Presidents’ Report to Club Members 2013
Text from Address at Club Annual Meeting on June 6, 2013
I begin my remarks by confirming that the Water Rat Parents’ Club remains a strong organization of dedicated volunteers. We are a non-profit organization with annual revenues and expenses in excess of $150,000. After hearing the report of our Treasurer, you will see that we are well managed and fiscally sound.
The purpose of the Club is to support the Water Rat Swim Team. We do that in a myriad of ways. We raise funds to be used for the benefit of the program and its participants. We assist the coaches by managing meets and providing other administrative aid, such as managing the USA Swimming Accounts and PET-WRAT program. We also organize and conduct social functions for the swimmers on the team. The Club is able to provide this support by maintaining and managing an annual budget that comes from the PET-WRAT fees paid by the families of each swimmer at the beginning of the Short Course Season.
The strength of our organization lies in our volunteer base. Our effectiveness over the past year resulted from a willingness of our many volunteers to pool their collective knowledge, skills, and abilities and work together to achieve a common vision, which is a world-class competitive swim team. Our future success will depend on us continuing to nurture that volunteer pool as some of our senior parents leave the team when their children graduate high school.
One of the biggest issues we faced this year was Hurricane Sandy. As you all know, the storm caused the shutdown of the Y for nearly six weeks. That impacted our practices, meets, and Citrus Sale fundraiser. Despite the obstacles we faced, the team was able to continue practicing at other Ys and Staples High School thanks to the tremendous efforts of our coaches. We were also able to host a very successful Freestyle Frenzy at Weselyan University, and our citrus sale was quite profitable. We could not have achieved these success stories without the flexibility and patience of our swimmers and their parents during a very stressful time period.
To close, we look forward to continued success in our upcoming swim season, we encourage all parents to become involved and help us provide our kids with a great swimming experience, and we thank all of you who have been actively engaged this year.
Adrienne Williams and Andy McNab
Co-Presidents
Water Rats Parents’ Club
