NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2007 Dear swimmers, parents and carers, Here’s the latest round-up of news and dates for your diary.   Annual Gala As you probably know, we had the annual gala a couple of weeks ago.  The 70+ swimmers that took part all seemed to have a good time and there were some close finishes – very exciting to watch! The results are on the website, go to the ‘What’s New?’ page and follow the link. We put up a survey on the website for a week to find out what the swimmers, families, officials, etc thought about the evening.  Here’s a short round-up: Ø      “People like the Bay relay at the beginning, it set the scene for the rest of the evening” Ø      Most swimmers and spectators put either the Bay relay or the Lifesaving relay as their “favourite bit” Ø      We need to relocate the PA system!   Ø    “The Bay relay could maybe have been organised better.”  To answer this point, the Bay Captains and Vice Captains rely on their swimmers coming along to swim.  If the swimmers don’t come for whatever reason (several were ill on the day) then the relay team may have to be withdrawn if there is no suitable reserve to cover the slot.  Unfortunately, if no notice is given that a swimmer won’t be taking part, the Bay Captains then have only a very short time to re-organise the team.   As always, a massive vote of thanks goes to the people who work behind the scenes for some months or just on the night to put the gala on for YOUR children.  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, Sophie and 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.   Another thank you goes to a local firm, Cave Creative, who reworked the design by Maria Steffanini from our logo competition earlier this year.    T-shirts The popular t-shirts were supplied and printed by another local company, Imagez-UK, based in Cliffsend.  If your child would like their name or initials on the front of their shirt, Imagez are happy to do that for us, but we will need a volunteer parent to sort that out for us.  If you’re interested, please let Meryl, the Secretary, know.     No Gala November 2008 We’ve had another look at the timing of the annual gala.  November solved the problem of the swimmers not having a clear period of preparation, but the downside has been that there are so many colds & ear infections about.  We’ve decided to try April next time!  This gives the swimmers the preparation period, it’s away from exam time, it’ll hopefully be a bit warmer and lighter, and we can then have Presentation Evening on a lovely May night (that’s the plan, anyway!)  As it is a lot of work and we have only just had a gala, we’ll skip April 2008, have some kind of event in June or July 2008 in our normal session time, and plan for a full gala in April 2009.  Keep looking on the website for details of the event in June/July.   Presentation Evening This will be held at the Broadstairs Pavilion on Friday 25 January 2008, 7.00pm start.  Tickets will be on sale after the Christmas break and will be £4 for an adult, £2 for a child, with a family ticket of 2 adults & 2 children for £10.  Remember that we present the medals and trophies from the gala, and there are always other awards too that are not announced in advance!    Behaviour Unfortunately, we have to bring your attention again to the behaviour in the reception, changing rooms and poolside.  Reception and corridor - Swimmers who are waiting for their session are expected to behave appropriately in the reception area and corridor.  The volunteers out the front can hardly hear themselves think due to the noise sometimes.  Running along the corridor and turning the lights out down there is dangerous – please don’t do it or allow your child to do it. Changing rooms - In the past few weeks, the teachers on poolside have noticed an unacceptable amount of noise coming from the changing rooms from the 7.30 and 8.15 groups as they are changing, and on one occasion, sent a Lifeguard in to see what was going on.  The level of noise got in the way of an enjoyable lesson for the group that was in the water.    Remember that children are the responsibility of their parent or carer once off poolside.  Poolside - There have been instances of repeated behaviour that falls below what we expect of the swimmers.  We don’t want this behaviour to take over any lesson or make our volunteer teachers’ life hard.  Register - Some swimmers are providing the wrong names when the register is taken.  This might seem like a bit of fun but it wastes time and means in an emergency, we may be looking for the wrong person. This can and will lead to action being taken, including being sent out of the session, being excluded from the next session, or being excluded from the Club.  Parents & carers – please make sure that your child is behaving as we would expect them to. Swimmers - If you think that any of this applies to you – think about it and change your behaviour.      Kitbags We are delighted to say that we will be offering the kitbags for sale for just £12.  The Club has heavily subsidised the cost and so the bags are half price to you, complete with a free float and hand paddles, to help solve our storage problems!    Eating and drinking Please remember that eating and drinking less than an hour before swimming can cause problems.  Swimmers – please don’t bring fizzy drinks on poolside as your drink for the session!  Plain water, weak squash or an energy drink is better.   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 wander into the main pool to join the party!  Swimmers must be able to swim 50m to be allowed to use the inflatable island. Just to make things a bit more interesting, we’ll be holding a raffle on splash night, one prize only – an iPod shuffle!  Tickets will be on sale on the night and will be drawn at 9.15pm.    Masters The Masters branch took part in the Medway Masters on 11 November.  The full write-up is on the website, click on the Masters link on the left.  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 likely to be the East Invicta in April 2008 in Canterbury. 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 13 December – Splash night – normal session times CLOSED 20 & 27 December, 3 January 2008 10 Jan 2008 – Restart 25 January, Broadstairs Pavilion – Presentation Evening May 2008 – Annual General Meeting