Issue 2, 2019/2020 by Graham Edwards - 19th October, 2019

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Welcome to the 2019/2020 Season

So the 2019/2020 season is underway, hopefully warmer days are ahead to enjoy the outdoor fun to be had at Merrylands Swimming Centre on a Saturday morning. Where else would you rather be!

The Executive and Committee Members elected at the AGM for the 2019/2020 season are:

Executive Members

Committee Members

We do have some Vacant Committee Member positions and we would welcome members volunteering to join the Committee and participate in the ongoing management of the club.

Club Events

We will be hosting three swimming meets at Merrylands Swimming Centre this season. The Inter-Club Cup will be held at Merrylands Pool on Saturday 9th November, 2019 and this is a short meet where every swimmer (young and not so young) from our club competes. The program for this meet is on the club noticeboard. Team members will be selected over the next week, with all members in consideration for this meet.

We will be holding the Masters Sprint Meet and Merrylands SwimFest meets on Saturday 22nd February, 2020. We will need your assistance at both of these meets, as hosting meets is the major fund raising activity for our club.

Timekeepers Course – Today

If you weren’t able to attend the session last Saturday morning, we have another session on today. We encourage all of our members (from secondary school age and above) to become a technical official. Timekeeping is a great introductory accreditation and is accessed via an online video and course.

Timekeeping is a very important aspect of swimming races, as swimmers require their time to be recorded accurately. We will be hosting a session this morning after club races in the Club Room and encourage everyone who is a member to undertake the course. We will be available to assist you during this time.

Club Captains

Nominations for the positions of Male and Female Club Captains are open and close at 9.30am on week 4 (2nd November, 2019). All financial first claim members can vote for these positions on week 6 (16th November, 2019).

Club Uniform

We have a great range of club uniform items available for sale. These can be sourced through our online shop (https://shop.merrylandsasc.asn.au/). Please see our Property Officer (Margaret Edwards) if you need assistance or have questions about the club uniform items.

Race Entries & Championship Events

Entries for all club races are through Swim Central and you need to have renewed your club membership before you can enter events (see page 4 for information on how to do this). Club race entries need to be submitted by 8.00pm on Thursday night as NO LATE ENTRIES will be accepted. Championships commence next Saturday, 26th October, 2019 so make sure you check out the season program and plan your swims ahead of time to ensure you qualify for all championships you want to compete in.

To be eligible to enter championships the swimmer must be financial in this season. The swimmer must have swum the same stroke and same distance during the current season.

Race entry enquiries can be emailed to race.secretary@merrylandsasc.asn.au 

With the ongoing split of Area, Metropolitan & State Age Championship meets there will be Saturdays when club championship events are swum for restricted age groups. Check the season program for these dates.

The 2019/2020 season program can be downloaded at https://merrylandsasc.asn.au/clubraces/ 

Relay Competition

The team relay will again be hotly contested this season, with The Grumpy Old Men still basking in their success last season. So, what do you have to do to turn them grumpy again?

Simples, you just need to organise a team (maximum of 6 team members, with any 4 of the team swimming each week). Time trials conclude next Saturday 26th October, 2019 and the competition commences on Saturday 9th November, 2019. The competition is held over 10 weeks and concludes on Saturday 21st March, 2020. Ok it is maybe not that simple given the extreme talent in the GOM team!!

State Masters Short Course Championships

Last weekend saw the State Masters SC Championships swum at Woy Woy. We had a team of 5 swimmers representing our club. Congratulations to Kylee Murray, Leanne Tovkach, Peter Johnston, Alison Sakurovs & Brendan Kirkpatrick on your swims. Medals were won in a number of events, so a bigger safe is needed for storage of all the bling brought home.

NSW Junior Area Representative Meet

Last Saturday Matthew Vicic, Niushka Shrestha & Summer Shrestha represented MSW Area in the NSW Junior Area Representative Meet at SOPAC. They all achieved great times and PB’s were again swum. Congratulations to each of you and your coaches, as we know the hard work you have been putting in at training throughout the year.

Learn to Swim – Grading Today

The LTS program offered by the club has received many registrations and will commence on Saturday 26th October, 2019.

Grading for the program will be held this morning from 9.15am, so please welcome our LTS participants.

Member Profile

We will again provide the member profile in the Whales Tales and we would like to provide a profile of our members throughout the season. See Graham to provide your profile information for inclusion in future editions of the Whales Tales.

Chocolate Fundraising

We are running the chocolate fundraising activity again this season. We have boxes of yummy healthy treats available, so please see Trish Johnston to take a box or two. Monies can be returned to Trish as well and we plan to complete this activity by the end of November 2019

Sponsors

We again thank our major sponsors who provide fantastic support to our club. If you know of a business or organisation who may be interested in providing sponsorship or support to our club please let Graham know.

Upcoming Events

Whales Tales Online

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Membership Renewal

It is important to complete your membership for the season asap. A new membership system, Swim Central, has been introduced and memberships need to be completed online in this system. Access to Swim Central is via https://swimcentral.swimming.org.au/

If you are having trouble with your membership renewal then Peter Johnston is available to answer your questions. Please leave these questions until after club races, as Peter has numerous tasks that need to be performed during club races.

Swimming NSW is interested in members feedback and has a couple of short (3 question) surveys in relation to membership and meet entries. If you would like to participate in these surveys please visit:

Membership Survey: https://bit.ly/2IBk2hp
Meet Entries Survey: https://bit.ly/2ARsjtk

We have requested membership cards from Swimming NSW, as these assist you in purchasing club member discount pool entry and they need to be shown to Cumberland Council staff. As soon as these arrive we will distribute them to our members. In the interim if you need to show current membership information you can access a Virtual Membership Card by following these instructions:

1. In Swim Central, click “My Memberships”
   
   
   
2. Click your Swimming Club Membership
   
   
   
3. Take a screenshot of your membership card: