• 14.4 To recognise meritorious service to SAMS, honorary life membership may be awarded to an individual - this membership will be non-voting.
• 14.5 The decision to make such an award will be taken at a General Meeting and with a unanimous vote. 

                   Motivation for Honourary Life Membership: John Petersen

Proposed by Terry Downes and seconded by Craig Stanton

John Petersen has been a stalwart member of SA Masters swimming for many years. His contribution to the benefit of all in Masters Swimming can only be described as outstanding. Specifically:

·         SAMS’ website is entirely designed and managed by John. All meet results for local and national galas, records, colours, newsletters, record/colours application forms, past colours recipients, regional and club contact information, newsletters, entry forms, colours qualifying times, Top Ten listings, etc are held on the website and are constantly updated in good time. In fact there is very little information on Masters Swimming which cannot be found on the website and this all thanks to John! The website is the “glue” that holds Masters together.

·         John negotiates with the website provider and ensures that Masters pay a reasonable fee for the website.

·         John has an extensive knowledge and understanding of Meet and Team Manager programmes. In fact John has on occasion made suggestions to the designers at Hy-Tek Ltd to improve the programmes to be better suite Masters’ requirements and these have been adopted by Hy-Tek.

·         John has designed software programmes to enable the winners of certain trophies to be easily determined.

·         At Nationals, John arrives several days before time to ensure that all equipment is available and on site to ensure that the swim programme runs smoothly. This includes touch pads, ETD and electronic scoreboard. During the running of the gala, John is always at hand and behind the scenes to ensure all runs smoothly and for any problem solving that may be required.

·         After Nationals, John provides a comprehensive summary of results and statistics such as the number of SA/World records broken, number of participants, award winners, colours recipients, etc., which all serves to promote Masters Swimming. Also, after World Masters Champs, John provides a similar summary in respect of SA masters who had participated.

·         With respect to the SC champs, John has spent many hours in merging and incorporating results from regions some of which have not been provided in correct format.

·         John has been a member of SAMS’ executive for many years. He has a detailed knowledge of SAMS’ constitution and on all matters related to Masters Swimming. John provides valuable contributions whenever the constitution requires changes or on issues which effect SAMS’ relationship with SSA.

·         John will be found helping out at virtually all Gauteng galas and has assisted many masters in the training and use of the Meet Manager programme.

It can safely be said that without the intervention of John Petersen, Masters in South Africa would not be what is today and therefore there is no hesitation in motivating that, as a show of appreciation, John efforts be recognized by SAMS by awarding John honourary life membership status.

30 May 2015