Rowing Queensland June Update

The Rowing Queensland Board of Directors have prepared this video communication to convey the important information and outomes of the recent Board meeting.  Stay tuned to our socials and website for more of these updates.

As spoken by Samara Quinlan, Chair:

"Scott Austin has transitioned from his appointed role to his elected position alongside Annette Quayle. We appointed Sally Kehoe as a Director. She brings a vast amount of knowledge and expertise in High Performance, Finance and Governance to the team and we are thrilled she agreed to be a part of the Rowing Queensland Board.

One of our first agenda items was to elect positions. Scott Austin has taken the role of Queensland representative on the Rowing Australia Council previously held by Emma Brown. Simon Daly moves into the Deputy Chair and I am the new Chairperson.

The safety reports show we had a number of incidents caused due to poor lighting of vessels and boats which those of us on the Brisbane River each morning are seeing (or not seeing) too often. Some are the recreational and construction vessels, that we cannot control, but when it comes to rowing boats and coaching tinnies please take the time to make sure your crews and coaches are SAFELY and appropriately lit. The Brisbane River Safety Forum on Facebook is a great resource for sharing information.  Dave Alexander shares all major bridge construction updates and river safety reminders here.

Congratulations to those who competed at the Masters Championships event in Sydney which saw top point scoring from Toowong, UQBC, Murwillumbah, Commercial and B&GPS clubs and great results from our State crews. Many of these crews now switch their focus to the longer course events starting with the Winter Racing season and staff and members will be busy with the upcoming regatta season across Queensland including school regattas, indoor events, coastal rowing and Head races. Please check out the Rowing Queensland calendar and socials for details on these events.

A number of community engagement events have also happened in the last few weeks including a Level 1 BRO course, Level 2 coaching courses in Brisbane, Rockhampton and Townsville and almost 30 school age coxswains at a coxing course last night. It is great to see parents, coaches and coxes getting involved to support and improve the sport.

Queensland athletes have competed in international events including the Windemere Cup in Seattle USA, Mac Russell had an exceptional Virtus Games in Vichy, France bringing home 5 gold and 2 silver medals. Erik Horrie and Todd Goffsassen have recently kicked off their campaign at Rowing World Cup 2 in Varese, Italy and will be joined by other Senior A team athletes in Lucerne, Switzerland in early July. Under 23, Under 21, Australian Uni and Junior team members are in training for their events in July and August. We wish them all the best.

Finance reports show RQ trading soundly this quarter and the budget is on track.

Planned repairs to the course at QSRC are scheduled, with a call for volunteers to help on 8 and 9 July coming soon to get things ready for the busy run of school regattas starting in July.

Ian and Simon have been actively participating in the Olympic Venue - Project Validation Report Reference design workshops with a wide range of key stakeholders. The workshops have been very productive in finalising key requirements especially around the legacy outcomes for the Flatwater centre.

Planning is underway for the establishment of High Performance and Olympic Legacy committees. A call out for nominations will be forthcoming to the community for those with expertise and time to contribute to these vital areas.

The search for a new CEO has begun and a few other roles will also be advertised shortly as we align the organisation with our strategic plan and needs.

We look forward to keeping you updated with the goings on in the community and at Rowing Queensland."