Board Meeting, April 19, 2021, 12pm Eastern

On the Call: Maddie, Liz, Mike, Monica, Lori, Ted, Jane, Jenn, Derek, Kate, Sheila, Paula, Gulliver, Meg, Pat, Jamie

1. LIZ- DEI Update- DEI Updates, including BCRA/Bethel, OH

Liz sent an email to the board about a letter the BCRA sent to the Big Ten, CRCA DEI group wrote a letter of support – reiterating the questions the BCRA had asked. ( attach the letter to minutes).  Members of the DEI group were able to sign it in support. 

Big Ten Office met with BCRA, Big Ten Head Coaches met Friday at the regatta and also are meeting again today. 

~How can we use the venue / county to help benefit instead of just pulling out and not going there at all??? It’s a longer/ larger / deeper discussion- who’s experience are we thinking about when choosing venues?

Paula, Gulliver Updates:

On-going education series (#4) tomorrow – members of the committee are leading sessions and discussions, it’s been a great opportunity to learn from peers and the word is trickling out, there’s a few non-rowing coaches that are attending as well.  ( sessions 5 and 6 in May and June)

Structural changes to DEI Committee-  refining some subcommittees – to help realign with vision and values and narrowing down the areas we want to put main work on focus on

2. Sustainability Committee – Letter of support for UConn (attached)
   1. The Committee rescheduled meetings to Tuesdays currently.  Lori attending every other week…Was a part of the convo about drafting the letter, John and Devin worked hard on the letter. Lori approves of the letter. 
   2. Vote as a board on approving/signing off on the Letter:
      1. Comments: there is a lot of information in it, but it looks like it’s just comparing rowing to football. Did they do any comparison of the athletic department as a whole? ( the information we are putting in the letter needs to contain all the facts- looking at all sports) 
      2. ( change the word  “athlete” to Student-Athlete”)
      3. They had a conference call with the lawyer, and she advised on what she thought was the most powerful wording that we could send. 
         1. The Lawyer also read over the letter 
      4. Does anything need to be updated, now that the Title 9 Lawsuit is officially going forward??? – YES
         1. “Thus, even with a cursory examination, it is clear as stated in the March 4, 2021 letter from the UConn Women’s Rowing Alumni there are grounds to explore legal options within the bounds of Title IX.”
      5. Grammatically- Jamie would make a few changes ( get rid of “and”)
      6. IS anyone opposed to sending the letter? NO. All in support of sending the letter.
      7. EVERYONE is in support.  Lori will attend their meeting tomorrow and provide feedback and let them know 

3. D1 Selection Committee Conversation

Meeting tomorrow with Steve Pritzker and some of the NCAA D1 Committee members. Will likely look like the meeting we had with them, and give the opportunity to let head coaches ask questions, and make sure that the entire membership is on the same page.

Maddie will moderate questions for Steve. We will record it, and email it out to the D1 Head Coaches directly. 

Notes from Our Call with the NCAA Committee – 

4. D3 NCAA Participation updates- pretty sure there is a meeting today, and a decision will be made tomorrow. SA Reps tried to make a good case according to the SWA’s but it’s hard to tell which way it’s leaning. 

5. Strategic Planning Update- Paula and Gulliver met on the 7th- starting to plan for meeting on the 28th. Thinking about potentially asking for time during the annual meeting- when we have everyone present ( using a breakout room)  Board members could serve as room facilitators- want to get people to provide feedback and participate- so that we get more buy-in, and also thinking about moving forward, how do we get people “to the table” and hearing their input on the issues and what we want the CRCA to look like going forward. 

~asking all the board members to think about this- how to structure it, and what to include and report back to Meg before the next meeting.  Gets people that might not want to be a part of the conversation actually involved in talking about it. 

“WHAT IS THIS COMMUNITY / WHAT IS THIS ASSOCIATION

6. Legislation Updates.  including USRowing intern interp

its a NO-GO on the usrowing intern position.  ( NCAA INTERP.) Maddie will let IRCA and USRowing know, and see what our plans /convos are moving forward and for future years.

Jenn- going back and forth with Julie- trying to get a call set up. Doesn’t feel like we’ll be able to get bylaw 17 to go through – She is going on maternity leave in a week, so we will have another person fill in her role.  No Update to where we are with the erg lending legislation- in a holding pattern. 

If legislation is not in place and we want to get erg lending approved for THIS  summer- we need an INSTITUTION to put forth a waiver.  Jane ( Washington State) will ask her compliance department if they will support a waiver and then go from there.

Meeting Adjourned.