L to R: Gavin Finch (Treasurer) Colin McClement(Communications) Andre Hawarden (Coaching and Development) Lynda Thompson (Rack Manager) Richard Kohler(Chairman)
Chris Garrow (Secretary) Francois Sisam (Club Captain) Denver Knoetzen(Events Manager) Left Early: Basil Watson ( Registration Officer)
Chairmans Report
To start I would like to thank the following people and organisations for their support and contributions throughout 2016:
All of you, the Century City Canoe Club members
The 2016 CCCC committee for their support and hard work behind the scenes.
CCPOA and particularly Alan Liebenberg
o Keeping the water clean
o Providing us with the club environment, including the clubhouse, change rooms, garages, and safe parking.
Diva Cuisine. Especially Chanti and her dedicated staff for always providing our weekly meals and drinks
Ivor James for the duties of honorary auditor
All the members and partners who assisted with seconding, timing races, organising races and generally contributed to making CCCC a well functioning club.
EVENTS in 2016 season
The ‘Hermon to Gouda’ race on the Berg River in June
The ‘Alfies to Robertson’ race on the Breede River held in August
Team Pursuit Race #1 of 3 which took place as part of the CC Sports Festival last month
WCCU Junior Sprints
Paddler numbers at the river races were low due to the lack of rain in the past winter and is not a reflection of our events
MEMBERSHIP
Our membership numbers at a glance seem to have reached a plateau and have been the same for the past 3 years. Around the 100 mark.
The WCCU racing members remain the same but the recreational members change dramatically
New membership is good but retention has been poor as can be seen from these numbers
33 New membership in 2015
42 new membership in 2016
This year 30 members have already signed up for 2017 of which 11 are new members.
The in coming committee should formulate a plan to retain new members.
Suggestions like:
The new members evening should be reintroduced.
Organise events aimed at the recreational kayaker and recreational kayak storage should be found.
River tripping was notably less in 2016 due to the minimal winter rainfall leaving our rivers low and scratchy.
The most successful was the club weekend outing for the Drew-Swellendam and Bontebok double header with a number of members staying overnight at the Umshanti resort. The club plans to will grow this club weekend in 2017 with some kind financial assistance from CCPOA. Watch this space!
Junior coaching by the Kayak School has continued throughout the year on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The size of the squad is ever changing but currently stand at ten regular participants.
The Tuesday and Thursday ITG training has been going on throughout the year and more recently the Monday and Friday morning squad has started up and proving to be quite popular with those who find too many excuses to train in the afternoon.
The club had three sponsored athletes in 2016, Gavin White, Bianca Beavitt and Andre Hawarden
Gavin : on a build up year
11th in the Berg
1st K1 in the Breede.
Andre:
WP Marathon Champs 1st k2 2nd k1 GGM
Gouda B/town 2nd GGM
Pink Lady 1st GGM
Hermon Gouda 1st GGM
Berg 1st GGM
2017 Dusi 1st GGM
Bianca:
– Silver Victrix Lodorum for senior women category at SA senior sprints
– All African Champs – medals for K2 200m and K2 500m
– SA marathon champs – K1 silver, K2 bronze for senior women
– Pink Lady marathon 1st senior woman K1
– Berg 1st senior woman
– Liffey in Ireland 2nd senior woman K1
– PE to EL 1st S1 senior woman
– Cape Point 2nd S1 senior woman
– WP Senior Woman President Trophy winner
Selected to represent South Africa:
– senior sprint world cup K2
– all african games K2
– world marathon champs K1
Amongst the rest of us there many podium positions achieved. Infact too many to repeat tonight.
Well done to everyone raced last year.
Club nights during 2016 were again well supported and the weekly lucky draws and voucher for the timekeepers are always well received.
The club recreational kayaks have been put to good use by the members. The purchase of the kayak trolley has made moving them from the K2 storage to the water a lot easier.
We managed to increase the rack space in the K1 storage by adding another row but overall rack space is still a limiting factor to the growth of the club. We have yet to come up with a workable solution.
Aspirations for the 2017 :
The new committee should formulate a plan to retain our new recreational members.
We made great strides in streamlining our systems for showing potential members the club facilities and providing them with suitable information to encourage more people to join the club.
I would like to see this process further streamlined to ease the workload for the honorary secretary.
Thank you