How to improve LBRA for everyone

We welcome all help and only ask that you first coordinate any independent projects with the Board of Directors.
Each member is required by the by-laws to volunteer at least 12 hours per year or more to the common cause. Below is a list of ways to get involved with contact information.  Please read the Volunteer Policy to be sure your time will be counted toward Volunteer hours.

The club always needs volunteers to help

• plan and run regattas
• coach members at all levels
• write for the newsletter
• maintain shells and equipment
• organize the Annual Awards Banquet celebration
• organize the Spring Open Houseto recruit new members and advertise the club to the community
• serve on the board of directors
• chair or serve on standing committees
• raise funds
• keep the website growing

Independent project proposals are welcome. If you have an idea you would like to implement, present it to the Board for approval and funding, and go for it!  Help lead. Run for office or chair a committee!  Use the Suggestion Box at the podium to let the Board know what concerns you, or what you would like to see the club do to enhance membership value.

Regatta Committees

Contact Volunteer coordinator  for details.
Christmas Regatta: June-December (contact Volunteer coordinator)
Beach Sprints: January-February (contact Volunteer coordinator)
Spring Regatta: January-March (contact Volunteer coordinator)
Bay Series: September-March (contact Terry McGuigan)

Coaching

Year-round, but highest demand in the summer.  If you would like to coach, learn to coach, or just help drive launches and pitch in, we could use your help. Every summer starting in May we hold novice classes, but without adequate staffing, we cannot provide the kind of training that will motivate new members to stick with the program. We also need to establish and maintain a strong intermediate rowing program to retain new members beyond the first year.

Anyone who knows how to row can coach novices. Anyone willing to learn can coach intermediate rowers, but it takes a serious time commitment of at least two hours per day several days per week to make it work. Contact AC duPont for more info.

Maintenance

AC can always use help around the boathouse. There are those in the club who have given us significant and lasting service over the years, and they can always use another pair of hands.  Any experience with wood working, mechanics, outboard engine maintenance would be terrific. Contact AC duPont for more info at 562-773-5516 or acdupont4@gmail.com

Awards Banquet Planning

November-December  If you like event planning (i.e., throwing parties), this is the opportunity for you. Each year the club puts on an awards ceremony, dinner, and dancing (often with live music) to celebrate our members’ achievements and socialize away from the water for an evening.  Find and secure a venue, create a menu, arrange for guest speakers, music and solicit members and their guests to attend. Best if several members allocate the work. Contact membership for more info.

Spring Open House and Membership Recruitment

April-May  Traditionally we hold this just after an organized work party to clean up the boathouse and its surroundings in early May. Help get the word out in the press, organize the cleaning crews and arrange for coxswains, launch drivers and rowers to help get visitors into boats.  Great for community relations, great for membership drives, great for the club.

Requires: (1) Contacting the Grunion, Press Telegram, OC Register and LA Times to run ads and/or community announcements at least three weeks in advance. (2) Advertising the cleaning chores to be done around the boathouse. (3) Soliciting firm commitments from those willing to bring food, conduct tours, run mini-training on the ergs, cox, row, and coach and organizing a firm schedule for their participation. (4) Arranging to have brochures printed and delivered for distribution on the day of the event. (5) Arranging to have tables and tents set up out front on the day of the event. Contact the board for more info.

Members Directory and Dues

Each year in August we need to generate a billing and send it to all members, then track who has paid what, when, and update the membership directory for publication.  This is a key position which makes the club run in a fair and financially sensible way. We have electronic mailing lists that can generate mass-mailing form letters, so learn how to use them and help the club achieve one of its most fundamental necessities. For more info contact membership@longbeachrowing.org.

Run for the Board of Directors

Elections are held every October. Talk to any member of the nominating committee (you may have to ask a board member who is on it this year) about being nominated to serve as an officer (President, Vice President, Treasurer, Boat Captain) or a Board Member at Large (other voting members willing to attend monthly meetings and accept work assignments from the full Board).

Standing Committees

Serve on any one or more of the committees that should be shouldering more of the work in the club. The Christmas Regatta, Spring Regatta, Annual Banquet, Nominating and Audit Committees seem to come together each year, but with our initiative, we could get them staffed and organized well in advance of each major event. Many hands makes light work.

Fundraising

The club badly needs people with the experience and motivation and fearlessness required to raise funds for the organization. Grant writing, copy writing, and networking skills would be ideal, but in the end it just takes dedication. Part of the job would be researching funding opportunities, part would involve coordinating with the regatta committees to secure sponsors for our events.

Website

Half the battle with the website is getting timely information and photos to post. Even if you have no experience creating web pages, we need help generating content for the site (member news reports, regatta results, workout plans, coaching tips, diet tips and the like).  Contact LBRA to volunteer content and realize innovative ideas you have about how to best use the site to members’ mutual advantage.  Submit an idea to the Web Admin by clicking here. We would be happy to post any solicitation for volunteers for your independent project here on the site so you can get the word out.