Student - October 14, 2009

Fewer new rowers at Argo

The Wageningen rowing association Argo has fewer rowers this year compared to last year. This makes it possible to raise the quality of the coaching, contended its board members.

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After the rowing selections, held between the introduction days and 13 October, Argo has enlisted 85 new members from the almost a hundred students who had signed up during the introduction. So there weren't that many 'drop-outs'. The situation was different last year:  while 190 had signed up during the introduction, only 120 new memberships were given. The rowing club now has 325 members altogether.
Connect
'Currently, our main aim is to get people to remain committed. 190 aspiring members were way too many.  Therefore, we couldn't give them as good a coaching as we had wanted to', says chairperson Marieke Lampert.  'The association now wants to develop better connections with the people. Hopefully, they will continue to be members after their first year.'
Of note are the large number of women who make up seventy percent of the new members. Last year too, more women than men signed up. Lampert says this is because more women in Wageningen have turned to studying.