We are a big, and ever-expanding Club. We enter lots of competitions, be they Leagues or Open Meets, and as many of our kids as possible get swims for us, wearing the Green and Blue hat that we’re all so proud of.
However, we need your help. At any event that we compete in we need to provide Officials, those pesky devils dressed in white that have the unenviable job of making sure the rules are followed (I can call them devils as I am one of them!!). In fact, at Open Meets, the more swimmers we have at an event, the bigger the number of Officials we are obliged to provide. I am really grateful for the current Officials we have, who regularly volunteer and do a great job for us. However I want to make sure that it’s not always down to the same few people to do all the volunteering. Obviously, if an event doesn’t have enough Officials, it can’t go ahead. And at some events if we don’t provide enough Officials, they will not let us enter, and I definitely don’t want our swimmers to miss out due to lack of volunteers from parents/helpers.
We are going to be running a Judge Level 1 course after the County Champs next month. John Pridden, who is the Officials Coordinator for the Committee, is pulling names together. So far he has about half a dozen, which is great news, but I’d like more names please. With the size of our Club we should have more Officials than we currently do.
Training for Officials is organised by the County. There is a structured system of training, which starts with some group work/classroom input, followed by mentoring poolside and a workbook, before you’re let loose on your own! We’ve got a great team of experienced Officials who will be more than happy to support new people going through, and it’s not difficult, we will help you along.
Plus, at Meets, it means you get free entry, usually get fed several times, and are actually gainfully employed through the day rather than sitting around all day for tiny snippets of swimming every few hours!
If you’d like to speak to one of us about what it involves, please speak to me, or John Pridden, or Steve Redfern (our most experienced and highly qualified Referee) or anyone else your know from the team of officials that we have. We will all be happy to help you.
If you’re happy to put your name forward to undertake Level 1 training, please email John on officials@worcestersc.co.uk and he will get back to you.
I really look forward to hearing from John about how many more people have put their names down, young or old, all are welcome, including our Senior Swimmers!!
Simon Richards
Chairman, Worcester Swimming Club