BROADSTAIRS LIFEGUARD AND SWIMMING CLUB NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2007   Dear swimmers, parents and carers, Here’s the latest round-up of news and dates for your diary.   ITV Pride of Britain Awards Most of you will have seen the film crew from ITV spending the evening with us a few weeks ago.  Thanks to everyone who gave permission for their child to be filmed in the 8.15 group.  The filming was focused on Chloe Gambrill, who has been having treatment for leukaemia for the last 2 years or so.  During this time, Chloe and her family – her brother Charlie, mum Kelly and dad Darren (one of our teachers) - have been raising money for cancer research charities, including the local Races for Life, and our own Club sponsored swim last year, where the swimmers did the equivalent of up and down Mount Everest –eight times!  Chloe has been nominated in the Fundraising Category in the awards, the results of which will be screened on ITV on WEDS 10 OCTOBER, 9pm.  Make it a date for your diary and cheer them on!  Fingers crossed, Chloe, and have a great time!   Annual Gala The Club gala is at Hartsdown on Saturday 17 November.  Swimmers taking part will need to be at Hartsdown by 6pm, for 6.15pm warm up for Main Pool swimmers, 6.30 start. We are delighted to say that we have a record number of entrants this year! The Bay Relay has been moved.  It is now the very first race, directly after the Main Pool warm up, and before the Small Pool races.  We hope that this will make it easier for our younger friends to take part and cheer their Bay-mates along if they are not swimming!  Swimmers who have been selected should already know.  If your child has not entered as an individual, please consider allowing them to take part if they have been selected.  As it’s the first race, these swimmers can come along for the warm up, do the relay and then go home.  We won’t charge you and admission ticket, if this applies to you! Admission is by ticket, these will be on sale in the weeks before the gala.  Programmes will also be available with all the details of who is swimming, basic rules, sponsor info, etc. Keep an eye on the (improving!) website www.broadstairslifeguardandswimming.com for updates on the gala, etc.  We are aiming to drastically reduce the amount of paper that we generate, so please regularly check the website and the Club notice board (in the corridor, just before the female changing room) As always there are people working on the gala in their spare time, away from our Club nights.  Sue White plans and co-ordinates the event, Justin Tilley throws all the info up in the air and magically makes it all make sense, Tony Taylor has been contacting LOTS of local businesses for donations to help cover our costs, Eric Woodin helps with the printing of the programme, Jane Pond and Emma Kemp will be checking and rechecking records and trophies, and various teachers, parents & volunteers will be helping on the night with time keeping, officiating, announcing, etc.  Without them, the gala will not run smoothly, and probably not run at all.  Thank you to them all.     PA system We need a reliable PA system for the gala evening – can anyone help?  It’s important that everyone can hear the announcements!  Please let Sue White know, or contact us via the email address.   Trophies If it is gala time, it’s almost time to find any trophies you won last year, dust them off and clean them ready to hand back in to us ON THURSDAY 15 NOVEMBER – that’s the club session just before the gala.  Remember that any cleaning, maintenance, engraving, etc is the trophy holder’s responsibility.    Kitbags Over the next few weeks, we’ll be costing out providing kitbags for the swimmers.  In the first instance, this is aimed at the 9.00 group; the other groups will be offered the opportunity shortly after that.  The Club will subsidise the cost and offer the bags for sale, complete with a free float, to help solve our storage problems!  We have real problems with storage at the pool, often can’t access the Club’s equipment safely, and we’d also like the swimmers to have their own floats, fins and maybe paddles, so they can come out on poolside with a full kit.  Hopefully they will be ready for sale before Christmas.    Membership applications and waiting list Applications for membership can also now be done via the website, just a few text and click boxes and it’s done!  These applications are then processed as usual, but it saves a lot of paper moving about! We’ve also thought long and hard about how to make the waiting list easily accessible but without giving out private information.  We think we’ve found a way!  There is a page on the website with the waiting list; details shown are only the priority code, and the swimmer’s home postcode – go to ‘How do I Join’ and there is a link at the top of the page.  Hopefully prospective members will find this useful.    Email Of the 120ish members that we have, only about 25 are contactable by email.  If you prefer to have newsletters sent straight to your email, please give your email address to Meryl, so that we can add it to our mailing list.  They may also be times where we need to get a message out to everyone, i.e. if the pool will be shut, so an email address is easier for us than having to find the time to phone 80+ families!    Volunteers We are delighted to welcome Colin and Erica to the poolside team.  Colin’s son swims with us, and Erica is a former member.  Thanks to you both for your time, we hope you enjoy it.   Winter holidays & Splash night We will be finishing with splash night on 13 December.  Swimmers will be in their normal session time, and we’ll get out all the inflatables, toys, freeeeezing cold hose, etc!  Parents and siblings are welcome for a small fee - £2 per adult, £1 non-member child.  This is open for siblings only – no friends, cousins, etc please, for safety reasons.  Remember that your children are your responsibility in the water on splash night, particularly younger ones who might wonder into the main pool to join the party!  Swimmers must be able to swim 50m to be allowed to use the inflatable island.   Subscriptions Unfortunately there are still a few swimmers whose subs are slightly behind due to still being paid at the old rate.  Please speak to Chalkie, the Treasurer, if that might apply to you. Also, please remember that if subs are 2 months in arrears, we may assume that your child has left and fill their place in the lessons.      Masters The small but perfectly formed Masters branch took part in the Kent Masters back in July.  They came about 21st with 22 points – but there were only 3 of them!  If you’re interested in joining up, contact us via the email address at the top of this newsletter, or talk to Sue White.  Next outing for the team is the Medway Masters on Sunday 11 November.  Wish them well!   Yours in sport, The current teaching team Sue Smith (Head Teacher), Cathy Tuddenham, Sue White, Rachel Clifton, Tony Taylor, Darren Gambrill, Tony New, Colin St John Jeffrey, Erica Smallbone, Emma Warren and Committee of Broadstairs Lifeguard and Swimming Club Broadstairs Lifeguard and Swimming Club Quick dates – cut out and keep! 15 November – ALL trophies to be handed in   17 November - Gala @ Hartsdown pool - Be there by 6pm - Main pool warm up 6.15pm - First race, Bay relay, 6.30pm - Finish approx 9.30pm   29 November - Inter Bay water polo tournament - 8.15 and 9.00 groups only - see the Water Polo page for more details  13 December – Splash night 20 & 27 December, 3 January 2008 – closed 10 Jan 2008 - Restart