Northern rowers gather for Club Development Conference

Rowing club representatives from across the North gathered at Durham Rowing Club on Sunday, for the Northern Region British Rowing Club Development Conference.

More than 50 regional and university rowing clubs sent representatives to the day-long conference, which included presentations and updates on the Umpires Commission, Tony Blair Sports Foundation (TBSF), and water safety.

The TBSF’s Arlene Ainsley spoke about the great strides that the initiative is making at schools across the North East, encouraging children and young people to embrace sport during and after school.

Through their Inspire programme, the TBSF has worked with 18,000 students over 70 schools, as well as training 180 new indoor rowing coaches and helping more than 40 young people attain a Junior Leaders Award.

Div Rep Barbara Mills then ran a workshop on the Whole Sport Plan for 2013-17 – a brainstorming session to discover what rowers in the North East want to see happen in our sport.

After a delicious lunch prepared by Explore Rowing volunteers, the Conference split into four groups – a Junior Coaches meeting, a Safeguarding Children course, a first aid course, and an Explore Rowing workshop.

‘Days like today are fantastic for bringing clubs of all sizes together under one roof,’ said James Andrews, British Rowing Participation Development Team Leader for the North.

‘It was great to see representatives from schools, colleges, universities and clubs coming together in an informal atmosphere to discuss how we can move rowing forward in our region.’

To find out more about upcoming education and training opportunities in the North, see the British Rowing calendar.

For more information about rowing in the North, contact James Andrews.