Officials & Volunteers are a crucial part of helping Swimming Club's deliver events and support the development of swimmers through officiating, running meets and accurately recording times. AST Burnham's Volunteer and Officials Co-Ordinator is Steph Powell and if you are interested in volunteering for a role as a Timekeeper, Judge or Referee please get in touch with her either at the Swim Academy or by emailing her with your name, date of birth and email address at [email protected].

We always need volunteers for any meet that the Academy Swim Team takes part in, although how many varies depending on the meet. As well as providing officials each meet usually requires a Team Manager or Chaperone which are organised on a meet by meet basis when needed. The club also now has several parents on the Academy Swim Team Committee along with representatives from Legacy Leisure who own and operate the Burnham Swim and Sports Academy. We are currently in need of someone with Financial knowledge to take on the Treasurer role on the committee which is currently being filled by Legacy Leisure. If you are interested in this role or being involved generally with the committee and helping out the club with fund raising and event organising, please get in touch with our Chairperson Simon Robinson at [email protected].

AST Burnham Officials

Steph Powell Volunteer & Officials Co-Ordinator Judge Level 2 Starter	Stevie Dixon Judge Level 2	Sonja Chard Judge Level 2
Emma Anderson Judge Level 2	Nick Faubel Judge Level 1	Matt Powell Judge Level 1
Karl Mawby Judge Level 1	Mair Howe Judge Level 1

Official Roles

Timekeeper - This role allows volunteers to work at Level 4 and unlicensed events. The timekeeper qualification is an online course that costs £5 and can be found here. The Timekeeper course covers what being a timekeeper is all about through an interactive e-learning course that takes between 60 and 90 minutes to complete, followed by a practical timekeeping session that will need to be completed at an event.

Once completed you will need to keep a copy of the certificate gained at end of the course and upload it following the instructions at the end of the module to your personal membership record. This will then need to be shown to the club so that we can assist in arranging sign off for you as an official who is competent to time keep. You will need to be a minimum age of 14 years to undertake this training.

Judge Level 1 - This can begin without studying timekeeping beforehand and includes the timekeeper content along with the other duties of being a J1. The application process can be found here and the course can be accessed here. You can study on your own at a time when it suits you. Swim England South West funds the course fee of £20 and candidates can finish within an evening or take a bite sized approach over several weeks. Once the online course is completed the certificate issued will need to be uploaded following the instructions in the module and trigger the dispatch of your logbook. The Regional Coordinator will then email you with the name of the Referee who will guide you towards appropriate poolside experiences and introduce your County Coordinator.

It will then take approximately 15 hours of mentored poolside practice to complete the qualification although this will include also having to be signed off as a qualified timekeeper in order to officiate at any licensed meet whilst still a J1 Trainee. 

Judge Level 2 - This is the second level of Judge qualification. It encompasses the role and duties in relation to all aspects of judging and the theoretical role and duties of a Starter. The minimum age to start training is 16 years and candidates must have already qualified as a Judge Level 1. The training is made up of formal instruction mentored pool side training with a workbook, followed by a practical assessment. When qualified, candidates will be attributed with the qualification Judge Level 2 on the British Swimming Database. The application form to apply for a J2 course can be found here.

Judge Level 2S (Starter) - Candidates wishing to qualify as a Starter will be required hold the Judge Level 2 qualification and have completed a minimum of 20 hours post qualification experience as Judge Level 2. Training will consist of a prescribed number of practical experiences as a Starter before undertaking a formal practical assessment. Successful candidates will be attributed with the Starter qualification: Judge Level 2. The application form to apply for a J2S course can be found here.

Referee - The minimum age for training is 19 years providing the candidate is aged 20 years as at 30th November in the year of the theory examination. This course contains theoretical instruction and specified practical experiences. It is followed by a formal examination in November every year after which successful candidates take a final poolside practical assessment leading to qualification as a British Swimming Referee. Several months are allocated between registration and the formal examination to enable candidates to undertake all the practical experience required to complete the course as well as the theoretical instruction. Application forms must usually be submitted by 31 December of the previous year to allow sufficient time for completion of training in preparation for the November examination.

The pre-requisites and application process for Referee training are available here. The next intake will be for training in 2023 and requires candidates to have completed at least 50 hours of experience since qualifying as a starter.