Chair's Report

A very warm welcome to everyone to the celebration of 2015 – my favourite evening of the year where we celebrate all of our swimmer’s achievements with our awards ceremony. It is also our Annual General Meeting where we formally review and close the year and seek support for any changes for 2016.

The first thing I would like to do is to send a HUGE thank you to all of our volunteers – poolside and behind the scenes. There are too many officials, committee members and teachers to mention but I am going to mention all of our teachers anyway: without them there would be no club. Thank you to Susanne, Richard, Clare, Colin, Karen, Charlie, Lou, Jack, Tayla, Rafal, Elizabeth and Terry. Also thank you and welcome to Jane, Attracta, Harriet and Sarah. I am really sorry that we are going to lose Susanne and Elizabeth this year, they have both made a huge contribution to the club for many years. I’d also like to welcome Terry – I don’t have time to read out his CV but to have someone of his caliber and experience working with us is fantastic and we can already see improvements in our times and training. Of course we can never have enough teachers – our current ones work tirelessly and put in more hours than ever so please do consider joining them and helping more swimmers.

Whilst I am thanking people I would also like to thank Clare (again) and Judith who are stepping down after many years in their committee roles – their contribution to the “back office” has kept the club running smoothly for along time. Also leaving the committee are Kelly and Jacky who organized our social events such as the ever-popular supper quiz. Of course that means that we now have some Committee vacancies, part of this evening will be to fill those. One non-committee position is Welfare officer–an essential role in the club to provide care to all of our members. It’s probably one of the most important, yet least visible roles in the club and I’d like to thank Julie who has carried out this role so well for a number of years and to welcome Clare Kirwan who has now taken it on. Finally, I’d like to thank Caroline for her Chairing of the club. She had a very busy few years and has made a great contribution to the club helping ensure its security for many years.

Last year the membership approved our recommendation to increase subs by £5 per month and to employ a paid coach. We managed to subsidise our initial use of Terry and have therefore avoided putting the subs up until now. I’d like to thank those members that pay the fees and subs on time.

Thank you to everyone who has stepped up from my request last year to help support the club in volunteering either as a teacher, official or committee member

I would also like to give a big thank you to all the parents and older swimmers who have put themselves forward and become officials for the club. We have seen a big increase in time keepers and hopefully this will encourage our qualified officials to become judges. Without their support we would not be able to enter galas and run our internal competitions. We have to supply officials for each external gala we enter.

On the swimming side we have developed a new 5-year plan which aims to build on the success of our swimmers, continuing to break records, compete at a county and regional level and maintain Bushey ASC as one of the cheapest, yet most fun clubs to join.

This year is the club’s 90^th anniversary. It’s quite incredible to think that the club was formed in 1926 and is still going, breaking records, forming lasting friendships and providing a fun environment for children to develop a passion for competitive swimming. And it is to our swimmers that I would now like to turn. You’re all a great bunch – to watch you train hard, swim fast, cheer each other on and improve your times is very fulfilling for those of us that can’t swim at all. Well done to all of you. I hope you have a great evening, you deserve all of the awards coming your way and thank you.

Alan Brown