Freja Forrest

Hey, I’m Freja and I’m running for novice women’s captain along with Etienne. RUMSBC has been such an important place for me over the last year and a half. It is where I have made friends and fallen in love with rowing.

My aims for next year:

• to promote a cohort of happy novice rowers who are given the space to make friends and are kind, inclusive and support the club values we hold to go onto the senior crews
• to provide a place of stability for new freshers. We all know starting university can be stressful and scary.
• to emphasise body positivity and mental health support through rowing training.

My ideas for next year:

• Mixed novice boat from the start of the year to support individual crews and possibly enter a mixed boat into bumps. Supporting integration between the two crews and to tackle some of our inclusivity issues around having fixed men’s and women’s teams.
• More socials not based around drinking and more frequent novice crew meals
• Improve retention for marginalised groups in the wider rowing community especially Muslims and other people of faith. Ideas to support this include making coxes and captains more aware of prayer times and available prayer spaces and work closely with fundraisers to facilitate more modest kit development.
• Make RUMSBC a more apparent safe space for those of the queer community, including more visible LGBTQ+ support at FDATR
• Continue to support inclusivity around sport night drinking and safer clubbing experiences.