Volunteer Terms

NRST Volunteer Policy (Season 2022 - 2023)

Purpose

The NRST Volunteer Policy regulates parent’s participation to ensure a smooth running of swim related activities. NRST hosts two to three swim meets per season along with other social events.  Revenues earned from those events guarantee the financial well-being of the club and strongly support low membership fees.  Active parent participation, knowledge and experience are the most valuable tools at the club’s disposal to set our sporting events apart from other major clubs in the region. Parents are required to attend Swim Official Training in order to ensure that we are able to continue to host quality meets for our swimmers as well as other club swimmers attending.

Official Training & Clinics

Families with swimmers in Swim Skills 1 & 2 are expected to ensure that one or more family members will be certified in, and volunteer for, a minimum Level I Timer Official. Families with swimmers in Junior & Senior groups agree to ensure that one or more family members will be certified in, and volunteer for, at least one or more Level II and upwards Officials positions.

The club will ensure clinics are offered at regular intervals to provide sufficient training opportunities to get the required certification as an official. For further information on Official Training and to view the Official Certification Pathway please go to https://www.swimming.ca/en/resources/officiating/certification/ For more information on the different Officials Positions please go to https://www.nanaimoriptides.com/menu/volunteer-job-descriptions-volunteer-points

Any questions regarding Official training can be directed to our Club Officials Director at officials@nanaimoriptides.com

Job sign-ups, Attendance sheets & Point tracking

Tracking of volunteer points is paperless and done electronically. It is important that volunteers sign in at the start of any meet or event they are participating in.  There will NOT be any other way of confirming your attendance and recorded points. The status of a member’s volunteer account can be checked any time on the NRST website under ‘My Account > Job credits’.

Online sign-up procedure:

Please sign up as a volunteer as soon as the job sign-up becomes available. Each position a member wants to volunteer in needs to be ticked and member’s details must be given, e.g. name and contact number.

If a family signs up more than one volunteer per family please state the name of any additional person for the member’s account.

At Swim Meets:

It is each volunteer’s responsibility to sign in at any event the volunteer has signed up for. Please check that the correct name is ticked off at the volunteer check-in table. If multiple people on one account are signed up for volunteering, each person needs to be signed in individually.

• Each family is required to provide a volunteer for the equivalent of one session on each day of the swim meet in which they have one or more swimmers registered.
• Volunteers must be a minimum of 16 years old. Volunteers do not have to be family members. Children younger than 16 are welcome to volunteer for age appropriate jobs, but do not fulfill the requirement of an adult volunteer.

NRST Major Meets: Every year, NRST hosts up to 3 major swim meets at the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre, and a percentage of points must be earned at these 3 major meets (see chart below).  We need a large number of volunteers to run our meets, and everyone in the Club is expected to help out. Please note that points earned at NRST smaller meets do not count towards Major Meet point minimums.

At Away Swim Meets:

If the club is required to send officials to any away swim meet an online job sign-up will be made available. Same procedure as above applies.

If a member is unexpectedly helping at an away meet, please send an email within one week to the NRST Office Manager and state the swim meet and session the member has volunteered in. Points will be granted in line with the club's volunteer position list.

At Social events:

An attendance sheet will be available for signing in.

Monetary and Point Requirements

At membership application, each family in Swim Skills, Junior & Senior swim groups will provide the first down payment for the amount allocated by group (see chart below).. This volunteer commitment fee MUST be received before your swimmer’s first day of practice as part of the registration requirements. Your swimmer will not be able to swim with the club until fees have been received.

The number of points allocated to each volunteer job or task is listed below. Please note that this list is not exhaustive and there may be other ways you can help the Club for which you will receive Volunteer Points.

If you have more than one swimmer in the Club (for example, in Swim Skills 1 and Senior Provincial), you don’t have to earn volunteer points for both swimmers. Volunteer Points requirements are based on the child in the higher group at registration (in the above case it would be the Senior Provincial Group). If this swimmer advances to a higher level group during the season, the required Volunteer Points and Volunteer Commitment Fees remain the same.

On March 1st, we require the 2nd volunteer commitment fee as shown in the chart below. If at least half of the points required for your child’s training group have been verified, claimed and reported by you by February 28th, we will not be requiring the 2nd volunteer commitment fee as we will continue to hold the first one provided til the end of June. If  the rest of the points required for the year have been verified, claimed, and reported by you between March 1st and June 30th, we will credit your account for the volunteer commitment fees provided.  

Please note that Volunteer Points earned do not carry forward to the next season.

Incentives

NRST offers an incentive in recognition of volunteers who exceed their allotted point requirements in a season.  Families who exceed their volunteer point requirement by 50% or more during a swim season will receive a credit depending on their swim group to their member account on June 30th.

 

Duration of Membership

The duration of a typical swim season is 10 months. The Volunteer point system is based on this duration.

Subsequent Membership:

If a swimmer joins the club after the start of the season, the point requirement will be prorated from the time of joining to the end of the season. The value of the Volunteer Commitment Fees will remain the same.

Early Dismissal:

If a swimmer withdraws from the club before the end of the season, the point requirement will be prorated based on duration of membership for the season. The value of the Volunteer Commitment Fees will remain the same.

 International Students

International students or swimmers joining the club while on student exchange programs are not governed by the directives of this policy.

POINTS AND MEET OFFICIALS TRAINING REQUIRED (by Training Group):

 

VOLUNTEER JOBS AND POINT ALLOCATIONS*:

 

*  To earn the allocated points, the volunteer must complete all functions described in the applicable job descriptions above.

NOTE: this list is not exhaustive, parent participation points are available for other volunteer jobs.   

Board of Director (BoD) Rights

Amendments or exemptions to this policy may be granted in individual cases upon written application to the Board of Directors for consideration.