Club Captain’s Report, 2023

The foundation of Lifesaving South Africa and the clubs are the voluntary duties done by its members to ensure safety around the water in our communities. Voluntary club duties across the country save the municipalities millions of rand in a financial year to help ensure safety on the beaches across the country.

We continued our winter programmes by ensuring our club did duties on Central Beach throughout the winter season. Our JLA and LA courses have being working very well and help to relieve the pressure and stress of getting the courses and hours done by the end of January 2024.

As a full member of Plett Surf Lifesaving Club you must do 2 voluntary duties a year (16 hours) completed over 2 Sundays at the club. To attain Full Membership status, you must have one of the following awards:

1. Senior Lifeguard Award
2. Junior Lifeguard Award
3. QC Award

To attain any one of these awards the candidate must complete 3 voluntary duties (24 hours) in order to receive their respective award. The year that the candidate attains their certification they will have done the prerequisite 3 duties and will not have to do any other duties that season.

The Club Duties will be managed as such:

• Minimum of 4 members on a duty squad otherwise it’s not considered a full squad and duties will not be counted.
• There will be a roster set up for squads of 4 or more, each squad will consist of at least 1 Senior Lifeguard and the rest will be other full members.
• The squad roster will be set up and emailed out to everyone on the list.
• Duties must be recorded properly, and the duty book must be filled in completely, upon duty, members must sign in and out at recorded times or the duty will not be valid.
• Club Duties can only be done on Sundays
• Nipper/Lifesaving Carnivals over the weekend will count as duty hours if safety officers are required and the members can record their hours on those days.
• The conditions and beach counts must also be recorded in the duty book.
• Duty Room/ First Aid Room to be checked when on club duty.
• Any full member who has a proficiency award is expected to do at least two duties per year. Those with awards are expected to sign up for this and offer duty times.

To qualify to retest as either:

Senior Lifeguard
Junior Lifeguard

• The candidate must have done their 2 club duties over the season prior to the date of the retest.
• The candidate must attend the refresher course held by the club instructor prior to the retest and will have to complete a POE (Portfolio Of Evidence) signed off by the club instructor at the date of the retest.

We have yet again increased our junior program and have now approximately 30 Juniors actively involved in the club and growing

Plett Surf entered a junior team in the Nationals events and did well in their age groups. Although we may struggle to retain Senior members due to them leaving Plett to study, we would like to now begin work on a Senior Squad to enter in the Nationals Events.

Our Masters squad did very well and it was wonderful to see the masters competing for their home clubs in this year’s Nationals.

The Juniors have already started their winter training program on the beach on a Sunday and they plan to have individualised training for specific disciplines.

We have been working very hard on the Club House in the Winter season and we can all see the wonderful changes. New bathrooms have been added which were very much needed and a good paint has helped to make the club house a better place for all. The bar has been upgraded as well as the outside roof has been fixed to make it more usable in all weather. The bad drainage system down stairs has once again been re-opened after the municipality filled it with cement years ago so hopefully now the dampness and drainage is all sorted out.

All the above cannot be possible without the effort and dedication pro bona of the following individuals in particular:

Andries and Tania Coetzee and their team (Building and alterations) Wessel Havenga (Cupboards and Woodwork)
Stephen Black (Floor)
Deon Neethling (Drainage)
Buco
PIPS
All the hard work put in by the committee and club members.

A very important aspect which every club must take heed off is the DSO (Designated Safey Officer) which is continually spoken about and enforced by LSA.
It is important for all members to be aware if they know of or hear any unethical or inappropriate behaviour this needs to be reported immediately to the DSO so this can be addressed.

Our current qualified DSO is Jane Coetzer.

We as a club have eventually succeeded in attainting an official short lease for now and will continue to try and get a long-term lease which will ease the continuous pressure from the Municipality to take over our storage space downstairs, where all our equipment is being stored, but are in negotiations and talks with them for alternative possibilities (ie. Extending the deck and creating garages underneath to create more space so we do not lose ours

With the continuous pressure on the Club for Funding we appeal to All Members to support and utilize the club whenever available and we will look forward to the RWC 2023 games which will be televised at the Club.

Any additional suggestions and ideas to attain extra funding for the Club is always welcomed as this is Your Club.

As Club Captain I would also like to thank the current committee for all their hard work and effort they have put into the Club this year and would also like to welcome the incoming committee and know the club will move from strength to strength.

We as a club look forward to many happy seasons ahead.

Club Captain
Deon Coetzer