Club Chairman’s New Year Message
Dear Members,
I’d like to start by wishing every one of you, swimmers, parents and carers, volunteers and
coaches, a very happy New Year. I hope that each and everyone of you had a great
Christmas and that 2016 promises to be a fantastic year for all of you.
2015 was an extremely turbulent year for the Club. Out of the pool, we have had to
manage huge price increases and restrictions to the available pool time placed upon us by
Council cuts and reorganisations. This turbulence gave us a few headaches initially, with
some of our more senior swimmers moving on to new clubs in search of guaranteed
stability.
In the pool, our success continues to grow. We have seen an increase in representative
swimming at County, Regional and National levels and our Junior League team were
crowned Northumberland and Durham Champions for the first time and went on to
represent us at the National Final in Corby, finishing a creditable sixth. We have started
restructuring in the more junior squads, increasing capacity where possible. A set criterion
for our squads has been developed and, with one or two small exceptions, has now been
implemented. This criteria recognises the competitive nature of the Club and has been
developed around the Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) programme.
We have also been at the forefront of the introduction of the Tyne and Wear Hub; a
performance swimming group for those high-achieving young swimmers not yet eligible for
the Beacon Programme. This is being supported by the Tyne and Wear Network of clubs,
looking to work together for the betterment of our regional swimming. This is all embryonic
stuff at the moment but with hard work will undoubtedly prove successful.
This New Year promises to be just as challenging for us as a club. As the Council look to
make further savings, there is little doubt that leisure will be right in the spotlight as a nonstatutory
service that they provide. What this will actually mean for us is not yet known;
however, I am absolutely certain that more change is around the corner. We will, of
course, continue to work alongside the Council to get the best solution that we can for
ourselves.
The Council are currently undertaking an exercise to look at every option they have to
make savings in leisure, but they have declared that the closure of one of Gateshead’s
Leisure Centres and Pools is definitely amongst those options.
Financially, we have assessed that we are currently in the region of £20,000 short of what
we need as a sustainable income. We have managed to attract a few more sponsors and
benefactors, but we need to continue to develop our supporter network and show the
Borough’s businesses what a force for good in the area we can be.
I must put out an early warning for fee increases in April too. We are currently looking at
what will need to happen and then also looking at our options to mitigate against it and
minimise the increases that will need to be passed on.
There is much that we as members can do to help ourselves too. The engagement of our
entire membership has not been great. Several events recently weren’t as well supported
as they could have been. We struggled to cover the available tills at a recent bag-pack
and because of this did not make the most of the opportunity to raise some much-needed
cash. Similarly, the Christmas party and Ceilidh were brilliant events where everyone had
a great time but with greater participation could have been considerably more successful
for the Club. Thanks to all of you that came along or helped to organise the events.
Unless we can increase and improve our fundraising, then we will struggle to continue into
the future. Please spare some time to help the fundraising effort when the opportunity
arises. The more we can raise through bag-packs at local supermarkets then the lower
our fee increases will be. We have a couple of bag-packing opportunities later this month
and it is essential that we cover all areas, all day. A couple of hours of your time is all this
will cost.
Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. Our swimmers are fantastic in and out of the pool.
We continue to receive acknowledgement from all areas, not only their swimming ability,
but their attitude, effort and behaviour. They are all a credit to the Club and fantastic role
models for new members coming through. Well done to everyone!
Working together, we can all continue to make this swimming club a huge success both in
and out of the water. Best wishes for 2016 and I look forward to seeing you all in and
around all of our pools throughout the year.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Strickland
Club Chairman
