Weekly News 14/01/2008
 
 
This week Gita Sheth (Administrator) joined the team on a temporary, part time basis, and spent time familiarizing herself with the London Office, and getting to know general procedures etc. Gita will be answering all general enquiries, producing and distributing the weekly news, and helping to update the website.
 
Colin Brown (RD) - The highlight for this week was seeing the final density maps of pools in London produced by Rita Martelo. These will feature prominently in our soon to be published strategy and will be invaluable in encouraging strategic investment in the pool stock of London. The weeks ends with a trip to Hillingdon and a meeting with the new head of leisure who will be a critical player in the new pool when it comes on line in 2010.
 
Next week: The focus will be on Beacon bid assessment and organising meetings with the Director of Sport in Universities across London. This will be the start of a campaign to reach out to the University sector to raise participation numbers particularly in Masters events and to look to the Universities to provide pathways for aquatics to international level.
 
This week Janna Callan (RDO) completed her report of the state of swimming in the Host Olympic and Paralympic boroughs with the information that she has been supplied. Janna met with Dagenham Swimming Club who are progressing their Swim21 application. Last week also saw the Big Sync World Record Confirmed by Guinness, all of the London Swimming team would like to congratulate the participants – www.londonswimming.org/news/article/display/206
 
Next week, will be a disability and synchro themed week for Janna. Janna will be meeting with CP Sport and the Disability Competition Group to discuss the developments for 2008. The synchro group will be meeting to finalise the business plan and hold an assessors day.
 
This week Mark Griggs (EO) has been negotiating changes to the requirements for the skills active coaching bursaries. Now you can apply even if your course has already taken place (after 1st Oct 2007). The sports club environment now includes those working in leisure centres, and the 20 hours can be with people of any age.
 
Skills Active Coaching Bursary Extent of Funding - 66%
Funding for all ASA/UKCC courses at Levels 1,2 & 3 run thorough the IOS.
To qualify for the bursary, you must:
• Be currently engaged in swimming, diving, synchronised swimming or water polo either as volunteer or a paid member of staff.
• Cover 33% of the course fee yourself.
• Once qualified demonstrate delivery of 20 or more hours of quality coaching in London.
 
For More Information contact : Miriam Farley tel: 020 7632 2000
Email/Web : www.skillsactive.com/coachingbursary
 
Mark also helped run a successful IOS regional tutor meeting, which gave support to tutors working with the IOS.
 
Mark has updated the Education Pack on www.londonswimming.org
This week Jo Calvino (RDO) has been finalizing the diving budgets for next year, and
concentrating on sorting Swim21 paperwork. On Thursday Jo attended the National Officers meeting in Loughborough. Next week Jo has a meeting in Hillingdon about diving in the area, as well as the South West Diving Squad over the weekend in Plymouth. She also has a meeting in the South East about the development plan/budgets and completing National Comp calendar.
 
Next week Cathy Carr (RDO) will be beginning to gain an insight into University Swimming with the aim of developing better links with London Swimming, notably Masters Swimming and Universities. Cathy will be in the office catching up on administration and meeting with Jo Calvino and Highgrove pool to look at developing a diving programme and further work around the multi aquatic; Aqua Extreme programme. She will be meeting with Haringey Swimming Club to discuss Borough pathways, Swim 21 and funding for a Disability outreach project. Towards the end of the week, Cathy will be meeting with the West London 2012 Legacy officer and Brent Council to discuss research into the effectiveness of free swimming and attending the staff Themed Day on Friday.
The London Masters Committee are looking for people to volunteer at the London and South East Long Course Meet at K2, Crawley on 2nd and 3rd February as either warm up marshals or as general helpers. Please email offers of help to geoff@masterswim.demon.co.uk
 
This week has been a varied one for Ben Campion (RDO) with a number of interesting meetings. Monday started with a meeting to look at secondary schools competition, with a particular focus on swimming and water polo. Monday evening featured the London Region Finance Committee where we looked at various funding bids that are being put in place.
 
Tuesday and Wednesday main focus has been on finalizing information for one of our funding bids. On Thursday London Region will be chairing the RDO and RD meeting in Loughborough.
 
The main focus for the remainder of the week and next week will be finalizing detail behind the various projects I am involved in as they move towards implementation. I will also be spending some time working with the website and seeing how the region can make best use of our IT resources. I will also be looking at my current work program and spending sometime planning my focus for the next 3 months.
 
Annabel Kehoe (EDS - Islington) spent last week working on her work plan for 2008. After meeting with Kate Sargant (Swimming Activities Manager), Annabel concentrated on fine-tuning the timeline, budget and expected outcomes of the Everyday Swim Project in Islington. Annabel met with the Aquaterra staff who are running the pool inductions at Cally Pool, and discussed several options to up the momentum. She also met with Mark Griggs (Education Officer) to plan the timing and structure of several courses that will run out of Aquaterra Leisure sites this year.
 
 
This week Jo Melchior (EDS – Lewisham) has been working on the outreach programme for Swim Gospel as well as organizing training and inductions for the staff involved in delivery. She has also been assisting colleagues from other parts of the capitol with developing strategies to attract and retain BAME swimmers. Next week Jo will be developing both the Men's Health scheme, and doing some monitoring and evaluation of last years activity.
 
Rita Martelo (Graphic Designer) After being in Portugal working with the Hydrographic Institute the new Density maps of pools in London are finally done! I am now working on the borough maps, which shows a 3d view of each pool linked with the Underground stations.
 
This week Yvette Heywood (National Volunteer & School Competition Manager) has launched the new Good Club Guides that are user friendly and practical resources available for free for all clubs from the British Swimming website or in hard copy from Yvette. The Good Club Guides are designed specifically for volunteers, to assist clubs in high quality club management, in order to support the needs and value the volunteers who contribute their time. The resources includes information about the role of Treasurer, Chairperson, Secretary, Club Captain, Welfare Officer, Sponsorship and fundraising,, Team Manager, Workforce Coordinator and Marketing and Media.