Building a Successful Rowing Club
Building a Successful Rowing Club: Culture, Volunteers, Fundraising and People
A Rowing Club Is More Than Boats
A rowing club looks like a collection of physical things: boats, blades, racks, launches, pontoons, ergos, changing rooms, safety equipment and trailers.
But the strongest clubs are built from something less visible.
People.
Volunteers. Coaches. Parents. Captains. Treasurers. Fundraisers. Safety officers. Race organisers. Launch drivers. The person who opens the boathouse. The person who fixes the shoes. The person who notices the new member standing alone.
Across the Complete Rowing Podcast, several guests have described different versions of the same truth: rowing clubs succeed when people create structure, belonging and purpose.
Arthur Ware talks about building the Olden Bears as a virtual alumni club. Janice Holzman explains fundraising through mission and relationships. Katy Cooper describes how Brentford Boat Club survived upheaval through community support. Jim Harlow explains why rowing depends on volunteers. Fiona Betts and Paul Debois discuss club culture directly.
Together, their message is clear.
A successful rowing club is not just a place where people row.
It is a community that knows what it is trying to be.
Start With Connection
Arthur Ware’s Olden Bears story is a useful starting point because it strips rowing down to something essential: connection.
The Olden Bears began as a virtual club of University of California alumni and friends coming together to race at events such as Head of the Charles.
Arthur describes what rowing can do to people even decades later:
“There’s something really unique about the connection that rowing brings throughout people’s lives.”
Ken describes contacting people he had not spoken to in 30 or 35 years and asking if they wanted to row Head of the Charles.
The answer was immediate:
“Yeah, hell yeah.”
That is what strong rowing cultures can preserve.
People may leave the sport for years. They may move cities, have families, change careers, lose fitness, and then return. But the bond from shared training and racing can remain.
A successful club understands this. It does not only serve today’s outing. It creates memories and relationships that may last for decades.
Infrastructure Comes First
Arthur makes a practical distinction between two kinds of work:
infrastructure
administration
To create the Olden Bears, the group needed to register the club, deal with US Rowing, buy regatta passes and create the basic structure that allowed people to participate.
Arthur says:
“Once you have this infrastructure in place, you can fill that with more and more people.”
That is true for physical clubs too.
A club cannot thrive if every season starts from chaos.
Good clubs build systems for:
membership
safety
boat allocation
coaching
race entries
communication
maintenance
fundraising
volunteer roles
People want to row. They do not always want to understand the machinery behind the rowing. The club’s job is to make participation possible.
Arthur describes many members as people who want:
“Tell me where to be and what to do and I will pull in an oar for you.”
That is not laziness. It is reality.
A successful club needs leaders who create the conditions for others to show up and contribute.
Then You Must Herd the Cats
Once the infrastructure exists, the next job is administration.
Arthur puts it perfectly:
“You also need to kind of herd all the cats.”
Every rowing captain, coach and club organiser understands this sentence.
People forget to mark availability. They arrive late. They change plans. They want to race but have not entered. They assume someone else has arranged the boat. They want to be selected but have not trained. They want flexibility but also certainty.
Arthur says you need a core group of people who are good at organising:
“Following up with people, making sure that they’re getting all this stuff done and trying to figure out where to put them in boats.”
This is not glamorous work, but it is the work that makes rowing happen.
Ken’s line is even more blunt:
“Masters rowing, I think, is 99% admin. Getting to the line.”
That may be an exaggeration, but not by much.
A successful club respects administration. It does not treat it as invisible labour.
Volunteers Are Not Optional
Jim Harlow’s episode, Rowing Runs on Volunteers, makes the point directly.
Jim has been involved in club leadership, Vesta events, Scullers Head, Masters Head, British Rowing work, the Boat Race and Henley Royal Regatta.
His reason is simple:
“I love the sport.”
Then he asks:
“Why wouldn’t you?”
That is the spirit that keeps rowing alive.
Most clubs cannot function if members only consume. Someone has to organise, coach, umpire, launch, marshal, fix, plan, communicate, raise money and clean up afterwards.
The problem is that volunteer work can become concentrated in a small number of people. Those people eventually burn out or become resentful.
A successful club therefore needs to make volunteering:
visible
valued
manageable
distributed
purposeful
The best clubs do not only ask, “Who can help?”
They explain why the work matters and make it easier for people to step in.
Align Expectations
One of Arthur’s most useful leadership points concerns selection and expectations.
In the Olden Bears, people arrive with different fitness, ambition and availability. Some want to race hard. Some want the experience. Some may be overweight or out of training but still deeply connected to the group.
Arthur says:
“We try to make sure that they are aligning their expectations with ours.”
That line applies to every rowing club.
Many club problems are really expectation problems.
One person thinks the crew is training to win. Another thinks it is social. One person thinks attendance is optional. Another has reorganised life around the outing. One person wants selection to be purely performance-based. Another assumes loyalty or seniority matters.
A strong club is honest about purpose.
It is fine to have recreational rowing. It is fine to have racing crews. It is fine to have development squads. It is fine to have social rows. The trouble starts when no one says which is which.
Arthur captures the balance well:
“It’s not that we’re trying to find slow boats and fast boats.”
The better goal is to create appropriate experiences.
That may mean fast crews, development crews, alumni crews, recreational sessions and inclusive events — each with clear expectations.
Culture Is Behaviour, Not Slogans
Fiona Betts and Paul Debois discuss club culture explicitly in Episode 59.
The temptation is to think culture is a statement on the website.
It is not.
Culture is what people actually do.
It is how new members are greeted. How selection is explained. How conflict is handled. Whether volunteers are thanked. Whether women and men get equal attention. Whether masters rowers are treated seriously. Whether juniors feel safe. Whether recreational rowers are valued. Whether coaches speak respectfully. Whether people feel able to ask basic questions.
A club’s real culture is revealed in ordinary moments.
Who gets the good boat?
Who is listened to?
Who is ignored?
Who is expected to volunteer?
Who is allowed to fail?
Who feels they belong?
The best clubs pay attention to these everyday signals.
Fundraising Begins With Mission
Janice Holzman brings a different but essential perspective from Row New York and the Passaic River Rowing Association.
Row New York is a major access programme, offering rowing to young people from local communities, along with academic and support services.
Janice explains that Row New York is:
“really focused on whole child development.”
She says the organisation is:
“in the business of like, what does it mean for a young person to thrive?”
That is not just fundraising language. It is a mission.
And mission matters because people rarely give money only because a club wants money.
They give because they understand the purpose.
Janice describes Row New York’s work as providing access for people who would traditionally not be involved in rowing:
“We’re really committed to kind of giving people access who wouldn’t have access otherwise.”
That is compelling.
A club raising money for a boat, pontoon, boathouse repair or scholarship fund should not only describe the object. It should describe the human outcome.
Not: we need £20,000 for equipment.
But: this boat will allow 30 beginners to learn safely, juniors to race, adaptive athletes to participate, or masters crews to train properly.
Money follows meaning.
Clubs Need More Than One Pathway
William Darlington’s episode on supporting performance and recreational rowing raises one of the hardest club problems: how to serve people with different goals.
Newer rowers benefit hugely from rowing with experienced people. But experienced athletes do not always benefit from constantly rowing with beginners.
Ken describes the problem:
“People who are newer to the sport benefit hugely by rowing with people who are very experienced and people who are very experienced don’t necessarily benefit from rowing with people who are not as experienced.”
That is the tension inside many clubs.
A successful club cannot solve it by pretending everyone wants the same thing.
It needs pathways.
For example:
Learn to Row
development squad
recreational rowing
competitive racing group
masters performance squad
junior programme
volunteer coaching pathway
social rowing
The best clubs connect these pathways without confusing them.
The Club Must Survive Hard Moments
Katy Cooper’s Brentford Boat Club story shows what a club looks like under pressure.
Brentford had to deal with loss of site, water access challenges, the need for land training space, and the problem of keeping juniors, parents and coaches together through disruption.
Ken describes it as:
“a real story of coming together, hard work, incredible support from local rowing clubs, the local rowing community.”
That is what club strength looks like.
A club is not tested only when the river is flat and the boats are shiny.
It is tested when the landlord changes, the pontoon fails, a coach leaves, the trailer breaks, the river floods, or the club loses access.
If the culture is strong, people rally.
If the culture is weak, people disappear.
The Best Clubs Make People Want to Give Back
A recurring theme across these episodes is gratitude.
Arthur wanted to reconnect alumni.
Jim wanted to stay involved because he loves the sport.
Janice builds programmes that open rowing to people who otherwise would not have access.
Katy became a rowing leader despite having no rowing background because the sport mattered to her child and the community.
That is how good clubs reproduce themselves.
They give people enough meaning that those people eventually give back.
A successful club is not one where a committee does everything.
It is one where many people eventually ask:
How can I help?
Practical Principles for Club Leaders
1. Define the purpose
What is this club trying to be?
2. Build infrastructure
Membership, safety, communication and boat use need systems.
3. Respect administration
Admin is not beneath rowing. It makes rowing possible.
4. Value volunteers visibly
Thank them. Support them. Do not overload the same people forever.
5. Align expectations
Make clear which sessions are recreational, developmental or performance-focused.
6. Build pathways
Do not expect one structure to serve everyone.
7. Tell the human story
Fundraising works best when people understand the mission.
8. Protect the culture
Culture is created in everyday behaviour.
9. Prepare for hard moments
Strong clubs survive disruption because people care enough to stay.
Key Takeaways
Rowing clubs succeed through people, not just equipment.
Strong clubs create connection that can last decades.
Infrastructure and administration make participation possible.
“Herding the cats” is real club leadership work.
Volunteers are the foundation of rowing.
Clubs must align expectations between recreational, development and performance groups.
Culture is revealed through behaviour, not slogans.
Fundraising should be tied to mission and human outcomes.
Good clubs create members who eventually want to give back.
Related Complete Rowing Podcast Episodes
This article draws on:
Episode 1: Running a Virtual Alumni Rowing Club — Arthur Ware
Episode 5: Fundraising for Rowing — Janice Holzman
Episode 59: Club Culture — Fiona Betts and Paul Debois
Episode 86: Brentford Boat Club — Katy Cooper
Episode 87: Rowing Runs on Volunteers — Jim Harlow
Related listening:
Episode 29: Supporting Performance and Recreational Rowing — William Darlington
Episode 48: Delivering the Benefits of Rowing — Cathy Rooney, Infinity Boat Club
Episode 75: Growing Rowing Beyond its Traditional Cities — Kees Koopman
Episode 19: FitClub — Athene McGregor-Macdonald
Listen to the full conversations at CompleteRowing.com.
