MINUTES OF MAIDSTONE SWIMMING CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2010

AT MAIDSTONE LEISURE CENTRE ON 8THNOVEMBER 2010

The meeting commenced at 7.35pm

Present:Greg Lynn, Zoe Lynn, Jill Hampshire, Richard Hampshire, Clive Bradburn, Paula

Warrington, Caroline Perrin, Karen Taylor, Lee Taylor, Steve White, Alan Smith, Steve

Rose, Mandy Thomas, Tricia Lynn, Peter Hasler, Claire Restall, Duncan Taylforth, Carina

Enderby, Paul Chilman, Claire Muller, Chris Narbeth

Apologies:Len Mooney, Peter Smithers, Karen Withers, Chris Hearsey, Stella Hasler

Notice Convening the Meeting

Read by the Chairman.

Matters Arising from Minutes

The minutes from the previous AGM were read.

1)Richard Hampshire – asked for detail on the £5,969 equipment cost in 2009. This will be investigated by Chris Narbeth.

The minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting were adopted as correct.

Annual Reports

Copies of all the reports were given to attendees to read prior to the start of the Annual General Meeting.

Chairman’s Report

2010 has, once again, seen the continued progression of Maidstone Swimming Club. As I explained last year this is an ongoing process, but any of you who have been with the club over the last three or four years will not have failed to notice the way in which the club is now moving forward.

This improvement is, primarily, down to our dedicated coaching team led by Claire Muller (Head Coach) and Frank Kennedy (Assistant Head Coach) who have continued to focus this year on returning the club to being a more competitive swimming club, competing at the highest level possible. I would like to thank them all for their hard work. They have built on the successes of last year and we are moving forward to 2011 in an even stronger position. Performance across the board is already proving the importance of their high expectations regarding attendance, behaviour and attitude and I hope that both swimmers and parents continue to give them the support, respect and encouragement they require to move the club on to a very successful future. Expectations will continue to remain high in the coming year. Becoming a more successful club means that competition for places within squads becomes tougher and swimmers wanting to secure and keep places within a squad will need to prove their commitment through dedication and hard work. I am sure that, as swimmers see how they are improving, they will gain the motivation and hunger to train even harder.

In turn success and growth of the club does bring problems of its own, like the need for more pool space and indeed increased training opportunities. These are areas we have been looking at and proposals are being considered currently to be phased in over the next year. As with all things this cannot happen over night and I hope you will be patient whilst we trial solutions to find the best way ahead. We will initially be looking to utilise current pool time to its full potential and then to increase pool time when and where we can. This will, inevitably incur some additional costs. However, unlike many of our competitors, Maidstone Swimming Club is, and will continue to be, a non-profit making organisation so any additional fees will only be charged to cover costs.

I have again been encouraged by the number of parents who have volunteered to help this year, in whatever capacity, and would like to thank them for their support and hard work. There is, however, a lot that goes on behind the scenes in order for the club to survive both for your children’s enjoyment and achievement and we are always looking for more people to become involved so if you are in any way able to help, whether it be poolside, on committee, by way of sponsorship or in any other way please, please volunteer.

I believe this next year will again see our club go from strength to strength and I wish all of the swimmers every success for 2011!!!

Mandy Thomas

Chairman

Diving Report

We currently have 28 divers, this is broken down of:-

6 in Learn to Dive (4 of these are going to move into Bronze in January)

14 in Bronze (6 of these are going to move into Silver in January)

2 in Silver (1 of these will go into Gold from January)

6 in Gold

We still have a long waiting list although we have run two 10 week courses of Learn to Dive with 10 children starting in each course since September. There are 31 on the waiting list. We are thinking about running another Learn to Dive class in January but the problem we have is if there are any potential children that could pass the Learn to Dive course they would then be invited to join bronze but the bronze class is already busy.

Learn to Swim

Capacity

We currently run 4 half hour LTS sessions (encompassing the first 6 ASA levels) per week in the 2 teaching pools, and are not largely full with only 3 or 4 spots still available.

In the past we have also run a session between 7.00 and 7.30 on a Friday but at present we don’t have teachers able to commit to this time slot. Given the popularity of the sessions the committee would like to re-establish this session once new teachers become available.

Note to membership – remember is you have an interest in getting involved with teaching, the club will introduce and guide you through the process and will pay part or all of your qualification fees (no previous swimming experience required – just some of your time and enthusiasm).

Innovations

We have introduced a change of approach to teaching in the deeper training pool. We now use a register upon which we record the progress of the individual swimmers by stroke. Then instead of having 3 set groups we have 1 group and then divide the swimmers between the teachers dependent upon which stroke is the main focus for that session. It also gives us the chance to identify where one stroke may be lagging generally within the group or for individual swimmers and can plan future sessions accordingly.

We are also planning to start awarding the ASA level achievement badges although we still have some admin issues to overcome with this.

Given the take-up levels the committee needs to decide if we need to restrict access to LTS in a formal rather than random way (say by age, clearly if we capped LTS at say 9 or 10 then we increase the likelihood that we will be concentrating on the future competitive swimmers for the club).

Teachers

LTS is staffed entirely by volunteer swimming teachers, many of whom have been trained through the club in the past. I would like to thank Stephanie, Jill, Carina, Keith, Zoe, Jenny, Chloe and Keely for all their help during the past year.

Thanks

Greg Lynn

Membership Report

As at the 1st November 2010 the number of members is as follows:-

SWIMMING

SQUAD / NUMBERS / TOTALS
Learn to Swim / 70
Yellow 1 / 50
Yellow 2 / 29
Yellow 3 / 10
Blue / 22
Red / 3
Black / 28
Gold / 25
Masters / 16 / 253

DIVING

SQUAD / NUMBERS / TOTALS
Bronze / 10
Silver / 1
Gold / 6
Masters / 1 / 18

TOTAL CLUB MEMBERS

SQUAD / NUMBERS
SWIMMING / 253
DIVING / 18
TOTAL / 271
  • Payment of fees on a quarterly basis is mainly done by cheque with small number of people opting to use bank transfer or standing order.
  • Collection of learn to swim fees is always the most difficult but it is hoped that a desk on Thursday evening will help this.
  • Newsletters are produced quarterly and sent with the invoices. In future these will also be available as a pdf on the website.

Peter Hasler

Membership Secretary

Peter noticed between the membership numbers he has for diving and Claire’s figures – this could be due to members doing cross disciplines. The membership has increased over the last year from 256 to 271. Peter also mentioned that Learn to Swim are the hardest group to collect fees from.

Swimming Report (Claire Muller)

We have had a very successful year, mainly due to the increased attendance of the swimmers; we are a lot stronger as a club and more competitive. We are trying to secure more pool time for all the squads, extra hours have already been added to some of the lower squads, the committee have now asked for 60% attendance to keep a place in a squad, this is due to the club being very full, we are unable to move swimmers up the squads if we have other swimmers that don’t attend very often taking up the places.

Kent County Championships

We came 14th out of 32 with the boys and 16th out of 32 with the girls, a big improvement on last year.

In 2009 we had 50 Kent times, 2010 we had 70, we currently have nearly 70 Kent times for 2011 with 2 months left to gain times.

South East Region Championships

We had 4 swimmers this year gain times – Paige Marshall, Rhys Thomas, Olliver Jenkins and Annabelle Keppel-Palmer.

National Arena Swimming League

Last year we finished 4th in the league, a big improvement on 8th the previous year. This year we came 1st in the 1st round, 38 points ahead of the next team, we have 2 more galas to go, I am hoping to come in the 1st three and gain promotion to Division 1.

Kent Junior League

We are currently 2nd in the league, division 3, with 1 gala to go, a big improvement on 5th last year, there are 5 divisions.

Medway Championships

We had a really good year at the Medways this year gaining approximately 10 medals each championship gala.

A copy of all results can be found on the Medway ASA website.

Millennium League

We came 1st in the Millennium League for the second year running.

Italy Trip

For the first time we took a team of 16 swimmers to Italy for a training camp, they trained for 4 hours a day in a 50m pool adding and extra 16 hours of training in total. All the swimmers had a great time; we hope to do this again next year.

We have had a lot of parents quality as teachers this year’ we now have a good strong team of coaches. I would like to thank all the teachers, coaches and parents that give up their time to help with the club.

Claire Muller

Treasurer’s Report

Maidstone Swimming Club Accounts Summary 1 Nov 2009 – 31 Oct 2010

Current Account / Savings Account / Total
Opening Balance 1 Nov 2009 / £21,868 / £20,298 / £42,166
Income / £66,156 / £129 / £66,285
Outgoings –
Pool Hire
Coaching
Affiliation Fees
Equipment
Training Courses
Open/Club Champs
Social
Galas
Italy Camp / £37,597
£16,605
£5,912
£2,656
£2,465
£1,359
£987
£518
£221
Total / £68,320 / £0 / £68,320
Closing Balance 31 Oct 2010 / £19,704 / £20.427 / £40,131

We continue to be one of the best value swimming clubs in the region.

Maidstone Leisure Centre (via Serco) is one of the more expensive facilities.

We endeavour to keep fees to a bare minimum to cover our costs.

All additional charges for galas are purely to meet the actual costs.

This year we have been more actively supporting both adults and swimmers to attain coaching certificates to broaden and strengthen our coaching team.

Bank Reconciliation for Oct 2010

Bank Statement close 31/1010

Uncleared Cheques18-Sep-10101086A.S.A.£50.50

19-Oct-10101102Kent ASA£3.00

19-Oct-10101103Claire Restall£26.93

28-Oct-10101105Maths School£1,008.00

31-Oct-10101106Claire Muller£667.50

31-Oct-10101107Hazel Ware£90.00

31-Oct-10101108George Carpenter£ 8.00

31-Oct-10101109Frank Kennedy£ 250.00

Balance£19,703.58

Spreadsheet Balance£19,703.58

Current Month Income vs Expense by Category

Month / 201010
Data
Cat / Sum of Paid in / Sum of Paid out
Club Champs / 73
Coaches – Diving / 327
Coaches – Swimming / 1,977
Equipment / 100
Fees / 4,309
Galas / 847 / 433
Pool Hire – Maths / 1,008
Training Courses / 325
Italy Camp / 36
Grand Total / 5,155 / 4,279

Rolling 12mths Income vs Expense Comparison

Data
Month / Sum of Paid in / Sum of Paid out
200911 / 1,718.00 / 12,111.17
200912 / 6,059.75 / 1,403.75
201001 / 7,142.00 / 5,955.21
201002 / 3,663.30 / 11,867.51
201003 / 15,169.50 / 8,197.09
201004 / 6,936.00 / 1,446.38
201005 / 3,186.00 / 12,249.23
201006 / 2,732.75 / 2,755.56
201007 / 8,841.50 / 7,193.74
201008 / 6,182.00 / 12,860.70
201009 / 12,596.00 / 1,227.64
201010 / 5,155.00 / 4,279.04
201011 / 0.00 / 0.00
Grand Total / 79,381.80 / 81,547.02

Year on Year Bank Statement Comparison

2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2010
Jan / £9,404 / £20,377 / £25,010 / £18,783
Feb / £6,671 / £13,161 / £23,070 / £20,131
Mar / £8,916 / £20,872 / £21,139 / £22,399
Apr / £8,482 / £22,016 / £23,908 / £21,661
May / £9,745 / £15,069 / £24,801 / £15,374
Jun / £17,139 / £12,443 / £20,567 / £13,663
Jul / £19,008 / £16,348 / £22,530 / £19,346
Aug / £17,837 / £17,184 / £23,683 / £8,584
Sep / £9,278 / £17,857 / £33,288 / £19,153
Oct / £11,817 / £23,100 / £23,371 / £21,808
Nov / £16,716 / £14,633 / £21,046
Dec / £16,539 / £22,137 / £17,114
Average / £12,629 / £17,933 / £23,294 / £18,090

Butterfield Private Bank30/09/2010

Account No. 64192001£20,427.79

Question was asked regarding the equipment – the timing equipment is not listed as an asset and is not covered on the leisure centre’s insurance, however we do have savings to cover any disaster. It was also noted that income does not quite cover outgoings, it was pointed out that our hire costs are high.

Proposal to receive and adopt the reports and annual accounts –

Proposed – Peter Hasler

Seconded – Paula Warrington

Election of Officers

NamePositionNominated BySeconded By

Mandy ThomasChairpersonCaroline PerrinGaynor Kennedy

Chris NarbethTreasurerPaul ChilmanJo White

Tricia LynnGen. SecretaryGaynor KennedyIan Johnson

Peter HaslerMembershipClaire MullerSteve Rose

Claire RestallDivingKen SurryKay Burford

Carina EnderbyGala/ChampionshipKeith BaileyDuncan Taylforth

Greg LynnFixtures/TeachingClaire MullerKeith Bailey

Steve RoseWelfare/ASA MembershipCaroline PerrinGaynor Kennedy

Paul ChilmanShopScott MarshallTricia Lynn

Caroline PerrinTrophiesMandy ThomasGaynor Kennedy

Len MooneyMastersPeter HaslerPaula Warrington

Paula WarringtonSocialChris BonifaceDavid Crane

Steve WhiteGeneralCaroline PerrinGaynor Kennedy

Proposal to elect the above nominations –

Proposed – Caroline Perrin

Seconded – Steve Rose

Any Other Business

1)Clive Bradburn has offered to stand in for Len at meetings. This was agreed and he will give Tricia his email address.

2)Alan Smith commented that he was concerned about the 60% attendance rule stating as an example his own son who loves swimming but has too much homework. He was told to let his coach know when his son is unable to attend due to school work, exams, etc and that although we have this rule we do take into account reasons for absence. It was stressed that it is important to communicate with the swimmer’s coach. It was pointed out that our registers do not take into account attendance at galas and time trials, but this is something that is taken into account. Also some swimmers’ attendance has fallen due to club championships being on Tuesdays during September, October and November. Paul Chilman said that the 60% is the goal of the club but everyone poolside is approachable and you must speak to the coaches.

3)Caroline Perrin said that some trophies have been returned damaged, Nigel has tried to fix them but some are too damaged. It was agreed that these should be replaced.

4)It was pointed out that we should list our assets on an annual basis, especially as there is a new Contract Manager at the Leisure Centre. Richard Hampshire has agreed to help with this.

5)Richard Hampshire said that he felt we should be getting more funding to help with courses, the ASA website advertises funding. Steve Rose said that he has tried this site but the information is incorrect. He will try to contact Maidstone Council’s Sports Development.

6)Peter Hasler asked if the Club is likely to receive a ticket allocation for the 2012 Olympics. This is to be looked into.

The meeting closed at 8.12pm.

Signed: ……………………………………………………..

Chairman

Minutes of Maidstone Swimming Club AGM, 8th November 2010

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