The following email was sent on April 19th 2019
April 2019 Power Stroke
Welcome to our new staff members
This year SCC has hired two people for the summer season. Shay will be our Full-time Boat House Supervisor and Bryan will be Part-time Boat House Supervisor. They will take care of damaged equipment, help with choosing and carrying boats, answering basic questions and running tours.
Membership and registration
As in previous years the membership registration is in online:
https://www.saskatooncanoeclub.org/panopoly/registration/registration-overview
Vacant position: Membership Director
The membership director oversees the operation of the online registration and orientation system; works with the executive, club volunteers, and employees to develop and operate the boathouse tour program; and responds to membership-related requests for information.
Contact president@saskatooncanoeclub.org or membership@saskatooncanoeclub.org for more information.
Boathouse Cleanup Sat. May 4th 9:00 a.m.
Volunteers required: help us get the boathouse clean, tidy, and ready for the season. Bring work gloves and a broom if you have one handy.
River Safety Day Sat. May 4th 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
We are seeking volunteer paddlers comfortable with doing canoe T-rescues, various kayak rescues, and/or throw bag rescues in moving water to demonstrate these things to the public for River Safety Day at River Landing. Email canoe@saskatooncanoeclub.org with the skills you would like to help demonstrate and any restrictions on your availability for that day. You don’t have to be there for the entire event, just the times we are doing our demonstrations.
For those not involved with the demonstrations, stop by River Landing to watch or check out Saskatoon River Safety at https://www.facebook.com/yxeriversafety/
SCC Open House Sunday May 5th 12:00-4:00
Join us at the boathouse from noon to 4 p.m. May 5th as we kick off the SCC’s 46th season. Buy a membership online beforehand, then stop by to receive your boathouse tour or as returning member just pick up your membership card, enjoy some food at our free BBQ, and check out what our club supporters have to offer.
https://www.saskatooncanoeclub.org/panopoly/registration/registration-overview
We do require some assistance with cooking and serving the burgers. We need roughly three people at the grill at the time. If you have BBQ tools, bring them along.
Shifts will be 1.5 hours: 11:30 to 13:00, 13:00 to 14:30, 14:30 to 16:15 (for cleaning up)
We also require some assistance with running the tours for new members and member card pickup.
Please sign up at https://volunteersignup.org/HFPAW
Learn to paddle courses
In 2019, Saskatoon Canoe Club is offering a series of mini training courses free of cost for members who would like to improve their paddling confidence and technique.
The mini courses will be operated by Outdoor Experience and will include 2 separate 3 hour lessons with certified instructors in a still water environment. These will be offered in a first come first served order based on capacity and availability of the instructors.
Club Trips
You can host and organize paddling trips this summer. This is a great opportunity to meet other club members. Leader earns a coupon that can be redeemed the following year for a free Recreation membership. Trips have priority choice of equipment. There is no boat and trailer rental fee from this year on.
Some additional information about trip planning can be found at our website: https://www.saskatooncanoeclub.org/panopoly/trips
Blind Adventure Training Wed. June 12th 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
This year the SCC has partnered with the Blind Adventurer Foundation to help make paddling more accessible to people with vision impairments. The plan is for a group of six vision-impaired paddlers and six sighted paddlers acting as their adaptive guides to canoe from Outlook to Saskatoon this summer. To familiarize the vision-impaired paddlers with basic paddle strokes and rescue procedures in a controlled environment, we will be holding a pool training session at Harry Bailey on Wed. June 12th from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
We are looking for sighted volunteers to help with the pool session. If you are interested, email secretary@saskatooncanoeclub.org
Canoe Kayak Saskatchewan Updates
Thank-you to the SCC members who attended or submitted a proxy voting form for the Canoe Kayak Saskatchewan (CKS) annual general meeting. We were successful in changing the CKS board structure to provide representation from each paddling discipline. Unfortunately we were a handful of votes short of being able to block a proposed increase in CKS recreation membership fees, but were at least able to defer that increase until Jan. 1, 2020.
The new CKS board seems to be taking more interest in looking for ways to support our club than has been the case in recent years. One of the areas they are working on is improved communication with all CKS members -- you may have received one of their newsletters recently.