Swim Ulster is grateful for the fantastic energy and time committed to our sport by our volunteers. We regret that much of this committment is never properly acknowledged or celebrated.

 We are now working with the Volunteer Development Agency to improve how we support our volunteers.

We are doing this so that our volunteers can experience more self-fulfillment in their roles and so that they can see how their volunteering makes a vital difference to the sport. With the assistance of VDA, we will create more and better opportunities for our volunteers to get involved in all our activities. We will create clear pathways within our organisation so that our volunteers can progress to new and greater levels of involvement at club, regional and national levels.

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will require 70,000 volunteers. Recruitment of volunteers will begin in 2010 and, although we do not know how this will be organised yet, we will support our volunteers to be ready for the opportunity.

The Volunteer Development Agency will implement a N Ireland Volunteer Strategy for the games, inspired by the vision to;

" involve, recognise and maximise the contribution of volunteers as part of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a catalyst for inspiring increased volunteering".

The aim of the strategy is to:

• raise the profile of volunteering in N Ireland
• maximise opportunities for the recruitment of new volunteers
• involve "Team NI" volunteers in the 2012 Games and establish a legacy of supported and skilled volunteers for future events in N Ireland

Swim Ulster will work closely with the VDA in support of this vision and to achieve these aims. We believe it would be a fitting reward for some of our volunteers to be offered the once in a lifetime opportunity to volunteer at the Games and we will do all we can to support our volunteers to be ready for any such opportunities.

For more information on the Volunteer Development Agency, go to

 http://www.volunteering-ni.org/what_we__do/2012_Project/ 

 We will keep our members informed of any developments.