Please come out to Victory Brewery to Support the Rowing Alumni group with a Beer and Food Pairing on Saturday April 10th, 2010 from 1pm to 4pm.  All are welcome, payment made out to Drexel Rowing Alumni Group, sent to 957 Wayfield Dr., Norristown  PA 19403 is due by April 1st, 2010.  Payment also can be made through Paypal via the link here.

Menu for the event as follows:

Asian seared tuna on Crispy Wontons with Helios or Mad King

Chicken and smoked gouda Tempura with HopDevil

Cuernos de Diablo with Festbier

Mini Beef Empanadas with spicy tomato sauce with Pale Ale

Chocolate Chipotle Cake with Donnybrook

Quarterly Meeting Agenda – September 15 2009 – BBC – 7pm

• Fall events
  • Navy Day Celebration – Saturday, October 10, 2009
    • Boat Naming
  • Head of Schuylkill Regatta – Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25, 2009
    • BBQ – Saturday
      • Coordinate with Parents?
      • During/After Regatta?
      • Food Options
    • Alumni Boats – Male and Female – Open Club 8 Event – Saturday
      • Doug Allcorn – Organizer – douglas.r.allcorn@wtas.com
      • Registration Deadline October 1, 2009
      • ~$20 per rower

• Wine Tasting
  • Date TBD – October/November – day preference?
  • Location- Bachelors Barge Club
• No Head of the Charles Trip – DU on waitlist

• Winter Events

• Center City Slam – Erg Competition
  • Need Volunteers – Run by alumni
• Team and Alumni Banquet
  • Suggestions from last year
  • Opinion of auction and raffle items
    • Good/bad/out of budget ?
    • What do alumni want? (tickets/vails hotels/stuff/crew gear)
    • What budget/price range do we have for auction?

• Elections
  • No Nominations received
  • VP nominations…vote

• Records
  • Keep written documentation as well as pictures
    • Post on website

• Updates to Team Newsletter

• Paul Savell and his staff put together a bi-yearly newsletter
  • Alumni will have 1 page for updates, what’s new, who’s married…etc

• Members – Recruitment – Call, email, face-to-face

• Need to expand DRAG membership, specifically, rowers before 2002
  •  
    • Suggestions…

1. Memories of Boathouse #4:  Announce the moving of the crew to the new boathouse at Bachelors.  Then ask for pictures and their best rowing and NON-rowing memories of Boathouse #4.  I think this would be a great way to get some historical information and pictures from crews gone by…

2. Erg competition – I know Drexel hosts an erg competition in the winter.  Let’s challenge our old crews to come back and put up some numbers against their teammates.  I recently challenged Pat McDonnell (’91) to come back and row against me during the erg event.  This would be a great way to raise funds and bring back the old crews.  Put it out in the e-mail blast to start training now and call your old teammates to challenge them to a 1000 or 2000 meter race

• New  Boathouse – New Rules – New Members

• Provided club with tentative schedule for DRAG for the whole year

Fall 2009

September 15, 2009 – 7pm – quarterly meeting

October 24- HOSR Gathering/BBQ during and after race

Oct/Nov? -wine tasting event

Winter 2009-2010

January 5, 2010, 7pm – quarterly meeting

February-Social Event

Spring 2010

April 6, 2010, 7pm – quarterly meeting

Kerr Cup BBQ – during and after race

Friday, May 7, 2010 – Dad Vail Social 6-10pm

Summer 2010

June 22, 2010, 7pm – quarterly meeting

Late August -Social Event

• Fundraising/Budget – $395.00
• Contact Information
  • Email – DrexelRowingAlumni@gmail.com – Facebook – Drexel Rowing Alumni – Website – www.drexelrowingalumni.org
• Next meeting – 

Drexel Rowing Alumni Group

Quarterly Meeting Minutes – June 16, 2009 – Drexel Gym – 7pm

1. New Alumni

a. – Michael Niles, Eric Shoyer, Ryan Dorr, Chelsea Nowakowski, Vanessa Clifford, Demi DelValle, Christina Valiga and Kate Labarbera

2. 1 year anniversary – D.R.A.G.

a. We need to continue what we have done and make it better this year

b. Events we have done

i. Fall – HOCR Trip (dinner and tent), HOSR Alumni Boat, happy hour after Navy Day

ii. Winter – Organized and ran Center City Slam, Drexel Homecoming events, Team and Alumni Banquet

iii. Spring – Tent and team/alumni in San Diego, Organized and ran Kerr Cup Regatta and BBQ, Dad Vail – social, tent, alumni boat, Parents at every regatta

iv. TO DO – have a write-up done for each event by someone who attended so we can post it on the website and keep it for our records. Also note who was in attendance or if it was an open event – email drexelrowingalumni@gmail.com with write-ups

c. It was mentioned that we should focus on one big event in the fall, make this our focus and reach out to all the alumni we know and let them know we want them in attendance

i. We need volunteer to call alumni and promote and organize event

3. New Business

a. Summer events Ideas

i. Brigantine Triathlon – Aug. 1, 2009 at 8am – Hosted by Paul Savell’s beach

ii. Happy Hour/Pub Crawl – city or shore

1. The Wine School of Philadelphia Private Event

iii. Sunset on the Row – open to alumni and parents

1. Have boats available to row

2. Hosted on a week night at Bachelor BH

3. Have light drinks and possible Pottluck

4. In late August or early September

b. Fall Events – Need Volunteers

i. HOSR

1. – Alumni Boat

a. Regatta – Saturday October 24

b. Club Men’s and Women’s 8 available

c. $20 per person

d. Entry due by October 1

2. – Food

a. We can do bbq, coordinate with the parent group

3. Possible event with new BH

4. MAKE THIS OUR BIG EVENT FOR ALUMNI

ii. HOCR – Head of the Charles Regatta – Boston

1. Drexel Alumni doing tent on race course

2. We need hotel accommodations for spectators

3. Email drexelrowingalumni@gmail.com if you are interested

c. Executive Board – Increase numbers

i. Currently we officially have a President of D.R.A.G. We also have an unofficial secretary (Steve Benvenuto) who takes meeting minutes and a webmaster/social network (Bill Camara and Josh Kidd)

ii. As we grow it is necessary to spread out the responsibilities

1. Nominate a Vice President

a. This position will have a 2 yr commitment

b. You can nominate someone or nominate your self

c. Voting will be done if there are multiple nominations

d. Job responsibilities listed at the end of this document

2. Suggestion – Have VP matched up with young alumni so they can get involved, learn what we do but not have all the responsibility

d. Need to expand DRAG membership, specifically before 2002

i. Suggestions – please post on our website what you think

1. Memories of Boathouse #4:  Announce the moving of the crew to the new boathouse at Bachelors.  Then ask for pictures and their best rowing and NON-rowing memories of Boathouse #4.  I think this would be a great way to get some historical information and pictures from crews gone by…

2. Erg competition – I know Drexel hosts a erg competition in the winter.  Let’s challenge our old crews to come back and put up some numbers against their teammates.  I recently challenged Pat McDonnell (’91) to come back and row against me during the erg event.  This would be a great way to raise funds and bring back the old crews.  Put it out in the e-mail blast to start training now and call your old teammates to challenge them to a 1000 or 2000 meter race.

3. LinkedIN:  Start a linkedIn group.  This would help find other rowers from past teams and help current rowers on the team or recently graduated network for jobs, information, etc.

4. Call to Alumni to put together their line-ups contest – ask the current list of DRAG members to reach out and put together their team line-ups.  Then once we get the missing names we can go back to the school and ask them for their current information.

e. Updates to Team Newsletter

i. Paul Savell and his staff put together a bi-yearly newsletter

ii. Alumni will have 1 page for updates, what’s new, who’s married…etc

f. Spring Recap

i. Dad Vail Alumni Boat won the gold medal – to see photos go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/DrexelRowingAlumni

g. Budget – $395.00

4. Old Business

a. Website – www.drexelrowingalumni.org

b. Email – drexelrowingalumni@gmail.com (sync our calendar to your personal google calendar)

c. Facebook – join our group – Drexel Rowing Alumni

5. NEXT Meeting – September 15, 2009 at 7pm at Bachelors Boathouse

Executive Board – Job Duties

President

-Communication

- Send, read, respond to email

-Meeting reminders, updates, events

- Get updated alumni, parent, donor, family, friend list from

coaching staff

- Welcome email to new alumni class following the spring season

- Liaison between athletic department and D.R.A.G.

- Liaison between Alumni office and D.R.A.G.

- Contact between Parent group and D.R.A.G.

- Quarterly Meetings

- Meet with Head Rowing Coach for agenda items relating to the program

- Create agenda for meetings

- Run meetings

-Events

-Organize all aspects of event

-Set date, location, food, beverages, invites, decorations, music, pictures…etc

-Create marketing material – flyers, handouts

Vice President (2 people) paired up so there is about 10yrs in between their graduation

years

- Recruitment

- Alumni who are not involved with D.R.A.G.

- New alumni who just graduated

- Newsletter – gather info from alumni

- Organize plan to recruit – phone calls, letters, emails…etc

Webmaster/Social Networks

- Keep website up to date with pictures, events, meeting minutes

o Make it visually pleasing and accessible

- Update and send out reminders and post events on Facebook page

- Update Google pictures and calendar

Secretary

- Take minutes at meeting and send to president to send to email list and send to webmaster to post on website

Just a little update…

There will be information coming soon about Dad Vail activities on Friday and Saturday.  On Friday the Alumni Group will be hosting a Happy Hour Social.  The event time and place will be announced soon but please put it on your calender.  Saturday there will be tent near the finish line, it will be tent #4.  Also on Saturday some of the Alumni will be in the corporate challenge so please come out and watch as they pretend that they still have it and try to race a 500m piece.

T-Shirts are being designed to be sold here on the website through cafepress.com.  As soon as the designs are done we will run a test shirt, then we will let everyone know that items are available with an email but please check back to the site for updates on this and other things now that the spring racing season is at full throttle.

Lastly, keep in touch with the teams results on www.row2k.com.

CAA BEGINS SPONSORSHIP OF WOMEN’S ROWING AS A CHAMPIONSHIP SPORT

RICHMOND, Va. (March 25, 2009) – The Colonial Athletic Association has begun sponsorship of women’s rowing as the conference’s 23^rd sport.

“We’re excited about the addition of women’s rowing to our championship program,” CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said. “It’s a sport that continues to grow in popularity across the nation and we are proud to provide additional opportunities for our women’s student-athletes.”

The first CAA women’s rowing championship will be conducted on April 18, 2009 in Philadelphia. The event will be conducted in conjunction with the Kerr Cup on the Schuykill River along historic Boathouse Row.

The CAA Championship will begin at 10 a.m. on April 18 and will feature races in the Women’s Varsity 8, Women’s Varsity 4 and the Women’s Second Varsity 8.

Five full CAA members currently sponsor women’s rowing at the intercollegiate level – the University of Delaware, Drexel University, George Mason University, Northeastern University and Old Dominion University. Joining that group as an associate member in women’s rowing will be the University of Buffalo.

With the addition of women’s rowing, the CAA will sponsor 23 sports – 12 for women and 11 for men. Women’s sports include: basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field and volleyball.

Men’s sports include: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field and wrestling.

Thank you to all who gave your time to continue to grow the Kerr Cup/CAA Championships.  This year was the largest amount of volunteers that we have ever had and the coaching staff and athletic administration could not be more pleased with our support and dedication to this event.  Thanks again to all that helped out and we cannot wait till next year to make it an even better event.

I will be working on a tutorial page to help everyone who is not familiar with publishing in WordPress.  In the interim, I encourage you to mess around with adding new posts, adding videos, images, and everything else you can tinker with.

If you have any suggestions to improve the website please contact the webmaster at the suggestions page.

Thank you.

Thanks,

Drexel Rowing Alumni Group

Agenda for the Inaugural Meting – June 5^th, 7:00PM

Introductions

- Who you are

- Background with Drexel Crew

Review D.R.A.G.

- Mission

- Objectives

- Goals

Committee Ideas

- Website Committee

o Short-term – Creation of website

o Long-term – Improved website and communication between alumni

- Parent Group Committee

o Short-term – Information for the parents

o Long-term – More involvement from current parents

- Race-Day Committee

o Short-term – Tent at races

o Long-term – Food coordination

- Social Events Committee

o Short-term – General social gatherings, sports outings

o Long-term – Beef & Beer, Family events

- Travel Committee

o Short-term – Providing logistics and information to alumni and parents

o Long-term – Group trips to racing venues

- Historical Committee

o Short-term – Photos

o Long-term – Stories

- Sporting Events Committee

o Short-term – Golf outing, pick-up Softball, Bowling

o Long-term – Alumni Regattas, Triathlon

- Executive Committee

o Short-term – Bylaws, Organizational chart

o Long-term – Refined bylaws and organizational chart

Round Table Discussion

- Come up with ideas

- Golf outing during the summer?

- Website – point person for creating and managing a website.

Executive Committee

- Those interested in sitting on the Executive Board are invited to stay.