Hello everyone.  I hope that you are all safe and well.  I for one didn’t expect that when I last wrote a newsletter in March 2020 that we would still be in the middle of a global pandemic and locked down a year on.  However, there is hopefully light at the end of the tunnel now.  It was a positive that we could get most of the club back in the water at the end of the year for a couple of months at least, but disappointing that we were unable to get our 18+ swimmers back due to regulations.  Hopefully the picture in 2021 will be much better.

For us as a club it does mean that we are still very much unsure of when we will be able to return to the water and what we will and will not be able to do.  We will continue to work closely with Scottish Swimming and our friends at the other Falkirk Swim clubs to ensure that we are ready to go back when we can and comply with all the Scottish Government guidance and advice. 

I know that it has been difficult to stay in contact during this year.  Graeme has been doing a fantastic job by running weekly Zoom sessions for all our squads.  There is no pressure to attend but it is an opportunity for the kids to see each other, chat and take part in games or even karaoke.  I gather from those that attend that it is good and something different to do.

As we are not swimming currently please feel free to suspend your fee payments, if you haven’t already.  Once we are back up and running, we will look at fees again.  In the meantime, the club is very grateful to those that have continued with payments and we appreciate that as we do have some fixed costs to cover.  However, we do not want anyone to feel that they need to pay fees whilst we are not operating.

SASA Membership Fees, these are usually due about now.  Every club swimmer must be a member of Scottish Swimming.  However, we along with a number of clubs across Scotland have been querying the timing of the payment under the current situation.  Whilst we all understand that this is a major income stream for Scottish Swimming who support all Scottish Swim Clubs in a number of ways, even more so now.  Scottish Swimming worked closely with the Scottish Government and Sport Scotland to ensure that we could get our members back in the water safely and produced a number of documents and courses and support to all the clubs.  We are still awaiting a decision from Scottish Swimming on this and they are due to come back on 10^th February with their decision.  Once we know more then we will let you know.

whilst we are not able to swim, there are two routes of exercise sessions that we are able to take part in.  One is the Scottish Swimming weekly workout sessions and the other is the FIRST weekly workout sessions.

With the success of our Junior WOD we have added more dates to the programme. With only 100 spaces available please be aware when using one device for multiple family members to only book one member space on Azolve. This will enable more people to get involved. 

Dates and booking links are below:

For the Scottish Swimming sessions, you will need your Scottish Swimming membership and password.  If you can’t remember these then Scottish Swimming have links to help get this information for you.

For the FIRST workouts Andrew Addison posts these on the FIRST Facebook page and also sends a daily email.  If you would like to be added to the newsletter list, please let me know and I will pass your email address to Andrew to add you in.

Congratulations to Alex Black, who has successfully completed a trial with FIRST.  We wish Alex all the best for his move.

Congratulations to Anna Beetham, who was asked to join the West District Regional Programme (DRP).  The District Regional Programme (DRP) is an initiative run by the Scottish Swimming Districts and the Scottish Swimming Performance Team, under-pinning the National Programme of Senior, Youth and Youth Development squads

Congratulations to 3 of our FIRST swimmers who have qualified to take part in Olympic Trials and compete and race alongside some of the UK’s other best athletes.

• Liam Murphy (Bo’ness) – 100m & 200m Breaststroke 
• Ellie Hamilton (Bo’ness) – 100m & 200m Freestyle
• Douglas Calder (Bo’ness) – 200m Breaststroke

Thank you to all our club volunteers, Coaches, Lifeguards, Covid Officers and Committee Members.  2020 was a tough year and without your help and support it would have been impossible to get our members back into the water.