Programs vs Membership

The most organized membership-based adaptive program I’ve seen so far in my trip was at Y Quad City in Moline IL. Their rowing program is connected with the local YMCA, so all participants have to be members of the YMCA. Then they pay an additional yearly fee for the rowing program. This gives them access to the facility and to the gym at any time it is open. Because it’s a Y program, they have a staff person at the boathouse at all times. The staff are trained in the adaptive equipment, so they can assist athletes if/when needed. They also have two rowing machines permanently set up with a fixed seat. The team and athletes fundraises so that each athlete has their own fixed seat and oars – so that it can be set to their specifications. They limit involvement/participation of new members depending on the year in order to make sure they are offering proper development to the athletes involved.  As far as setting up practices, the athletes are responsible for setting up volunteers to go out with them. It seems that one athlete gets chosen each year to be in charge of this duty. The team trains together at least three times a week – more than most adaptive programs. They are now looking at how to offer more options to athletes who are interested. It’s a very well organized program with five incredibly dedicated athletes. As far as support, this program has a coach (Jess Ricke), a rigger (the engineer mind - Paul Harrington) and an OT aka champion (Tanya Braet) working WITH the athletes to make things happen (all volunteers) – and boy is it a great team! Watch these guys, I think they are going to be some serious movers and shakers on and off the race-course for Para-Rowing  in the US.

Picture of Y Quad City Team below.

Seeing this really got me thinking about how clubs structure teams. Clubs tend to offer two options for people who want to get involved: Programs or Memberships. Most club teams fall under memberships.

Programs tend to be short term, and it’s more of a provided service. Learn to row! Sweep or Sculling camp! Indoor training program! Private lessons! 6-week sports league! When someone gets involved with a program there are a couple of things that effect how they approach their participation.

·      They know it’s for a set period of time.

·      They might ask if there is a “deal” for the program to get a discount (and many times there is through Groupon or something).

·      They also expect everything to be ready for them. The coaches/staff should have everything in order for practice, it should be fairly organized, and the folks who show up expect that they get to do the practice as scheduled.

·      If there is bad weather, most times program practices are not rescheduled or made up – it just sucks and people gripe about it.

Membership on the other hand requires involvement from the athletes. A membership means that you are a member of this community. You get something out of it, but you also get to give back. The reward you take away partially relies on your contribution of time, money, effort, skill…etc.

From traveling around the country seeing different clubs, it s pretty rare to find clubs that actually have full-time staff – even a paid Executive Director isn’t the norm. Most clubs rely on member contributions to have programs, file taxes, keep their boathouse in existence, stay on track with their strategic plan. The main benefit for coaches tends to be free membership and boat storage – sometimes they get paid.

This is both awesome and terrible. It is great that so many people love rowing so much that they contribute their time and money to ensure clubs exist. It would be great if clubs paid staff a realistic/live-able salary and/or had staff to help with some of the day-to-day stuff and manage programs. But whatever happens in the future, things are working all over, people are stepping up and they enjoy doing it!  The point is that members contribute – in different degrees based on their location/club design.

Who are members? Mostly adults since youth tend to be involved in the juniors program – since they aren’t over 18 most can’t reap any kind of benefit to having a full on membership. The club members might have boats stored at the club, come down to row with teams and friends or alone. They are members because of the freedom being a member gives them. They contribute by doing the gardening, taking care of the facility, going to meetings, and maybe being on the board because that’s what helps it exist for them to hang out with their friends, row, stay fit and enjoy life in their city.

So what are adaptive teams? Are they program? Are they memberships? Let’s look at some key differences:

1. Is it a team where athletes expect everything to be ready for them on the dock (program), or do athletes help get things ready (member)? This can be a slippery slope. It may be easier to do everything for your athletes, but if you do that you are setting up an expectation that it will always be the case. They may need some help with equipment, but what about carrying oars, or an oar, or a pontoon, or putting the oars in and closing the oarlock, what about adjusting their foot stretcher or putting in their seat? Surely athletes can do something to contribute to their experience. This helps foster a community, and gives them more independence and helps them understand how practices are supposed to work.
2. Do athletes have the freedom to enjoy any actual membership benefits if they become members? Is it worth them joining as members? What are the membership benefits to AB athletes? Are these benefits accessible? Can an adaptive athlete come down and use an erg on an off day? Is there one with a fixed seat? Are there any accessible weights in your weight room? Can they come down an row with a friend or by themselves when they want to? Are there volunteer and leadership roles they can get involved in? These are things to consider to make sure that membership is truly possible for everyone at the club.
3. Are the athletes involved in making sure the team is successful and sustainable? If I show up for a movie, I pay and then sit to watch. I don’t have to do anything like set up the film projector, clean the floors, or turn off the lights when I leave. Is this how practices work? There’s no buy-in if that is how it works with everything done for me – I’m just benefiting from a service I paid for. With adaptive rowing there are a lot of logistics in terms of equipment and volunteers that happens. Do the member volunteers or staff running your program do all of this for the team? I know I did at Three Rivers Rowing Association, and it can be a lot depending on the number of athletes in a program. However, does that foster a feeling of membership amongst the athletes? What if the athletes set up their own volunteers, or help fund-raise for their own equipment? How would this change the team dynamic? Would this make offering people with disabilities a place to row a little more possible for your club?
4. Does your adaptive team have an advisory committee or board working directly to keep it on track ? One thing that happens with so many adaptive programs is that there tends to be one person, one champion, making it happen and advocating for it. That is hard and can be a hard battle to fight alone sometimes. Getting athletes, volunteers, family members…etc involved in some level can only help. More perspective, more ideas, more people to do some of the leg-work and paperwork. I know I don’t know everything – if I could pick a perfect advisory committee for a growing/large adaptive team I would try to get an Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist or Doctor (medical classifier if possible), Technical Classifier, Someone with an engineer’s mind for equipment, someone with grant writing experience, someone on the club’s Board, an athlete or two, and a family member or two. Get all the perspective to help run the program! This way everyone knows what’s going on and can work to support the team and progress it in a strategic way.
5. Do you ask your adaptive athletes to volunteer, or might you assume they wouldn't want to, wouldn't be able to, or wouldn't enjoy it? If you ask them, they'll either say yes or no - those are the options. Not just ABs can volunteer and contribute. 
6. Program implies having a set number or a goal number of participants. How many do you think of for a program attendance? 5? 10? 20? 40? What about membership? What number does that bring to mind? For me, it brings to mind a collective whole– the breakdown by team doesn’t necessarily matter. For example, I couldn’t tell you how many participants were in all the teams at TRRA, I just know that the club has over 500 members and that about 2000 people walk in/out the doors each year. 1500 program participants, and 500 members of various involvements. When you start talking membership instead of program you could start thinking about having 1 adaptive athlete involved. 

So much of the “risk” or “trouble” with starting an adaptive program is that the amount of work seems daunting to the folks in charge. “I don’t want to overwhelm our membership,” “Our volunteers are already spread so thin,” “We just don’t have any time in the evenings to run another program.” However, if you get the athlete involved with the process instead of just trying to serve them a cookie cutter program, then this helps eliminate some of these concerns. Surely there would be one member interested in helping someone try rowing. That’s all it takes to start something – one person, one athlete, one boat for one hour – VOILA! Maybe the interested adaptive athlete has a friend  or family member who could learn to row and then they would love to go out together! Who knows what the possibilities could be in thinking this way. Success isn’t about resources – it’s about resourcefulness. And if you know people with disabilities, you know they are incredibly resourceful and creative because let's face it - society requires them to be. Use that to their and your advantage!

Every club is different. There is no “right” or “wrong” way of doing things when it comes to running rowing organizations. There is also no perfect way to approach starting an adaptive program – because there are too many variables in every location. The key thing is to look at all the angles and figure out how to get people not just rowing, but involved. Membership is more sustainable than programs. Not all athletes will want memberships, but it might be something to think about for the dedicated athletes, for a way to help further develop athletes beyond a once a week program, or as a way to open the doors for the first time to people with disabilities who are seeking out rowing – something that is happening more and more every year. Clubs recruit, but athletes are coming knocking too! Is your club ready?

*NOTE: If you want to talk about opening your club’s door for adaptive in some way or ideas about developing your current program, make sure to get in touch with Deb Arenberg  Adaptive Programs Development Specialist at USRowing at deb@usrowing.org