Saxon Crown Swimming Club (Lewisham)

Minutes of the 41st AGM held on Monday 3rd July 2017

At Glass Mill Leisure Centre

41 Loampit Vale, London SE13

Chaired by Neil Amos

1. Apologies : Received from Ruth Owens and Davi Ferreira

2. The minutes of the last AGM were approved.

3. There were no matters arising

4. Executive Committee reports were presented and AGREED. Reports from Ruth and Davi were received my email and presented.

5. The accounts for 2016/17 were presented. The accounts were AGREED.

6. RE-ELECTION OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The following members of the Executive Committee were nominated and re-elected for 2016/17:

 CHAIRMAN Neil Amos

 DEPUTY CHAIRMAN Marion Levine

 TREASURER: Carrie Markey

 MASTERS: Ruth Owens

 SECRETARY: Nicki Kirkman

 WELFARE OFFICER: Marion Levine  TROPHY SECRETARY: Brennan Lewis

 GALA SECRETARY: Rozanne Ferrigan

7. There were no proposed changes to the Club Constitution.

Saxon Crown (Lewisham) Chair’s 2017 AGM report

The Club remains in a strong position, both in and out of the pool. This is due to the dedication of our swimmers, the parents who get them to and from the pool every day and cheer them on, and the staff, coaches and the volunteers who give up a huge amount of their free time to make the club run.

Last year saw many changes to the Club and this year has been more of a consolidation, although the Club, coaches and committee have continued to be very active:

 We welcomed Tom Hunter as our second employed coach, and also many Level 1 qualified volunteers who are helping with the younger squads. We also welcomed Kay Grimshaw as our new President

 Through our grant from Lewisham Council run by Michael Griffin we have helped 11 volunteers gain their Level 1 qualification and 5 gain their Level 2 qualification, which has enabled us to provide more support to our Tiger Sharks and Learn to Swim squads. We also ran top up classes in the holidays for more than 400 Primary school children in the borough who needed extra help with their swimming

 We continue to operate our contract to provide swimming lessons to Downderry Primary School, which brings income for the Club

 We ran our annual Future Champs gala in June and also hosted the December National Arena League round at Glassmill

 We introduced a new range of kit, which will be compulsory at galas from September

 Our masters went on a warm weather camp and we ran a weekend camp at Crystal Palace. The CP site is now showing its age and we have decided not to run a camp there again.

We have had good success in the pool this year:

 Four of our swimmers have again reached the English Summer championships; we have three county champions and 14 county and regional medallists; and have had 35 swimmers making the regional or Kent championships, including several competing for the first time. One of our swimmers has also been chosen to be part of the 2017 England Talent Pathway  We entered a new league, the White Horse League, to give more opportunities for a wider range of swimmers to compete. This has got off to a good start with the swimmers enjoying themselves

 We retained our standings as finalists in the National Arena League Division One but unfortunately were relegated to Division 2 of the Kent Junior League. However, we won our first round of this year’s competition, so will be pushing for promotion back up

 Masters swimmers continued to gain medals at county and national events and we now have a British record holder

 Due to their success, several of our swimmers again received bursaries from Lewisham Council to help fund their trips to championships and kit.

After a strong growth in membership in last year, we have maintained our numbers this year. Membership in June 2017 was 464, up from a then record 442 in June last year, an increase of 100 from three years ago. We have introduced more Masters sessions and improved the opportunities for Club swimmers. We continue to have to cap numbers in some squads for now, especially Glassmill, as we are full, but we have some spaces in squads at Downham and Wavelengths. It is great to see so many younger swimmers continuing to join us and some very promising competitive swimmers at the younger ages.

The Club remains in a financially strong position and we have built up reserves this year to ensure we have some contingency (three years ago we had none). This, together with continuing high membership numbers, has meant for the first time for many years there will be no fee increases next season. We realise swimming fees are a big regular expenditure for parents and we will do what we can to keep these as low as possible while providing high quality coaching and training. We are helped by regular and prompt payment of fees and many thanks again to Laurie Hanlon for being such an effective Membership Secretary.

The Club is in the process of gaining ASA Swim 21 re-accreditation this year, which means that we are recognised by the ASA as having the policies and procedures in place to run effectively and safely. This year, we updated our codes of conduct. Following a number of incidents, we also gained agreement from Glassmill that group changing rooms will be open for the sole use of Saxon Crown swimmers, which we hope has made the swimmers feel safer.

I continue to spend a lot of time building relationships with Lewisham Council and the two leisure operators, Fusion and 1Life, who run the pools in which we swim. Relationships are now good and we get strong co-operation from leisure operator staff and management in many of our pools. We had to adjust our timetable in January this year due to financial pressures faced by Fusion and the Council, but these lengthy discussions were conducted in a good spirit and a satisfactory outcome was reached for all parties, even though we have less time now at Glassmill than we would like. With waiting lists to join the Club, attendance at all our sessions remains really important. Regular attendance is also critical for swimmers who want to achieve success.

It has been great to see so many swimmers and parents continuing to help out in the running of the Club, and more recently new volunteers getting involved, especially at the Future Champs gala where we had over 30 people helping to run the event. We also have new parents starting to gain qualifications in judging and attending the Team Manager courses. We have very low numbers of qualified officials (4) and we need to increase our resilience. This should be a priority for next year.

As with any amateur sports club, we have had our ups and downs. Coaching resilience has remained an issue and we still need to boost our training team by 1-2 coaches. We continue to look for a dedicated land training coach. We have also not been able to hold our novice gala or end of season celebrations yet due to lack of time and people to help organise.

I would like to thank my fellow committee members and other volunteers for all the time and commitment they put in to the running of the Club. We are, to all intents and purposes, a small business and there is a huge amount of often unseen work involved in keeping the Club running. As an example, we were required this year to set up a pension scheme for our employees. With very little help on offer from the ASA, we needed to do all the research ourselves and make all the arrangements. We were also helped by Kim Hooper, a lady who swims at Wavelengths when our masters do and heard me complaining one morning. She is a qualified accountant and offered her services for free. It is generosity like that which enables the Club to run. We also unexpectedly had to switch bank accounts in September, which involved a lot of work to open a new account and ensure all payments were switched.

We have lots of ideas for the coming season, with a strong competition calendar and plans to run galas. We would like to organise a warm weather camp, and the website, communications and our social media generally could do with improvement. I would like us to introduce a text messaging service to alert swimmers to any last minute changes in sessions. We are currently conducting a survey and will use this to refresh our development plan for the next few years. As always, the more people who help the more we can do, so please get in touch!

Thank you to all my fellow committee members, volunteers, Davi and the coaching team for working with me this year. You should continue to be proud of how we have helped move the Club forward. I have decided to stay on for a further year (should I be re-elected) and I look forward to working with you in 2017/18.

NEIL AMOS, Saxon Crown Chair. July 2017 Saxon Crown (Lewisham) Head Coach 2017 AGM report

This year’s AGM marks the end of my first full season. It has seen the introduction of a new structure, and the request from some of our coaches to reduce/inability to increase their commitment due to their own full time jobs, making necessary some changes on the coaching staff for each squad.

We also welcomed Tom Hunter to a more full time role with the club, which will provide the club with more coaching resilience through the season. Although it has been indeed a very hard transitioning period for us all, there are several learning points for coaches, the swimmers and parents. Listening to feedback, and with the best interest of the swimmers in mind, we made one change to that structure in January (the re-introduction of the Top Club squad) to accommodate some of our older, non-competitive, swimmers.

It is my belief that, overall, the new squad structure is paying benefits for the squads that were most affected by the changes:

 Pre-Squad- With the increase of 1.5 hours on their weekly schedule, it is providing stronger, and more technically efficient younger (under 11) swimmers, which is showing on the number of swimmers who are making now a faster transition to Junior Squad.

 Junior Squad- The introduction of the morning session has been overall well received, with an average of 6 swimmers through the season. Those morning sessions are mainly aimed at technical development. As mentioned before, a couple of swimmers did not even stay a full season on this squad before warranting the move to Performance B, or to at least start bridging with them. This shows that the movement between those 3 squads are more streamlined for those swimmers who are prepared to work hard, have a good attendance (most of those swimmers come in the morning sessions!) and also are willing to work on their technique.

This highlights one of the most important things in swimming, which is consistency! Those swimmers above took up the offer of more water time/sessions, and through consistency in their training, their improvement was great to watch. They are a great example for other squads, either above or below, to follow!

Saxon has had a very positive year in the water this season.

2016 Winter Nationals

For the first time in I believe many years a Saxon swimmer qualified to swim at the 2016 Winter nationals, a competition that brought together the best swimmers in Britain! Names like Ben Proud, Molly Renshaw (in which she broke a British record!), Chris Walker-Hebborn (Rio Silver Medallist) among many others. Luke Douglas got to race his 50m Freestyle in the same race (although not same heat) as Ben Proud!

Arena League 2016-2017 At the end of the round 2, we managed to secure a spot in the top half final gala. In that final Gala we secured a respectable 7th place, easily securing our position in Division One of the London league.

Kents Championships 2017

We are proud to have 3x times county champions: Evie Davis, who won the 13 y/old 50m and 100m Freestyle for girls; Ione Buchanan who won the 16y/old 50m Backstroke for girls and Josh Monaghan-Coombs who won 3 golds in the classification events.

Congratulations too to Mateusz Szopinski who was second in the 16 y/old 100m and 200m boys butterfly, Luke Douglas who also grabbed three silvers in the 16 y/old 50m Freestyle, 50m Breaststroke and 50m Butterfly for boys and Josh Monaghan-Coombs who also won a sliver.

Luke was also 3rd in the 16 y/old 200m Individual Medley for boys and Tony Abazie gained a great bronze in the 14y/old 50m Freestyle for boys. Our swimmers swam a total of 7 other finals, with Evie swimming 3 finals, Pharell Nimoh swimming 2 finals, Miga Jian swimming in the 50m backstroke final and Zachary Kirkman swimming in the 50m backstroke final.

2017 London Summer regionals championships

We had 16 Saxon swimmers qualifying for this year’s Age and Youth London Summer Championships.

With over 15 Finals swam in-between those 2 competitions, our swimmers did overall really well. Congratulations to Mateusz on his Silver Medal!

White Horse League-

We entered this league for the first time this year, with the idea to provide those swimmers who normally do not get much experience from the Arena League rounds, to also have a great team experience.

With 4 rounds, and providing a new experience to many of our swimmers, we finished this season with a respectable 6th place

2017 Kent Junior League-

Our team did us extremely proud and won their gala on the first round. Next 2 rounds in:

9th September 2017 - Round 2

18th November 2017 - Round 3 (Final Round) For the next season, we will try to stabilise even more the coaching roster, and try to utilise as much as possible our newly qualified level 2 staff. We are also exploring avenues to improve the Land training, maybe in conjunction with Fusion.

Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude towards to all coaches for their hard work this season in helping the swimmers achieve all they could achieve and also to the club volunteers: committee members, officials, and non-technical helpers. Many times you are the “unsung” heroes, and without your help, it would be impossible to run the club!

Best regards

Davi Ferreira

Saxon Crown (Lewisham) Masters 2017 AGM report

2016 was a successful year for masters :

 Training for the May 2016 European Championships meant H1 sessions were well attended.

 Masters had a £1k budget which allowed us to organise supplementary training and events.

 Time was spent improving administration processes and new swimmer comms.

 Despite not having a large event to train towards numbers attending Masters sessions have remained relatively high (with exception of Thursdays).

 Overall swimmer numbers increased from 50 to 55 (June 2016-May 2017) and we continue to receive a healthy number of enquiries.

 Continued event success - Brutal Swim Wales - 6 Saxon attended, coming 1st and 3rd for 5k's.

 We took a difficult decision to split the club on Wednesday evenings – only two lanes at Glassmill meant that the session was overcrowded – meaning we moved all elite swimmers to Wavelengths. We lost a couple of swimmers owing to this change.

 We continue to be challenged by the fees and sets offered by Greenwich Royals. We currently have at least 5 Saxon swimmers who have also joined GR to supplement training (more cost effective to join both than increase SC sets). Despite changes to our timetable to compete with RG (longer session on Sunday with Tom as coach, early morning on Tuesday, more options for elite swimmers) – we have struggled to retain these swimmers as sole Saxons.  We’ve secured a number of swims over the summer months – when the timetable is traditionally reduced.

Immediate requests:

 Could Masters own a small budget each year to contribute towards additional training (intensive weekends/ Charlton sets/ gala fees)?

 A set with three lanes at Glass Mill – set at a sociable time (between 1900-2100)

Priorities and progress 2017/2018 Priorities were determined on 2016 feedback. These will be reviewed based on 2017 survey results.

1. Coaching & sets – work closer with our existing coaching talent to ensure swimmers feel they have a devoted team focused primarily on swimmer fitness

Comments:

 Jon N stepped up as Lead Masters coach - has oversight of all sessions to ensure all ladder up to a common goal (maintain/improve fitness levels)

 Each set has been given a specific purpose – providing clarity for coaches and swimmers

 Sets introduced at Glass Mill

 Wednesday Glass Mill set was split by ability owing to overcrowding. Elite swimmers invited to join Davi at Downham 1830-2030.

 Request that Masters are also allowed option to join at 1900?

 Feedback from swimmers attending 1930-2100 at GM is incredibly positive

 Early morning session introduced - but removed owing to low attendance

 1.5 session introduced on Sunday mornings and Tom as coach (previously virtual)

 Colin’s absence highlighted challenges in having sufficient coach cover – contact made with Tanya & Imelda - but poses a possible issue if a coach is unwell for a prolonged period of time

 Attendance at competitions has reduced in 2017 (none have the same appeal as the Europeans!)  Attendance on Thursday evenings low – possibly owing to the move from Tues to Wed sets (swimmers now attend Mon and Wed or Thurs / opposed to Mon or Tues and Thurs)

2. Build on our existing sense of community and cohesion

Comments:

 Distribution list up to date

 Facebook site up and running

 Monthly time trials withdrawn at start of 2017 owing to reduced attendance

 2016 Summer social – limited numbers attended – may not continue into 2017

 Christmas social – hugely successful

 £1k enabled us to pay for additional sessions to complement existing training – a budget for 2017 would enable us to drive cohesion through additional events

 May 2017 Barcelona trip – hugely successful

3. Swimmer recruitment - recognise that our future also lies in recruiting new members

Comments:

 Masters hats, to be worn at sets and competitions – drive awareness

 Laminated cards with details of the club on for each swimmer to carry with them

 Recognising there is a fine line between recruitment of swimmers and having enough pool time to accommodate them