OCTOBER 2025 Newsletter

Hi Everyone.

My first meeting for many years, and while the basics are still pretty much the same, there are some new things to learn for this old dog!

Our club is very fortunate in the calibre of your Committee.  They all contribute well to the needs of our club, are professional, and of course, all volunteers.  I am involved in other community boards and they all have paid people working for them.  All well and good you might say, but it comes at a cost, and we all know who pays for this work, you the club member.

My thanks to my Committee for what they do in the love of our sport.

Waters Edge Lounge

The lounge is a very valuable asset for your club.  We budget around $60,000 per year from the hire of the lounge, which covers a large proportion of the running costs of our club.  Unfortunately, it is currently a little below budget, for many reasons, so we now ask you all to help get it back up to, and hopefully above, budget.

The best advertising is word of mouth, so I am asking everybody to promote our lounge hire. It is not just weddings that use the lounge, but businesses for seminars, training sessions, other clubs as a meeting point. Anyone that needs a venue, be it daytime or evening. 

So, when you are talking with friends, family or business colleagues sow the seed of using our lounge.  We do have competitors, but our lounge is well equipped with the required electronics for AV work, commercial kitchen, and if you have not been up in the lounge, tell me where a better view exists!

We are also one of the few lounges that you can use your own caterers, supply your own drinks, unlike most others where you are locked into using the providers own providers. That means the hireage fee is the only cost for our venue. 

Please make it your challenge to promote at all times your club lounge.

Funding Applications

Your committee has agreed to apply for help with funding for:

• A new heavy weight double/pair and that is underway at cost of $31,550 + GST
• 8 new stroke coaches at a cost of $7,161.84 + GST
• 5 Blue Ocean megaphones for coaches at a cost of $3,949.80 + GST

Season Start

As we head towards the first regatta of the season at Blue Lake on 8th November we wish all our athletes good luck in the upcoming regattas, row hard do your best.  More information about this first regatta will be sent out next week, especially important for those in their first year of racing (and their parents).

As your President it is my role, amongst other things, to stay in contact with members and supporters. Feel free to contact me at  clubpresident@taurangarowingclub.co.nz with any comments/suggestions you might have.

Neil Chinnery-Brown

Club President