Dear Dragon Boat Canada Member,
I care deeply about Dragon Boat Canada and the sport of Dragon Boat Racing. I care passionately that every single individual who gets into a dragon boat has a safe, inspiring and stimulating experience. I care vigorously that our sport grows; that it’s presented in its most polished form to its audience both close-up and far away. I care intensely that our sport improves, that it innovates and engages, that it evolves and expands, that it continues its goodness and transcends to greatness.
My name is Scott Murray and it is a distinct privilege and an honour to apply this care in the role of President of Dragon Boat Canada.
My first and foremost item of importance is to properly thank former President Matthew Smith for his dedication, leadership and volunteerism over the past 12 years. Our federation has been fortunate to have Matt’s guidance in establishing strong roots and blossoming into the strong and healthy organization that we are today.
Under Matt’s leadership we have:
– Launched and grown one of, if not the world’s best National Championship race, which has grown to over 150 crew entries during its 10 years and is widely accepted as the best and most important race on our annual calendars.
– Hired a terrific Executive Director (Chloe Greenhalgh) who supports, educates and guides our members large and small through the intricacies of the dragon boat landscape both domestically and internationally.
– Formalized our international racing strategies through CCWC qualification protocols and member driven rule suggestion and change processes.
– The World’s largest National Team program and one of its most successful.
– Special projects committees with contributions from all sorts of paddlers such as: High Performance, Student Racing, Senior Development, BCS development and more.
– And many other successful and ongoing initiatives.
In short we are in a much better place due to Matt’s vision and volunteer efforts. For this we will continue to be thankful.
Moving forward we plan to continue this trajectory of success by continually improving what we do well and initiating new projects and pathways to make all of our experience even greater. Our Board of Directors has a long-term vision to be the best we possibly can and demonstrate leadership by advancing our sport both in Canada and on the world stage.
Some initiatives you can expect to see in 2018 and beyond include:
– A new Race Series that connects crews, festivals and age-categories from coast to coast; is free to participate and will generate rivalries, improved racing conditions, improved officiating, hopefully some debate and of course valuable prizes.
– A brand new registration system which will help team managers and athletes with the administrative side of registration, waivers, transfers and much more.
– Increased emphasis on training and education of coaches, steerspersons and officials with a special emphasis on standardized roster checking processes at DBC Race Series events.
– A volunteer outreach program that will sincerely and genuinely look for the skills, abilities and contributions of DBC’s members to help us in improving and shaping our future.
– A year-long celebration of Dragon Boat Canada’s 25th Anniversary in 2019, culminating in the Canadian Championships in Regina, Saskatchewan.
We have an outstanding Board of Directors that has geographical balance, gender equity, enormous and diverse dragon boat racing experience and an abundance of passion which will be on display for you over the coming months and years.
In summary I want to re-iterate how excited I am to be the President of our collective team and to now call every Dragon Boat Canada member my teammate. It has been my life’s greatest sporting experience to race heart and soul with and against you for many, many years and I look forward to this new challenge.
Paddles Up!
Scott Murray
Team DBC
Dragon Boat Canada
The governing body for the Sport of Dragon Boat racing in Canada as recognized by the International Dragon Boat Federation.