Sw imming Metro North West Your Area June 2008 – Number 2 Logo Competition Closes July 4th Swimming Newsletter President’s Note By Steve Williams The past month has been another busy one for Swimming Metro North West. We have run our first Championship as a new area. The two day program saw PB’s for many swimmers, new event records set and new champions. We experienced a few minor issues over the weekend, but the team of officials and volunteers worked through the problems and delivered a successful inaugural championship. Thank you to the swimmers, coaches, parents and family members, volunteers and officials who made this weekend happens. A race committee meeting has been called to review the Winter Championship program. This is an opportunity for each club and its members to have input into the future of this area and its Championships. Further details of the meeting will appear in this newsletter. The Bronze squad has just completed session 3 and many of the swimmers are already reaping the benefits of involvement with PB’s as a most obvious result, but are also meeting new people and hopefully developing friends throughout the squad. On behalf of the squad thank you to all the coaches who have freely given their time to help develop these swimmers. We have already received some entries for the competition to design a new logo for our area. Keep those entries coming in. Again, it is a chance to be involved in the future of your area. Ron Brettle and his team of presenters and assessors have been busy helping members gain new skills and credentials. It is great to see people willing to give time to help others gain skills. It is equalling pleasing to see how many people are putting in time and effort to gain those new skills. All this activity will help your area grow. The more people involved the more your area will grow. Steve Williams. SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST NEWSLETTER IS DISTRIBUTED TO EDUCATE AND INFORM. THIS DOES NOT IMPLY ACCURACY NOR ENDORSEMENT BY THE SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST AREA Swimming Metro North West Your District June 2008 – Number 2 Logo Competition Closes July 4th Swimming Newsletter Swimming Metro North West Logo Competition COMPETITION Are you artistic? Can you draw? Do you enjoy designing? If so, you may be interested in designing a LOGO to determine the new brand that will represent the newly formed Swimming Metro North West area. If your design is chosen and judged to represent the swimming clubs in our inaugural designated area, not only will you enjoy the honour and recognition but you will also receive a great prize. (In the event that no submitted proposal is regarded as ‘fitting’; the design regarded as best will receive the prize. The judge/s’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Results to be published in August Newsletter) So, get cracking ........ and start drawing. Closing date is: Friday, 4 th July 2008 *Your design is required to fit into an approx. 50 x50mm square but can be of any shape; remember it may need to be enlarged or decreased in size - so keep it simple. The three recommended area colours are Royal Blue, bright Yellow and Teal, however, proposals may be submitted in black. The area name does not necessarily form a part of the logo. And please, do not forget to include your name, address and club on the entry/s. Have fun and good luck. Send your entries to : DESIGN A LOGO/SMNW C/ - 4 PARAPET PLACE GLENHAVEN NSW 2156 SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST NEWSLETTER IS DISTRIBUTED TO EDUCATE AND INFORM. THIS DOES NOT IMPLY ACCURACY NOR ENDORSEMENT BY THE SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST AREA Swimming Metro North West Your District June 2008 – Number 2 Logo Competition Closes July 4th Swimming Newsletter NSW Swimming - AGM By Graham Taylor based on the AGM Minutes ELECTION OF DIRECTORS The successful candidates were. Sue Bergersen Lyn Elliott Pat Troy Gloria Wiegmann LIFE MEMBERSHIP Pat Troy SERVICE EXCELLENCE AWARDS Eric Witchard Margaret Spurway Ian Lamb Faye Rowles Ballot votes were received from only 87 Clubs/Areas The attendance of club delegates from SMNW was extremely disappointing. SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST NEWSLETTER IS DISTRIBUTED TO EDUCATE AND INFORM. THIS DOES NOT IMPLY ACCURACY NOR ENDORSEMENT BY THE SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST AREA Swimming Metro North West Your District June 2008 – Number 2 Logo Competition Closes July 4th Swimming Newsletter Planning for Perfection DUEL OLYMPIAN A HIT A one day seminar addressing the needs of swimmers and parents in their preparation to achieving perfection happened on Sunday June, 22 nd with several swimmers and parents from our new Area. She may be on her way to Beijing in a couple of months, but on Sunday Alexandra Croak was captivating a different kind of audience at the 2008 planning for Perfection Seminar at the NSW Institute of Sport Complex, Sydney Olympic Park. 60 enthusiastic swimmers and their parents took part in the one day seminar, hosted by the Swimming NSW Projects & Membership Committee, where they were treated to “best in their field” presenters including the Australian swim team’s sports psychologist Paul Penna, physiotherapist and 2004 Athens Olympic Water Polo team member Elise Ashton, Swimming NSW and Sydney Swans massage therapist Jacqui Gilbert, NSW Institute of Sport Head Coach Jim Fowlie, together with nutritionist Alison Miles and chef Brendan Cato. However, the stand out presenter of the day proved to be duel Olympian Alexandra Croak, who hosted the afternoon session and had both swimmers and parents enthralled with her experiences as an athlete at the highest level. Alex began her sporting career as a gymnast, living at the Australian Institute of Sport from the age of 10, where she progressed through to the 2000 Olympic Games and 2002 Commonwealth Games, Alex was also a former national champion. Following numerous injuries that left her unable to compete at the highest level, Alex made the difficult decision to leave the sport and from there took up diving, moving into an unknown world. Alex will now become only the 13th Australian athlete to compete in two different sports at the Olympic Games when she competes in the 2008 Beijing Olympics later this year. All eyes and ears were on Alex during her presentation as she shared her experiences of competing at an elite level in not just one but two sports with the group, whilst fielding questions about her social life, dealing with injuries, otivation and balancing school work with a heavy sporting schedule. Both swimmers and parents left the seminar more prepared to face the challenges that lie ahead of their developing swimming careers. SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST NEWSLETTER IS DISTRIBUTED TO EDUCATE AND INFORM. THIS DOES NOT IMPLY ACCURACY NOR ENDORSEMENT BY THE SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST AREA Swimming Metro North West Your District June 2008 – Number 2 Logo Competition Closes July 4th Swimming Newsletter Official's Corner By Ron Brettle SMNW Winter Championships The Area’s first Winter Championships ran fairly smoothly. Winter is a real squeeze. There are a lot of events to get through in a short time so there is a late finish on both days. That it all ran so smoothly is a credit to our volunteer Technical Officials. A number of these were having their first go at various positions, Chief Recorder, AOE Supervisor etc. They all performed very well and our Area President even survived his first time as Meet Director. I would like to thank all the officials who participated, both those on the roster and those Timekeepers provided by our clubs. Without these willing volunteers it would be impossible to run carnivals such as our Championships. I also thank those Clubs who provided people for feeding (well snacking anyway) and watering officials, and those who provided Runners. Swimming carnivals are labour intensive and we always need lots of help. Technical Official (TO) training and assessing All TOs Australia wide must now be trained and assessed under the National Official Assessing Program. Training and competency assessment can only be carried out by qualified Presenters and Assessors. In late May a number of our senior officials qualified as Presenters and Assessors. My congratulations to all of them and my thanks to Chris Evans and Ken Jones who ran the course on behalf of Swimming NSW. In addition two others have had their existing training and, in one case assessing, qualifications recognised by Swimming Australia. This means that SMNW now has a large pool of qualified people which will allow us to conduct more training and accredit more TOs. Over the last few months nine of our experienced TOs have been undertaking the three part training and assessment sessions that leads to accreditation as a Referee. All of them have qualified as ‘Inspector of Turns’ and eight have now qualified as ‘Judge of Strokes’ with one still to be assessed. At the end of this month they will begin their final training to become Referees. Last month 23 people from various clubs attended training as Timekeepers. While some did their practical assessment on a club night, the majority were assessed during the SMNW Winter Championships. As a result the area now has a further 23 accredited Timekeepers. Congratulations to our new officials. I would like to thank David Hawke and David Holloway for their invaluable assistance in assessing the candidates. SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST NEWSLETTER IS DISTRIBUTED TO EDUCATE AND INFORM. THIS DOES NOT IMPLY ACCURACY NOR ENDORSEMENT BY THE SWIMMING METRO NORTH WEST AREA Swimming Metro North West Your District June 2008 – Number 2 Logo Competition Closes July 4th Swimming Newsletter Becoming an accredited Technical Official If you want to become a TO then talk to your Club Secretary.