Committee
Thanks to our committee this year, who have worked hard behind the scenes getting stuff done.
We meet around once a month and work through all the things discussed below.
President Paul Jaquin
Secretary Eleanor Trueman
Treasurer Lucas Fornes
Committee members:
- Annekke Veenstra
- Marijn Wouters
- Richie Lambert
- Bethany Rogers
- Neil Drouet
- In May 2023 Connor Paton resigned from the committee
- In January 2024 Bresita Paton resigned from the committee
- In June 2023 Neil Drouet joined the committee
- In August 2024 Eleanor Trueman resigned from the committee (at this AGM)
All other committee members are prepared to continue on the committee for 2024-2025
Events
This year we held a similar set of events as in previous years. We had some great attendance at these events, but were thwarted by the weather for a few weeks in January and February which meant a few events were cancelled. Check out our swim club events page.
- Winter film night – 3rd September – approx 35 people
- Learn the Lake – 28th October – approx 15 complete beginners
- New Years Day Lake Alta swim – 1st January – 18 people
- Whakatipu Legend summer series – 1st December – 20 people
- Summer Solstice swim – 21st December – 21 people
- Ruby (cancelled – weather) – 27th January
- Pigeon Island (cancelled – weather) – 24th February
- Whakatipu Legend race preparation workshop – 9th March 30 people
- Whakatipu Legend race
- Coffee boat – 13th April – 21 people
- Brave the Lake – Intro to cold water swimming – 18th May – 15 people
- Lake Alta end of summer swim – 28th April – 14 people
- Winter Solstice swim – 21st June – 20 people
- Winter Legend – 8th July
- Yoga for swimmers – 15th June 12 people
- Ice Swimming championships
Regular Saturday swims
For our regular Saturday morning swims we’ve had an average of around 25 people through the summer, and around 6 people swimming consistently through the winter.
- We’ve guaranteed the Scout Hut as a changing facility year round.
- We’re providing tea and biscuits after every swim, which we hope helps to build a sense of community around the Saturday morning swims
Swim Lane
We put in the buoys and numbered them for the start of the summer swim season. We owe a big thanks to Warren Skerrett for helping with his boat to put the buoys out and locate them accurately.
- We have buoys at 125m spacing, with numbers and distance markers on. The lane is 1.25km long, meaning an out and back swim is 2.5km
- The start buoy has come loose in the shallow water. We plan to reattach this before the start of the summer season.
- Some of the numbers are missing from the distance markers. We’ll get this sorted before the start of the summer season.
Accounts
- We have applied for and been allocated $2000 from QLDC Community Fund.
- We buy and sell Tow Floats as part of the membership package at very close to cost.
- We use Hivepass and Stripe for membership and donations.
- Our membership fee is $45 per year for 2023-2024 – We propose to increase this to $55 per year for 2024-2025
Communication
We primarily use the newsletter, website, Facebook and Instagram as our means of communication with members. This appears to be working well, although we note that we may be missing some demographics such as Tik-Tok.
- Hivepass – 122 members. Works well for signup
- Facebook – 877 likes, 1087 followers.
- Instagram – 196 followers
- Newsletter – 121 contacts.
- Website – this appears to be working well, but we don’t capture visitor information.
Membership
Our membership has grown this year to over 100 members for the first time. Our membership is now on a rolling basis, meaning if you join at any point through the year, your membership is valid for the following 12 months.
Our current membership is 108
Advocacy
We have responded to the following:
- ORC Long Term Plan – said we supported more monitoring of pollution events
- QLDC Waterways Bylaw update – asked for the swim lanes to be included in the lake maps
- QLDC Community groups survey – discussed requirements for toilets, showers etc
- QLDC Long Term Plan – supported bringing forward upgrade to Alpine Aqualand, discussed toilets showers, toilets etc at swim lane.
- WAI Wanaka – We wrote a letter of support for funding for WAI Wanaka to undertake a pilot study for monitoring of microplastics and lake water quality in Lake Wanaka. We expect this to be rolled out to Lake Whakatipu in the future.
Other groups
- Scouts – We have formalised our relationship with Queenstown Scouts. We have agreed to hire the Scout Hut every Saturday morning. This seems to be working well, and allows us to use their toilets and changing facilities
- QLDC SwimFit – many of our SLSC members are also members of SwimFit. The SwimFit trainers Denise and Carolina are very supportive of SLSC. Denise was a trainer for our Learn the Lake course.
- Jedi Masters/Queenstown Swimming Club – many of our SLSC members are also members of Jedi Masters group. We look to strengthen this relationship.
- Coastguard – we’re working on getting a webcam and weather station installed at the Coastguard building, so we can check out the lake conditions before heading down.
Sponsorship
We received sponsorship in kind from Bunnings Queenstown. Bunnings were able to assist with two popup changing tents, two outdoor showers and a gas burner. We have used the changing tents extensively, and used the gas burner for tea and coffee outside during the summer.
Survey results
We posted an online survey, to date we have had 21 responses.
Some comments:
- Changing and toilets are good
- Saturday mornings are good, but clash with family time
- Events are good, other swim locations would be fun
- Duck itch can be an issue
- Catering for slower swimmers
Plans for next year
We’re looking to build on our successes of this year, run similar events and swims to this year including the following:
- Learn the Lake
- Improve the Lake (or a better name) – for those who did Learn the Lake last year
- Open water swim training sessions
We’ll really try to get to Pigeon Island this year
Paul Jaquin – President August 2024
Love this and the club, my first club that ive been apart of and i was umming and ahhing about it for a while nervous to join. Everyone has been so welcoming and its been a big highlight of my year! Also how do i sign up for the newsletter?
It’s so lovely to have you swimming with us! We’ll make sure you’re on the newsletter list 🙂