Dear Members,
Thank you to all our members who continue to support our Club, I hope you all continue to remain safe and well and are excited to return to swimming soon.
Following on from my previous communications on the 14th March 2021, I wanted to remind everyone that all completed forms (Health Survey and Return to Training form – attached) must be emailed to me (chair@cityofsunderlandasc.co.uk) by the close of play on Friday 2nd April 2021. So far I am still waiting on a number of forms to be returned from each squad – without receipt of these forms and acknowledgement / confirmation email back, athletes will not be permitted entry. When returning these forms please indicate which squad your athlete is currently in.
IMPORTANT PAYMENT INFORMATION: As we are due to return on 12th April we have worked out the following payment amounts for each squad:
- Performance: if you normally pay £95 a month please ensure a payment of £60 is paid for April, if you pay £90 a month please ensure a payment of £57;
- YP: please ensure a payment of £41 is paid for April;
- AGD: please ensure a payment of £44 is paid for April;
- Platinum: please ensure a payment of £38 is paid for April;
- Silver & Gold: please ensure a payment of £25 is paid for April.
If you are able to amend your current standing order in time please do so, if you don’t have time to amend your standing order then please ensure an additional payment is made on 1st April for the remaining monies owed. Then all standing orders will return to the usual monthly fees from 1st May 2021.
Land training will continue with the current schedules remotely, this will be reviewed in May / June 2021 along with Everyone Active.
Please remember that for those athletes over the age of 18 we are not permitted to recommence club training, this provisionally is planned for around 17th May subject to national agreement. Once we have further clarity around the return for over 18’s we will be in touch with you all then.
To keep members updated on other areas of work / development ongoing please read the following:
- Fundraising: our club has applied for a number of grants that were available to swimming clubs, unfortunately so far none of those applications have been successful. We will continue to apply for available funding but we are keen to look at other ways to fundraise for our club. Further communications will follow after our return to the pool outlining some of those fundraising ideas but we really need the support of members, parents, grandparents and / or carers to get involved. We would like to have a dedicated fundraising team therefore if anyone is interested in being part of this team please email me directly to express an interest.
- Facebook: we have recently regained control of the clubs Facebook page, there are posts now being added to this page and we are keen to grow and develop this page further as well as our social media presence in general. Tracey Blunt has kindly offered her time and support to oversee and manage the Facebook page with the help of some other administrators (Tracy Barnett). Tracey Blunt is working in the background to create a new Facebook page for the club which will replace the current page soon. These changes will ensure that the new page is set up in a way to ensure its safe for us to use as a club – Tracey will ensure everyone is made aware once the switch to the new Facebook page is ready – if anyone else would like to get involved and be a club Facebook administrator please get in touch with me directly to express an interest.
- Twitter: we are really keen to develop our social media presence and therefore need the help and assistance from our members, parents, grandparents and / or carers – if you would like to get involved and manage our Twitter account please get in touch with me directly to express an interest.
- Direct Debits: our Treasurer (Andrew Blunt) has been working to set up a direct debt process for the club, currently our monthly fees are paid by standing order. This is something which costs the club time and money to manage and oversee. We have made the decision to switch to a direct debit system in the coming months – this will make it much easier for our Treasury and Accounts team to manage. Further communications will follow over the next month or so to give you all the information your require in relation to this change, there will be a number of forms which will need to be completed and returned before we can “go live” with this new payment system. The current standing order payment system will remain in place till that date.
- Swimmer of the Month: I have been in discussions with Coach K around reintroducing Swimmer of the Month for our Junior Squads, we are really excited to bring this back for our younger swimmers in Platinum, Silver and Gold Squads as the majority of these swimmers don’t meet the age requirement to compete in galas. Therefore once we return to the club Coach K and myself will be pulling together plans and agreeing a date to for the Swimmer of the Month presentations to commence – watch this space for further updates.
- Club Race Nights: we are keen to rebuild our club and our cohesiveness as one team – therefore we will be planning to bring back club race nights, this isn’t something that we can bring back immediately however this is certainly one of our aims to bring back if possible by the end of the year and something we want to remain part of our club in the future.
- Club Committee: its been such a long time since we have had club committee meetings, therefore this is something we are keen to reinvigorate once we return to a more normal post covid-19 existence. We are keen to build and develop our committee so please watch this space for further updates – we really need to get more members, parents, grandparents and / or carers involved in the running of the club if we want to survive and rebuild. We have such an amazing group of volunteers who give their own time to run our club, these dedicated individuals give a lot to the club and we need more people coming forward to be part of the running of the club. Before covid-19 we went out asking for people to come forward to join our treasury / accounts team, to have someone else train to support Michelle as our Competition Secretary, for volunteers for fundraising and social media however we didn’t get any volunteers. We have an opportunity to rebuild and grow our club but we need support from within – therefore if you would like to get involved please watch this space as future communications will include a call for volunteers and we need your help to fill those roles. Anyone interested now please email me directly to express an interest.
- AGM: we haven’t been able to hold an AGM due to Covid-19 – Andrew Blunt our Treasurer and I will be looking at plans for a future AGM meeting to bring everyone up to speed with the finances of the club and updates on some key areas of development / change within the club.
There has been a lot of work going on in the background whilst we have been away from the pool – I very much look forward to seeing all our swimmers back in the water as soon as possible and progressing with the plans to rebuild our club.
Our return date of Monday 12th April 2021 will be confirmed with you all as soon as I receive that final confirmation, this should be between 5 and 7 days prior to the 12th April 2021. Our training times and arrangements are the same as they were in November, I will ensure I email the squad timetables out nearer our return date so you all have these to hand. Please return your forms asap.
Stay Safe & Kindest Regards
Linda
Chair
COSASC