Chairman's Report 2018
Chairman’s Report for the year ending 25thJune 2018
We have seen another great year at Barnes Swimming Club as we apply our core values to develop abilities in all our athletes that will inspire and empower them to reach their potential in and out of the water. It is difficult to be all things to all people but we want to be inclusive and cater for a broad range of swimmers. This year we have tried to align the swimmers to the right squad with the progression pathway through the Development Squads into the Performance Squads but still provide to those members that either do not have the time to train every day or do not want to compete by offering the Junior and Senior Performance Development Squads (JPD / SPD).
We had a change of Chairman at the 2017 AGM and I would like to thank David Brandon for his hard work that saw him and the new committee successfully steer the club to where it is now.
Having attained our Swim 21 accreditation in 2015 we had our first 2 yearly audit this year which went well.
High points for the last 12 months for me are seeing the progression of swimmers and getting swimmers to the National galas and in particular we saw Ade get a silver medal in 12/13 year old Girls 400m Freestyle at the Swim England National Championships in Sheffield, a tremendous achievement. The Club Championships was compressed into one weekend for the first time and it was a great success and this event really is the centrepiece for the whole club where new members and parents get to see what the club does as the 7 year olds watch our County / Regional / National swimmers compete and members achieve official times with which to enter external galas. Our performance at the Milton Keynes Junior League events in the summer continues to impress with teamwork bringing the best out in everyone.
Our top swimmers travelled to Greece in October for our annual training camp which was a great success and we continue to hire lanes at Crystal Palace to run long-course training sessions during the school holidays and we continue our good working relationship with neighbouring club Wandsworth SC.
We have seen high levels of club representation at a number of quality galas building towards qualifications for a number of flagship events and the sight of the requisite hoodie around the club is a badge of honour that is worn with pride.
Surrey County Championships
Last year at the Surrey County Championships BSC finished 12th out of 29 clubs in the medals table compared to this year where we came 11th in the Tinlin trophy (overall points) and 10thin the medal table out of 23 clubs with 18 medals – 10 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze including winning gold in the boys 10-11 4 x 50m freestyle relay.
The structure this year was different as all events were held in 50m pools and the 50m events were held at the Olympic Pool and the A & B times were combined to encourage greater participation and we saw an increase in swimmers from 25 swimmers to 50.
London Regional Swimming Championships
Last year 15 swimmers competed at both Age Group and Youth Regionals and this year we had 20 whose entries were accepted (more qualified with consideration times). Last year we got 12 medals and the same again this year: Tom 1 gold and 2 silvers, Megan 1 gold and 2 silvers, Kaitlyn 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze, Rebecca 2 bronzes and Yolanda 1 bronze plus top 5 finishes from Malachi and Cameron.
National Championships
Last year we had 2 qualifiers for the English Championships, this year we have 2 qualifiers for the British Championships for 2 events each and 3 for the English Championships with 7 events. This is an amazing achievement and the club is very proud. Good luck all!
Coaching
All credit to Roxana, Alberto and the rest of the team, they continue to bring the best out of all our swimmers. It has been an incredibly busy year for galas, sometimes more than one on the same weekend which stretches the coaching resource and we are very grateful for all their hard work. It was great to have Ben Davis with us for a large part of his gap year before he headed off travelling. We have purchased some equipment that will help with skills development and we look forward to seeing the fruits of this in the future.
Masters
Our Masters section is in good shape with a number of new members joining through the year and attendance at sessions is good. Milton’s Pre-Masters session on a Saturday morning is as popular as ever with a wide range of abilities and aspirations catered for.
Finances
We are in good health financially and I would like to thank our treasurer Caroline for all her work throughout the year keeping our books in order. We had a surplus this year of £12K but we expect this to be lower next year as we will be paying for a new IT system.
Volunteers
To run our Club Championships as well as to compete at external galas we need a cadre of licensed swimming officials and Lucy continues to work tirelessly to encourage parents to join the process of training and qualifying as officials. Congratulations to those that passed assessments this year, we currently have 1 J2S, 1 J2, 5 J1s and a further 5 J1s in training but we need more. For every 6 swimmers we send to an external gala we have to provide 1 official and for each session at Club Championships we need at least 16 officials as well non-technical helpers so the club needs parents to step forward and volunteer. We thank all those that give up their time and assist, it is most appreciated.
Committee
A massive thank you to all the members of the committee for their input throughout the year, without you all we would not have a club.
System
We are in the process of trying to acquire a new software system but at the time of writing this has not been finalised.
Here’s to a great 2018/19 season.
Gordon Barnes
Chairman