Board Update – March 2007
Key projects keep Board busy, will raise Club’s profile
It’s coincidental, and then it’s not, that the Club marks its 30th Anniversary in 2007 with several new projects that will raise funds and the Stingrays profile in the community and the swimming world.
Each one has its own significance. Combined they will have an important impact on everyone within the Newmarket Stingrays Swim Club for years to come, reports President Steve Kingston.
One is the announcement that A&P Canada Co., combining Dominion and A&P food stores, will sponsor the Newmarket Fall Invitational Meet for the next five years. That Meet will become the Dominion Stores Fall Invitational Swim Meet, commencing in November 2007. It is the club’s first corporate sponsor.
A&P Canada will also have exclusive advertising rights on the new electronic timing equipment, still several months away from reality. Having received that $50,000 from the Magna Hoedown of last Fall, the Board has requested tenders on this equipment. Two vendors have quoted on it and the Board is awaiting clarification on the bids pending a site visit by one of the prospective contractors to the new Magna Centre on Mulock. The electronic timer should be in place for the Dominion Stores Fall Invitational Meet in early November.
The Board and its website committee, under Director of Communications Neila Cerenzia, have spent considerable time planning the re-design of the club’s website. Some of the changes are underway, which members will notice as they visit the site. The major re-design will appear soon. All current features and information will remain, but it will be easier to navigate. Drop-down menus, for example, will allow you to go directly to a specific web page rather than having to click on several consecutive items. “We anticipate that the website re-design should be completed before we break for the summer,” Neila Cerenzia reported.
Obviously the biggest change will be the move to the new eight-lane pool when the new season starts in September. The Grand Opening of the Magna Centre is now scheduled for July. “We will showcase the club’s activities with at least a sample workout during the opening program,” Steve Kingston said.
Preliminary plans for the 30th Anniversary season may include a Celebrity Relay with teams of four from various community services at the first Dominion Stores Fall Invitational Swim Meet in November, he added. The Town of Newmarket will be asked to enter at least one team, along with the fire department, York Regional Police, Southlake Regional Health Centre, the paramedics and Dominion Stores, for example, he suggested. After touring the new Magna Centre, still under construction almost across from the Newmarket Theatre and Newmarket High School, the president described it as a “spectacular facility. We believe it will be the best 25 metre pool in the whole area, and designed to be a fast pool for the swimmers,” Steve Kingston predicted. The reason for that expectation is its design features, he explained. Water returns will be from the bottom and not the side near the surface as is traditional. Gutters will reduce the wave action. There will be no diving boards and no slides to obstruct training and competition activity on the decks, for example. There will be fixed seating above the pool for 200 spectators plus on-deck seating for 600 participants. The deck bleachers will be collapsible for folding back out of the way when not needed. (The pool is at the north-east corner of the facility, which also features four ice surfaces, with its two levels of windows facing on Mulock Drive. The Club has been fortunate to have been involved with the Town throughout the design and construction of the pool and has had input to many of its features,” Steve Kingston said.
Finally, there is the club’s new slogan: ‘Respect All … Fear None … Unleash the Sting!’ “Congratulations to David Ellis, AG-2, who won the draw for a Tim Horton’s gift certificate as part of the contest to select the slogan. Thank you to all the swimmers who suggested wording for the new slogan selected by the Board”, Neila Cerenzia added. The new banner and slogan was displayed high on the diving platform at the Etobicoke Olympium during the Junior Provincial Championships March 1-4.
The Board of Directors
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