Lichfield Swimming Club
Chairman’s Report 2006
At a Special General Meeting of Lichfield Swimming Club held on 18th September 2006 changes were agreed to the club constitution to meet the requirements of the Amateur Swimming Association model constitution. The most significant change is an alteration in the financial year to run from 1 April to 31 March with the consequence that the Annual General Meeting is now to be held every year in June rather than in November.
In the absence of an AGM in November 2006 I thought it would be useful to prepare a report for the period November 2005 – December 2006. I will start by reviewing our performance in the main swimming competitions we enter.
The Speedo league remained a difficult competition for us in 2005 and we were eventually relegated to West Midlands Division 3 (North) at the end of the year. This year we have finished in fourth place in round one at Market Drayton and narrowly missed winning an incredibly exciting round two gala at Tamworth. The third round took place in Tamworth on Saturday 9th December and our 3rd place left us in 13th place overall out of 17 clubs.
In the Staffordshire league we appear to have been given a season ticket to Biddulph – the furthest outpost of swimming in the county ! Despite the long journeys we have achieved credible results finishing in third place in round one and second in round three with a fourth place at Tamworth in between these two. At Cheslyn Hay on 25th November we competed the consolation 2 final and finished third resulting in a final position of 13th (again – unlucky for some!) out of 19 clubs.
The Nuneaton and District junior swimming league (Diddy league) is an excellent introduction to galas for our youngest competitive swimmers. This year we again competed in Division 2 and finished 3rd at Tamworth, 2nd at Tamworth again and 2nd at Wolverhampton. This left us 8th overall with the top 6 teams out of 24 qualifying for the final.
At the Staffordshire Championships in March, Lichfield was again well represented with 21 swimmers competing. We recorded a total of over 120 qualifying times. This is the main benchmark that we use to measure our performance year-on-year and we have achieved consistency over a few years now.
The usual range of other trophy and friendly galas gave opportunities for many club members to swim in galas and register personal best times.
The five stroke galas throughout the year have again produced some fierce competition, hundreds of personal best times and a number of new club records. A number of the age group categories have been close and decided only at the Individual Medley gala in November. As usual all of the successful swimmers were presented with their trophies and personal best ribbons at the presentation evening on January 6th.
Once again our coaching team have worked incredibly hard to plan and deliver a training programme that caters for swimmers who vary greatly in age and ability. As I am sure everyone is now aware, Margaret has recently decided to step down from her role as head coach. Paul will continue to be responsible for training the more senior swimmers throughout the week and is working towards his level 3 coaching qualification. We hope to add a coach to the junior squad to the team in the near future. We will also need to enhance and refresh our team of poolside helpers, teachers and coaches so please step forward and let us know if you are prepared to give up some of your time for the swimmers and the club.
Those present at the Individual Medley gala will have seen the launch of the LSC efficiency award scheme. The scheme sets out target times at 5 levels in a range of strokes and distances. Achieving all of the times at one level will qualify a swimmer to receive the award at that level. Hopefully we will soon see swimmers displaying the 5 different badges representing levels of achievement – these are available from the club shop for a small payment. We are grateful to Patricia Holloway who has taken on the administration of this scheme.
The re-launch of the club shop has been highly successful with a wide range of swimwear and equipment now available on poolside every Wednesday. Some old stock has been cleared and a number of new items are being ordered. Please continue to support the shop which raises a significant amount of money for the club. Thank you to Nick Davison for all of his hard work in the shop.
After a period of great change we have had more stability within the club committee over the past 12 months. Many members would be surprised how much work is done behind the scenes to keep all aspects of the club running smoothly and I would like to record my thanks to all of the committee for their hard work and support. We always need more help and would be particularly keen to hear from any members who would like to take on a role as social event coordinator or who would be prepared to take on some or all of the role of secretary as the current secretary wishes to stand down as soon as possible. At the AGM in June we will also lose our treasurer who is stepping down after several years of hard work in the role. These posts will need to be filled for the club to function at all. Please speak to me or any other committee member if you can offer us any time – no amount is too small.
As well as committee posts we need an army of people to ensure that galas run smoothly – each stroke gala for example needs around 30 people from referees, judges and timekeepers to announcers, recorders and chaperones. Lesley Bannister is our volunteer coordinator and would love to have more volunteers for all of these roles.
We were delighted to have our Swim21 accreditation ratified for a further year in May. In 2007 we will need to prepare a full re-submission which involves producing evidence of our performance in a wide variety of areas from swimmer and coach development to club management. Thank you again to Alison Tindal for coordinating this difficult and time-consuming task.
From solid foundations but recent turbulence, Lichfield Swimming Club now needs to move forward to greater success. For this to happen we need the support of all swimmers and parents. Please support the swimmers and the committee and GET INOLVED. Remember Together Everyone Achieves More.
Duncan Wilson
Chairman
January 2007