General Membership
/ Registration Guidelines and Rules
Revised 8.26.08
AS PER USA SWIMMING RULES, ALL CLUB
MEMBERS must adhere to the guidelines and rules as set forth in the USA
Swimming Rulebook and the USA
Swimming Insurance Summary document.
In end
terms, every swimmer in the water during a club practice (and at meets) must be
a member of USA Swimming
while being supervised by USA
Swimming member coaches.
ATHLETE REGISTRATIONS
- USA Swimming does allow for a 30-day
tryout period for NEW swimmers that have never been members of USA
Swimming in the past! Please read the tryout section of USA
Swimming’s FAQ’s of Insurance Coverage (top of page 6) for
specifics. Therefore, we strongly
suggest that you collect a signed application and the USA Swimming fee from the swimmer on their
first day. You wll HOLD the
membership application (don’t send it onto Indiana Swimming) until that 30-day
tryout period is over and the swimmer has confirmed they are staying with
your club/in the sport of swimming.
This covers liability insurance for your club and secondary
accident insurance for the swimmer during this tryout period. However, if the swimmer decides to not
stay with swimming, you can easily refund their membership money by simply
returning that membership check (or a refund if you deposited the check).
- All athletes must fill out a paper application. – www.inswimming.org/files/forms/09athreg.doc If your team is using the preferred
method of using Hy-Tek’s Team Manager to e-mail your team registrations
(via batches) to the office, please only submit the complete batch
report. The paper applications need
to stay on file with your team for at least a 1-year period. Instructions on how to setup and process
using Hy-Tek’s Team Manager and how to e-file can be found at Hy-Tek’s
website: http://www.hy-tekltd.com/swim/TMII/TM5.html Please note that while they no longer
post information/guidebooks for TM 4.0, our guess is that 5.0 is probably
similar. IF you have any questions
after exhausting the Hy-Tek support system, please contact Michele DeLuna
at Michele@inswimming.org
- Please fill in all information completely, both
on paper and in the Team Manager files. Area
codes, zip codes, ADDRESSES, FULL
legal first name along with middle initial (if applicable), and preferred
name are all necessary items of information.
- If you have an athlete who is transferring to
your team, you must also submit the Change/Transfer form http://www.inswimming.org//files/forms/chgtrans.pdf
for that athlete. You MUST complete
a last date of competition (even if it’s been over 120-days). The system defaults to the date received
and that affects the 120-day waiting period.
- Please
send in ONE check for the
entire registration batch. If you send more than one check with a
batch and have not received previous ISI Office authorization to do so, it
WILL BE RETURNED TO YOUR CLUB without processing. Alphabetizing any manually entered
applications also makes the process much smoother!
- A
Transmittal of Funds form must always be
submitted for registrations (either e-file or paper
batch). http://www.inswimming.org/files/forms/09Transmittal_of_Funds.pdf
- For
the teams that e-file. These athletes will NOT be processed until the BATCH
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT AND THE
CHECK for the amount due are received at Indiana Swimming. Please send the check and the report(s)
ASAP to prevent processing delays!
·
IF you have
swimmers on your team that need to be in a 120-day
UN period…you can still submit their registration as your club – “ABC with
the batch file.” In the TEXT of your email,
please inform me of each swimmer and their LAST ATTACH DATE and confirm you
will be sending the completed Change/Transfer form with your Transmittal of
Funds and payment. Our system will catch
them and ask me for a LAST ATTACH DATE.
If you do NOT submit a last attach date, I will use the date I received
the file as the swimmer’s last date of competition. You will then receive UN card(s) for
that(those) swimmer(s). Our system will
automatically change the swimmer to your club once the 120-days are up and a
new card will be printed and sent to you.
This is the preferred method as the SWIMS program will automatically
change to your club after the 120-days and put into our membership card
program.
·
OUTREACH membership is an option available for lower-income
members. If your athlete participates in a reduced or
free school lunch program (based on household income), and can provide documentation to Indiana Swimming, the USA Swimming/Indiana Swimming
membership becomes $7. Documentation is
as simple as a 1 page form on the school’s letterhead indicating that the member is on a free or
reduced lunch program. We do NOT have a
form to complete. You can also submit
these kids as a Full (year-round) membership with your TM registration
file. In the text of your email, please
indicate that you are sending in Susie Smith as Outreach. We will have to change on our end to go into
SWIMS. Documentation above can be
submitted with Transmittal of Funds form and payment. You cannot revise a previously submitted
outreach application, so be sure you have this school documentation before you
send in an outreach registration.
Outreach members are full members – N in Team Manager
·
SUMMER
MEMBERSHIP: April 1-August 28 (same
instructions as above, but different form:
http://www.inswimming.org/isforms/09seasreg.doc Please select season 1 in Team Manager. Do not select any other option as SWIMS won’t
recognize any other.
120 Day Rule for Transferring Athletes:
See
http://www.inswimming.org/files/forms/120.pdf
for more information!
·
For ANY athlete that transfers between
teams/states/etc., USA Swimming mandates that they cannot swim in competition representing their new team for 120 days after
the last date of competition for their old team. For
Instance: A swimmer transfers from California
to Indiana
(or even Munster
to South Bend). They last competed a month prior to the
move. They must wait 120 days from the
last day of that last meet to become attached to their new team. NO EXCEPTIONS. If your team does not report a last date of
competition on the transfer form sent to the Indiana Swimming offices, the
software will default to the day athlete record is being changed in the
offices. Please do not list the month
only or the name of the month only. We
need exact 6 digit date!
·
If you use Team
Manager to e-file your registrations in, please simply enter them as you
team. SWIMS does not have an Indiana
team called UN. You will still be
required to submit a Change/Transfer form – www.inswimming.org/files/forms/chgtrans.pdf You
will receive your UN swimmer’s card that will indicate when they are able to attach to you
club. During this UN period, swimmer is
not able to participate on any club relays.
The SWIMS db will generate a new card upon the completion of that
120-day UN period and the IN Swimming offices will send the club a membership
card for swimmer showing attached status to the home club.
·
Also if you use Team Manager to enter meets, below
are instructions on how to enter them as UN in meets.
Club entry chairs need to
make an unattached team in the main Team Manager database. Before you select events for unattached
swimmer, be sure to toggle on the box near the top that says “For this Meet,
Swim for Team” Then, click on UN for that
athlete. Then, you can select the events
that swimmer will be entered in. Reminder,
when you go to the next swimmer, if they need to be attached to your team, you
will have to go to that team box at the top to select your home team. It should remain defaulted to your home team
after that.
If all else fails and you
get to the meet and swimmer who should be UN is listed in programs/heat sheets
as your home club and not as Unattached, simply make a trip over to the head
table before the event begins and request that swimmer be denoted as UN in the
meet manager db. It would probably be
helpful to submit a written request in case computer chair is busy with other
issues.
Foreign
Athletes Joining USA
Swimming
·
Foreign-exchange
students may apply as USA
Swimming members simply by completing and submitting a membership application. IF
they swam in their home country and that country was a FINA member, they must
also complete a second form for USA Swimming.
This form needs to be requested of the Indiana Swimming office (lynn@inswimming.org) This USA Swimming form MUST accompany a
membership application.
Club Charter
·
Club Charter
application http://www.inswimming.org/files/forms/2009_Application_-_Club.pdf must be completed ANNUALLY! Please be sure to also e-file your club bylaws annually. We cannot actually process the club charter
if there is NOT a 2009 member coach already in our database.
·
Check with lynn@inswimming.org on the applicable
membership fee. If your club attends the
October 4 2008 House of Delegates meetings, your club will have a fee due of
$100 for 2009. If your club missed this
annual meeting, your club will have a fee due of $300 for 2008 AND
will not be issued any sanctions for any meets you might want to hold during
the 2009 registration year.
Coach
Memberships
·
Your club needs
to take responsibility and ensure that ALL
club coaches are CURRENT COACH members of USA Swimming/Indiana Swimming. Don’t take someone’s word it’s been “taken
care of”. Clubs should insist on keeping
a copy of the Coach USA Swimming membership card that shows all certification
expiration dates at the top of the card.
Clubs should help remind coach(es) to keep certifications current.
·
There is NO GRACE PERIOD for coaches waiting on certifications/processing. A coach who is actively coaching without a
current USA Swimming COACH membership card issued by Indiana Swimming jeopardizes your club
liability insurance. This means that if
one of the certifications they have expires and they have not submitted new
certification information to the ISI offices, their status is changed to a
non-athlete member and they should not be COACHING. Insurance is jeopardized when they do.
·
See How to
Become a Coach Member on certifications needed and additional information.
http://www.inswimming.org/files/forms/HOW_TO_BECOME_A_COACH_MEMBER.htm
Officials
·
See How to
Become and Official Standards for criteria/procedures for NEW officials.
http://www.inswimming.org/files/forms/howtooff.htm
HELPFUL HINTS
Since most clubs are run by volunteers,
it would be in everyone’s best interest to help the registration process go
smoother. It is highly suggested that a
club renew their returning swimmers at the same time as they register their new
swimmers in September and October. This
allows the volunteer registering the kids to do the bulk of their paperwork
during this time. You might get parents
who know that their membership doesn’t expire until 12/31. However, you can explain that you will not be
charging them again in December during the holiday season. You will only collect once a year. This does not mean that you cannot accept
straggler swimmers into your program any other times during the season/year. Your club volunteer processing memberships
can simply send off registrations to the ISI offices once or twice a month and it’s much
easier to manage. As we said, this is
only a helpful suggestion! If your club
has a good system, please don’t let us persuade you to change!!
IF YOU SHOULD HAVE ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THESE PROCEDURES, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO CONTACT US!
Sincerely,
Lynn Kinstler Michele DeLuna
Executive Director / Club
& Non-Athlete Membership Athlete
Membership Coordinator
lynn@inswimming.org Michele@inswimming.org
317.237.5780
(Monday-Friday: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm) No set office hours. E-mail is preferred method of communication.