Small Club Saturday: Holston Rowing Club

General Club Information:

When was your club founded?

2018

What is the general background of the club?

We are located in the center of three cities in the rural east Tennessee mountains, where there were plenty of bodies of water to row on but no rowing club. Multiple people who loved the sport of rowing (most of them coworkers) found each other and decided to create what didn't yet exist here, and officially bring rowing to the Tri-Cities of Tennessee. We are all rowing enthusiasts with prior rowing experience from all over the country, and thus our club currently comprises of all masters rowers. We have grand plans to expand over the next several years to youth programs and possibly engage the local colleges. The nearest club/rowing team besides ours is approximately a two-hour drive. We have been blessed with the support of a local state park (Warriors Path State Park), where we've been allowed to keep our boats in an enclosure with racks that we built. Warriors Path State Park is supportive of our plans to build a dock and a boathouse, as well as future regattas and scrimmages.

What is your club's mission/goals?

The purpose of the organization is to unite community members in the Tri-City area with a common interest in rowing, to improve their skills, and to compete in regattas and scrimmages as appropriate.

We all love rowing. It has made such an impact on each of our lives, and we want to share the passion we have for our sport with our community and get more people involved.

Any motto or quotes your boathouse lives by?

Not necessarily, but we all share a love of the outdoors as we do live in the beautiful mountains of Northeast Tennessee. Rowing is a way we get to enjoy that, thanks to the club's existence.

Program Structure:

What initiatives has your club implemented to bring in members?

Most of our members heard about the club through friends or coworkers, but a few of them called after seeing articles in the local newspaper, searching on social media, or even just walking by our boats at the state park. We do have a sign at the boats, so that if folks are interested, they can look it up. In the future as we advertise and hold learn-to-row programs, we will be able to recruit in a more formal way.

How is your program structured? Do you compete at a higher level or against other clubs, etc.?

As a mostly masters-only/prior experience rower club, we do compete at regional regattas. We've competed at the Secret City Head Race in Oak Ridge, Tenn.,, and also the Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga, Tenn. We hope to host regattas and scrimmages in the future!

Small Club Tips:

Can you talk about your fundraising efforts and how you do outreach throughout your community?

We are actually about to embark on our largest fundraising effort yet, for a dock and a boathouse! We have had small fundraisers – mostly from members, friends, and rowing community members – to fund used boat purchases and materials to build boat racks. For the past four years, we have been wet launching. We hope that a dock will make it easier and safer to bring in members that are new to rowing. Next year, we hope to fundraise to build a boathouse enabling boat storage much closer to the water and the dock. Our fundraising efforts will rely on letter writing and grants as a starting point. The dock and then boathouse will enable growth of our club through learn-to-row programs, which have so much potential to impact the community from youth programs, to veterans programs to adaptive rowing.

What are some recommendations or strategies that have allowed your club to be successful in growing and maintaining members over the year?

Personal connection has been our biggest ally in recruiting and maintaining new members (and I mean, isn't this why so many of us begin and continue in clubs in the first place?). So many of us formed friendships and personal connections in our previous clubs and rowing teams before we moved to East Tennessee, and we want to connect with our new members in that same special way. We have multiple socials with members and their families each year and try to engage virtually over Concept2 erg competitions around the winter holidays.

Any tips to share that might help other small clubs do the same in their communities?

Talk to people. Be open. If people are curious, engage them. Be friendly. We love some good ole' southern Appalachian hospitality around here. :)

Have you run into challenges with getting members? Any advice on how other clubs can combat?

When we initially started considering founding a club, we had happy hours on a monthly basis at a local brewery. It was amazing how quickly we gained interest. Not all of those folks ended up joining, but they are still interested in supporting the club and keeping up with happenings. Several of our members heard about the club through local news articles that we ran with photos of boats and rowers. We have had two news articles locally in the four years since our founding.

Anything else you would like to share about your club that would be beneficial to other clubs and our members?

Don't be afraid to be passionate and talk to people about rowing and your rowing club! You never know who might be interested or intrigued.