Team Travel Policy

A) Club travel policies must be signed and agreed to by all athletes, parents, coaches, and other adults traveling with the club.

B) Team managers and chaperones must be members of USA Swimming and have successfully passed all USA Swimming administered Background Check and completed online Athlete Protection Training.

C) Regardless of gender, a coach shall not share a hotel room or other sleeping arrangement with an athlete (unless the coach is the parent, guardian, sibling or spouse of that particular athlete).

D) When only one athlete and one coach travel to a competition the athlete must have his/her parents' (or legal guardian) written permission in advance to travel alone with the coach.

 

Electronic Communication Policy

All communications between a coach or other adult and an athlete must be professional in nature and for the purpose of communicating information about team activities. The content and intent of all electronic communications must adhere to the USA Swimming Code of Conduct.

For example, as with any communication with an athlete, electronic communication should not contain references or relate to any of the following: drug or alcohol use; sexually oriented conversation, sexually explicit language and/or sexual activity; the adult’s personal life, social activities, relationship or family issues or personal problems; and/or inappropriate or sexually explicit pictures.

Any communication concerning an athlete's personal life, social activities, relationship or family issues or personal problems must be transparent, accessible and professional.

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or other Social Media

Coaches may have personal Social Media pages, but they are not permitted to have any athlete member of the Club join their personal page as a “friend.” A coach should not accept any “friend” request from an athlete, and the coach should remind the athlete that this is not permitted. Coaches and athletes are not permitted to “private message” each other through Facebook. Coaches and athletes are not permitted to “instant message” each other through Facebook chat, Snapchat, or other IM method. Coaches are encouraged to set their pages to “private” to prevent athletes from accessing the coach’s personal information. If the Club has an official Facebook or Instagram page, athletes and their parents can “friend” the Club for information and updates on team related matters.

 

Bullying Policy

The following is the policy of the Red Wing Swim club as it pertains to bullying of any kind. As a club we have a ZERO tolerance policy when it comes to bullying. This goes for all types from verbal to physical bullying. If the offense is serious enough the swimmer committing the bullying will be asked to leave the club for an extended period of time.  The following is the result of each offense that we hear about:


1) The swimmer will be talked to by the coaching staff and the board will be notified.
2) The swimmer and their parents will be brought into a meeting to discuss the situations again the board will be notified.
3) Same as #2 but, this time the swimmer will be told they will NOT be allowed to swim for at least a week. (More will be added onto if the offense is serious enough.)
4) Same as #3 but, the swimmer will be asked to leave for the remainder of the session.

If it comes to #4 when the swimmer is allowed to return to the team they will first be allowed on a 2 week trial period to see if they should be allowed to participate for that session. If the swimmer commits another offense (No matter how small) they will once again be asked to leave the club for the entire session.


PLEASE NOTE:
Any one of these steps can and will be skipped if the coaching staff believes that what has been brought up is serious enough to cause this to happen. Please note this can go as far as skipping all the way to #4. Please know that the coaching staff will always bring up the situations to the board for discussion before a meeting and a final decision to be made. Ultimately the decision will come down to what will help everyone at the club feel safe and enjoy their swimming experience.