• Updates

  • Update - December 4th 2024

    Thank you to everyone who came to the Q&A on Monday night.

    The questions were all constructive and helpful. It was obvious that people had really put time into reading the proposed governing documents, even though they are not very exciting. We have already made changes to the drafts as a result.

    Click the button below to get the right page, then scroll down to the end to see the changes.

  • Update - November 18th 2024

    Finally - drafts of new governing documents available!

    We have created a special page for this.

    Click the button below to get there.

  • Update - June 15th 2024

    We held the re-arranged Q&A on June 3rd at 8pm.

    Thank you very much to everyone who came! And there was great turn-out from the General Committee - it's important for Members to know that the General Committee is fully behind this work.

     

    It was a good discussion - we went over some of the issues already set out in the Q&A. Key points seemed to be:

    1. Obviously - governance is not that exciting, and some of elements of the possible changes for the Club are simultaneously boring and complicated. This is a tough combination! A key message to get across is "This is more about protecting members, reducing risk for the General Committee (who all give their time for free) and tidying up areas of the Rules that currently aren't clear - it's not a radical change"
    2. Reassurance that the Earl of Plymouth's team is supportive
    3. Reassurance that the General Committee members would still be volunteers (not paid for the role), and that there would be rules about managing any conflicts of interest
    4. Agreeing that it would be better if the General Committee could make changes to minor parts of how the Club is run without it turning into a long, painful discussion at the AGM - while still retaining the power for Members to bring up any concerns at the AGM (or an EGM) if necessary.
    5. Identifying that a current area that isn't clear is about elections: why are some people elected for different terms to other people? Could we make this more logical? How are the Commodore roles chosen? Should this be more democratic, or is it such a hard role to fill (LOTS of hard work, long hours, always being on show....) that it's a question of being able to persuade someone to do it at all, rather than a contested election?

     

     

    Update - May 7th 2024

    1) We are hoping to hold the re-arranged Q&A on June 3rd at 8pm.

    2) We updated the April 15th AGM on progress and next steps. This seemed to have a positive reception, but it was mainly one-way, because of time constraints. So the Q&A will provide an opportunity for a proper backwards-and-forwards.

     

     

    Update - April 14th 2024

    quick update -

    1) Very positive meeting with the Earl of Plymouth's team last week

    2) Lucy will be available to chat in the bar, before the AGM, from 7pm

     

     

    Update - March 24th 2024

     

    Progress

    • Website created
    • More than a hundred pieces of feedback received and answered
    • Five one-to-ones held with Lucy (the technnical lead)

    The feedback so far

    • The feedback received via the website so far has been very, very positive. There were nearly seventy positive comments, some very helpful questions, and only one negative comment.
    • Lucy could answer lots (but not all - more on this later) of the questions posed by the Members who met her for a one-to-one

  • Comments received via the website 

    broken image

  • The cancelled Q&A

     

    Why?

    As many of you already know, Lucy's husband (who is also a Member of the Club, and on the Rowing Committee) had a heart attack on Tuesday March 12th. This was thought to be minor, and Lucy was expecting Tim to be home on the day of the Q&A, or the next day. However, on the day itself, Lucy and Tim found out that Tim would need a triple bypass, and that he would have to stay in hospital for weeks.

    This was obviously very upsetting for Lucy, and so we cancelled the event. We are so sorry that this was such short notice, but Lucy felt that she really needed to be in the Heath with Tim that evening. We did consider running the event without her, but we thought that it would not be a good use of people's time to run a Governance Q&A (at which we were expecting very detailed questions) without the Governance lead.

     

    What will we do instead?

     

    (UPDATE - Tim has had his operation and is safely home, recovering really well. He was very touched by everyone's good wishes. )

     

    We really wanted to hold the Q&A before the AGM, but we didn't want to cancel again at short notice. What we will do / have done instead is:

    • We have already added some extra Q&A, based on what people have told Lucy they wanted to ask at the event
    • Lucy will come to the Club early on the AGM night, and be available if anyone wants to have an informal chat with her
    • The Governance Working Group will give a presentation at the AGM - this will just be an update. There was never intended to be a vote on anything this early.
    • We will re-organise the "everyone is welcome" Q&A as soon as Lucy has more certainty about Tim's health. We know that not everyone wants to communicate via email or the website, so it's very important that we do hold this live, in-person session.

    In the meantime, please have a look at the extra Q&A added to the website. Link below!

  • Go the new Q&A

    Lucy has written answers to the questions that people told her they would have asked at the Q&A

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