H&D Executive Committee Meeting 11th May 2020.

Dear Affiliated Clubs and H&D Members,

As you will be aware from our previous correspondence, the H&D Executive Committee have been meeting via a conference call each month to review and discuss any recent changes in relation to current government restrictions for Covid-19. The latest meeting was undertaken at 7pm on Monday 11th May 2020 and the following is a record of the minutes of the meeting.

H&D Executive Committee Meeting - Monday 11th May

Present: Peter Staddon, Jeff Watling, Sue Southcott, Steve Bull & Penny Budd

- Following on from the Prime Ministers speech the previous evening, there has been no real significant changes which will effectively allow the H&D to commence the racing season. However, unlimited exercise is now available to those who wish to do so and it looks as if some restrictions on recreational water usage is being eased - British Rowing are meeting tomorrow (12th May) and will issue guidance. The H&D will await clarification on this before issuing any further comment to clubs.

- In light of this, the H&D cannot see the June regattas being able to take place so with effect, June regattas (Woolston, Coalporters, BTC and Swanage) are cancelled. It is hoped that some of these regattas may be able to be held at a later date. Woolston have provisionally held Sunday 5th July and Coalporters have provisionally postponed to Saturday 11th July. This is subject to restrictions being eased and allowing regattas to take place. We have yet to hear from BTC if they wish to choose an alternative date for a rescheduled regatta and talks are underway with Swanage council on holding Swanage regatta on Saturday 19th September.

- It is probable that the July regattas may also be cancelled due to the numbers of participants involved, however, the committee felt that we will continue to review the situation on a monthly basis when we have more information and will review July's regattas in June and advise accordingly.

- Two of the July regattas have been cancelled for this season - Southsea and Poole - due to the local authorities not allowing events to be held at the regatta courses over the summer. Therefore, if any regattas wish to reschedule to the 18th July or 8th August, these dates are now available.

- In light of the fact that we may lose most, if not all of the regattas for the 2020 season, it was agreed that no H&D championships will be awarded for the 2020 season. If we are able to hold any regattas, we are looking at creating a one-off 'tally' championship for clubs which would be based around clubs being awarded points for each entry and further points for placings in races. This idea is to continue a competition element and also encourage entries. It is an idea at the moment and once we have a better idea of the feasibility of racing going ahead, we will agree more detail.

- Whilst there will be no H&D championships awarded this season, we are still planning on holding the H&D Dinner on the 14th November (subject to a large indoor event being able to take place at this time.) Whilst presentation of trophies will not be able to be made, we felt that as association, we should still aim to get together to celebrate getting through 2020.

- Registration of club member details was sent out to all clubs the previous week and member registrations need to be returned to Gary Joyce by May 30th. Whilst we will not be using these details for championship points, clubs are still required to submit their membership as this is used to calculate the amount that can be deducted from their BR affiliations fee for 2021.

- for the same reason - the H&DARA Affiliation fees for 2020 will be charged and invoices will be sent out shortly and will be need to be paid by 30th June, 2020.

- The South Coast Championships in Royal Victoria Country Park in 2021 will be held on Saturday 18th September and delegates from WEARA and CARA were in full agreement for this to be rescheduled to this date.

- Clubs should have also applied for their local councils £10k business interruption grant which many clubs have already received.

- The H&D AGM which could not be held in March will now be held at the autumn delegates meeting in October. It was discussed to possibly arrange an online AGM, but the amount of people and difficulties of large online conferencing, along with some delegates may not have online facilities, meant that we decided to postpone until October. 

- The H&D Executive Committee will hold a further monthly review meeting on Monday 8th June to assess the ongoing situation and make a decision on the July regattas.

Steve Bull & Penny Budd. Joint Association Secretaries. 

for the H&D Executive Committee.