Bo’ness ASC NewsletterOctober 2021
Contents
- Club AGM
- Important Fees Update
- Open Water Swimming News
- Covid Pool Update
- Young Leaders Pumpkin Competition
- Squad Moves
- Volunteer Support Needed
- Diary Dates
- Scottish Swimming Updates
Club AGM
We are holding our annual AGM on Thursday 21st October. This will be held at Bo’ness Rec at 7.15pm.
The AGM is overdue as we were unable to hold one last year. Please, if you can, attend this event. It should be a short meeting, and it is your chance to have a say in the running of the club. It would be great to see you there.
Thanks
We would like to start with a huge thank you to all our volunteers; Coaches, Covid Officers, Covid Lead, Poolside Helpers, Lifeguards and Committee. We would not be still here if it were not for the commitment of time and effort that you have given. We particularly thank the Covid Officers and Covid Lead who managed to cover our swim sessions for all squads during the tighter restrictions. We still very much need our Covid Lead, Ashleigh Ferrario, who has done an excellent job ensuring that we adhered to Scottish Swimming and Government guidelines, written, and rewritten our Risk Assessments and co-ordinated Covid Officer cover. However, we have now, hopefully said goodbye to requiring Covid Officers at each session. As a club we are lucky to have such supportive Volunteers. Parents and Carers.
Fees – Important Update
We have reviewed our running costs considering the increased pool hire fees, lack of fundraising opportunities, drop in member numbers, and two years without our Mini Meet. This has resulted in us concluding that we must adjust the fees to cover our costs whilst also attracting new members. The club is not run for profit, and we aim only to cover our costs with our fees. We have been running at a loss for a since we returned. A lot of work has been covered to model various scenarios and benchmark our costs against other clubs within our local regions to understand the best fee structure. The new fees effective from November are below. Please can you amend your month payments accordingly.
| Squad | Monthly Fee |
| Developers | £30 |
| Improvers | £35 |
| Bronze | £40 |
| Silver | £44 |
| Gold | £48 |
| Platinum | £30 |
| Masters | £30 |
Open Water Swimming Competition
A team of Open Water Swimmers from Bo’ness Club have had recent success at the Loch Morlich in September Open Water Swimming Event. Congratulations to the swimmers that took part; Aoife Glen, Niamh Glen, Ishbel Hamilton, Iona Hamilton and Jonathan Tiran. Niamh Glen was 2nd Junior Female and Iona Hamilton 3rd Junior female, and Jonathan Tiran was 1st Junior Male. Well done to you all what a fab result and great to get back to competitions.
English Channel Swim
A previous Bo’ness Masters swimmer has recently completed one of the most challenging open water swims, the English Channel. Hugh Sellars achieved this 21-mile swim in August, to raise money for two charities: Marie Curie and MS Society. Hugh managed to swim the English Channel in a great time of 17hrs and 14mins. Hugh joined Bo’ness Swim club in 2008 and left in 2017 when he had to move to Yorkshire for work. He says that his time at Bo’ness Swim Club helped him learn to swim more efficiently and improve his technique. Before he joined Masters he said that he was a pretty basic swimmer. So any budding parent or carer swimmers out there please think about joining Masters. It is fantastic to get these stories from previous and current members. Thank you to Hugh for sharing this amazing story with us.
Covid Pool Procedures
We are still unable to use the changing rooms at the Academy but will update you when this changes.
We are now able to use the changing rooms at Bo’ness Rec. Swimmers still change poolside but go to the changing rooms after their session.
We are still investigating how and when to bring back spectators into the Rec. We want to ensure that we do this in line with the facility guidelines and Scottish Swimming advice.
Pumpkin Carving Competition - A message from our Swimmer Representatives
Hey, it's your young leaders here! We felt the baking competition was a big success, but we think we could get more people involved, so we wanted to do something similar again. Seeing as Halloween is coming up, we've decided to run a pumpkin carving competition!
New Members & Squad Moves
Congratulations to the following swimmers on their squad moves
Developers to Improvers: Grace Stewart, Adam Pashley, Sophia Smith, Eve Spacey, Abigail Armour, Harry Stewart, Finlay Armour, Finlay Hogg, Lucy Smith and Nathan Harkins
Bronze to Silver: Jayden Leung, Daniel Baird, Lucy Bell, Suzy Miller and Jessica Hill
Silver to Gold: Abby Sexton, Amy Black, Anna Beetham, Aiofe Glen, Daniel Lawless, Elizabeth McGrow, Isla Paton, Kayah Smith and Niamh Bremner
Gold to Platinum: Adam Scott, Lucy Hellen, Rowan Harkins. William Lawless and Emily Byrne
Masters: Bethany Scott
Fantastic – well done to all of you!
Please welcome our new swimmers
Hannah Rice, Elliott Holm, Parker Fascia, Gregor Martin, Alice King and Fleur Bennie
It is great to have you as part of the club. Enjoy training!
Swimmers on Trial at FIRST
Currently we have swimmers on trial at FIRST along with swimmers from our sister clubs Falkirk and Grangemouth. Good luck to you all.
Please spread the word that we are always welcoming new members for all our squads.
We offer a 4-week trial for swimmers so they can get a feel for the club and the sessions, before committing.
Dates for your Diaries
We are planning to hold the Club Championship this year after having to cancel it last year due to Covid. The format will be slightly different from previous years due to restrictions, but it promises to be a fun event.
Club AGM: Thursday 21st October 7.15pm Bo’ness Recreation Centre
Time Trials: Thursday 11th November (TBC)
Club Champs: Sunday 5th December
Club Awards Night: tbc.
Club Volunteers – a call for help!
A huge thank you once again to all our club volunteers, Coaches, Lifeguards, Covid Officers and Committee Members. We couldn’t run without you!
We are looking for more volunteers to support the club. This could be in various roles not just poolside.
On poolside we are looking for more coaches and it would be great if there was one or two people who would be able to run land training on a Saturday morning. Due to a reduction in coaches we are currently unable to offer land training for our Bronze, Silver and Gold squads. It would be really great if we could reinstate this as it is important for the swimmers to take part in land based exercise as well. If you are interested in this then please speak to Graeme Davidson and he can tell you more.
Away from poolside we have opportunities for you to support the club by joining the committee. Please speak to Rachel McCavish who can discuss what this would involve.
Scottish Swimming Updates – Competition Rules for Swimsuits
We have been sent the following communication from Scottish Swimming regarding race suits for 13years and under swimmers.
From 1 January 2022 the Regulations in Scotland change for swimwear for 13 and under. Please see the attachment - for clarification a banned suit for this age group is one where it says FINA approved on the side.
The National STO Committee does not want swimmers to be DQ and would like it to be done by education of the swimmers and parents, however if a swimmer does wear one after 1st January the Referee would have no choice but to DQ the swimmer.
Please let swimmers and parents know as soon as possible especially with Christmas coming as people may plan to buy suits.
There is further information coming out on this and some FAQ’s from Scottish Swimming which we will circulate when we receive it.
