MSQ 2022 Volunteer of the Year
Congratulations to Martin Banks for being awarded the MSQ Volunteer of the Year for 2022. Martin was presented with this award at the recent MSQ State Championships held in Mackay by VP Central, Dan Stampa.
Martin was nominated by the UQ Swim Club for making an exceptional contribution to Masters swimming both with his club, The University of Queensland Masters (UQ), and with Masters Swimming Queensland.
At a club level Martin continued with his roles as Masters representative on the UQ club committee, Masters team captain and director of the highly successfully UQ Masters Meet. For the 2022 UQ Masters meet, Martin devised an innovative and exciting program, including, for the first time at a masters meet, pay per event. With a detailed and informative meet guide and some great promotion entries were flowing in, including from out of state, when just 4 weeks before the event, disaster struck and the UQ aquatic center was inundated with flood water. With the UQ Aquatic Center out of action, Martin quickly and effectively engaged relevant stake holders and successfully arranged for the meet to be held at Stuartholme instead. Through Martin’s sheer dedication and hard work UQ Masters delivered an efficient high-quality meet that attracted 217 swimmers, from 31 clubs and saw 10 national and 43 Queensland records broken. In his role as UQ Masters rep and team captain, Martin worked relentlessly throughout 2022 to advocate for the Masters group, communicate with members and encourage Masters participation in events. Martin also devoted countless hours to planning and organising competitive relay teams, which saw UQ Masters break 11 national and 19 Queensland relay records throughout the year.
In addition to his extensive volunteer work with UQ Masters, Martin also devoted an astounding amount of time to his role as director of recording for MSQ. Martin worked tirelessly throughout 2022 to ensure meet entry and recording were efficient and accurate. Although much of this extensive work goes unseen by members, it is vital to the success of meets and Martin’s dedication to this process has immensely improved the running of MSQ meets. Martin was also instrumental in supplying members with a wealth of interesting record and meet statistics throughout year.
At the end 2022 Masters swimming successfully transitioned to swim central for membership and meet entry. Martin was extensively involved in the testing, set up and implementation of swim central for Masters swimming. He took time off work to attend training sessions and hosted multiple, well received, online information sessions for members. Also, in 2022 Martin was the driving force behind MSQ’s successfully motion to introduce all-comers records in masters swimming. He is the now acting as the lead for this extensive project. Martin’s monumental commitment to all aspects of Masters swimming in 2022 was truly remarkable. The Masters community has benefited immensely from the Martin’s positive and innovative contributions to Masters Swimming Queensland.
Thank you Martin, and congratulations on this well-deserved award.
