Rowing Software for New Zealand University Boat Clubs

Made for uni rowing in New Zealand

Rowing software for university boat clubs

Everything a Kiwi uni boat club juggles - the February intake, committee changeover at the AGM, squads sharing a thin coaching roster, and the trek to Lake Ruataniwha for the NZ University Rowing Championships - handled in one app built for exactly that shape of club.

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Crew selection screen showing seats being filled in a four for a university rowing squad

Why Kiwi uni boat clubs outgrow generic tools

A New Zealand uni boat club runs on volunteers, a short budget and a calendar that peaks at Lake Ruataniwha each autumn. Row HQ gives that club one platform for the lot: session plans across squads, crew selection, erg records, entries for regattas, boat and trailer upkeep, keeping in touch with graduates, and the paper trail the students' association asks to see. It matches how Kiwi uni rowing genuinely operates, Otago to Auckland.

Picture the year at a NZ uni club. February brings a wave of new members. Autumn brings the University Champs at Ruataniwha. Then the AGM arrives, and with it a brand-new committee learning the job from scratch. Any tool that assumes stable membership and a permanent admin falls over by winter. What the club needs is handover built in, graduates tracked properly, and squads managed side by side - the three things Row HQ was built around.

Put simply, Row HQ is rowing club management software for university rowing clubs where the club's memory belongs to the club, not to whoever happens to be captain.

Everyone on the same platform

Coaches, committee and members each get their own view of the club. The students' association can check in whenever it wants, no meeting required.

Head coach / coaching staff

Coaches on the programme can:

Line up water time and erg blocks for senior, novice and women's squads
Crew boats from up-to-date availability rather than texting around
Tick off attendance in one tap
Follow each rower's erg numbers and weight over the years
Message a single squad or every member at once

Captain & committee

Whoever holds the committee this year can:

Take O-week sign-ups and get learn-to-row moving
Sort camps, ferry crossings and trip lists for South Island regattas
Stay in contact with graduates and past supporters
Pass everything to the next committee at the AGM
Show the students' association what it needs to see

Members

On their phones, members find:

When training is on and where the boat shed is
Which crew they are in this weekend
Trip lists and camp logistics
Their erg scores going back seasons
A message thread with the coaches

The same club through three sets of eyes

One database, three layouts. Try each tab to see what coaches, committee and rowers get.

Plan it. Crew it. Know who turned up.

A coach planning the senior squad's next session

Crews being named for the NZ University Champs

Take sign-ups. Tidy the roster. Reach everyone fast. Hand it all on intact.

The full membership picture for the committee

Every alert the club has sent, in one log

Crew lists, erg data and regatta logistics, all in the app.

A member checking their crew for the weekend

An erg history with personal bests marked

Travel plans for the trip down to Ruataniwha

Built around the shape of NZ uni rowing

Squads run side by side

Senior, novice, women's and graduate squads each keep their own calendar, roster and coaches, with the whole programme visible from the top.

Graduates stay connected

A standing register of past members with segmented contact lists, wired into regatta announcements and the yearly funding ask.

Camps and the Ruataniwha trip

Trip lists, accommodation, ferry and van logistics, and the costs - organised once instead of across five group chats.

Erg records with a long memory

Scores, weights and crew history stay with each rower for their whole time in the sport, across every changeover.

Reporting for the students' association

Attendance, welfare and money summaries in a shape the association or sport office will accept first time.

Handover is the default

Change of committee at the AGM means two clicks. The record stays put; only the names on the roles change.

A club history nobody can walk off with

Committees change. The record should not.

The annual reset - new intake, new committee, sometimes a new coach - is exactly when clubs lose their history. Row HQ holds the crew lists, erg data, graduate register and accounts steady through it, year after year, whoever gets elected.

Nothing goes missing when the committee changes
Past members kept on the register with consent noted
A complete log the students' association can inspect
Runs on encrypted cloud infrastructure
Encrypted both ways, retention in line with the NZ Privacy Act 2020

NZ Privacy Act 2020 Aligned

Cloud-Hosted

Encrypted Throughout

Everything Logged

Clean AGM Handover

Graduate Consent Register

Free up to 20 members. No card.

Leave the next committee something better than a spreadsheet

Member list loaded free, all features on from day one, and a person - not a bot - walking you through setup. Most Kiwi clubs are going the same day.

Set up your club free Book a 20-min walkthrough

Three things a NZ uni club stops worrying about

Every club hits the same three walls each year. Row HQ takes each one down.

The membership view a new committee takes over

AGM handover

The whole club changes hands without a single file moving

Reassign the committee roles and it is done. Crew lists, the graduate register, boat maintenance records and the accounts are all still exactly where they were - just under new management.

Committee roles swap in two clicks
Graduate and supporter lists never leave the club
Boats, money and crew history stay put

Look at the admin dashboard

Crews being named for the NZ University Rowing Championships

Crew selection

Name crews for Ruataniwha from the app, not the noticeboard

Availability comes in live from every squad. Drag names into seats, confirm the boat, and each rower's phone buzzes with their crew before they leave the shed.

Availability visible the moment it changes
Seats filled by drag and drop
Crews land on phones the second they are confirmed

Look at the coach tools

An erg log spanning several seasons of PBs

Rower progression

Erg numbers that follow the rower, not the coach

Scores, weights and crew records build up on the rower's file year after year. When coaching changes hands the full history is sitting there waiting, not lost in someone's old notebook.

Complete erg history with PBs flagged
Load and progress compared season to season
Carries through every handover untouched

Look at the training tools

With Row HQ and without it

Job to do

Messenger + a spreadsheet

Row HQ

Who came to training

A rough count, soon forgotten

One tap and it is recorded

Crews for the weekend

Noticeboard at the shed

Named in the app, sent to phones

O-week sign-ups

A form nobody can find

Public link straight onto the roster

Subs and trip money

Treasurer nagging in the group chat

Stripe handles it, treasurer watches a dashboard

Handing over the club

Hoping the old captain replies

Two clicks, history intact

Contacting graduates

An email chain from 2019

A standing register, properly segmented

Ask any Kiwi uni club what happened to its records from five years ago. Usually the answer is a shrug - they left with a captain who graduated. Row HQ makes that impossible: the club owns its data, and the AGM changes nothing except who administers it.

How NZ uni clubs change committees on Row HQ

For clubs at Otago, Canterbury, Victoria, Auckland, Waikato and Massey

Check the pricing

NZ university rowing software: common questions

Does it work for competitive and social clubs alike?

Yes. Clubs chasing medals at the University Champs and social crews that row twice a week use the same product with different features switched on. At 20 active members or under it costs nothing; beyond that, flat monthly pricing follows member count.

What actually happens at handover?

The outgoing committee reassigns the roles - two clicks - and steps back. The incoming group finds the roster, graduate register, boat records and full crew history exactly where the last lot left them. No laptop involved.

Where is the data kept?

In a UK data centre on hardened enterprise cloud infrastructure, encrypted at rest and in transit. Cross-border handling is consistent with the NZ Privacy Act 2020 and its Information Privacy Principles, and the sub-processor list and hosting documentation are available whenever your association asks.

What about members who graduate?

They stay on the register, consent noted, until they choose otherwise. Contact lists can be segmented - recent leavers, long-standing supporters, donors - and anyone can opt out or ask for a copy of their data at any point.

Can it cover senior, novice and women's squads at once?

It can. Each squad has its own calendar, roster, coaches and reports, the head coach watches the lot, and a member can row in more than one squad.

Will it plug into the university's systems?

Member lists come in via CSV each semester; attendance, money and welfare summaries export back out for the association or sport office. Deeper integrations are on the roadmap.

How does the graduate register work?

Once a member graduates their record simply moves category rather than disappearing. The committee segments the register for news, appeals and regatta-day announcements without rebuilding a contact list from scratch.

What does it cost a uni club?

Nothing at all up to 20 active members, with the full feature set. Bigger clubs pay a flat monthly amount set by active member count, and no feature is ever paywalled.