Annual General Meeting of St Neots Swan S.C.
The 2025 AGM was held on Thursday 27th March 20:00-21:00. The AGM was open for members aged 16 and over and guardians of members. Members can request a copy of the minutes of the AGM by emailing swanssecretary1@gmail.com
Agenda
- Welcome
- Chairperson’s Report
- Head coach’s Report
- Treasurer’s Report
- Election of executives and committee members
- Appointments: Welfare officers and Independent accounts examiner
- Resolutions
- Presentation section – 2025 plans and challenges
- AOB
- Date of next AGM
Chairperson’s Report 2024/2025
For me, 2024 / 25 has been about change, putting the club on a solid foundation and continuing to develop our swimmers so that they can continue to succeed.
I’m not going to steal too much of Head Coach Andy’s thunder – his report will focus on the successes of our swimmers. What I will say however is that I continue to be impressed by how hard our athletes push themselves in training. They turn up, session after session, and put in 100% every time. The fruit of their labours continues to be evident in the pool. And while it’s easy to focus on the fact that we have yet again grown the number of swimmers who are achieving County and Regional times, a significant number of our athletes are setting new personal bests. We have taken part in events from Newmarket to Luton, from Biggleswade to Bletchley and consistently turn out very strong squads. None of this possible without the commitment of our talented coaching team which has grown depth and breadth over the last 12 months. I would like to record my thanks to them all, led by Head Coach Andy.
Early in the 2024/25 year we found out that Andrea Gilbert planned to step down as our Head Coach. Andrea had led the poolside team for 8 years and before that was an accomplished swimmer in her own right. Andrea handed over the Club in rude health to our new Head Coach, Andy Jones. My thanks go to both Andrea and Andy for taking on this key leadership role.
For the first time in its history, St Neots Swans SC was awarded the Swim England ‘Swim Mark’ award. This is an assessment by our governing body of how well the Club is being managed. And its plans for the future. I would like to thank our Honorary Secretary, Hemendra Dassanayake, for managing the process of achieving the award which took considerable effort and time.
We undertook a huge restructuring of how the Club goes about coaching its swimming talent. That involved a huge amount of research to make sure that we got things right. I am delighted to say that, while we continue to tweak the schedule and iron out a few wrinkles, the feedback from both swimmers and parents has been great.
We will continue to listen to swimmers and parents so that we can be sure that we are laser focused on providing a programme of coaching that supports everyone’s needs. A big, and new, step towards achieving that was our first ever Engagement Survey where we took a temperature check of how parents felt the Club was doing. The responses would indicate that we are doing well. There are some areas for us to work on and we’ll do that in the coming months. The survey was expertly crafted by Hemendra and Cassie – thank you.
Our Teaching Scheme continues to play a very important role in the success of the Club. Our teaching is of a high quality and an important feeder into our coaching squad. We would love to offer more but we are constrained by available pool time. We will continue to evolve our Teaching Scheme where we can but for now I would like to thank our Swim Teachers and Assistant Swim teachers for their superb commitment.
Our Committee continues to make sure that we follow Swim England guidance and, like any membership organisation, that the decisions we take are ultimately for the benefit and wellbeing of our swimmers. We also need to be on a sound financial footing so that we have a Club not just in the next few years but in 5, 10 and 15 years. As a town that sits on a river, and a local area where water is a significant feature of our landscape, swimming skills and water safety are important now and will continue to be so in the future. Our annual presentation evening was probably the biggest and best that we have ever had. Responsibility for managing the Club membership and entries to galas and meets also sit within the Committee along with a myriad of other jobs that they get on with quietly but effectively behind the scenes. My thanks go to everyone on the Committee for their continued support.
Another large focus has been to grow our group of Technical Officials and Team Managers. The more we have, the more of the workload we can spread. There are courses to complete and sweaty poolsides to endure – I’m really selling this, right?! However, they are a key part of the machine that allows our swimmers to deliver super swims. Thank you for stepping forward and taking on these important roles.
While we take our responsibilities to our swimmers very seriously and professionally we also want the Club to be an extension of your family. A place where swimmers and their guardians can feel relaxed and socialise. We ran a successful programme of social activities for our swimmers and held our first ever parents social. We’ve already kicked off 2025 with a trip to Eat’n’Bowl and it won’t be long until we take to the inflatables at Wyboston. Like any family, there are highs and lows. We were gutted to hear that our Committee colleague and dear friend, Louise, is dealing with her own personal battle. I am sure that everyone at the Club will join me in sending our love to Louise and the family, all of whom are currently or have been linked to the Club. We’ve got your back.
Looking to the future, I am personally very excited that the St Neots Swans Swim Camp will make a return for the first time since Covid. We have a great venue in Kimbolton School who have bent over backwards to help us plan out what we think will be an exciting programme of not just swim coaching but other activities too.
In summary, while we continue to have challenges around pool time and the number of hours we can offer to coaching squads, I feel that St Neots Swans is in a great place to continue offering superb opportunities for success to our swimmers. I’ll close out this report by thanking them and their parents / guardians for your support and commitment.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Thomson-Clark
Honorary Chairperson
Head coach’s Report 2024/2025
Sadly, we lost our Head Coach, Andrea, last summer. While her departure was a difficult moment for the club, we chose to see it as an opportunity for positive change. It allowed us to bring in fresh faces to the coaching team, injecting new energy and ideas into our squad.
We had a fantastic start to the year with our largest-ever showing at the County Championships. A total of 21 swimmers competed, marking a 50% increase in participation compared to last year. The increasing strength of our squad was particularly evident in the relay events, where we won multiple medals in the youngest age groups, showcasing the depth of talent within the club.
One of the highlights was our girls’ and boys’ medal-winning relay teams, made up entirely of graduates from our teaching scheme. This not only reinforces the importance of our teaching program but also highlights the fantastic swimmers it is producing, thanks to our dedicated teaching team, led by Patsy.
Regional qualification has followed a similar upward trend, with the number of qualifiers rising from two to six swimmers in just one year. Looking ahead, our target is to take 27 swimmers to the County Championships. If achieved, this would mean doubling our county qualifiers in just two years—a significant milestone for the club.
We also had many standout individual performances at Counties. One of the biggest successes was Zach Polfrey, who, after failing to qualify last year, went on to win his age group in the 50m breaststroke—a colossal achievement.
Our reputation continues to grow locally and is now gaining recognition further afield. A noticeable increase in swimmers joining from the Rushden area reflects the club’s expanding reach and appeal.
However, growth comes with challenges. The majority of new swimmers are joining our younger squads, with nearly three quarters of our membership now under the age of 13. This has made maintaining squad standards more complex, as we must create space for new talent while ensuring existing swimmers continue to develop at the appropriate level.
Moving forward, our focus will be on managing this growth effectively, maintaining high coaching standards, and continuing to build a strong, competitive squad at all levels.
To support this, the club is committed to further investing in and developing our fantastic teaching and coaching team. I have every confidence that they will continue to exceed expectations as they provide outstanding support to our swimmers.
Andy Jones
Head Coach