Minutes of Annual General Meeting 19 May 2009
Racing Greyhound, Hereson Rd, Ramsgate
1. Apologies - Paul Highsted. Attendees - Ian White (Treasurer), Gary Hams, Michele Hams, Becky Bexle, Emma Kemp, Emma Warren, Darren Gambrill, Darren Sayer, Tony New, Zena Mays, Cathy Tuddenham, Sue Smith, Alan Tilbury, Sue White (minutes)
2. Minutes of last AGM - adopted without amendment
3. Chairman's Report:
Firstly I would like to thank everyone involved within the club for their help and support over the last 12 months. At thimes it has been a difficult year with lots of highs and lows. This year was a year of change; from the end of an era to the introductionj of new children, new parents and new Committee members, new teaching plans, new swimming lessons including synchro. Hopefully these will make the club stronger in the future, time will tell!
A special mention to some of these new Committee members - first goes to Alan Tilbury. What an excellent effore and a great asset to the club, he is always willing to help. Second to Darren Sayer, who keeps us up to date on emergency contacts and changing swimmers. Finally Paul Highsted for his work as Secretary and the work he has completed behind the scene supporting the entire swimming club.
Let me continue about the changes and difficulties ahead.
Waiting list is still a problem. A good problem for us but not for the children waiting. We have limited space and very few children leaving, hopefully they enjoy what we are doing. Sue White and Sue Smith continue to work on this and try and bring children in as soon as space is available.
The National Plan for Teaching Swimming has changed. We have found a number of problems intergrating this into our sessions. It is the balance between skills, strength and consistency of stroke. THis is not always recognised when children attempt the new Stages.
Teachers on poolside - we have tried to tempt parents on poolside to help. It is hard, hot, wet but when you get the hang of it, lots of fun. If any parent wants to come on poolside and help, please let one of the teachers know. We will split the cost of training and fully reimburse once you have stayed with the club for an agreed period.
What about the successes???
Synchro - thanks to Sue White and the ladies of Hythe Synchro for their efforts this year, with the schools event and our local event held at Ramsgate. This has been a revelation to some of the swimmers, hopefully more to follow.
Waterpolo - thanks to Lawrence Arnold for his help, always a big hit with the children, including the accidents and incidents.
Personal Survival - planned to repeat again soon, lots of noise and fun but with a serious side to it.
Gala - what an excellent evening. I understand one or two lessons to be learnt, but on the night overall very well run and a big success. Special thanks again to a number of the Committee - Sue White, who marshalled everyone into position and then tried to leave us to it. Reg Pritchard from Margate, the ladies from DOver and every one of the parents who helped the night run so smoothly - again a big thanks to you.
I was asked to keep it quick, but I would like to thank a few more - Chalkie for his work balancing the books, Sue, Emma and Rachel for the work in the small pool (that is very hard work - I have tried). Tony, Darren, the Club Captain, other swimmers including Grace and Maria, the rest of the Committee - Emma, Louise, Jane - sorry if I have missed anyone.
Thank you again for your help and making Thursday nights special, it would not happen without your support.
4. Secretarys Report (read by Sue White in Paul Highsted's absence)
The Committee met 6 times during the year. Meetings were attended by 60-100% of members.]
I'd like to draw members attention to the new rule:
- In any 12 week period if a swimmer attends twice or less, the club will contact the family to see if the place is still required. If the family say yes, the place will be held. If the family say no or do not respond, the place will be filled by another swimmer
- If the swimmer attends twice or less in a consecutive12 week period, the club will advise the family that the place will be filled by another swimmer
- This rule excludes absence due to sickness, extended family holidays, etc
- This rule applies where subs are being paid. Other Club guidelines apply where subs are not being paid.
The background to this rule is that in one session in the main pool, there were 5 places being taken up by swimmers who only attended occasionally. It's a shame to pay for water that we aren't using and we are always running a waiting list of 20 or so swimmers in the main pool.
In late April/early May, the club wrote to all families who had submitted a membership application form for the main pool and who were waiting for a tryout. Of over 30 families, 19 confirmed that they are still interested in joining the club. Details of the other families have been taken off the list and website and have been destroyed (the details, not the families).
One person whose daughter was on the waiting list last year was Darren Sayer. He was the only parent to keep in touch, offering to help. Darren is now the Membership Officer, very efficiently dealing with joiners and leavers, and taking a fair amount of work from the Secretary and Treasurer.
Lastly I'd like to thank Alan Tilbury who has kept the desk warm for me on the occasions where I've not been able to come along. Alan is a very welcoming face of the club and it's been a pleasure working with him.
5. Treasurers Report
This report covers the club accounts for the period 1st March 2008 to 28 February 2009.
It shows an overall surplus for the year of £1084.75. This was mainly due to an undercharge on pool hire by TLF. This matter was raised with the accounts dept both in person and on the phone, however they decide the invoiced amount was correct but in reality we had been undercharged by about £900.
Over the course of the year our receipts and payments have both decreased compared to 2008. There were several reasons for this:
- we did not have a gala or presentation evening
- as a result we had less donations received in the form of sponsorship
- a reduction in the clubs sales and purchases
- the pool hire matter as above
It should also be noted that over the last year there was a slight increase of about £250 in the amount received for subs and joining fees, while the club paid out more in teacing cost in the form of training and payments to outside teachers/coaches.
There was also a small increase in ASA insurance costs.
However overall the club funds still look healthy and as you can see are represented as:
cash in hand 6.47
badge float 5.50
cash in bank 4907.14
cash in BS 9590.30
Total 14509.41
Over the next 12 months I am expecting the main income figures subs and joining fees to remain at around £12,500. While our main outgoing of pool hire charges should be about £9,500 unless of course TLF insist on undercharging us again!
So I think that the Club can continue to function with subs remaining at £9 per month per child.
I would finally like to say I have been Treasurer of the club for about 8 years and feel it is time for someone else to take ovre. It is not an arduous job anymore as most subs are collected by standing order and it is not essential that you turn up for all the sessions every week. While I will carry on in the short term if there is no other willing volunteer found tonight. I would like the club to decide on a date by which time we will have another Treasurer in place.
6. Pool reports
Small pool - Sue Smith - Another year has passe and again the club has been consistently busy. The overall membership has remained about the same and we still have the waiting list (where children have been trialled) and are waiting to be offered a place, and a list of children who are awaiting trial. We have had several queries about the waiting list recently. Separate lists are held for each pool.
As advised last year, we have introduced the new National Plan for Teaching Swimming which are Stages not Levels, and as expected there is a lot more content and the expected standards are much tougher than the previous Levels. Also all the sections have to be passed to attain the award.
All the children are working very hard and it is a pleasure to watch their progress week after week. As usual we have done badges throughout the year, along with basic personal survival and water polo, both of which are always enjoyed.
Stages 3 and 4 still spend part of most lessons in the main pool, they really enjoy their time in there. This gives them confidence in deep water and it enables them to learn skills that they are unable to perform in shallow water.
We have gained 2 additional teachers in the small pool this year, Emma Warren and Carol Cook, they are both very experienced in the pool environment, and it is fantastic for the children as they can be given so much more individual attention. Thanks also to Lisa Andrews who helped us out during the year.
Well done to all the children who took part in the gala last Saturdya, and we hope everyone had an enjoyable evening. Thanks to Sue White who pulled the whole evening together, like doing a jigsaw puzzle and to all the poolside helpers on the night. Sorry about the confusion for the Small Pool races, but we were unaware that we could not use it for the evening.
Lastly as Head Teacher can I thank everyone for their input to the club over the last year and I look foward to a successful 2009-2010.
Main Pool comments - Sue White, Tony Taylor - we currently have around 100 swimmers on the registers, with just 4 regular teachers, including Tony New and Darren Gambrill. Unfortunately we lost Colin StJohn Jeffrey on poolside during the year but appreciate his time and efforts on poolside and wish him well. As mentioned the new NPTS Stages have slowed down progress for swimmers. We are impressed with the attitude of our swimmers in the main pool - overall they have a consistently good attitude of trying new things and certainly with the 9.00 group, they let us experiment!
7. Voting
The meeting accepted the nominations as follows:
Alan Tilbury for Secretary
Tony Taylor for Chair
Ian White for Treasurer
Sue White for Vice Chair and Vice Sec
Ordinary Committee members - Emma Kemp, Sue Smith, Tony New, Becky Bexley, Emma Warren and we welcome Darren Sayer on to the Committee
Tony Taylor asked the meeting to approve the appointment of Cathy Tuddenham as our Honorary President - this was passed unanimously and with applause. Cathy said that she first came to the club in about 1973/74, as a poolside helper, which at the time meant cleaning the changing rooms and counting heads. She (as with a lot of people) then progressed to taking her teaching qualifications. Cathy said that she is honoured to be our President.
8. Any Other Business
Alan Tilbury asked if we were still considering including badges and certificates in the monthly subs charge. After discussion, the Chair put forward the proposal to include badges and certificates in the monthly subs - this was approved unanimously by the meeting. This will take immediate effect but will not apply retrospectively.
Zena Mays offered her thanks to the teachers and committee for their time in running the club, it is appreciated.
Emma Warren gave some feedback on the gala - she said that, as a parent, she felt very proud of the children who took part. Emma said that she was very impressed with the running of the gala, and felt it was very professional.
Emma also brought up a concern about the standard of cleanliness of the changing rooms on a Thursday night. This will be addressed with TLF>
Emma Kemp stated that the trophy custodian role needs to be handed over ahead of next years' Presentation Evening.
Jane Pond said that although she has stood down from the committee, she is willing to help out if required.
Gary Hams stated that the gala had reignited interest in swimming, and an emerging interest in lifeguard training. This is good news for all sorts of reasons, not least because the PS courses will start next month! Earlier in the meeting Gary said that he had been impressed with the gala, that it had looked very slick and the swimmers looked impressive as they moved around the pool. He stated that the sound quality had improved.
There being no other business, the meeting closed at 8.15pm.
