Upcoming dates
- July 20 (or earlier): Viking rigger crowdfunding end
- August 25: HOCR deposits due
- September 1: HOCR lottery results
- October 20-21: HOCR & social
In this newsletter
- First Call to Race at Head of the Charles Regatta!
- Head of the Charles Social
- Looking to Become a 501(c)(3)
- Viking Rigger Crowdfunding
- New Website
Dear Alumni,
We hope you’re all having a wonderful summer so far and staying cool despite the recent heat wave that we’ve been experiencing! There are a few updates that we’d like to share with you all, so please read on.
— RCAA Board of Directors
First Call to Race at Head of the Charles Regatta!
Mark your calendars for this year’s Head of the Charles, because the Rensselaer Crew Alumni Association is entering the lottery to race in this signature regatta! We are looking for men and women interested in representing RCAA on the Charles River for the 54th annual HOCR.
Last year our men’s 4+ (comprised of Bart Cromwell ‘13, Vanessa (Charvet) Ferarri ‘96, Paul Lewandowski ‘89, Wyatt Nordstrom ‘98, and Steve Reilly ‘93) had a blast, and we are looking to continue the fun this year. We will enter the lottery based on the number of interested alumni – put down your deposit to reserve your seat! It will be first come, first served for rowers and coxswains, so act quickly if you want to race. If we’re not lucky enough to get picked in the lottery, you’ll receive a full refund on your deposit.
Register at https://www.rpicrewalumni.org/hocr-deposit!
What: 54th Annual Head of the Charles Regatta
When: Oct. 20-21, 2018
Where: Cambridge, MA
Total Cost: $200 per seat (covers equipment, equipment transport, fees, and a T-shirt)
Deposit: $50 due by Aug. 25, 2018 (first come, first served)
Lottery Decision: First week of September
Final Payment: Balance due by Sep. 15, 2018
If you have any questions, please contact Alli at alumnirelations@rpicrewalumni.org or reply to this email.
Head of the Charles Social
After the race, don’t forget to 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 some great turn out over the past two years! Though the current location is TBD, it will be held walking distance from the race. 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 how it was when you were there! We hope to see you all there!
If you have any questions, please contact Matt at vp@rpicrewalumni.org or reply to this email.
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.
Viking Rigger Crowdfunding
Our fundraising efforts to buy the team replacement riggers for the Varsity Women’s 8+ is underway! We’re currently just under 50% funded with contributions from 15 of you. If you’ve already chipped in, thank you! If you haven’t yet, please consider throwing in a few bucks to help out the team! You can do so here: https://www.rpicrewalumni.org/viking.
As mentioned previously, we are aiming to place the order with Vespoli in mid-July to ensure that the team receives them before their first race this fall. Therefore, the crowdfunding campaign will run through July 20th or until full funding, whichever comes first.
We (RCAA) will be purchasing these riggers for the team directly, so none of the funds will be passing through RPI. While this means that your donations will not be tax deductible, it allows for a quicker turnaround time between funding and then items being delivered to the team!
Thank you for your help!
New Website
If you’ve taken a look at our Viking crowdfunding page already, you probably noticed that we now have our own website! Our new home on the internet is rpicrewalumni.org! We plan to add more features to it on an on-going basis, so come visit the website occasionally!
We will still use Facebook as a way to communicate with you all, but the website will now be our primary place for all things RCAA. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, too! You can find us at @rpicrewalumni.