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Get Involved

Become a Volunteer

The success of the club is down to our amazing team of volunteers. These selfless individuals contribute their talent and time to help make the club and the experience of our swimmers the best it can be, without the cost of full time employees.

The breadth of volunteering roles we have is surprisingly wide and not restricted to just coaching. If you have a skill or specialisation that could be useful to the club and have some spare time, we would love to have you join the team.

How it Works

To ensure we provide a safe and quality experience for our swimmers, some roles require a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check. For some roles, Swim England training will be provided to ensure you have the necessary skills.

We will help you obtain a Swim England membership number, organise and pay for your DBS check and send through details of any training that is required. Most of the training is available online and the club will reimburse any fees.

Generic Requirements

Each role has it’s specific set of requirements and these are set out below underneath each heading.

In general, however, all we need is that you are willing to help out and can commit enough time to fullfil the demands of the role.

Email us about volunteering

Roles

Coaching Team

The coach is an important part of the club, but just as our swimmers are on a journey, so are our coaches. These are the stages in the coaching journey:

Poolside helper ➟ Assistant coach ➟ Coach ➟ Head coach

In the club we have volunteers at all different levels and utilise them to ensure the right level of experience and knowledge is distributed through the squads to ensure safe and quality training sessions. Everyone’s journey starts as a poolside helper and you can choose your progression through the steps. Some people remain as poolside helpers, others choose to progress and aspire to become head coach.

There is no requirement to have been a competitive swimmer in the past to be part of the coaching team.

Key Skills

  • People Development

  • Communication Skills

  • People Engagement

  • Data Analysis

  • Observation Skills

As a poolside helper, tasks include; timing, scribing, giving feedback (with guidance by the coach), relaying instructions (from the coach), and swimmer observation (to feed into the coach). There is no need to be a swimming expert. Your role is simply to support the coach to ensure the sessions can be more effective. Over time, you will gain valuable experience and insight and if ready to take the next step, this will be bolstered with an assistant coaching course through Swim England.

Time Requirement

The minimum would be 1 hour (1 training session) per week. As you progress through the levels, the more time you will contribute – both at the pool and away – will increase. Ultimately, where you want to be on the ladder is up to you.

Perks

Extra Christmas cards from your swimmers, satisfaction from the impact you make and coaching team social meets.

Must Haves

DBS check and safeguarding training

Officials

If you haven’t got the time for coaching, another good option is to become an official. In order for our swimmers to attend a gala, or for us to put on our own gala, we need to provide officials who ensure that the rules of swimming are adhered to.

It’s also a good option if you already attend a gala with your swimmer. Becoming an official gives you poolside access, arguably the best seat in the house and helps the day pass much more quickly.

People regularly comment that they don’t know the rules of swimming, so couldn’t become an official. But consider this: The rules of swimming fit on one side of A4 paper and similar to coaching, there are different levels of official so what you need to know depends on how far you want to go. The stages in the official’s journey are:

Trainee J1 ➟ J1 Official ➟ J2(S) Official ➟ Referee

As soon as you have your Swim England membership number, we sign you up for the online J1 Training, which you can complete in your own time and pace. We will reimburse the £20 fee. Once the online training is complete, you are then available to volunteer at galas. Before you become a J1 official, you will be asked to attend galas in order to experience the different poolside roles and a mentor will support you with each of these roles. Once you have gained the experience, the referee will sign you off. Once you have been signed off for all required experiences, the referee graduates you. If you decide to go further, there are courses for each step, and new experiences to get signed off.

Key Skills

  • Observation Skills

  • Time Management

  • Compliance

  • Basic safety in the workplace

Time Requirement

The minimum would be 1 session at a gala, but after that, as much or as little as you can offer. For home galas we tend to get all hands on deck, but if you aren’t available that’s ok.

Perks

Travel expenses, best view in the house, wine or chocolate gift at each gala you volunteer at.

Must Haves

DBS check, child safeguarding training, swim England membership number.

Committee Roles

Running a club is more than simply coaching kids how to swim fast. Behind the scenes there are a myriad of activities and actions that need to take place to ensure the club is sustainable and adheres to the rules of Swim England. The committee play a key role in ensuring these tasks are known and completed and take strategic decisions to improve the club for the future. Whilst there are some key roles on the committee, such as treasurer, chairman, membership secretary etc., as a new volunteer what is important is the voice you bring to the table and the skills that can be utilised for the benefit of the club. For this reason, we have expanded the number of roles on the committee to enable people to join the group and contribute to the discussions. Some new roles include:

Teaching Squad Parent Representative

Members of the committee tend to be people whose children have been in the club for some time. This can mean that we miss the voice of parents of new swimmers and the improvements that they would like us to make in the club

Coach Representative

If you volunteer as a member of the coaching team, we want the voice of the coaches to be heard on the committee e.g. what are the issues? where can we improve?

Official Representative

If you volunteer as a member of the officials team, we want to ensure the needs of this group are understood so that we can ensure that we have a healthy and engaged officials team.

Social Media Lead

In today’s world, social media is more important than ever to engage with members and potential members, but it needs someone focused on delivering good, targeted content.

Swimmer Representative

This role is key, aimed more towards some of our older swimmers. It is essential that the committee hears the voice of our swimmers. What works, what doesn’t, what could be better.

Useful Skills

  • Finance

  • Safeguarding

  • Organisational Skills

  • Strategy Development

  • PR and Media

  • Communication

  • Problem Solving

Time Requirement

There is a monthly 1-hour committee meeting. As your role develops on the committee, there will be additional time commitment, but initially it is about listening and sharing at the committee meeting.

Perks

Using your skills to ensure the future of the club.

Must Haves

None

Other Roles

There are other ways you can support the club. Here are a few examples:

Club Photographer

We need content for our website, social media and for articles we send to local media, for that we need someone with a talent for photography.

Fundraising Team

We have a fundraising co-ordinator on the committee, but it is a team effort to seek out avenues of income, and organise fundraising activities, the club need manpower.

Gala Helpers

We always need helpers at our home galas to man the raffle table, guard the cake table, give out medals and help with the timing system.