Motion is seconded and passes easily with three votes opposed.

4)  Freshman/Novice rule.

  1. Marin moves to change the freshman rule by striking “and in their novice year of rowing.” This would allow experienced rowers to participate in the event as long as they are 9th grade or younger.
  2. Marin amends their motion to allow only 9th graders in the freshman event. This would make it a 9th grade only event, but athletes would not have to be novices. In favor: 10; Opposed: 27. Motion fails.
  3. Marin re-submits the original motion to strike “and in their novice year of rowing.” In favor: 23; Opposed: 10; Abstain: 5. Motion passes. Freshmen no longer need to be novices.
  4. Cox’ns in Freshman boats still need to be novices.

5)  Novice Cox’n-Rower rule clarification. Everybody understands this.

6)  Clarification of definition of “B boat.” Discussion clarifies that “B boats” are defined by the athletes’ ranking within their team, not by their ability to compete on even terms with other teams.

7)  Award Distribution at Regionals. Everyone seemed pleased with the way it was managed in ’07.

8)  Trophy Distribution and Tracking. Coaches who have Regionals trophies are encouraged to talk to Monica about signing out their trophy.

9)  Discussion of Progression System for YNC events.

  1. Straw poll for options: 1) Time trial in place of the heats; 2) Winner of each heat and then next three fastest times (in 4 heat events); 3) Heats -Reps - Finals.
  2. Time Trials – 26
  3. Heats Progression – 23
  4. Semi-Finals – 3

10) Youth Invite Rule on Eligibility. Clarification of the YNC rule: Athletes can only represent one team after January 1st.

11) Discussion on Unaffiliated single scullers. Long discussion resulting in no change to the policy. Single scullers can participate in the regatta as unaffiliated athletes.

12) Proposal from Delta Blades re: Champs Schedule: Request to separate the W2x and WV4+ to allow athletes to row in both of those events. Stewards agree to look into it.