Upcoming dates
- October 20-21: HOCR & Social
- October 27: Head of the Fish Alumni Row
- Early 2019: RCAA board elections
In this newsletter
- Team’s Fall 2018 Schedule
- Head of the Charles Regatta 2018
- Head of the Charles Social
- New Team Coach – Scott Meade ’92
- Team Looking to Hire Two Additional Coaches
- Viking Rigger Crowdfunding
- Head of the Fish Alumni Boat
- Social Media
- Looking to become a 501(c)(3)
Dear Alumni,
We (both RCAA and the team) are in the midst of our busiest season! Read below for some updates and for the sign up link for Head of the Fish!
Thanks,
— RCAA Board of Directors
Team’s Fall 2018 Schedule
The following is the team’s race schedule for the fall.
September 22: Head of the Hudson in Albany, NY (race website, Regatta Central)
September 30: Textile River Regatta in Lowell, MA (race website, Regatta Central)
October 6: Head of the Genesee in Rochester, NY (race website, Regatta Central)
October 20: Head of the Charles in Cambridge, MA (race website, Regatta Central)
October 27: Head of the Fish in Saratoga Springs, NY (race website, StreamlineRowing) – there will also be an alumni boat, keep scrolling for the sign up link!
Head of the Charles Regatta 2018
RCAA will be racing in the Men’s Master 4+ (40+) race (event #24) at the 2018 Head of the Charles Regatta!. The race is currently scheduled to start shortly before 3 pm on Saturday, October 20th. We will share athlete profiles as the date gets closer, so stay tuned!
There will be at least 6 boats with RPI students and alumni in them, all on Saturday, all fun races to watch:
Sat 1:55PM – Rensselaer Crew Women’s 4+ (5 current students)
Sat 1:55PM – Omaha Rowing Association Women’s 4+ (1 alumna)
Sat 2:21PM – Rensselaer Crew Men’s 8+ (9 current students)
Sat 2:35PM – Rensselaer Crew Women’s 8+ (9 current students)
Sat 2:50PM – Rensselaer Crew Alumni Men’s Master 4+ (5 alumni)
Sat 4:02PM – Men’s Lightweight Singles 1x (1 current student)
If you are in Boston for the Charles, be sure to cheer them on!
Head of the Charles Social
After the race, please join us for our third annual Head of the Charles Happy Hour and dinner! The past two years this event has been held at The Asgard Irish Pub in Cambridge (a ten minute walk from the starting line of the race, and a five minute walk from Central on the Red Line!). We’ve had a ton of fun, and have decided to make a tradition out of it! We will once again be having our mixer at The Asgard at 7:30 pm. This is a family friendly event, and all are welcome, RPI alumni or not! This is a great opportunity to meet the RCAA rowers and support them after all their hard work. It is also a great chance to meet and talk to some of the current RPI Crew Team members and talk with them about the team, RPI, and share stories of your time there. There is no attendance fee, but everyone will be responsible for their own checks. We hope to see you all there!
If you have any questions, please contact Matt at vp@rpicrewalumni.org or reply to this email.
New Team Coach – Scott Meade ’92
The team has recently hired a couple of new coaches, so we’d like to introduce you to them, starting with Scott!
Scott Meade ‘92 has his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional and Certified Information Systems Auditor certifications, as well as a USRowing Level II Coaching Certification. Scott began his rowing career at Albany Rowing Center in 1991 while taking summer classes at RPI. He went on to row for RPI for three years, and coach there for one year. Scott returned to Albany Rowing Center as a rower in the spring of 1995, where he met his wife Kate. While at ARC, Scott also coached adult learn to row, masters sculling and juniors. Scott rowed at ARC for four years, competing at the American Rowing Championships (now USRowing Club Nationals), Canadian Henley, Independence Day Regatta, Head of the Charles, and many others. While at ARC, he also served on their Board of Directors as Club Treasurer. Scott stepped away from competitive rowing in 1999 to allow his wife to return to rowing after the birth of their first daughter. In 2000, Scott began a 12 year hiatus from coaching, moved to Niskayuna and had several more children. He returned to coaching in 2011 as an assistant coach for the Modified team at Niskayuna, and became the head Modified coach in 2015. In addition to coaching Niskayuna’s Modified rowers in the spring and fall, Scott also coached high school and adult learn to row over the summers, and is also the regatta director for Niskayuna’s indoor regatta, Mohawk Meltdown.
Scott’s wife Kate is a Doctor of Audiology at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady. Kate is also the head Modified rowing coach at Niskayuna, and rows in the summers for Saratoga Rowing Association. Scott and Kate have five children. Their oldest daughter, Mackenzie, is a Junior at Michigan State University and was a six year rower at Niskayuna. Their twin daughters, Hannah and Emily, just graduated from Niskayuna, where they were six year rowers, winning in the Junior 8+ at NY State Championships, Stotesbury Cup Regatta and SRAA Nationals and the Under 23 Lightweight 8+ at the 136th Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. They are now Freshman at Rutgers University, where they row in the BigTen Conference. Their youngest daughter, Jordan, is a Junior at Niskayuna, where she bowed their SRAA National Champion Freshman 4x. Their son, Colin, is a Freshman at Niskayuna, where he plays lacrosse.
Professionally, Scott is a Manager of Information Systems Risk and Assurance at Albany Medical Center.
Team Looking to Hire Two Additional Coaches
The team is looking to hire two more coaches to help out with the team, especially a varsity women’s (morning practices) coach. If you or someone else you know is interested in applying or would like to know more about the positions, please contact the team president Paul Naumann at naumap@rpi.edu or just reply to this email.
Viking Rigger Crowdfunding
Our fundraising efforts to buy the team replacement riggers for the Varsity Women’s 8+ was a huge success! With your help, we were able to reach our $800 fundraising goal. The riggers took a little longer than anticipated to ship from Vespoli, but were delivered to the team yesterday!
Again, thank you all for your generosity!
Head of the Fish Alumni Boat
As usual, we plan on entering an alumni boat at the Head of the Fish Regatta, held on Saturday, October 27th. Please fill out the form on this page to sign up: https://rpicrewalumni.org/head-of-the-fish-signup/. As usual, boating will be first come, first served so don’t wait to sign up if you want to row! We plan on entering the men’s masters 8+ race (open to both men and women, so don’t be shy, ladies!), which will take place around 10 am. The entry fee for the boat is covered by the team, so this event is free for alumni!
Social Media
If you don’t already, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter! We will be using Twitter as our main means of providing day-of updates at various events when we can.
Looking to Become a 501(c)(3)
One of our goals as the RCAA Board of Directors is to establish RCAA as our own independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Doing this will allow us to be in complete control of our financials, provide us with more fundraising opportunities (such as signing up for Amazon Smile), be tax-exempt for any purchases we make, and allow us to provide you with tax-deductible receipts for any contributions you make through us (you can currently receive a tax-deductible receipt on any contributions made through the alumni house website) among other benefits.
However, none of us have experience or are otherwise familiar with the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) organization. Do any of you have experience or expertise on this? Or do you have friends or family that can help us out? If so, please reach out to Alex at president@rpicrewalumni.org or simply reply to this email.