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06 Jul 2006 - Xtra West attempts to keep up with the Vancouver Rowing Club Great Eight
30 May 2006 - Outgames to offer regatta-only registration fee
03 Sep 2005 - A Rowing Rendezvous in Montreal’s Gay Village
06 Aug 2005 - GLRF in spotlight at Royal Canadian Henley Regatta
28 May 2005 - 1st World Outgames announces Regatta Committee
31 Jul 2004 - GLRF hosts City Launch at Rowing Canada Cup
31 May 2004 - Montreal announces official sanction from FISA
18 Nov 2003 - Montreal 2006 Rowing Update
18 Nov 2003 - The Montreal/FGG Dispute, A Look Back: What happened?
05 Nov 2003 - Rendezvous Montreal Launches “Club Montreal 2006”
30 Oct 2003 - A Look at the Olympic Basin - The Facility
29 Oct 2003 - Club D’Aviron Odawagan Hosts End of Year Banquet
01 May 2003 - Montreal launches the newest gay/lesbian rowing club!
News Digest:
2006 Montreal 1st World Outgames to offer sport-only fee
30 May 2006 - Montreal; The Organizing Committee of the 1st World Outgames has announced a sports-only registration fee option for all sports. Participants may elect to register for any sport for CA$75. The registration fee entitles an athlete the ability to participate and compete in one sport, receive a participation medal, and a souvenir bag. The transportation pass, and tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies are excluded. Look at the flyer.
The news is a boon to rowers, many of whom felt the registration fee made the regatta too expensive. The Regatta Organizing Committee expects a surge in last minute registrations as crew members will be able to entice other club rowers to compete in their boats, and rowers will find flying in for a long weekend affordable. Rowers who select the sport-only registration will still be able to enter an unlimited number of events. To accommodate the last minute registration option, the cut off for regatta entries has been extended to 16 June 2006 at 24:00h.
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Club d’Aviron Odawagan hosts booth at Montreal Rendezvous dans le Village
03 Sep 2005 - Montreal; The sun shone brilliantly as 45,000 visitors descended on Montreal’s Gay Village for a celebration of sport. Labeled Rendezvous dans Le Village, the sports festival offered a preview of the 1st World Outgames with animated demonstration sports from Equipe Montreal (Team Montreal) and several sports teams. The first booth to greet visitors in the pedestrian-only St. Catharines street was Club d’Aviron Odawagan, Montreal’s gay and lesbian rowing club.
Visitors oggled over the new club logo (tres chic and tres cool). Rower wanna be’s had the chance to win a free learn to row session, valued at CA$150 in a raffle contest. Best of all is that rowers in Montreal can practice on the course right up to the 1st World Outgames! You guys are so lucky!
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GLRF becomes focus of front page sports section article on rowing at Royal Canadian Henley
06 Aug 2005 - St. Catharines; An offhand comment by one rowing official at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta about the GLRF presence turned into a feature article in the sports section of the St. Catharines Standard. The article quoted the official as saying that he didn’t think the GLRF presence was a welcome addition to the regatta and that he felt it did not set a good example for the clean-cut athletes rowing at the event. GLRF was subsequently interviewed to explain its mission and goals in hosting a booth at the week-long event. The reaction from the local populace and rowers at the regatta was swift and almost entirely supportive. Many came by to say they felt the remarks were out of order and unrepresentative of Canadians and added that they were glad GLRF was at the event. Kevin Swayze, son of the late Canadian rowing legend Craig Swayze, made a point of coming by the GLRF booth to express his personal support and to buy a GLRF rOwer t-shirt! Several letters to the editor have also been extremely supportive of the GLRF presence. See the full article here.
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1st World Outgames announces Regatta Committee
28 May 2005 - Montreal; The 1st World Outgames organising committee has announced the appointments for the 1st World Outgames Regatta Committee. Ms. Guylaine Bernier of Rowing Canada will assume the role of president of the Regatta Committee. She will have the support of a solid team to assist her: Mr. Richard Cabana from the Lachine Rowing Club and the Association Québécoise d’Aviron (Québec Rowing Association), Mr. Karol Sauvé, Rowing Canada national coach and Olympic Basin Events Coordinator, as well as Mr. Gregory Dalmasso and Mr. Philippe Colas from Club d’Aviron Odawagan. Additionally, Ms. Micheline Landry, Mr. Marco Veilleux and Mr. Michel Germain, will serve on the committee. They have all been actively involved in numerous rowing events. The regatta committee is looking forward to welcoming rowers and crews from around the world, and is hard at work to ensure top-quality, unforgettable competitions at the Olympic Basin, site of rowing competitions during the 1976 Olympic Games in Montréal. back to news summary
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GLRF hosts City Launch at Rowing Canada Cup
31 Jul 2004 - Montreal; With the backdrop of the Rowing Canada Cup, GLRF made its official debut in Canada by hosting a City Launch event at the Montreal Rowing Basin. With a booth at the regatta and brochures at the ready, regatta participants were able to learn first hand about the new organization. See the Montreal City Launch page.
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Montreal announces FISA sanction
31 May 2004 - Montreal; The Comite Organisateur of the 1st World Outgames, Rendezvous Montreal 2006, announced that for the first time in the history of gay and lesbian sport, the Montreal 2006 rowing regatta will be sanctioned and officially listed in the international rowing organization’s (FISA) official calendar.
In addition, the national governing body for rowing in Canada, Rowing Canada, pledged their support for the 2006 event. See the full press release here.
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Rowing In Montreal - The Latest Update - Rowing is IN!!!!!
18 Nov 2003 - Montreal; After a desperate final attempt to resolve the license agreement impasse between Montreal 2006 and the Federation of Gay Games, the two parties were unable to resolve their differences and Montreal declared its intention to host an independent sporting event, Rendezvous Montreal 2006. The following day, 12 Nov, Montreal 2006 announced that rowing would be included as one of the official sports of the rowing event. See the related Montreal Rowing press release.
Then, on 13 Nov, the Board of Directors of Rendezvous Montreal 2006 approved the required budget line items for a rowing regatta, thereby clinching the deal. See the Regatta Information.
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A look back - What happened?!
18 Nov 2003 - Chicago; First, the quick background on bidding for a Gay Games. Every Gay Games has 22 required sports specified by the Federation of Gay Games (of which rowing is not one), and 8 additional sports that are selected by the Host City. Additional information can also be found on the ALL OARS message board.
Then, it begins. It started with Montreal’s bid to host the 2002 Gay Games. That bid, presented in 1997, was unsuccessful. In October 2001, Montreal tried again and won, over three other bids: Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Montreal would host the Gay Games in 2006. Of the four cities that presented bids in Johannesburg, Montreal was the only city that did not select rowing as one of the additional sports in their bid.
Starting in January 2001, GLRF began to lobby to have rowing featured as one of the official sports at the Montreal Gay Games 2006. As a result, Montreal formally petitioned the Federation of Gay Games at their Annual Meeting in July 2002 to have rowing substituted for racquetball as one of the official sports for 2006. The request was immediately taken to “committee” by the Federation of Gay Games.
In the ensuing year, a battle ensued deep inside the Federation of Gay Games Sports Committee. Representatives from Rowing and Racquetball presented impassioned pleas on behalf of their sports. A recommendation from the Sports Committee was never forthcoming because the shadow of a dispute about the License Agreement began to darken everything. The word was sent out that the whole issue of rowing was not to be addressed until after the license agreement had been signed. Clearly, rowing was a bargaining chip for the Federation of Gay Games.
A week before the start of the Sydney 2002 Gay Games, with the entire event in jeopardy of being canceled due to extreme cash flow problems, Montreal was informed that their original bid of 24,000 participants had to be reduced to 12,000 participants, at least initially. Montreal balked at such a major change in their bid. Thus began the dispute.
On 02 September 2003, with negotiations at a standstill, Montreal requested that the issue of the License Agreement be put before a mediator. The Federation of Gay Games Executive Committee responded that they would not enter into mediation and instead sent all of the board of directors an eMotion authorizing the Executive Committee to pursue a continued negotiating strategy of 12,000 participants and the authorization of $20,000 for the use of an attorney to act as a third party negotiator. GLRF voted in favor of this option if only because it authorized continued negotiations with Montreal until 07 Nov and because it held out the hope that perhaps through third-parties, an agreement could be reached.
Up to this point, 12 separate versions of the license agreement had been discussed and presented between the two parties. On 29 September 2003, Montreal presented license agreement version 13, which it signed in advance, as a gesture of its willingness to come to an agreement. The Federation of Gay Games Executive Committee unilaterally rejected version 13 and developed a list of nonnegotiable items before any further negotiations could continue.
On 08 October 2003, Montreal requested that the dispute go to arbitration since no progress was being made. The Federation of Gay Games Executive Committee responded against such a request and again sent all of the board of directors an eMotion that authorized the “Negotiation Team” to pursue the continued strategy of 12,000 participants with the list of nonnegotiable items take it or leave it. GLRF voted against such a motion because it pointed in a direction of a failed negotiation process.
GLRF felt it was absolute lunacy to abandon a host city two years into the organizing process even with rowing not being one of the required or additional sports. GLRF felt that the Montreal 2006 organizing team had significant momentum in terms of reserved athletic facilities, blocked hotel rooms, worldwide publicity and awareness, advanced web site development, guaranteed initial public funding, and a paid, experienced staff to host a successful Gay Games. Furthermore, GLRF felt that a bird in hand was worth two in the bush in terms of the crucial license fee. Montreal 2006 was committed to paying the full license fee of $655,000. If the Federation of Gay Games were to yank the Gay Games bid from Montreal, what were the chances of a new host city paying the full license fee with only 2 - 3 years left to organize and ramp up their staff and funding sources? This fee is the sole funding source for the FGG.
Throughout October, media stories began to appear about the dispute. See the GLRF discussion boards ALL OARS. The two sides continued to position and posture and agreed to a final negotiating attempt on the weekend before the start of the Annual Meeting of the Federation of Gay Games in Chicago. Those negotiations ended with Montreal walking away at 2 am on Sunday morning.
On Monday morning, 10 Nov, the Board of Directors of the Federation of Gay Games convened the Annual Meeting. The entire day was spent in discussion and procedural motions for and against the Montreal License dispute. In the end, three motions were presented. The first was a complete cessation of negotiations. The motion at first carried and then failed. The second motion, in favor of the last license agreement presented to Montreal the previous Saturday night, carried and was relayed to Montreal. There were 4 no votes. GLRF was one of them.
The third motion, presented by GLRF, in favor of the version 13 license agreement from Montreal, was never considered since the motions were presented in sequence and the following motion would only be considered if the previous one failed.
On Tuesday, 11 Nov, Montreal notified the Federation of Gay Games that it could not accept the last offer and declared the negotiations over. With that, the Federation of Gay Games began to pursue an alternate host for Gay Games 7. The three cities that originally bid for Gay Games 7, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, will all be notified of the opportunity to submit new bids. A decision on a new host for the Gay Games will probably not be made until early in 2004.
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Montreal Hosts End of Year Banquet
29 Oct 2003 - Montreal; Club d’Aviron Odagawan took over the Cactus restaurant on Rue St-Denis Wednesday night for a well attended, first year end of season celebration. Filling three long tables were almost the entire team of rowers, all of whom were recruited as novices by Philippe Colas and Philip Hedrei.
Awards were given out for the “best of” in all kinds of categories. The trophy was a kitchen whire whisk which is called a “whip” in French. No wonder both Phillippe and Philip both received oversized awards...Of course there were smaller trophies for the best improved, best spirit, etc.
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Montreal Launches New Club
May 2003 - Montreal; Philippe Colas and Philip Hedrei have partnered to create a g/l rowing club in Montreal, CLUB d’Aviron ODAWAGAN. Phillippe had always wanted to pursue rowing and was dismayed at the lack of a rowing entry in the Montreal 2006 bid. Philip, an avid collegiate rower, yearned to get a boat together in Montreal. The two combined forces and now have some 40 rowers and with Philips coaching, a very competitive slate of boats! Congratulations Phillippe and Philip! Over the course of the summer, the team rowed in morning and evening sessions and were able to launch two eights and a four.
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