Too Few Swimming Officials, Says Report

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32117, 13 October 1969, Page 17

Too Few Swimming Officials, Says Report

New Zealand is on the brink of an “explosion of swimming popularity,” but it appears that there are insufficient officials to meet the needs of the increasing number of participants, says the annual report of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association.

“There are already signa that the swimmers have caught up with the administration,” says the report “The swimmers want to go faster and more often, but officialdom is too fully engaged tn coping with the swimmers* current needs to be able to plan the future requirements. “There is a limit to what a voluntary official or administrator can accomplish, and there comes a time when enthusiasm is simply submerged by the ever-increasing demands made on it,” the report says.

"Every endeavour must be made, and every opportunitv taken, to involve more people tn the sport of swimming. Failure to do so could result In a decrease In standards and the

!<<• of all that hat been achieved." The report >uggeit< that control and clubs could well consider the greater use of parents of competitors as officials at carnivals. This, It says, is one avenue towards an Increased work force which has

not been well trodden. During the IS6B-4S season, affiliated membership of the association increased by 1241—0 r 5.t0 per cant—to 25,131, the fourth highest flguro in the association’s history. The Auckland centre achieved a » per cent increase in membership, reselling a figure of 4MI, and seven other eentrek also showed a rise in numbers. The report says that ll.opo Is probably a fair estimate of the number of members actively engaged in competitive swimming. . . _ Fourteen new clubs wore affiliated daring 156841 and the association expects a record membership this summer.