British Rowing membership cards – an update

British Rowing are proud to unveil our new recycled and recyclable membership packs.

We’ve had a few questions recently about British Rowing membership cards, including some
important ones about how environmentally friendly they are. In response to these, we’re
pleased to confirm that our membership cards are now both recycled and recyclable.

The pack that your membership card comes in is also recyclable, although some local
authorities may not accept the envelope due to the glue on it. Our printer advises that these
can be taken to local paper banks for recycling.

Another very valid question we’re often asked is why we still continue to print and post
British Rowing membership cards at all, given that they could easily be replaced by a digital
version on your phone.

We asked this same question of our members when we made some changes to the British
Rowing membership framework just over a year ago, and the response informed where we
are now.

Firstly, our members pointed out that not everyone has a smartphone, so a digital
membership card wouldn’t work for everyone. Even among those that do, there was a
feeling that people weren’t always comfortable carrying their phone around with them at
rowing events, especially not if they were likely to be on or around the water.

There are other ways for our members to prove their identity if required when racing, and
some competitions will accept these if you’ve forgotten your card. However, we heard that
our members would rather not have to take the likes of passports and driving licences to
events, and our younger rowers have fewer options when it comes to formal ID.

The last point came from competition organisers, who pointed out that they often have large
numbers of competitors to check and register at events, and having a standard British
Rowing membership card helps them do this.

We appreciate this is an important subject, and we’d like to hear your views and ideas about
how we should be approaching it in the future. We’re also really keen to hear from clubs,
competitions and rowers that have found ways to make our sport more environmentally
friendly so that we can share these with the wider rowing community. Get in touch by
emailing us at [email protected] – we’d love to hear from you.