It's important for everyone to understand that without people helping out on poolside, either with a stopwatch, or co-ordinating swimmers, or recording the gala, or judging swimming technique, or any other officiating roles, our swimmers would not have the opportunity to swim these club championship events.

Most of the parents that help out do so in the knowledge that they are sometimes likely to miss out on seeing their children swim because they are too busy, and the club owes them all a debt of gratitude.

There were many new faces on poolside this year which was wonderful to see - however we were still heavily reliant on the same nucleus of parents that volunteer year in year out.... we really do need to increase the number of parent volunteers that help at these galas to give some of our long-standing volunteers the occasional break. It would be lovely for these guys to sit in the stand just once in a while to watch their children swim, but they can only do that if we have enough volunteers to be able to rotate duties.

From a personal perspective, it's been a pleasure to work with such a dedicated and friendly bunch of volunteers, and I look forward to doing so again next year.

Thank you all.

Steve