Newsletter - June 2000

Welcome to the first Bosporos Boat Club newsletter! This will hopefully be the first of many newsletters to keep you up to date with what is going on in our new club. We have achieved a tremendous amount in the last few months and your continued support will ensure that we carry on doing so in the future.

Membership
We now have over 80 members, which is at least as many as our Crabtree colleagues. The success of both the Blue Boat and Isis this year encouraged many old boys to rediscover their love of Oxford rowing! There are still, however, many more people out there who have not yet signed up and we should all keep encouraging those who are still wavering to join. The majority of the membership is from OUBC at present but I am assured that many OUWBC potential members 'are on the point of signing up'! A page has been added, showing a 'race' between the decades for numbers of members.

Rowing
The initial plan to race crews at Henley Royal Regatta and Women's Henley this year is proving to be slightly ambitious and has been somewhat thwarted by the inability of the club to enter as Bosporos Boat Club due to ARA regulations (despite conversations with the Chairman of the Regatta!). However, at the time of writing there is still a possibility of entering a crew in the Wyfolds Challenge Cup or the Visitors Challenge Cup as an OUBC entry. Looking to the future, we expect Henley 2001 to be inundated with Bosporos crews! To that end, a rowing group will be starting to go out training in London on a regular basis over the summer ready for our first year of serious competition in 2000-2001.

HRR drinks party
The first social event of the club will take place on Saturday 1st July at Henley Royal Regatta. The venue is BB H14 (car park spaces 39 & 41 just inside Butler's Field) and drinks will start from 5.00pm.

Club tie
The new club tie is currently available and may be ordered by filling in the online order form. A design of the tie can also be seen on that web page. Alternatively, if you drop me a line at my home address (9b Cromford Road, London SW18 1NZ), I will reserve one for you. The cost of the tie is £20 and they will surely be the most sought after item of clothing at Henley this year.

AGM
The club will hold its Annual General Meeting at 12pm on Saturday 15th July 2000 at Leander Club. It is important for as many members to attend as possible so that everyone's views can be heard. The committee will be elected at the meeting and all current members will be putting themselves up for election with the exception of Keith Mason. A full list of candidates will be circulated just prior to the meeting. If you know that you will be unable to attend and wish to vote, proxy votes should be sent to me by email (please note my change of email address) or by post at least 24 hours before the meeting.

Photographs
As some of you may have seen, the website has a photograph section which currently features several pictures of our esteemed club president! We are looking to build up an online archive of Boat Race photographs so if any of you have any you would like to see up there in lights (and the more we have the better), then send them to me at home and will get them put on the site. I promise to return all photos as soon as they have been scanned. Alternatively, you can send them to me by email and I will get them put on the site.

Direct Debit and Gift Aid forms
It would be greatly appreciated if you could complete and send back the Direct Debit and Gift Aid forms that have been sent out.

On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank you again for your support and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on 1st July.