SwimMark and Club Affiliation information sessions & deadline reminder
This session is designed to share important information with clubs on completing the required elements for accreditation. Each session will last no more than 90 minutes and will be delivered online via Zoom. The session will give attendees an opportunity to ask questions. Monday 16th January & Wednesday 9th February: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SMandCA
Reminder; clubs completing their SwimMark Full or Health Check accreditation must have all elements approved on the SwimMark portal by 16th January 2023. Clubs who will be retaining their affiliation and completing Club Affiliation will need to complete the 5 elements by 16th January 2023. Amanda Swan, Regional Club Development Officer will be on leave between Thursday 15th December and Wednesday 4th January, during that time no reviews of the portal will take place. Which leaves only a small amount of time following Christmas to upload and have submissions reviewed, therefore, we would encourage uploads in the next few days to ensure a review of this information before Christmas.
New Model Constitution Regional Update Process
You will be aware that Swim England implemented a new model constitution for unincorporated clubs earlier this year. In addition, we are awaiting the release of other governance documents which will support different club structures from Swim England early next year. All clubs will be required to update their constitution to ensure that it is compliant with these new model documents (and appropriate to their structure).
The West Midlands Region has agreed that all clubs must be compliant to the new models by their SwimMark / Club Affiliation panel submission in 2024. This provides all clubs 2 years to update their constitution which we feel is a reasonable and fair time scale. Thank you to the small number of clubs who have already updated to the new model.
As a reminder, when any change is made to a club constitution, it must be reviewed and agreed by the Region, before it is agreed by the club at an AGM meeting. We would encourage clubs to begin the update process as soon as possible; please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions or would like further support or guidance. If you have recently updated your constitution and is ready to be reviewed, please send it to: [email protected] for review and comment.
Reminders of the update process will be received by clubs via the SwimMark renewals process and Element 5.
Further information, guidance and templates on the new model constitution can be found on the following link: https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/new-model-club-constitution/
Recruitment of Club Constitution Assessors
The West Midlands Region is looking to increase the number of Club Constitution Assessors supporting the Regional Office. The role is voluntary and would involve the review and critique of submitted club constitutions/governing documents against the new Swim England model constitutions. A summary of the findings and recommendation would be submitted to the relevant Board directors who would make a final decision as to acceptance or not.
The suitable candidate would have knowledge of club constitutions (not necessarily aquatics clubs) and an understanding of the operations of a sports club (e.g., working of club committees, AGM’s and dispute procedures). The number of club constitutions would vary month to month but the timescales for turnaround would be agreed.
Guidance notes and support would be provided to the successful candidate. If you are interested in this voluntary position, please contact the Regional Office with your CV.