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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.
After a desperate final attempt to resolve the license agreement impasse between Montreal 2006 and the Federation of Gay Games, the two parties were unable to resolve their differences and Montreal declared its intention to host an independent sporting event, Rendezvous Montreal 2006. The following day, 12 Nov, Montreal 2006 announced that rowing would be included as one of the official sports of the rowing event.
Then, on 13 Nov, the Board of Directors of Rendezvous Montreal 2006 approved the required budget line items for a rowing regatta, thereby clinching the deal.
The 2003 annual meeting of the Federation of Gay Games was held in Chicago 10 Nov – 14 Nov 2003. It was an emotionally draining week as we went through what seemed like endless motions and procedures. The first day’s business was totally consumed with the debate about the Montreal License dispute.
In the end, it was a very say day for the Federation of Gay Games because the FGG attorney openly said that the Montreal presented License Agreement, version 13, had no fundamental problems and that the FGG could sign it and do just fine. That means the crucial FGG logo and name would be protected and the FGG would receive its vital quadrennial license fee of $650,000, its only source of income.
The GLRF motion to accept Montreal’s License 13 was never considered. The previous motion submitted by the FGG Executive Committee for License Agreement version 13.5 carried and of course, Montreal rejected it and here we are. That means the Federation now has no source of income until it signs a new license agreement with another, alternate city.
The Director Organization membership was a hot topic. Several organizations did not renew their memberships, two lost their voting status, and one organization resigned. Only one organization was admitted – Team DC. The official recommendation was not to admit Team DC. GLRF voted for their admission. Team Montreal resigned in protest after being excluded from participating in the Montreal debate.
On the financial side, a three-year budget was presented and approved, even with a forecasted deficit of $72,000 by year three. Director Organization fees were doubled, as were the new applicant fees. The fee for a Host City to apply jumped 28% based on the average of the previous host cities’ bid costs.
An Image of the Gay Games paper was approved that provided more specific guidance to a host city considering a bid for the Gay Games. GLRF abstained from the vote since the guidance was meant to better prepare the host city applicants but the guidelines were so restrictive as to be suffocating. The paper will be published on the FGG website in the coming weeks.
A new Strategic Plan structured as a set of guidelines for the various FGG committees was approved. GLRF voted against the plan because it simply reinforces an already existing bureaucratic structure and attempts to increase organization contribution through increased threats and restrictions. GLRF called for a radical restructuring of the FGG organization using a much small Board of Directors, a paid staff, and a Congress of Sports Delegates represented by their leaders at smaller meetings held once every two or three years.
The Board of Directors or the Federation of Gay Games approved a plan to pursue an alternate city to host Gay Games 7 in 2006 or 2007. The three cities involved in the original Gay Games 2006 bid will be given the opportunity to submit a revised bid. The selection process will take several months and a new host city will not be announced until early 2004. GLRF did not vote.
GLRF hosted the first of its 2004 City Launch awareness events in conjunction with the GLRF visit to Chicago for the annual meeting of the Federation of Gay Games. The purpose of the City Launch events is to create awareness of GLRF among gay and lesbian rowers and to create greater awareness of rowing among the gay and lesbian community in each City.
The City Launch Social was held in the heart of Chicago’s gay community, Lakeview, at Hydrate. Twelve rowers braved the mid-30 temps (~3 C) to sip bartender Mike’s Rum shooters and chat up rowing. Attendees included a local rowing crowd dominated by women, as well as rowers from Seattle and Colorado. Take a look at the ad in the Chicago Free Press displayed here:
Homoroerne spokesman Steffen Johncke announced the formal launch of the new Homoroerne website and rowing club. The rowing club is based out of the Danish Students Rowing Club (known in rowing circles as DSR). Currently the website is only in Danish but when did a little Danish ever stop any of us from communicating with a bunch of Danes? By the way guys, sweet boathouse! Congratulations!
Club d’Aviron Odagawan took over the Cactus restaurant on Rue St-Denis Wednesday night for a well attended, first year end of season celebration. Filling three long tables were almost the entire team of rowers, all of whom were recruited as novices by Philippe Colas and Philip Hedrei.
Awards were given out for the “best of” in all kinds of categories. The trophy was a kitchen whire whisk which is called a “whip” in French. No wonder both Phillippe and Philip both received oversized awards...Of course there were smaller trophies for the best improved, best spirit, etc.
From the banks of the Charles River, at the Head of the Charles Regatta just before Noon on a sunny day, a table appeared adjacent to the Riverside Boat Club with a banner that was both shocking and new. Across a 1 meter by 2 meter white canvas with a blue world logo was printed the name: Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation. Since the table faced the street and was just 10 feet from the sidewalk, and midway along the course, every pedestrian saw it. There were looks of shock, there were whispers, there were look-aways and peek-agains, and there were just plain open-gaped mouths stop dead in your track, points.
Thus launched the first public display of the Gay and Lesbian Rowing Federation. The Boston Bay Blades shared their table with GLRF and were thrilled with the attention as group after group of high school and college athletes walked up to ask for information. Current and future Boston Bay Blades Presidents Chris Schultz and Molly Jordan and Vice President Rob Jagnow handed out brochures and answered questions. As a backdrop, the Men’s Club 8 swept by, including the DC Strokes. Everyone got into the act as venerable gay rowing legends like Caroline X, Charley Sullivan, and Ray Boyd stopped by. Of course, Boston Bay Blade rower Mac Chinsomboon saved the day as he delivered the Boston Bay Blades banner, and the leaflet directions to the party, between his constant string of meetings and deals.
A reporter from the Harvard Crimson stopped by for an interview and immediately closed his notebook when he heard there was a pic of the Harvard Boathouse with the words Yale Rules superimposed on the river…But the three Yale hotties who sat down behind the table were at first a little uncomfortable but then all smiles when a certain exec director handed out his card and told them about the pic, and his admiration for the Yale Bulldogs.
Over 70 GLRF brochures were given out during the two day race. Let’s hope this will start a new era of awareness of the large community of gay and lesbian rowers. Does anyone have the number to FISA?
