An Open Letter Regarding WL Crew exiting the Potomac Boat Club:
The WL Crew Boosters have recently made it known that they intend to leave Potomac Boat Club, ending a 75-year-long relationship that many PBC members and WL alums had the chance to celebrate just a few weeks ago. This decision is being made under duress, to ensure the viability of the program.
I don’t believe that proper input was solicited or incorporated from PBC’s full membership for such a critical decision that impacts a key part of the identity of the club itself, stewardship and support for youth rowing. I believe it is important that the full senior membership understand more about how this came to pass.
PBC’s 4-member Boathouse Use Agreement (BUA) team has made decisions on behalf of all senior members that are directly resulting in 85 student-athletes losing their opportunity to learn to row and refine their skills under our collective roof. This is antithetical to the support PBC has previously professed for youth rowing. This also hinders diversity and equity in access to PBC, shifting opportunities away from public school children of varied backgrounds (race, gender, economic, and other) and instead providing them to adults with prior rowing experience and the means to pay program fees. I don’t believe this to be in harmony with the principles of PBC as a member of the larger community, both in and outside of rowing. The decisions leading into this moment should have been brought before the entire membership for consideration and overall direction. Clear and detailed information was not provided to the broader senior membership. I urge PBC’s senior members to make their voices heard to PBC’s Board of Governors on this topic. I further urge the BoG to bring this topic to the entire membership for consideration and look into avenues whereby the relationship with WL Crew can be repaired.
A few key points:
The BUA reduced WL’s available rack space by two racks. This was to allow for competitive programs to purchase their own boats. When WL offered to lease use of PBC boats (the inverse of the current arrangement), this was refused, citing the risk of damage to the boats by junior athletes. This looks beyond the fact that damage is done to WL Boats by PBC athletes routinely and is a natural hazard of rowing on the Potomac River. In addition, WL was prohibited from making any use of other PBC boats, even on a short-term basis. This reduction of racks has also had the unintended consequence of further reducing the limited financial support from APS to WL Crew Boosters.
The BUA fee structure requires WL to pay per-athlete fees which are equivalent to those of Senior members (prorated by the time that WL has access to PBC), however, WL is not given any of the consideration, rights, or access granted to paying senior members.
The BUA immediately reduced the permissible athletes at PBC by 20 athletes, from 85 to 65. A shift schedule was proposed where athletes could take turns at the boathouse, however, the BUA team would only allow an additional 45 minutes of daily access to the house. The reduction of athletes not only takes opportunity away from children but also makes the WL crew team even less financially stable, given their largely fundraising-based operating model.
Comments were made directly to the WL Crew Boosters negotiating team on several occasions that PBC wanted WL out of the boathouse to allow expansion of the competitive sweep programs or as an emergency measure against the loss of the aqueduct for boat storage. This is reflected in the change of agreement term to 2 years from the prior agreements which all lasted for 5 years.
WL was told to join the waitlists for the other area boathouses, or to wait for the Arlington Community Boathouse. All current boathouses are full, and the Arlington Community Boathouse has no specific timeline for completion, nor even the required approvals to begin serious planning. WL has been forced to find a novel solution, rowing un-housed out of the Columbia Island Marina, taking advantage of the marina’s desire to expand into rowing. Driving WL’s decision to leave immediately is the fear of loss of even this opportunity, potentially forcing the team to disband.
This is not the first time some in PBC have attempted to end the relationship with WL. Prior to the previous 5-year agreement being put in place, an RFP was opened for other high school teams to replace WL. This was met with an outcry from the senior membership at the time, ultimately failing. This time, however, the pursuit of the termination of this relationship was done more discreetly by making WL’s program untenable at PBC, and forcing WL to be the one to end the relationship.
These actions, when taken as a whole, are not in the spirit of partnership and disregard the support and positive impact that WL has had on PBC throughout its 75-year history. Listening to the recollections of people such as Tony Johnson, Tom Chisnell, and Charley Butt at WL’s 75th Anniversary celebration, held in the PBC ballroom, makes it clear just how intertwined WL and PBC are, and shows the lasting support that WL has given to PBC.
I believe that PBC’s 4-member BUA team did not do an appropriate job of surveying and understanding the opinions of the full ~300-person senior membership when undertaking decisions of this magnitude. The PBC BUA team was made up only of BoG members. There is no representation from rank-and-file senior members to help balance perspectives. The BoG should have sought out other voices to be actively engaged in negotiations to balance the discussion on behalf of the diverse needs of PBC. Decisions during the BUA negotiations were based on results of a survey of the general membership taken in 2019, pre-COVID, and during an extremely tumultuous time in the relationship between WL and PBC (which has since greatly improved). Little information was shared publicly with the general membership throughout the 9-month negotiation period. Only one public meeting of the PBC membership was held to discuss this topic, in the spring of 2023, before the start of meaningful BUA negotiations. Following that, this topic was reviewed briefly, verbally, at the last semi-annual meeting (October 2023) and annual meeting (April 2024), but no written update was shared with the general membership. The agreement itself is not, to my knowledge, available to be reviewed. Additionally, the only input solicited outside of the BUA team and BoG during the negotiation process was that of the participants in the PBC sweep programs, many of whom have not yet been granted senior membership. It is my belief that a decision of this gravity should have been brought before the entire senior membership for input and a vote.
This issue goes beyond Washington-Liberty Crew, as well. This issue is ultimately about PBC’s commitment to equity and youth rowing on a larger scale. As recently as the April annual meeting the BoG expressed the importance of furthering youth rowing. The U19 and U23 sculling programs at PBC were expanded and provided opportunities for current youth rowers to increase their level of skill. I have proposed a Fall and Summer U19 sweep program to increase participation in youth rowing at PBC. However, both of these programs must be limited in participation, have a significant financial cost to participants, and are targeted at existing youth rowers. To provide broader opportunities to those who have yet to find the sport, there is no better option than a high-school-sanctioned team. A public high school, such as Washington-Liberty, helps to further broaden access to people of varied backgrounds.
I would ask those who read this to think back to both your high school experience and your start in rowing. For some, they may be the same, for others they are different. But I think that in everyone’s experience, a common thread will be the discipline and rigor that rowing taught you, the commitment to do hard work with little reward, and the opportunity to commit to your teammates, creating a shared responsibility and bond that made everyone better.
Additionally, if you look back upon your experience in high school it is likely that you, like many teenagers, looked for a place where you could belong. Likely, many of you found some athletic endeavor or club that provided you with a sense of belonging. Where you learned the value of a team or group, and learned some of the lessons that rowing can teach, which you carry with you to this day.
For me, I found my community in rowing as a sophomore at Washington-Lee in the PBC boathouse. I formed friendships that are rock solid today, and I learned how to work hard in a way I didn’t know possible before rowing. That work ethic helped me achieve things I wouldn’t have believed possible athletically. It has continued to be a defining characteristic in my personal and professional lives. I have the Potomac Boat Club to thank for that because of its partnership with WL. That community is the core reason I applied for membership at PBC my senior year in high school and I’ve maintained my PBC membership ever since.
I believe that as a community of rowers, we owe it to not just talk about supporting youth rowing but to back that up with actions. We should provide access and opportunities to those who have never tried the sport, or even heard of it, like the kids who attend WL and come from all walks of life. I hope that all PBC community members will reflect on your character and values, consider the impact that rowing has had on your life and who you have become, and will make your voice heard to the PBC BoG, either at the upcoming semi-Annual meeting on October 6th, or via other means. Please urge PBC to reconsider it’s position towards WL Crew, its partner through both good times and bad times, for the past 75 years.
Respectfully,
James DeFilippi
PBC Club Rowing Committee Chairman
WL Class of 1996
Father of two current WL Crew student-athletes