The weeks before a new swimming season are when volunteer committees earn their stripes. There’s a narrow window between the end-of-season awards evening and the first training session of the new year, and somehow in that gap you need to sort registrations, update squads, confirm coaching rosters, set up billing, verify safeguarding documents, and communicate everything to parents who are already asking “what time does training start?”
Get it right and the season runs smoothly from day one. Get it wrong and you’re still chasing outstanding registrations in November.
Here’s how to approach new season setup methodically, whether you’re a seasoned Membership Secretary or a newly elected committee member who’s just inherited The Spreadsheet.
Start Eight Weeks Out
The biggest mistake clubs make is treating new season setup as a two-week sprint. It isn’t. You need at least eight weeks to do it properly without burning out your volunteers.
Eight weeks before first session:
- Confirm pool booking times with your venue
- Agree squad structure with head coach (any changes to groups, session times, capacity?)
- Set membership fees for the new season (committee vote if increasing)
- Decide registration deadlines
Six weeks before:
- Send “new season information” email to all current members
- Open online registration (or send out forms if you’re still paper-based)
- Chase any outstanding fees from the previous season
- Confirm coaching staff and their qualifications are current
Four weeks before:
- Close early-bird registration window (if applicable)
- Allocate swimmers to squads based on coach recommendations
- Set up billing — whether that’s standing orders, Direct Debit, or manual invoicing
- Verify all DBS checks and safeguarding certificates are in date
Two weeks before:
- Send squad allocation emails to parents
- Share the new training timetable
- Confirm poolside access for coaches
- Run a final check on your membership database
Week of first session:
- Final registration deadline
- Welcome email with practical details (what to bring, pool rules, emergency contacts)
- Coaches briefed on new swimmers in their groups
Registration: Make It Easy or Lose Members
Every barrier you put in front of registration costs you members. Full stop.
If your registration process involves downloading a PDF, printing it, filling it in by hand, scanning or photographing it, and emailing it back — you’re losing families. Particularly the ones with three children in different squads who simply don’t have the time.
A good registration process collects everything you need in one go:
- Swimmer details: Name, date of birth, Swim England number, medical conditions
- Parent/guardian contact: Phone, email, emergency contact
- Consent forms: Photography, medical treatment, data processing
- Squad preference: Based on ability grouping or coach recommendation
- Fee acknowledgement: What they’ll pay, when, and how
If you can get all of this into a single online form that takes five minutes, you’ll see completion rates go through the roof. Parents fill it in on their phones while waiting for the older sibling’s session to finish. That’s the reality.
And please, don’t make parents re-enter information you already have. If they were members last season, pre-populate what you can and just ask them to confirm or update.
Squad Allocation Without the Drama
Ah, squad allocation. The thing that generates more parent emails than anything else in the swimming calendar.
Here’s what actually works:
Be transparent about criteria. Publish your squad structure with clear descriptions of what each group is for. “Development Squad: Swimmers working on stroke technique, typically 8-10 years, must be able to swim 100m of each stroke.” When parents understand the criteria, they argue less about placements.
Let coaches decide. The head coach (or squad coaches collectively) should make allocation decisions based on ability, not parent lobbying. Give them a simple spreadsheet with current swimmers and their recommended placements (or better yet, use a club management platform that streamlines squad management, whether that’s budget-friendly options like Club Organiser or more comprehensive solutions — see our pricing for modern tools). Let them flag any borderline cases for discussion.
Communicate allocations with care. Nobody wants to find out their child has been moved down a squad via a mass email. For any swimmer changing squads — up or down — a personal note from the coach explaining the reasoning goes a long way. “We’ve moved Lily to Development Squad because we want her to focus on backstroke technique before she moves up” is much better than a name on a list.
Handle appeals with a process. Set a clear window (two weeks is plenty) for parents to discuss allocations with the coach. After that, placements are final for the term. Having a process means you’re not fielding individual requests all season.
Billing: Get It Right from Day One
Nothing creates more admin headache than billing issues that compound through the season. A missed payment in September becomes a debt by December becomes an awkward conversation by March.
Set your fee structure clearly:
- Monthly training fee (the core subscription)
- Swim England affiliation (annual, usually collected separately)
- Club membership fee (annual, if separate from training)
- Gala entry fees (per-event or per-season block)
Communicate before you collect. Send a clear breakdown of what each family owes before the first Direct Debit collection. Include the amount, the collection date, and what it covers. Surprises on bank statements generate complaints.
Automate where possible. If you’re still manually tracking standing orders and chasing failed payments, you’re spending volunteer hours that could go elsewhere. Direct Debit with automated collection means you set it up once and it just works — failed payments get automatically retried, and you know immediately who hasn’t paid rather than discovering it three months later.
Have a hardship policy. Swimming is expensive. Some families genuinely struggle with fees, especially if they have multiple children training. A simple, discreet hardship policy (reduced fees, payment plans, bursary from club funds) means you don’t lose swimmers whose parents are too embarrassed to ask.
Safeguarding and Compliance
This isn’t optional and it isn’t something you can sort out “when you get a chance.” Before your first session of the new season, you need:
DBS checks current for all coaches, poolside helpers, and committee members with swimmer contact. The standard is an Enhanced DBS check. Keep a register with check dates and renewal deadlines. If someone’s check has lapsed, they cannot be on poolside unsupervised. No exceptions. Track attendance to identify which volunteers are regularly poolside and therefore require checks.
Wavepower compliance. Swim England’s safeguarding policy is Wavepower, and every affiliated club must comply. Your Club Welfare Officer should review compliance annually, but new season is the right time for a full check. Do all your policies reference the current version? Are your reporting procedures posted on the noticeboard? Do coaches know who the Welfare Officer is?
Swim England affiliation. Every swimmer needs to be registered with Swim England for insurance and competition eligibility. New members need registering, returning members need renewing, and leavers need removing. Most clubs handle this through the club portal, but it’s worth checking nothing has fallen through the cracks — an unaffiliated swimmer in a gala is a problem for everyone.
Photography consent. Get this at registration, not at the first gala when the club photographer is already taking pictures. A simple opt-in/opt-out at registration saves awkward conversations later.
Communication: Set Expectations Early
The most effective thing you can do for a smooth season is set communication expectations in your first email or welcome pack:
- How will the club communicate? Email? WhatsApp group? App notifications? Pick one primary channel and stick to it.
- Who should parents contact for what? Membership queries go to the Membership Secretary. Training questions go to the coach. Billing issues go to the Treasurer. Safeguarding concerns go to the Welfare Officer. When parents know who to contact, you don’t get everything landing in one person’s inbox.
- What’s the response time? You’re volunteers with day jobs. It’s completely reasonable to say “we aim to respond within 48 hours.” Managing expectations is better than leaving emails unanswered.
- Where are key documents? Training timetable, term dates, fee schedule, club constitution, safeguarding policy. Put them somewhere accessible (club website, shared folder) and tell parents where to find them. This eliminates 90% of “can you send me…” emails.
The Handover Problem
If you’re a new committee member taking over a role, the quality of your new season setup depends entirely on the quality of the handover you received.
Good handover: Access to all systems, a list of what needs doing and when, context on any ongoing issues, and a phone number you can ring when something doesn’t make sense.
Bad handover: A USB stick with three years of unlabelled spreadsheets and a cheerful “you’ll figure it out.”
If you received the bad version, don’t panic. Focus on the essentials: get registration open, get billing set up, get safeguarding checked. Everything else can be sorted once the season is running. And when your turn comes to hand over, be the person who does it properly.
What Modern Club Software Actually Helps With
All of the above is doable with spreadsheets, email, and enough volunteer hours. Clubs have been running this way for decades.
But modern club management software can compress weeks of manual setup into days:
- Online registration with pre-populated returning member data
- Automated squad allocation based on coach recommendations
- Direct Debit billing that collects fees automatically each month
- Compliance tracking with DBS expiry alerts and Wavepower checklists
- Parent communication through a single platform instead of scattered WhatsApp groups
The question isn’t whether software is better than spreadsheets. It’s whether the time your volunteers spend on admin could be better spent on the things that actually matter — coaching, swimmer development, and keeping your club running for the community.
New season is the perfect time to evaluate whether your current admin setup is working for you. If you’re spending more time on spreadsheets than on swimming, take a look at what Swimly offers — it’s built specifically for UK swim clubs by someone who sits in the stands every training session. We are welcoming founding clubs with free migration support.