Record Number of Women Attend Local Race Officer Training

National Race Officer, Suzanne McGarry, ran an extremely successful Local Race Officer course online on Wednesday and Thursday night of this week, with 35 people attending from all corners of the country.

Suzanne brings a wealth of experience on the water and her story of progression through a variety of activities just shows how we can all see the connection between watersports. Suzanne started off in the water with swimming, water polo & rowing boats, then moved to patrol, rescue, mark laying and lifeboat. She started sailing as a teenager and has raced in IDRA14s, GP14s, Fireballs, Flying Fifteens, Ruffians, Glens, Shipmans, as well as Cruisers of all shapes and sizes.

Then Suzanne got involved as Class Captain/Commodore of the IDRA14s in the late 80s and was invited to join Dublin Bay Sailing Club as a Committee Member. She started Race Management with recording, flagger, timer and then Local Race Officer, Regional Race Officer & National Race Officer. 

That is quite some background knowledge and it showed in the training sessions, with so many different personal experiences combining to bring some excellent advice.

30% Women

Over 30% of the attendees were women and the usual ratio would be 10% of women.

• Is this having a female NRO presenting?
• Is it the accessibility of online training?
• or Is it the general increase participation of women in sports management?
• Perhaps a combination of all three, either way, it is great to see. 

Another interesting outcome of online training is seeing so many number of experienced Race Officers joining the evening to brush up on their knowledge and take onboard tips and advice from Suzanne's.

The course was excellently presented by Suzanne with clear and calm explanations that left the attendees wanting to take it all in and learn more. Questions, comments and sharing of ideas all came fluently into the chat to create a natural flow of information sharing and a sense of actually being in a room together.

The Local Race Officer course is the first rung in the ladder of training to become a Race Officer. See the full Wheel of Roles Here.