Anne Boucher for President

I have been rowing since 1973 starting at Middletown High School, captaining the Yale Women’s Crew and participating on 6 National Teams competing at the World Championships and 2 Olympic Training Teams from 1977 – 1984. I joined NHRC in 1979 so this is my 29th year of membership. For 21 of those years I have served on the Board of directors in every position, including Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President and as President from 1995 – 1997. NHRC is part of my life, part of my blood and it means a lot to me. In addition to serving on the board, I have served on numerous committees and actively served the
club:

I was on the first safety committee that created the rules that we
currently use to protect our members and the club from hazards.

I ran registration for both Derby Sweeps and Sculls and the Head of
the Housatonic from their inceptions (1989 and 1995 respectively)
until I left for Germany in 2001.

I ran the first tag sale fund raiser the club had raising over
$1,000, I hosted countless TGIF celebrations, most notably the annual Henley
on the Housie night.

I have worked the Yale races as a representative of the NHRC since we
started running their regattas.

During the building of our boathouse I was pregnant and unable to do
the physical labor, so I donated my time spending hours each week
calling members to make sure there would be a sizeable work force for
that weekend and then made numerous lunches for those work crews.
I organized and orchestrated both the original Boathouse dedication
dinner in June 1994 as well as the 10th anniversary celebration in
2004.

I created, organized and ran the Last Day of the Docks Regatta as an
end-of-season intra-squad race from its inception back in the ‘80’s
when we still rowed out of Yale until I left for Germany in 2001.
I have organized women’s participation in many races over all the
years, including the spring racing season, Master’s National
Championships and all of the fall Head events bringing home countless
medals for the club.

It has been my pleasure to have rowed and/or raced with almost every member of this rowing club over all these years.

When I think of where the club has been over these last 30 years, I have witnessed a growth that mirrored the growth of rowing around the country. It was exciting to be a part of that. When you told others in the rowing community you were from NHRC, people recognized it. We had a strong master’s program, as well as a strong younger program of rowers from 20-30. However, this is no longer the case. NHRC has lost its reputation as a vibrant club that people want to join.

My vision is to bring the NHRC back to the prominence it once had as a rowing institution. NHRC should be recognized both on and off the water as the place to be if you want to row. We should be a role model for a successful club. When other clubs are facing issues, I would like them to want to call us to see how we successfully addressed a problem. In order to get to that point, we need to have a well thought out vision for the club and then a strategy for getting there.

We are in the fortunate position right now of being financially very sound after several years of surplus dollars from the budget. This allows us the time right now to put together a group to work on that vision and strategy plan. It will not take very long to accomplish this and I would target implementing short term pieces of the strategy by mid-year, medium term pieces of the strategy by year’s end, and long term parts of the strategy over the following year. The energy that will be created by a shared NHRC vision and then successful implementation of the pieces of the strategy to get to that vision will bring back that vibrancy that is missing from our club today.

There are many hot topics that are being discussed right now such as the debate over junior rowing, specifically the Hopkins proposal, the proposed renovations to the downstream property, the difficulty of finding qualified coaching, the lack of organized rowing programs, the lack of guidance in training programs. These topics are symptomatic of a deficit of vision and leadership.

I have always considered it an honor and a privilege to serve on the Board of Directors. I feel that the board needs strong leadership, and a multitude of ideas and approaches so that we can have vigorous and open dialogue and debate about both our vision of the future, as well as operational plans to get to that future. It is not about what’s best for an individual, it’s about what’s best for the club and its future. When I was President from 1995-1997 NHRC was on the rise. We had just succeeded in building a beautiful boathouse, we were building up rowing programs, we competed actively and successfully in major regattas, we had active participation on all rowing levels, and many well attended social events. As president, I want to put programs in place that will return us to that atmosphere of excitement and growth. It is only from that point that we can successfully grow to the next level.

The decision to run for President was a difficult one. When I compare the direction our club was moving in 10 years ago to the direction we are moving now, I feel strongly that we are in need of a major change. I have the experience, history and motivation to make that change happen in a positive way. I would like to use my term as President to unify our different groups and unify our energies to position us for a positive and successful future.