At the Cornish Pilot Gig Association Annual General Meeting in January, clubs were presented with an outline of the CPGA’s plans to develop and improve its services over the next five years. The plans include a new individual membership where gig rowers will be able to join the CPGA for the first time.
Norma Edwards, CPGA Trustee explained “The CPGA trustees have known for some time that the organisation had to change. It’s fair to say that the CPGA is at a tipping point. The challenges of running such a large sport have become too much for our small volunteer team to handle. At the same time, the sport is still expanding at a rate of knots and we have to find a way to keep pace with the growth. We have to provide the support and development that our growing community deserves.”
Before lockdown, the CPGA volunteers secured funding from Cornwall Council and the CIOS Local Enterprise Partnership to develop a five year business strategy. The CPGA were able to contract business consultant Kevin Brownridge to help address the issues.
The business strategy has kept the volunteer team very busy through lockdown. After an extensive survey of the membership there were many trustee sessions, club focus groups and stakeholder meetings. Several drafts of the strategy were considered and the final changes were made after invaluable feedback from the community.
CPGA Chair, Shane Sullivan explained, “Clubs told us what support and services they need. The new plans are really just a way of giving clubs and individuals the things they are asking for. The sport is totally unique, it deserves an ambitious plan to help it thrive. At the same time, the plans are there to maintain and protect all that makes our gig rowing community extraordinary.”
The CPGA are encouraging all gig rowers to participate in a short survey about the new proposal for individual membership. The survey will give rowers a chance to share their views with clubs. Clubs are the voting membership of the CPGA and they will decide if the new plans go ahead later in the year. Although any proposed changes to membership would not take place until 2022 at the earliest.
Shane said, “We really want to hear what everyone thinks. Are people willing to pay and individual membership once rowing restarts? We realise that it might not seem like the right time to be looking at this during a pandemic… but we know that we have to have a plan for the sport if we want it to recover quickly and thrive for the future.”
Reporter, David George has produced a film to explain what is being proposed and how it will affect you and your club. All members of the gig rowing community are invited to participate in the survey. Watch the film, read the information provided and decide what you think before completing the survey.
For more information about the proposal, click on the title links above each graphic and read the following:
What Will Your Membership Fee Do
Once you have decided what you think, please complete the survey.
Your views are important. The survey results will be shared with clubs as they prepare to shape the future of our sport.
We row in the SE of England, and I am keen to race and will pay the levy. But I suspect that at least half of our club have no desire to race, and are happy to row the coastline and river hereabouts. We still need these club members. The challenge will be to either persuade them to pay, or to decide if it is possible to allow them to be “social” members of an affiliated club and not pay a levy. (I am also a rugby player and coach, so I know how this works. In rugby RFU membership is compulsory in order to play matches)
Sounds like a good and necessary idea.
I think it’s a great idea it will help develop the sport encourage the youth participation and formalise things professionally, it will also provide employment for a few and relieve the volunteers who’s invaluable contribution has gone in rewarded financially for so long, I for one would be happy to pay £30 a year for membership of the CPGA and be a part of the sport hopefully for many years to come
Hi
I think its a great idea and a long time coming.
As long as the CPGA are proactive in its delivery of their services then it will benifit all clubs (large and small) greatly.
If it means it sharpens up all areas EG; Coaching courses ,Health and safety courses,Radio courses where to go for grants or financial help,etc etc then it wil be great.
As it stands all clubs have to find their own way when it comes to these things but if by paying for a CPGA membership that can deliver these things from a central base it wil make things a lot easier and sharpen up the whole sport.
It might be nice, if there is to be a membership fee, that more emphasis is put into competion to help persuade those that might feel they just wish to socialy row ,more novice events would be great perhaps more concentration and dialogue with local clubs in to putting together local leagues perhaps with a super league across the country or UK(or at least with those that have gig clubs ) as a carrot to encourage clubs to push to be elite rowers.
I would also suggest that because of the size and popularity of the World gig champs in Scillies that another event is put in place towards the end of the year ,this would be of the same magnitude and importance but allow the numbers to be more limited perhaps qualifying times needed to be able to row these large events,example being newquay.
Its been shown how important these large events are to building memebrship for small clubs.
We need more emphasis on Vets ,Super Vets and (now as the sport grows and the years go by) Masters events.
Rowing for a lot of people is more about social ,being able to be part of a club making friends and keeping fit ,there is more evidence now showing how important rowing is to peoples own mental well being ,as long as all this is reflected in the changes then it is a great idea and needs to be advertised and sold to its members and potential members carfully.
I didnt start rowing till i was in my 40s im now 57 and i have had a great time and met fantastic people and want to be part of this for a long time to come.
It is going to be so important to help clubs get the youth involved by going into schools and colleges and showing the children just how much fun is to be had.
In the relative short time ive been rowing ive seen this sport grow and am suprised that this has taken until now to come up.
It is important not to lose the vast experience that we have within this sport and if it means paying a wage to to do this then it has to happen ,as it does in most sporting bodies.
I only hope that this idea is rowed long and hard with everyone pulling together to make this as smooth a row forward as it can be.
Where do i pay !!😎
Good luck
JON GIBBARD (Cape Cornwall gig club)
I feel you will divide the community that we have , I feel that all clubs look after their own and do their own fund raising etc and have a large mix of active members some want to compete some want to social row , I cannot see how this membership fee will benefit clubs in anyway shape or form, all clubs as I understand it have their own rules , insurance etc and what we have is a fantastic sport enjoyed by many but forcing a members fee will cause bad feeling with a lot of rowers and having seen this happen in other sports where this has happened human nature being what it is it all went wrong. So for fear of losing what we have I am totally against it.
I agree with W Knowles-I can’t see what added value this brings. Our club is for all sorts, sailing etc and we pay to be it’s member and pay-as-you-go to row. The 1 or 2 occasions of CPGA involvement is IoS world championship 3 Rivers otherwise we have local racing eg SEEGL, Round Hayling, Thames etc….you PAYG if attending these-so personal CPGA membership just doesn’t add up (agree affliated clubs pay the c£200 or whatever fee is agreed – that’s alll
I feel that this proposal is really well put together, provides a clear plan for the future and demonstrates the benfits to the sport of gig rowing and all of it’s participants. The benefits of this are two fold:
1. The ongoing development, expansion and improvement of the sport. I appreciate that some people are happy with how the sport is already and do not want it to change.
2. This proposal also safeguards the future of the sport. Even those who do want the sport to change, need to understand that if the small number of volunteers currently holding the sport up were unable to continue, the sport as we know it would collapse. The idea that a sport of this size should have a governing body run by volunteers is absurd and is testament to how good a job those volunteers have done to date that people still see it as a viable option.
I feel the adoption of this proposal will prove to be the biggest catalyst for improvement the sport has seen for many years.
Great to see this plan published. After my involvement with GigRower and then on the CPGA committee it was very clear that MONEY was the key to unlocking the development of the sport that rowers have talked about for years.
There are certainly no shortage of ideas on how gig rowing can be developed, improved and supported. But there is a limit to what can be achieved by volunteers running the sport in snippets of time at the end of a full working day, or at the weekend.
As a rower I would be happy to pay an annual rowers membership if it enabled the change that I believe there needs to be. No doubt there will be many challenges, and selection of the right people to deliver this plan will be critical, but if this is done right I think we will look back in years to come on this significant change as a really positive one for gig rowing.
There is virtually nothing in the information above that is of any real benefit for recreational club rowers.
Our club is a community charity and as such must be inclusive, whether members wish to compete or not. This move runs the risk of splitting the sport, if not splitting the clubs themselves. The clubs have always organised their own events (World Championships aside), with great success, and regional leagues will split the sport further with old rivalries potentially unable to take place.
It may be that the CPGA feels it needs to have funded salaries in order to operate efficiently, but imposing a levy on members who will feel they have no real benefit, is not the way to do it.
As both a club member & club director, i cannot support this proposal in its current format.
I fully appreciate that the CPGA cannot continue in its “voluntary” structure, with the growth of the sport (& administration!) dictating further investment required. On the other hand, it does not cost in excess of £350000 per annum (2025/2026) to run the CPGA.
A large proportion of our club membership have no interest (or benefit) in centralised “marketing” or “merchandising” – They are club members that want to row & socialise – opportunities provided by our club, not the CPGA.
This proposal is an excessive “tax” on members to fulfil a business plan. I’ve seen little quantifiable evidence that will enhance the enjoyment of the sport, but does have serious potential to reduce club membership…