***OFFICIALS AND SAFE SPORT ANNOUNCEMENT***

Good morning team, 

I have two announcements for you this morning, they are quite important so please take a read when you can!

SAFE SPORT TRAINING

• OUR SAFE SPORT CERTIFICATON IS DUE BY THE MONDAY TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE START OF BRONZE CHAMPS (January 6th)
• There are still quite a number of you who have not done this training. We do our best to incentivize this so it gets completed by everyone. ($25 to each person in the household that takes the certification and it registers with USA Swim; you must have set up a USA swim account for yourself!)
• This is REQUIRED to host our meet in January. 
• If this is not completed by the majority of the team by MONDAY DECEMBER 30th, we will be cancelling a practice in order to ensure this is completed by all.
• Unfortuntely, only a Safe Sport certification taken through the USA Swimming "LEARN" portal will be counted towards our team numbers. Other sports' Safe Sport certifications do not count at this time. 
• In order to complete this certification, we need parents to take a class online as well as any swimmers over the age of 13. 

SAFE SPORT INSTRUCTIONS

• Instructions:
  • In order to take this class and receive proper credit, you MUST be logged into your parent account through USA Swimming (the one you used to sign your swimmer up). Please see THIS SCREENSHOT
  • Once you are logged in, you can either:
    • Navigate back to THIS PAGE and click on the box at the bottom that says "USA Swimming Learn". SEE SCREENSHOT
    • OR you can navigate right to the USA Swim Learn section from your login homepage by clicking on the "Education" dropdown menu and selecting "Course Catalog". SEE SCREENSHOT
  • Once inside the catalog, click on the "Parents/Volunteers" button in the center of the screen. SEE SCREENSHOT
  • Then the class you are looking for is called "Parent's Guide to Misconduct in Sport". SEE SCREENSHOT
• This class should only take 1-2 hours. Once completed, I receive a report on my end with your name and completion notification. 
• Every person that takes this class and it gets registred through the team will receive a $25 credit PER PERSON to their team account. 
• Swimmers: To take this class you need to have your own USA Swimming accounts. PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS TO SET UP YOUR SWIMMER'S ACCOUNT AND LINK IT TO YOU. This will be important for them when they get older anyways so this is valuable to do at any age!
• Once you swimmer has their own account, they need to log in to THEIR account to take the swimmer class. 
• Once in the Course Catalog again, click on the "Athletes" bubble in the center. SEE SCREENSHOT
• The course your swimmer is looking for is called "Safe Sport for Youth Athletes (13-17)". For 12 and under swimmers, you want the "SafeSport for Kids" class. SEE SCREENSHOT
• I will receive a similar notification for the swimmer classes as the adult classes and they will also count as a $25 ceredit when completed.

OFFICIALS

• We only have two meets available to us in order to finish your official's apprentice training before Bronze Champs!
  • BU Meet - January 3-5
  • CS Meet @ Haverhill - January 10-12
• All you need to do now is take two online classes through USA Swimming University and pass a test. 
• HERE IS A LINK to the basic steps to get started. ANY class you take towards officiaiting that costs money is reimbursed by the team. Please keep receipts and send them to me! *You MUST officiate at LEAST 3 sessions (not full meets) per year that your swimmer competes in order to have the certification covered by the team! If you do not hit the 3 session requirement in one calendar year, ATLA will add any costs paid for by the team towards officiating certifications and uniforms to your team unify account. 
• Here are the class requirements:
  • You need to complete a LEVEL 2 BACKGROUND CHECK
  • ATHLETE PROTECTION TRAINING also needs to be completed
  • CONCUSSION PROTOCOL TRAINING is done through either the CDC or the NFHS
  • Lastly, the FOUNDATIONS OF OFFICIATING as well as the STROKE & TURN CERTIFICATION also need to be completed. 
  • This is all done through USA Swimming Learn (other than the Concussion training).
• Don't forget, all the fees associated with this are reimbursed by the team AND any sessions you officiate during a swim meet will be waived of all swimmer fees that day. This is a great way to get free swim meets for the kiddos!
• Once the above steps are all completed, you are ready to start apprenticing on deck!
• If you are all set with the above steps and ready to start apprenticing, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Have a great week all!