Pat McErlean
Alan Campbell
Linda Campbell
Alasdair McLean
Findlay Bruce
George Senior
Tracy Callaghan
Aidan Murray
David Kelly
Paul Campbell
Jerry Downie
Stuart Forbes
Tim Shepherd
Pat welcomed everyone to the Annual General Meeting. Unfortunately the meeting room at Dalry Swim Centre was unavailable and the meeting took place at the poolside. The past year had gone well – the club had incurred no problems, parents and children appeared to be happy with the club. He praised the efforts of Alan and Linda Campbell, stating that Alan deals with the finances admirably as well as dealing with paperwork and attending various meetings. Pat explained how Linda coaches the beginners as well as carrying out the role of child protection officer, stating that this duty has become more and more important in recent years. He complimented the dedication of the poolside staff. David had a good team, ably assisted by Alasdair, Paul, Jet and two new assistants, Suzanne and Fiona. The club also benefits from having a brilliant bunch of kids.
The club championship had taken place recently and Pat commented that he hoped the children would increase the number of competitions they participated in. Pat concluded his remarks by stating that the annual disco had gone very well with a good turnout and everyone having a great time. He hoped there would be a similar event next year.
The minutes were agreed by all present as a true record.
The subject of kit bags was raised again by the coaches.
Findlay felt he could have raised more funds for the club through the sale of raffle tickets. Unfortunately, additional raffle tickets were not provided by SASA when requested which resulted in certain parents not receiving any to sell on behalf of the club.
Alasdair felt there was a good mix of swimmers. The restructuring of lanes had worked well. Swimmers had not taken part in many competitions over the past year. The coaches felt the swimmers needed more competition and were hoping for more swimmer participation over the coming 12 months.
Linda pointed out that the club needed more swimmers to join at the younger age groups. Youngsters who attend training through Edinburgh Leisure are supposed to be encouraged to join a swimming club once they have completed their development training, however this is not having an impact on attendance at Grove Swimming Club. Alan intended to advertise in the Currie & Balerno News and Alan & Linda are to consider an article in the local Gorgie-Dalry paper.
Alasdair asked on behalf of the coaches to consider purchasing kit bags for the children and officials. It was also suggested that Grove could consider arranging for more modern polo shirts with the Grove logo to be available for purchase.
Alan stated that although attendance was down on the previous year, the number of members remained at 65, just one less than the previous year. However, the nightly subscriptions had dropped from £4552 to £4104 – a decrease of 10%. Alan announced that the club finances had held up OK, but advised that there were now increased costs to consider.
On the bright side, the trophy insurance had not gone up but the pool hire costs had risen by 4%. Alan stated that the amount of money which the club was required to pass on to SASA had risen by approximately 20% above inflation. To help compensate for these escalated costs, Alan recommended an increase in subscription charges to £35 but to maintain the lower charge of £29 for parents with a second child.
Due to a change in Edinburgh Leisure’s policy regarding lifeguards, Grove was now going to have to pay a lot more for the pool hire which now incorporated the provision of Edinburgh Leisure’s own lifeguards.
Alan also pointed out that Scottish Swimming were likely to insist on all coaches receiving formal training. He expected this would cost a significant sum of money. Although the club might not require to have trained coaches immediately, Alan felt it would be good practice to procure any available funding for training straight away.
Office bearers were elected as follows:
| Pat McErlean | President |
| Alan Campbell | Treasurer |
| Findlay Bruce | Secretary |
Other people elected to the committee were as follows:
| Linda Campbell (Child Protection Officer) |
| David Kelly (Head Coach) |
| Alasdair MacLean (Coach) |
| Fiona McLaren (Coach) |
| Suzanne Brown (Coach) |
| Naomi Bell (Coach) |
| Jet Cameron (Coach) |
| Jerry Downie (Lifeguard) |
Maintained by Neil Campbell.