How to affiliate your club to Swim England and the East Midlands Region.
When you affiliate your club to Swim England and the East Midlands Region you unlock lots of additional opportunities for your members.
The East Midlands Region covers all clubs that are based in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Northamptonshire. If you need more information you can contact each of the county organisations through their websites.
The process of affiliation is straightforward but you will need to follow the process as outlined in the Club Affiliation Pack. Our regional office will be able to support you through the process.
There are four key stages to follow when you affiliate a club to Swim England.
Benefits of Affiliation
- Insurance cover (which includes civil liability, personal accident and legal advice)
- Opportunities for training, attendance at conferences and CPD’s for teachers and coaches
- Free training and information sessions for volunteers and Club Personnel
- Club-related initiatives such as SwimMark and DISE
- Access to a structured competitive pathway including County, Regional and National competitions
- Access to the Swim England and regional officers to help your club and its members achieve its full potential
- In the words of the Swim England handbook: “A club must comprise a group of people who join together for the common purpose of taking part in swimming related activities and must be organised and managed on a democratic basis.”
- This group of people must include: chair, secretary, treasurer, welfare officer and a coach / teacher but can add additional roles where appropriate, such as membership secretary, or fund-raising officer. This group of people will form the basis of your club committee.
- The name of a club must include some reference to the club’s normal area of activity and location. It must not have a name that could be confused with another club.
- All clubs need to be constituted in order to create a legal entity that other organisations can operate with. The constitution plays an important part in regulating club affairs. Learn more in the Swim England document .
- The club needs to adopt a constitution based on the Swim England recommended Model Club Constitution. Once written this needs to be approved by your Swim England region.
- Clubs also need a written constitution to ensure all stakeholders can understand how duties are carried out and the rules that need to be followed.
- Go to our Ways to Set Up Your Club section to learn about the ways to constitute your club.
- If you are setting up as an unincorporated club then you will need to use the Swim England constitution model, that can be found here.
- You must complete the application form for affiliation and all supporting information and then submit this to the Swim England East Midlands‘ office.
Once affiliation has been approved
Affiliation usually takes a few weeks. Once approved our regional office will contact Swim England membership services and your club will be registered as affiliated with Swim England.
Swim England will contact you directly to give you access to the Online Membership System where you will be able to start adding your club members. Once affiliated you have 3 months to complete the required information for maintaining your new affiliation status. Your regional officer will support you through this process.
Start the process by downloading the application form.