WEY VALLEY
Swimming Club

How the Club operates

Volunteers required

The running of the club operates on a volunteer basis alongside the paid coaches and teaching staff. The Committee is a small group of mainly parents who put in a little extra time to help administer the club. We now need to recruit some new volunteers to help bolster our ranks and ensure the club can continue to operate effectively. If you've got this far, it means you are interested and it would be great if you found a role below which you think you could help with.

Committee roles

Committee roles require some time (via Zoom) to meet as a group and discuss issues around the club. These meetings are usually 1hr - 1.5hrs in length and happen every couple of months. Nominees will be voted into position by other committee members and then ratified at the next AGM. 

5x Non Committee volunteer roles are looking for volunteers. Could this be YOU?

#1 Open Meet Secretary - An admin role to assist John Campbell our competitions Secretary. This role is liaising with other clubs, coaches, and the committee to coordinate entries into open meets. This role is a coordination job done extensively by email. Would suit a parent with swimmers in Junior or Senior squad who can just keep on top of the calendar of events. 

#2 Club Shopkeeper - Sharon is stepping back from her role as Club Shopkeeper. If you have a bit of storage space for the kit (I.e. garage space) and want to help order in new kit, and ensure orders get to parents at club sessions this is the role for you.

#3 Deputy Welfare Officer - To share the duties with Suzanne Angell who handles the welfare and safeguarding side of the club.

#4 Junior/Decelopment Squad rep - To represent the interests of the younger swimmers and assist the coaches in selection of new talent into the competition squads.

#5 Fundraising Coordinator - To manage the multiple additional finance opportunities for the club; i.e. rafffles, lottery, grants, sponsored swims etc.

 

Other roles

We are always looking to bolster our roster of coaches and swim teachers, so if you have the relevant qualifications then please do make yourself known as this could come in useful and also earn you a little on the side.

Volunteer roles poolside include:

Poolside helpers - No qualification necessary, just aged 14+. They assist with training sessions under the instruction of the qualified coaches. This is also good experience for those who want to pursue more formal qualifications in swim teaching, which many of our older swimmers do, some as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award programme.

Timekeepers - need to undertake an online assessment and then a simple practical test at a gala and that's it. We always need timekeepers at our galas and this is the gateway to becoming an official too. Please do let us know now so we can organise the next batch of training. Anyone aged 14+ can do this PRIORITY

Competition desk - at the galas you'll note there is a laptop, a printer and some people sorting results. We now need to help train the next group of these people so we can efficiently run the galas using the HyTek software. If you are comfortable with computers, this one could be for you as you assist the Competitions Secretary.

Officials Coordinator - at all galas there is a small army of officials needed. Vicki Moore is our highly qualified official and she could do with some help ensuring we have enough on the day. This role will become important later in 2021 if we get back into full club champs or inter-club comp, but best raise your hand now.

Other competition roles - Outside of Timekeepers and Judges, there are plenty of non-qualified roles at galas, especially at our own club champs. These include 'whips', 'marshalls' and parents who can man the door, refreshments and raffle. It's best we know who might be able to volunteer now so we don't have a mad rush nearer the time. 

EMAIL [email protected] IF ANY OF THE ABOVE SOUND INTERESTING. You get a lovely white club top in most cases so that's something to treasure. It's also cooler poolside!

YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOUR HELP SO PLEASE DO GET IN TOUCH

Club ethos

Wey Valley is a proper members’ club, not a commercial organisation and we operate as a not for profit entity. This affects the club’s style and the way we operate:

  • We are inclusive – we try to offer opportunities to as many as possible.
  • We are participative, relying on the active involvement of many volunteers (mostly parents of current swimmers): they serve on the committee, deciding the club’s priorities; do the admin; organise competitions; and officiate or help out on poolside.
  • We are accommodating: the amount we swim allows time for the pursuit of other activities and family life in parallel.
  • We are nonetheless ambitious: we are here for swimmers who want to improve.
  • We are sociable: we value friendships between swimmers, coaches and parents.
Wey Valley Swimming Club Summer Sprints 2017

Who does what

We have a team of teachers and coaches, led by our head coach Carrie Hughes. All our teaching staff are part-time, and are paid (mostly). Many are current or ex-swimmers with the club – we encourage this continuity.

There’s a lot of administration involved in running a club like ours – this is all done by volunteers. We also rely on volunteers – officials and other poolside helpers – to run the competitions we take part in. We have about 50 people – mainly parents – who help out in some way.

The club is run by a committee of eight, comprising volunteer parents and the head coach.

Volunteers at Wey Valley Swimming Club Summer Sprints 2017

The club online

There’s plenty of information about the club available online.

As well as this website, we’re on Twitter, Facebook, Strava and Instagram with news and last-minute updates:

  

We use a web-based club management system (SwimClub Manager); this holds swimmer details, squads and sessions, attendance, competitive performance etc. Volunteers and coaches use this to run the club; parents of competitive squad swimmers also have access.

At a glance

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