Congratulations Keith Caldwell awarded Life Membership of Surf Life Saving Australia
Congratulations to Keith Caldwell, President of Bulli SLSC.
Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) recently announced that Keith has been awarded SLSA’s highest honour of Life Membership.
SLSA Life Membership is given to members who go above and beyond in their duties and responsibilities in Surf Life Saving (SLS), and who have shown distinguished voluntary service to the movement over a sustained period of at least 20 years.
Keith has been actively involved in the surf lifesaving movement for 44 years. During his career as a surf sports athlete he has won Illawarra, NSW & Australian medals in surf, craft, beach, pool rescue, belt in individual and team events.
As an athlete he has represented Illawarra (11 teams) & New South Wales (1 team). He has then continued on his role within surf sports by being Team Manager for Bulli at SLSI, SLSNSW & SLSA Championships from 2001-2018, 17 continuous seasons.
As a coach and team manager he has represented Illawarra (9 teams), New South Wales (4 teams) and been an Australian Team Manager on 8 occasions touring New Zealand, Japan (twice), France and South Africa. On the last two occasions as Manager of the Australian Open Team at Rescue 2012 & 2014.
For the past 19 seasons, Keith has taken on the roles of Deputy President (2 years) and now current President (17 years & current). Over the past 10 years Bulli Surf Club has moved to the top in administration, lifesaving/education & surf sports whilst continually focusing on ‘a great community volunteer organization’.
Whether it be for Bulli, Illawarra Branch, Surf Life Saving New South Wales & Australia he works tirelessly to maintain high standards and always puts others before himself.
He provides the leadership and direction in all club activities and really likes to have a ‘hands on’ aspect with every club activity. He has over the years used his skills to great advantage in gaining success to our club. He has enthusiasm and confidence, he is a positive communicator, shows outstanding leadership qualities in managing people effectively, he is a worker, listens to the members with any issues, possesses a common- sense approach when dealing with any matters relating to the surf club.
He is very passionate about our local area and loves seeing members achieve personal milestones, whether in patrolling the beach and saving someone’s life, becoming a leader in club activities and in the community or achieving personal goals in the surf sports arena. So much so that he received the inaugural award of 2009 Top Gong for Services to Sport – a community award.