Bylaws

Membership

All competing members have paid a min of $15 registration, which covers our Warringah Amateur Swimming Association (WASA) insurance. The remaining balance must be paid by the 24th December in order to continue racing with the club.

Reduced membership fees will be available to members joining after 24th Dec, these members will not be eligible for club age championship events as they will be unable to complete the minimum required swims for this event (see Club Championships by laws for further detail).

A Minimum of one parent/guardian must be either a registered swimming member or non-swimming member, this is to ensure insurance covers the family member when “helping” within the club, time keeping, marshalling, judging etc.

All members must have completed the club registration with all new members to the club submitting a birth certificate in person to a member of the committee, this is to ensure children are registered in their correct Club Championship age race events. Age for Club Championships is the age of the child as of 1st Oct.

Paid members in full are only eligible to compete in WASA and Club Championship events.

Members who are members of more than one swimming club must fill out a form clearly stating which club is their first claim club, this form will then be submitted to WASA to ensure they are aware of the commitment made by those members to swim at WASA carnivals.

Any changes to membership fees will be made by August prior to the club commencing races in October.

Club Championships

Open Championship Races are open to junior members who have reached a minimum of A Grade in each particular event and also all senior members. All of which must have completed a minimum of 2 recorded swims in Freestyle and Breaststroke, and 1 recorded swim for Backstroke, Butterfly and Medley events. Time Trial races are recognised as recorded events. Open Championships are run in November and December each year.

Junior Championship Races are open to all 16 and under members of the club who have completed a minimum of 50% of the Freestyle and Breaststroke events run through the season to date of the event being run, as well as 25% of Backstroke, Butterfly and Medley events run throughout the season to date of the event.

Modified rules will be allowed at the discretion of the Referees for 8 years and under competitors, if 1 or more swimmers in the race complete the race within the rules of racing (8 and above rules) then that swimmer will be awarded first place and all other swimmers awarded places in sequential order of finishing taken by the Judges and Time Keepers. These rules are trying to place emphasis on the children who may be slower at finishing because they are swimming within the “rules” while not taking away from those who have attempted to swim correctly.

Rules which will be enforced even within the modified rules category will be

  • Feet touching the bottom of the pool at any part of the race
  • Any use of a flotation device
  • Any physical assistance from others
  • No attempt to swim the stroke correctly
  • Second break at the start

No record will be recorded unless, the competitor has swum the race within the rules of racing (8 and above rules)

Every attempt will be made by the Referees and Judges to allow as many swimmers as possible to be awarded places in these events, but the Referees and Judges decisions will be final.

All Championship Events for the Open, Junior and 8 and above categories will be subject to FINA rules http://www.fina.org/content/swimming-rules

Point Score

A race consists of a minimum of 3 swimmers, with time trial swimmers not being included as a “swimmer’ for the sake of point score purposes.

Points are awarded with the amount of points for a race consisting of 5 or 4 swimmers being:

  • 4 points – 1st place
  • 3 points – 2nd place
  • 2 points – 3rd place
  • 1 point – 4th place
  • 1 point – 5th place

In a race consists of 3 swimmers the points are:

  • 3 points – 1st place
  • 2 points – 2nd place
  • 1 point – 3rd place

A Grade point score has been adjusted to reflect that a race consisting of a minimum or 3 swimmers will be

  • 4 points – 1st place
  • 3 points – 2nd place
  • 2 points – 3rd place

These changes have been made as it has recently been flagged that when the overall point score is accumulated, the A Grade swimmers are disadvantaged as they will generally have less swimmers per race throughout the season as their group has less registered members. This change will allow their point score to reflect their participation and ensure fairness when perpetual trophies are being awarded at the completion of the season.

Point Score categories consist of

  • Freestyle overall, 15m, 25m, 50B, A Grade and Snr
  • Breaststroke overall
  • Backstroke overall
  • Butterfly overall
  • Medley Overall
  • Junior Handicap Long Distance
  • Senior Handicap Long Distance

Progression to Higher Swimming Groups

The groups consist of

  • 15m
  • 25m
  • 50B Grade
  • 50/100m A Grade
  • 50m Snr
  • 25m Snr Butterfly (only)

To be eligible to progress through groups swimmers must swim the allocated time a minimum of 3 times and be assessed by the referee to ensure the correct stroke is being swum.

Once these points have been met then the swimmer is given the option of moving up, if the swimmers wishes to continue to swim in the lower group they are permitted to do so until they break the allocated time by 5 seconds or more. Then the swimmer must progress to the higher group for Freestyle and Breaststroke. We will allow Backstroke and Butterfly to remain optional for those progressing to A grade.

Time keepers Guidelines

The time keepers must start the watch when the starter says “GO” and stop the watch when any part of the swimmer touches the 15m rope or wall.

If the swimmer in your lane Did Not Finish the race, “DNF” is recorded in the place of the time.

If there is No Swimmer in your lane, “N/S” is recorded in the place of the time

For Club Championships ships we must record 3 times for the winner, 2 times for 2nd place and 1 time for each additional place.

If an issue occurs and a correct time isn’t recorded or issues with stop watches arise then it may be deemed that a race or entire event requires to be rerun in fairness to all swimmers.

 

Judges Guidelines

To record the order of swimmers finishing the race by recording the lane number in order of any part of the swimmer’s body touching the 15m rope or wall. There should be minimum of 2 judges for each race with the actual preferred number required being 3.

The head Judge submits the order of swimmers finishing to the ticket collector after a discussion and approval of other judges. The judge’s decision overrules times recorded.

Race Starter

For handicap races

  • Blows whistle loudly
  • Calls “take your make” while raising the right arm
  • Call “GO” while dropping the right arm and pressing the stopwatch
  • And continues to count using the stop watch for guidance until all swimmers have left the blocks

For Club Championships

  • Calls Event Name and Distance and Age Category which is about to start
  • Blows whistle loudly
  • Calls “take your make” while raising the right arm
  • Blows the whistle sharply while dropping the arm or Pressing to Automatic beeper (if we have access to it)

Fundraising

With the potential of the club having to continue to pay pool hire fees, then fundraising is an essential part of what will contribute to these costs, we understand that families simply wouldn’t be able to return to the club if fees are were raised excessively. To bring in $6000 per season then we need to be creative to help spread fundraising past our core families and reach out to the community for support.

It has been suggested that the club bring back our annual swimathlon event in order to raise funds as well as encouraging swimmers to exceed their own limitations and swim to raise money for the club.

More details to be given but possible suggestions of categories would be:

  • 1km
  • 500m
  • 200m

Government Grants

To keep the clubs cost low for our members it had been suggested that the club looks into Government Grants to help us meet the raising costs of our club.

If anyone has any experience in this, please let us know so as we can begin to look further into this or if a small group of members could form a subcommittee and come together during swimming club each week to kick start this that would be awesome.

President Term of 3yrs

A Presidents term consist of 3 consecutive years of election, as the current standing President I am in my final year and due to this, we are looking for members to submit their nominations for election, the election of the president will occur at the July presentation evening in 2018.