Club Update March 2021

We hope that you are all keeping well during these challenging times.

The Sundays Well Swimming Club Committee continues to meet monthly. Our most recent meeting was Monday 1 March. And it’s timely to update you.  

Our objective is to keep as many members as actively engaged as possible through this period and to take opportunities to develop the Club so that we have a stronger Club when COVID restrictions are lifted than we had when they were introduced.

The Club is committed to providing pool-based swimming for competitive, non-competitive and masters swimmers as soon as COVID restrictions allow, we will provide open water swimming as an alternative where possible and our coaches continue to provide regular sessions for fitness and fun.

Meanwhile we are investing for the future.

Coaches and Committee Members are working with Swim Munster and Swim Ireland to develop technical and committee skills. Rob Lamb is on the Swim Munster Pathway Development Committee and Richard Cassidy is on the Swim Ireland Performance Advisory Group. These are important opportunities to influence decisions regarding competitions, performance matters and the selection of representative teams, and Committee members are involved in Swim Ireland meetings and workshops on club development.

Our Coaches plan, prepare, deliver and follow-up on virtual sessions, working hard to keep them interesting and engaging, researching the best of ideas from Swim Ireland and other sources.

When we return to the pool, we expect to have installed a large display screen, a valuable coaching aid, funded through a Cork City Council Sports Capital Grant, and a new music system to enhance training sessions. And we have just submitted a Sports Capital Grant application which, if successful, will allow us to be the first swimming club in Ireland to have a pace light system for pool work and resistance training equipment for pool work.

It is important to emphasise that the Club is run on a non-profit basis. Our objective is that income equals outgoings every year. However, we project that the Club will operate with a deficit this year where outgoings will exceed income over the course of the year. Given the uncertainty, it is very difficult to project what this deficit will be, and therefore it’s very difficult to manage the Club finances. For the moment, our aim is to adapt our fee structure month by month so that it is appropriate to the circumstances and fair to all members.

The next Club Committee meeting is Tues 5 April and we look forward to having positive news about returning to water then.

Meanwhile, we welcome support from all members as we work through challenging times.

Pat O’Driscoll,

Secretary,

Sundays Well Swimming Club