Steve Yost, a member of Gloucester Gig Rowers in the United States, has designed a scheduling tool to help clubs organise training sessions and coordinate events.
Gloucester Gig Rowers (GGR), formed 30 years ago in a historically fishing community north of Boston when a group of women asked boat builder Larry Dahlmer to build them a boat inspired by a Cornish Pilot Gig. The club has gone from strength to strength and has a long waiting list. Members enjoy varied racing formats including the 20 mile endurance race around Cape Ann. During the summer the club has over 120 rows per month scheduled.
Inspired by the needs of Gloucester Gig Rowers and the busy demands on the club boats, Steve initiated the development of TimeToRow.com, a lightweight and modern scheduling tool for rowing clubs. Steve, inspired by 20-year-old custom boat scheduling software that had helped GGR grow, rebuilt it on modern foundations as TimeToRow, to offer other clubs flexible boat scheduling.
TimeToRow.com is a web app designed to make scheduling and coordinating boats and crews within a club transparent and simple. In its basic usage, any rower can schedule a boat as a cox or rower for any available time slot, allowing others to sign on until the crew is full and ready to go. The app lets all club members see boat availability and current crew lists, while a monthly calendar view provides a high-level overview of activity. Key features also include automatic reminders, a ‘message-the-crew’ function, and schedule synchronization with online calendars.
The flexible boat/crew scheduling capability of TimeToRow.com allowed Gloucester Gig Rowers to grow smoothly to its current size of 190 members sharing just three Cornish Pilot Gigs, with little contention for rowing times. Steve now intends to release it as open-source software, enabling new feature development and maintenance by the world-wide community.
Visit the TimeToRow.com website or book to attend an interactive introduction to TimeToRow, which Steve is running for CPGA member clubs on Monday 13th April at 7pm.
To find out more about the club visit Gloucester Gig Rowers.
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