2/27/2025 - Parent Meeting Summary

Thanks so much for sitting in on the parent meeting the other night. I appreciate your time. Glad we got though it quickly. I wanted to get a summary of the meeting out to you and have to follow up on some of items we discussed as well…

Safety Overview

As I mentioned in the meeting, part of our club safety plan is to communicate our safety policies and procedures. I want to make sure everyone has access to that information. You can find an overview of our safety documentation here: 

https://team.sweepsandsculls.org/club-info/safety-overview

Basic Safety Certification - March 20

Instead of practice on March 20, we will meet at the YMCA in Crystal Lake to do the Basic Safety Certification. Those that have already completed the Basic Safety Certification do not have to do it again (unless they want to for some reason). You can read more about the Basic Safety Certification here: https://team.sweepsandsculls.org/club-info/basic-safety-certification

Spring Regattas & Dates

April 12 - Illinois Collegiate Rowing Invitational - VOLUNTEERING (Mentors/Juniors)

April 13 - Illinois Junior Rowing Invitational - Mentors/Juniors

We usually stay at the YMCA for this regatta. I’ll let you know what the plan is for volunteering this year. As always, we will be keeping an eye on the weather and seeing how that works out.

Camp Randall Regatta (Date TBD) - (Mentors/Juniors)

We will likely only do this regatta if we do not go to Illinois.

May 3-4 - Indianapolis Regatta (Saturday Sculling, Sunday Sweep) - Beginners, Mentors, Juniors

Please mark whichever days you can attend in iCrew. I will let you know what we end up entering so you know what days you should be there.

May 17-18 - Midwest Juniors Rowing Championship Regatta (Juniors and invited Mentors)

May 21 - Spring Banquet (**NOTE - this is a change from the meeting. The room is not available on Thursday, so we will have the banquet on Wednesday)

Just mark this date on your calendar for now. This is the last Thursday of Spring Season. I will be reaching out to Sophomore Class parents about helping to organize this event.

Corey Lake Camp

Look for details coming soon.

Beginner Version is 3 days

Sunday, June 8 - Saturday, June 14 OR Sunday, June 15 - Saturday, June 21

Beginner Camp (August 4-8)

I will put this in iCrew so that people can mark dates that they can help. You do not need to help every day, and if you can only be there for part of the day, please mark that in “Notes to Coach”

Advertising/Sign Help

Coming up in March, I will be asking for help putting signs up in your towns. Near schools, YMCAs, well traveled areas where parents and kids might see them would be extremely helpful.

Current Beginners - Information about next year...

For our current beginners, some of you will be ready to advance past the beginner skill level in the next few seasons, so I want to make sure you know what is up next for you. Look for a presentation to be sent in the next few days.

Head of the Hooch 2025

For rowers that are in high school and are at least JVB skill level, there may be an opportunity to go to Head of the Hooch next Fall - November 1-2 in Chattanooga, TN. In order to get entries in on time, I need to know who is interested by August. Please let me know if you are interested, now, or as soon as you figure it out. If you are not sure yet, please take a look at your calendar and think it over. I will circle back with everyone over the summer. Please keep in mind that just because you are interested in attending does not mean that we will have a boat for you, or that our bid for the races we enter will be accepted.

Shiver

Look for a Sign-Up Genius with sign-ups for what you can help with at Shiver in the next day or so. If anyone can help on Friday afternoon in Lombard from about 3:30-5:00p, please reach out and let me know.

2/13/2025 - Remaining Winter Season Dates

Sunday, February 23 & March 16 - Tank Sessions (Skokie)

There are 2 tanks sessions schedule for this winter. I really try hard not to schedule things on Sundays, unfortunatley the tanks are only available on Sundays, so we don't have much of a choice.

Tank sessions are important because they allow rowers to work on technique in a more stable indoor environment and are highly recommended for Beginner and Mentor rowers. Coaches will talk to Juniors rowers about whether or not it makes sense for them to attend.

Time: 9a - 11a**

**Depending on how many people are attending, I may break it in to 2 sessions - 9:00-10:30 and 10:30-Noon.

Location: 

Dammrich Rowing Center

3220 Oakton Ave

Skokie, IL

These sessions are in iCrew, so please get signed up as soon as possible so I can get people information about whether or not there will be one session or 2.

Tuesday, February 25 - Parent Meeting (Shiver Volunteering, Spring Season, Next Fall)

I'd like to check in with all the parents about some things. Rowers are welcome to attend as well as the content of the meeting directly concerns them. We will be going over volunteering for Shiver, what Spring Season will look like, as well as some inforamtion for Summer and next Fall. I'd like to try to do this via Google Meet and see how it goes. I'm going to try to knock this stuff out all in one meeting rather than split it up, but it's a lot to cover.

We'll try 8p in the hopes that most parents will be home from running around and can tune in to listen. I'll send a link to the Google Meet prior to the meeting.

Friday 2/28 to Saturday 3/1 - Team Game night and Juniors/Mentors/High School Lock-In

On Friday night, February 28, we will be doing our annual game night and overnight (this is a chaperoned event. Coach Kellie and I will stay, but if there is a dad that would like to stay as well, it is alwyas helpful to have a male chaperone). This is a fun event that the kids look forward to. Here's how it works...

• Friday at 7:30p - Friday night arrival (eat dinner before you come, but we will have some snacks and drinks)

  • Bring games. We'll also put a middle school appropriate movie on and have some snacks.

• Friday at 10p - Middle School Pick Up

  • Juniors/Mentor Team, plus Rec/Beginner High School Rowers stay for a lock in & breakfast on Saturday morning!

• Saturday at approx 8:30a - There is no practice on Saturday morning for anyone! We'll just have breakfast and then everyone can leave by about 9:30a! If there are MS rowers that would like to come back to the Rowing Center and join us for breakfast, your coaches are cooking and you are more than welcome! This year will likely be a pancake/waffle bar (since eggs are about a million dollars) with bacon of course!

• Saturday at about 9:30a - Everyone heads home

Saturday, March 8 - Chicagoland Shiver!

Plan for this to be a 7a to about 4p event. Details are coming this week! We would like everyone to plan to attend and at least one family member to plan to help. We don't do a lot of fundraising as a club. We don't have the kids sell stuff and things like that. Chicagoland Shiver is the one event that we do that raises funds for our club and we ask that everyone get behind it to make it a success! There will be a parent meeting on the 25th and more information about this event coming over the next week or so.

Thursday, March 20 - Basic Safety Certification (currently confirming the date)

This is a certification specific to our club that rowers must complete in order to row without a life jacket. It is something that you can arrange to do on your own, but we offer it once a year in March to hopefully catch all of the new people that have joined since last year. We will do this in place of a Thursday practice to keep it simple for everyone at the YMCA in Crystal Lake.

• Time: 5:15-6:15p

• Location: Sage YMCA in Crystal Lake (waiting for confirmation on usage of the pool)

• More information about the Basics Safety Certification: https://team.sweepsandsculls.org/club-info/basic-safety-certification

I put this in iCrew as a separate event from regular practice. Those that are doing the Basic Safety Certification, plase mark your attendnace for that session. Those that have already done the Basic Safety Certification, you can mark your attendance for regular practice. Masters, there will still be RowFit at 7p that evening.

Saturday, February 15 - Savers Drop Off

We are doing our drop off for our Savers Fundraiser this coming Saturday, so you have one more week to clean our your closets or talk to friends and relatives and get their bags! Please feel free to bring bags and boxes of books or household items, and leave them at the rowing center any time this week!

BUT never fear! We do this fundraiser every year, so if you have bags after this weekend, please still bring them to the Rowing Center any time! We’ll just start a new pile :-)

We usually make at least $300-$500 from this fundraiser and it is extremely helpful for equipment maintenance and replacement for things such as rowing machine parts, oar grips, updated shoes for the boats, etc. Sometimes we do save for something specific, but this year, the money will go toward equipment maintenance that will directly impact your rower’s experience at practice.

I do need some help this weekend. Unfortunately, I can’t take care of all of the bags on my own. At most, it would be a little bit over an hour of time during/after practice on Saturday morning. Here is the timeline and what help is needed:

Here is the timing…

• During/After Practice (9:45-10:30a): Load bags into my truck and a few other vehicles (see notes below about help needed below)

• After Practice (around 10:30-10:45p): Drive bags over to Savers in Crystal Lake and unload

Help Needed…

• 2-3 Trucks, SUV or minivan type vehicles: If there are a few people that have trucks, SUV or minivan type cars that we could use to load to haul the bags over to Savers, that would be extremely helpful!

• Help Loading at the Rowing Center: Would love to have some parents help load the bags that are at the rowing center at the tail end of practice on Saturday (around 9:45a). We can have the rowers help when they are done with practice as well.

• Help Unloading at Savers (Crystal Lake): Obviously the people that are helping drive bags over to Savers will be helping to unload, but if there are a few parents and rowers that can meet us over at Savers in Crystal Lake to help unload the bags, it usuallly only takes about 15-ish minutes.

If you are willing to help, please just reply to this email and let me know, or you can text me at (815) 693-3734.