Indiana Swimming, Inc

General Membership / Registration Guidelines and Rules

Revised 8.11.09

All forms referenced below can be found at www.inswimming.org

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.

ATHLETE REGISTRATIONS

Essentially, 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.

USA Swimming does allow for a 30-day tryout period for NEW swimmers that have never been members of USA Swimming in the past! We strongly suggest that you collect a signed application and the USA Swimming fee from the swimmer on their first day. You will then HOLD the membership application until that 30-day tryout period is over and the swimmer has confirmed they are staying with your club/in the sport of swimming. Because the club has collected the form and has the money, 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). If during this tryout period, a swimmer participates in a sanctioned competition, he/she will have to be registered with Indiana Swimming and the club will owe that fee.

Have all athletes fill out a paper application. The paper applications need to stay on file with your team for at least a 1-year period.

Please verify that all information is filled in completely both on paper and in the Team Manager files. Full legal first name, along with middle initial (if applicable), preferred name and Date of Birth are all necessary items of information.

Submitting an e-mail Registration batch:

If your team is using the preferred method of using Hy-Tek’s Team Manager (or other on-line registration program) to e-mail your team registrations (via batches) to the office, please submit registration batch to michele@inswimming.org. In the subject line of your e-mail, please list your team name and batch # (Example: MDAC Batch #1). Instructions on how to set-up and process registrations using Hy-Tek’s Team Manager and how to e-file can be found at Hy-Tek’s website: http://www.hy-tekltd.com . If you are having difficulties, please contact Michele De Luna at michele@inswimming.org. Once you have e-mailed the batch to us, print out a Batch Registration report and send to our office along with Registration Fee Summary Form and payment .

If you have an athlete who is transferring to your team, you must also submit the Change/Transfer form for that athlete. You MUST complete a last date of competition (even if it’s been over 120-days). Once you have transferred swimmers, we can send you a file of their times to input into yourTeam Manager. Please send time requests to michele@inswimming.org and indicate a time since date with your request.

You can include these swimmers on your registration batch. Please list these swimmers as members of YOUR CLUB, NOT UNATTACHED. In the body 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 Registration Fee Summary and payment. Our system will flag them as a transfer and ask for a LAST ATTACH DATE. 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, a new card will be printed and sent to you after that automated process.

These athletes will NOT be processed until we receive the following:

1. The BATCH REGISTRATION REPORT (under Administrative Reports in Team Manager),

2. Registration Fee Summray Form, AND

1. THE CHECK for the amount due are received at Indiana Swimming.

Please send the check and the report(s) ASAP to prevent processing delays!

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!

· 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. Please submit these kids as a Full (year-round) membership with your TM registration file. Outreach members are full members- N in Team Manager. In the text of your email, please indicate that you are sending in “Susie Smith” as Outreach. Documentation above can be submitted with Registration Fee Summary 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.

· SUMMER (Seasonal) MEMBERSHIP: April 1-August 28 (same instructions as above, but different form. Please select Season 1 in Team Manager. These swimmers are eligible for all competitions up to State Championships ( these swimmers will not be eligible to compete in Zones, Sectionals, nor Nationals with a seasonal membership).

· Any registration changes (i.e. requested refunds) must be submitted within 30 days of original registration.

· 120 Day Rule for Transferring Athletes:

· For ANY athlete that transfers between teams/states/etc., USA Swimming mandates that they cannot swim relays nor score points for their new club 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 with their old club before they can be attached to their new team. NO EXCEPTIONS.

· Also, if you use Team Manager to enter meets, below are instructions on how to enter them as UN athletes 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 athletes 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 (michele@inswimming.org) This USA Swimming form MUST accompany a membership application.

Club Charter

· Club Charter application 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 2010 member coach already in our database.

· If your club attends the September 26, 2009 House of Delegates meetings, your club will have a fee due of $100 for 2010. If your club missed this annual meeting, your club will have a fee due of $300 for 2010 AND will not be issued any sanctions for any meets you might want to hold during the 2010 registration year. Check with lynn@inswimming.org on the applicable membership fee.

Coach Memberships

· Your club needs to take responsibility and ensure that ALL club coaches are CURRENT COACH members of USA Swimming/Indiana Swimming. 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. Starting Fall 2009, meet hosts will be sent a current list of coaches. Coaches with expired certifications will not be on that list and will be denied deck access at the meet.

· 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. These expired coaches will also NOT BE ALLOWED ON DECK AT MEETS.

See How to Become a Coach Member including information on required certifications by going to www.inswimming.org

Officials

See How to Become an Official as well as criteria/procedures for NEW officials by going to www.indianaswimming.org

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 in place, please continue to follow your process.

IF YOU SHOULD HAVE ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THESE PROCEDURES, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO CONTACT US!

Sincerely,

Michele DeLuna

Athlete Membership Coordinator

Michele@inswimming.org (E-mail is preferred method of communication)

Office hours: Mondays and Thursdays (317)237-5780