Paula Hodgson is Honorary Secretary for York City Baths Swimming Club. Her remit includes dealing with correspondence, arranging committee meetings, taking minutes and ensuring the club runs smoothly by communicating effectively to all sections of the club. Prior to being secretary, she held the role of Teaching Co-ordinator on the committee for two years.

Paula became involved with the club 6 years ago when her eldest daughter Jennifer joined the club at the age of nine. Her youngest daughter, Helen then joined when she was seven.
She spent a lot of time on the balcony supporting the girls in training and attending galas that so felt that she would like to take more of an active role within the club.

When the swim21 co-ordinator left the club, Paula took responsibility for the Clubmark related files. As the club was already swim21 accredited for teaching, she was determined for the accreditation to be awarded to the Skill Development and Masters Section of the club. She also ensured that the Teaching section was maintained and kept up to date and also ensured that voluntary staff attended the necessary courses. This involved a lot of time and effort in collating, preparing and presenting records for the swim21 file.

Paula can often be seen on pools side at internal sprint awards and away at galas as a poolside helper. She also encourages other parents to become involved with the club, arranging and attending ‘Parent Forum Meetings' which are held quarterly and are proving to be very successful.

Since achieving Clubmark/swim21, the club has benefited by being able to apply for grants to help its voluntary teachers develop their knowledge by attending courses. It is able to obtain a wider resource of information & workshops from the ASA.

She said,

"Other swim schools are aware of our Clubmark. It is recognised that we are providing quality swimming. We have a waiting list for potential new members of the teaching section and are now being approached by other swim clubs to part take in our swimming programme. The club has become more structured and focused."