Regional Management Board

I was appointed to the Board of Swim England West Midlands Ltd in May 2022 with a view to becoming Financial Director at the AGM on the retirement of Mike Beard.  This would be a hard act to follow due to Mike’s longstanding with the Region.  My background is Swimming; starting from a young age with Kingsbury Aquarius, Camp Hill Edwardians and Orion but settled later in my life with Tamworth ASC where I have been a member since the age of 18.  I moved on from swimmer to Young Official and also as a Coach for a number of years before taking some time out to start a family.   Once the family started learning to swim I decided it was time to get back into officiating and I took my referees exam in 2009, moving onto the British Swimming Referee Development Programme in 2012 which then led to a 4 year term on the FINA list from 2019 to 2022.  During this time I was privileged to represent British Swimming at the European Short Course in 2019 in Glasgow, 2021 in Kazan Russia and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.  To be involved in these games and in my home city was such an honour and something I will remember for a long time.  In 2014 I was approached to become Officials Secretary of Staffordshire ASA which I agreed to do. Since then I have been President between 2019 and 2022.  My career is as an accountant working in practice through my training until 2008 when I made the decision to move into a business to make family life/childcare easier and I haven’t looked back.  It was due to my background in Finance and Swimming that I decided to apply to join the Region.

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I have worked in the Leisure Sector for 30+ years, for 27 of those at Merlin Entertainments Group looking at central Commercial strategy, legal Commercial contracts, managing partners and improving the Commercial success of the business. This position supported 120+ visitor attractions covering all regions across the globe, working with both internal and external customers. I continue to be part of the attractions industry, supporting businesses in their Commercial performance and adding both financial and guest enhancing opportunities.

I compete regularly as a Masters swimmer, am an Assistant Head Coach, trainee Judge 1 and a Committee member at Dove Valley ASC supporting the sustainability and longevity of the club, where I was an original member when it was founded in 1985.

My Passion for sport – during my teenage years, I swam competitively, ventured to open water and competed in the National Lifeguard competitions. This love of swimming has been passed to my twin boys, who both started their competitive journey in swimming at a young age.

Not wanting to be a spectator, what started as “helping out” evolved into several different roles to support the club my children swam for. It started as a poolside helper, team manager, as the need from the club became governance and organisational, I moved to committee-based roles, workforce, OMS administrator and Club Chair over a period of 10 years.  A highlight, organising, fundraising and attending the 2019 Spain Swim camp taking 20 swimmers.

In parallel I also began to volunteer as a club official, seeing another volunteer gap. This journey of officiating progressed through the Judge stages, resulting in joining the 2022 Referee training cohort. In January 2023, I qualified as British Swimming referee.

I support Staffordshire County as a committee member and working member of the Swimming sub committee.

Most recently, I was appointed to Swim England West Midlands region as a board member and to lead the Regional Leadership Group.

I have been involved in swimming for 35 years, when my Daughter started swimming and joined Northgate, Bridgnorth SC at 8yrs old. I made the decision early on to not sit on a balcony all day watching, but to be proactive and give something to swimming. Therefore, I started training as a swimming official doing Timekeeper course, then Judge, Starter and finally Referee. I became a qualified Referee in 1999, and have to this day officiated at all levels of competition. After gaining my Referee’s qualification I started training and mentoring would be officials, and have lost count of how many people I have helped to become qualified at all levels. I still do this and am currently training a number of people to become Referees.

I became interested in Aquatics at a reasonably young age when I was asked to join a local Club by the Swimming Teacher at the Pool where we were taken from Primary School by bus once a week for Learn to Swim Lessons.

The Club, in Stoke on Trent, was stronger in Water Polo and I was drawn to this discipline in my early teens. I was reasonably proficient at Swimming and Water Polo, representing Staffordshire in both disciplines.

The Chairman of my Club had been a former County President encouraged me to apply for membership of Staffordshire A.S.A Executive. I was fortunate to be successful in 1972 and have remained as a member since that time.

Following my introduction to Swimming Administration at this level I was fortunate to work with several colleagues who were members of the District Board and a former President of the A.S.A. who asked me to undertake the role of County Treasurer. I have fulfilled this role since 1982.

In the intervening years I have acted in several roles with the three principal Clubs that I have belonged to, Stoke on Trent, Stafford and Lichfield as Committee member, Water Polo Secretary and Swimming Official .I have also undertaken the role of County Water Polo Secretary for many years. I continued Swimming and Playing Water Polo into late middle age, even representing Staffordshire  Masters on a number of occasions.

I have been fortunate to be elected President of Staffordshire A.S.A. on two occasions and also been awarded the honour of Life Member. In 2016 I was elected President of Swim England West Midlands Region. Honours that I cherish and enjoyed beyond measure.

As the Staffordshire representative on the R.M.B I see my role as a committed and interested intermediary between the Region and my County. To listen, support, report and encourage. During my life-time involvement in our sport I have witnessed many changes. Change is inevitable and continues at a pace, but my support for all things productive positive and beneficial remains undiminished.

I have been a volunteer member of Swim England with club, county and now the Region since 2008. Over the 15-year period I have volunteered for a variety of roles such as Workforce, Welfare, Development, Secretary and Team Manager giving a good all-round perspective on club governance and development for our aquatic sports.

Since retiring early, I have become a full-time volunteer and am currently the Board Lead for Workforce and sits on Regions club development committee and various working groups. Alongside this, I am the County Welfare Officer for Warwickshire ASA and a member of Boldmere Swimming and Waterpolo Club.

Elaine puts volunteers right at the heart of the sport and believes for all members to be successful it needs to be fun and above all safe.

Both my daughters swam for Stourbridge Swimming Club. The first in 1994 I joined the club committee in 1996 and was a member until 2012 having been Chair for five years, Hon Secretary twice, Open Meet Secretary; having organised 28 successful Open meets, and awarded honorary Life membership when I stepped down.

I was the club delegate to Worcester County and a member of the County Officials Committee after becoming a Referee and I have refereed up to Regional Championships.

I was approached by the Regional Director to join the Regional Board in 2007 as the Worcester County representative and so became a Worcester County management board member, posts I held for five years.

In 2012 I became the West Midland appointee on the National ASA Board and then a member of the ASA Sports Board and the ASA Group Board and sat on the National Swimming Management Committee.

I became president of Worcester County for 2013 and 2014 and WM Regional President in 2016.

Nationally I am now one of the four members nominated directors on the current SE Board and a Director of Swim England trading and member of the SE Audit Risk and Probity Committee.

I have always loved swimming and the water and I currently swim with some masters swimmers.

I learnt about Swim England West Midlands Region and the Management Board through being a parent involved with my girls home club Redditch SC.

I joined the Regional Management Board in November 2021 and act as a Sports Consultant. I am interested in how we use data, insight and marketing to drive investment into the sport to make a difference.

In my day job, I work as Training and Education Manager in Equestrian Sport, with a specific remit for the development of coaches, officials, talent pathways, sport development including youth and para as well as leading on national education events.

I have a background as a coach and competitor as well as working in further and higher education settings. I am interested in sport as a whole and the benefits it can bring to local communities, individuals health and wellbeing as well as providing wider opportunities for volunteering and employment.

While I have never been a competitive swimmer, swimming is an essential life skill and I feel very passionately about ensuring that as many people as possible are provided with the opportunity to try and develop their swimming skills, regardless of their individual motivations for doing so, whether that is just to be safe in the water or aspirations of swimming on teams. It is essential we have a skilled network of teachers and coaches to ensure that people receive great training to help them achieve these goals regardless of what they maybe, but more importantly they develop a lifelong love of swimming.