AFFILIATION AND MEMBERSHIP

GUIDEHelping your Club transition smoothly into the

new swimming season.

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INTRODUCTIONThe affiliation and membership guide has been designed to help your Club transition smoothly into the next season. We have divided the guide into two distinct sections for ease of use. The first section details the crucial steps that need to be followed by all Clubs at the beginning of each season. The second section is extra information that you might find useful running your Club during the season. The guide has been designed to be used as an online resource with links to further information throughout the document.

CONTENTSPRE-SEASON STEP BY STEP GUIDEStep 1. Completing your Affiliation 3

Step 2. Updating your Membership Categories and Fees 4

Step 3. Setting up Discount Packages 5

Step 4. Updating your Members 6

Step 5. Completing your Club’s Renewal 7

Step 6. Turning your Club’s ‘JOIN NOW!’ Button On 8

Step 7. Keeping Track of Payments 8

EXTRA INFORMATION FOR DURING THE SEASONItem 1. MyLANE and ClubLANE 9

Item 2. How a New Member Joins your Club 9

Item 3. How to Send an Individual Payment Email 9

Item 4. How a Member Can Pay for their Membership 10

Item 5. New Joiner Automatically Generated Email 11

Item 6. Approving/Declining Membership Accounts 11

Item 7. How to Update a Member’s Login / Web Access Details 12

Item 8. How to Transfer a Member 12

Item 9. Upgrading a Membership Account 12

Item 10. Duplicate Membership Accounts 13

Item 11. Membership Fee Refunds 13

SYSTEM FEE DETAILS 14

TERMINOLOGY 15

MEMBER CATEGORIES 16

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Step 1. Completing your Affiliation

Each new season the first step for every Region and Club is to complete the Affiliation process.

• Complete the online Affiliation Form available from our website, here.

• Finalise payment of the Affiliation Fee. Your Region or Club should have received an invoice from Swimming Queensland for this amount. If you haven’t receieved the invoice please click here to send us an email.

*Remember to please reference your payment using your Club and/or Region name so we can find it easily!*

• Update your Region’s and/or Club’s details within ClubLANE. Ensuring you update all important information including:

• Contact Details• Postal Addresses• Delivery Addresses• Committee List• Bank Details• Club’s Terms and Conditions

*Remember that a Committee Member must be a member of your Club in ClubLANE to be added to your Committee.*

PRE-SEASON STEP 1

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Step 2. Updating your Membership Categories and Fees

Once Affiliation has been completed, clubs will need to use ClubLANE to set up their membership categories and fees for the season.

Clubs can find the Region, State and National membership fees listed on our website here. We also have a handy excel spreadsheet available for clubs to use when deciding how much they will set as their club fee, per membership category, for the season. You can find this and more resources on our website here.

To update your membership categories and fees, login to ClubLANE and under the ‘Fees and Discounts’ tab, select each membership category inturn following the four steps below:

1. Ensure each membership category has an appropriate name. If you’re unsure, use the same name as the ‘Region Member Type’. You can also add a description to each membership category. If the description field is left blank, the State description will be used.

*Please note, a description must be completed if your Club has any fees in the Optus Junior Dolphins 7 years category; because a membership fee may not be charged for this category. Therefore, the club needs to include a desciption of what this fee is for.*

2. Check that the ‘Member Type’ field is matching the ‘Region Member Type’ field and check that ‘valid for joiners’ and / or ‘valid – reinstatement’ is selected as required.

• Both ‘valid for joiners’ and ‘valid - reinstatement’ = anyone can select this category when they join.

• Only ‘valid - reinstatement’ = the category will only be available for an administrator to manually select for a member.

• ‘Obsolete’ = if you do not wish to offer the membership category.

3. Add an additional ‘Annual Subs’ field for the new season specifying the start date as 1 July, and adding the club fee component you would like to charge your members. This field is only for your Club fee; Region, State and National fees have been updated elsewhere. Ensure you select ‘recalculate’ for the new ‘Annual Fee’ to be applied.

*Please note, if you are completing this process prior to 1 July, you will need to use the date you are completing the process, rather than 1 July.*

4. Check the ‘parameters’ where required and save. For the majority of clubs these settings will not require change from the previous season. For example, lower age limit of 9 for any 9 years+ category, upper age limit of 7 for any Junior Dolphin 7 years & under category, and upper and lower age limit of 8 for any Junior Dolphin 8 year old category.

PRE-SEASON STEP 2

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Step 3. Setting up Discount Packages

Discount packages can be set up by clubs to offer discounts to certain family groupings of members. Discounts can only be offered for the Club component of the total membership fee, so please take this into account. Discount packages can be set up from within ClubLANE, under the ‘Fees and Discounts’ tab. We have a handy calculator that your Club can use to determine what discounts you offer to your members. This can be found on our website here.

To set up discount packages for your Club, follow the steps below:

1. Delete any old packages by selecting the hyperlink and then delete.

*Please note this is required for the discount packages to apply correctly to the new seasons’ fees.*

2. Add new packages by selecting the ‘Add’ button under the ‘Discount Packages’ heading. Then name the discount package, for example 3 x Comp 9+ or 2 x Comp 9+ & 1 OJD 7&U, and then select the appropriate ‘Member Type’ and ‘Number’ for your discount package grouping. Then select next to proceed.

3. Enter the amount you would like to discount on the club level for this package in the ‘Discount Amount’ box and select ‘Recalculate’. For example, if your discount package is reducing the total club component for this grouping by $10, you would enter 10 in the ‘Discount Amount’ box. Check the “Fees this level” information at the bottom of the screen to confirm the discount has applied correctly to your Club’s fees. If you make a mistake please use the clear button.

PRE-SEASON STEP 3

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Step 4. Updating your Members

It is important to check and update your Club’s members at the start of a new season. You can check and update your members via the ‘Members’ tab in ClubLANE.

Please complete the three steps below to update your Club’s members:

1. Lapse any members no longer active with your Club. For help lapsing a member, click here.

*If you receieve an error, stating the member cannot be lapsed due to their status as a payer, you will need to unlink them. For help unlinking members, click here.*

2. Update the email address of all members to ensure they will receive the renewal email.

*You can easily view email addresses by sorting the list on the ‘Members’ tab by email/payer and selecting the hyperlink of the member’s number to update details. Alternatively, you can search for the member in ClubLANE and select edit in the relevant box from the ‘Personal’ tab of their member page.*

3. Manage Life Members from your Club to keep this information up to date.

*Life Members will stay financial indefinitely, however, you may need to lapse a Life Member if they have passed away, add a new Life Member to your ClubLANE database if they do not already have an account, or edit their member type if they already exist in ClubLANE.*

PRE-SEASON STEP 4

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Step 5. Completing your Club’s Renewal

After you have finished all the previous steps, your Club is now ready to complete its renewal. This process will roll the club from the previous season into the next season, and will apply the new fees and discounts to all active members.

*The renewal can be done prior to 1 July, however, please ensure all previous steps have been completed and correct fee dates have been used. If you are unsure, please contact us.*

Follow the four steps below to complete your Club’s renewal:

1. From the ‘Fees and Discounts’ tab in ClubLANE, select the ‘Renewals’ button and proceed through the prompts and confirmation screens.

*Remember, the ‘Renewals’ button is only to be used once per season at the beginning of the season. To apply any and all changes to fees and discounts, after completing the renewal to active members, please use the ‘Recalculate’ button.*

2. Update the Club Registrar’s contact email, from their ‘Personal’ page.

*The system will include the email address listed for the Club’s Registrar (from their personal profile) in the automatically generated email to members as a contact point. If you would prefer this email address to be a generic club email, please add it to the personal profile of the Registrar and make sure it is the preferred email (this can be changed again after the peak renewal period). If your Club has multiple Registrars listed, the most recently added to the position will be used by ClubLANE. If your Club has more than one person listed as Registrar, the email will be sent to the most recently added Registrar.*

3. Send a test payment email from your own profile by selecting ‘Send Payment Email’ from the ‘Subscriptions’ box. For help with this process, please click here.

4. Send member payment emails in bulk (to all active members with an invoice outstanding), by selecting the ‘Send Renewal Emails’ button from the ‘Fees and Discounts’ tab of ClubLANE. Only the payer of the family (if the family group is linked) will receive this email as they will be the only member of the family with an outstanding amount.

*Discounts will only be applied if the family is linked at the time of payment, no retrospective discounts are able to be offered for members who join at different times. Please notify your members to check the amount before paying to ensure they will receieve their discount and to contact us and not proceed with the payment if anything is incorrect.*

PRE-SEASON STEP 5

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Step 6. Turning your Club’s ‘JOIN NOW!’ Button On

Once you have completed the renewal you can turn on your Club’s ‘Join Now!’ button. This button appears on the Swimming Queensland website, as well as Region and Club APT websites. Using this button, a new member simply needs to select the appropriate Region and then Club to begin the joining process. You can turn on your Club’s ‘Join Now!’ Button from the ‘Details’ tab of your Club’s ClubLANE profile. Simply select ‘Edit’ from within the ‘This Club’ box.

*If your Club has a policy to approve/deny new membership applications as they occur, we recommend that you utilise the ‘Disallow Payment’ option for your Club. Your Club can edit whether a new member is able to pay online during their initial registration via the ‘Disallow Payment’ check box within the ‘This Club’ box in ClubLANE.*

Step 7. Keeping Track of Payments

When a membership payment is made to your Club online the appropriate funds are automatically distributed by Swimming Australia to the Club, Region, and to SQ. Payment distributions are processed by SAL twice per month – in the middle and at the end of each month. Your Club Treasurer and/or Registrar can keep track of payments received for memberships (and also meet entries) through ClubLANE under the ‘Payments’ tab.

*Please ensure your Club’s bank account details are up to date on the ‘Details’ page in ClubLANE as this will ensure your payments are directed to the correct place. When updating ‘Bank Details’ another committee member will be required to approve the updated details in ClubLANE before they become effective.*

PRE-SEASON STEP 6&7

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MyLANE

MyLANE is a personalised portal for members to view all their membership details, race results, to track times against PB’s and QT’s as well as goal times. Swimmers are also able to enter meets online, see upcoming meets and renew their membership each season through MyLANE. To access MyLANE frequently asked questions click here. We also have available a “How to Renew Membership” guide which you can access here. For troubleshooting and further help click here.

ClubLANE

ClubLANE is the Club Administrators portal, which allows club committee members to administer their clubs. Most queries that your Club might have will be able to be answered using the resources available online from our website, or searching the SAL Online Support Portal. Alternatively, you can email SAL Support, or contact us for further help.

How a New Member Joins your Club

There are two ways for new members to join your Club:

1. Let the member know to click on the Join Now! Button from the SQ website (or any APT region or club website) and register their details online. This process will automatically link a family when they use the ‘Add a Family Member’ option to continue to add all family members into the system.

2. Club Registrars can use ClubLANE to ‘Add a New Member’, which requires manual entry of the members details and manual linking of families if required.

*If a member is transferring from another club, Club Registrars will first need to request a transfer in the system before the member can renew their membership. A transferring member should not register as a new member.*

DURING THE SEASON 1-3

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How to Send an Individual Payment Email

Clubs can send individual payment emails to members throughout the season if neccessary. From the paying member’s ‘Personal’ tab within the ‘Subscriptions’ box, clubs can select ‘Send Payment Email’. The following screens will allow you to confirm the membership fees have been applied correctly to the member or family before confirming and sending the payment email.

*If a member has not receieved the email within a reasonable time frame, please check their email address is correct and ask that they check their junk inbox before trying to resend the payment email. Members can also pay for their membership fees through the paying member’s MyLANE account. This process is sometimes easier, if a member is having difficulties receiving the payment email.*

How a Member Can Pay for their Membership

Membership payments must be completed using a debit / credit card regardless of whether the account/s have been added using the ‘Join Now!’ button, or manually via the club Registrar. Every time a payment is made in ClubLANE or MyLANE, a notification will be sent to the member’s listed email address. This email will notify the member of the transaction date, amount, last 4 digits of the card used, as well as the name of the person who processed the payment. It will also prompt the member to login to MyLANE to access their receipt.

For more information on how to pay for a new member account click here.

Affiliation and MembershipAdditional Helpful Information

DURING THE SEASON 4

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New Joiner Automatically Generated Email

A new feature of ClubLANE in 2017 was an automatically generated email notifying the club Registrar of any new joiners. This email will be sent daily (if a new member has joined) and will be sent to the email address listed as preferred email for the person in the Registrar position.

*If your Club has more than one person listed as Registrar, the email will be sent to the most recently added Registrar.*

Approving/Declining Membership Accounts

When a new member joins your Club, or you reinstate a member, you will need to update the ‘Approved Member Status’ field in ClubLANE, as new member accounts (or reinstated accounts) will by default be ‘Pending’.

• By approving an account, you signify that your Club accepts the member.

• Approving the account also allows the member to use the Online Meet Entry (OME) system (as long as the member is also financial).

• If you wish to decline a membership application to your Club, simply leave the member’s account as ‘Pending’ and notify the member of your Club’s choice to decline the membership.

For help approving a membership click here.

Affiliation and MembershipAdditional Helpful Information

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How to Update a Member’s Login / Web Access Details

1. Instruct the member to use the ‘Forgot Password’ function from MyLANE to reset their own details.

2. If the member is unable to reset their own details, the club Registrar can search for the member in ClubLANE and select ‘edit’ to manually update the details in the ‘Web Access’ box from the ‘Personal’ tab of the member’s page. The club Registrar can also send the member a ‘Password Reset Email’ which will be sent to their preferred email account allowing them to update their details.

*Members may have the same password as each other but all usernames must be different. For help updating login details click here.*

How to Transfer a Member

Anytime a member wants to move from one club to another in Australia, they need to transfer in the ClubLANE system.

1. Transfers are requested in the system by the new club, from the ‘Home’ page of ClubLANE. To request a transfer, the Registrar will need the member’s surname and membership number. If the member does not know these details, the Registrar can contact us.

2. After the transfer is requested in the system, the old club needs to log in and approve or deny the request from the ‘Home’ page of their ClubLANE.

3. If the transfer is not actioned within approximately one week, we will attempt to contact the old club to request actioning of the transfer. Failure of the old club to communicate with us will result in us approving the transfer on behalf of the old club.

*Clubs are asked to provide details of any members not to be transferred due to outstanding fees to us prior to the new season. Please note, there is a transfer fee of $10 for any member who is financial and transfers to another club during the season. We will invoice the new club for this amount.*

Upgrading a Membership Account

If a member decides they would like to upgrade their membership during the season. They only need to pay the difference between the the new cateogry and the amount already paid. To upgrade a member, select ‘Edit’ from within the ‘Subscriptions’ box on their ‘Personal’ page in ClubLANE and change their membership category. The difference the member owes will automatically be calculated. For further help with this process click here.

DURING THE SEASON 7-9

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Duplicate Membership Accounts

Duplicate member accounts cannot be merged in ClubLANE. If you come across duplicate accounts in your database, please lapse the additional account and change the login details to ensure the incorrect account does not continue to be used by the member. If you experience difficulties with a membership account due to a duplicate record, please contact us for assistance.

Membership Fee Refunds

We will not provide a refund for membership fees under any circumstance except that in which a technical error can be demonstrated.

Clubs may choose to refund their own component of membership fees by cash, cheque or EFT to their members. If a club chooses to reimburse a member for the entire membership fee they have paid (including Swimming Australia’s, SQ’s and their region’s fee portions), the club cannot claim reimbursement from the above-mentioned organisations for those fee portions.

In the event a member experiences a technical error while performing a membership transaction, resulting in the member having duplicate fees debited, the member can claim reimbursement/reversal of the additional transaction(s).

Club representatives, or the member, can email us to claim reimbursement. Proof of fees being debited more than once must be provided to claim reimbursement (e.g. copy of debit or credit card or banking statement with all fields blacked out except the relevant transactions, etc.).

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System and Credit Card Processing Fees

The operating costs of ClubLANE / MyLANE are passed on to Swimming Qld by Swimming Australia and these in turn are recouped from members through the use of the system.

In the past, this was through a 2.5% ‘System Fee’ that was applied to all transaction totals for membership payments and event entry fee payments. This ‘System Fee’ was included in the total ‘Transaction Fee’, which also included the ‘Card Processing Fee’. Due to legislation changes, the way you see this applied has now changed.

Changes for Membership Payments

For membership payments, in order to continue recouping the operating costs from members through use of the system, the Swimming Qld membership fees have increased. However, the total amount recouped will remain the same. Most members will pay a similar amount overall, as the ‘Transaction Fee’ applied to membership transaction totals will now only include the ‘Card Processing Fee’ (1.5%).

Please note, membership payments processed manually will continue to incur an ‘Administration Service Fee’ of 2.5% to cover the additional costs incurred by Swimming Qld to administer these.

Changes for Meet Entries

For meet entries, in order to continue recouping the operating costs from members through use of the system, the ‘System Fee’ has now be wrapped into the ‘Meet Fee’ and the 2.5% ‘System Fee’ will be subtracted from the advertised ‘Meet Fee’.

Previously, if a ‘Meet Fee’ of $7 was charged, the swimmer would also see a ‘Transaction Fee’ (inclusive of a 2.5% ‘System Fee’ and a 1.5% ‘Card Processing Fee’) on their final amount to pay ($7.28). The host of the meet would receive $7 per entry and $0.18 per entry will go to the ‘System Fee’ and $0.10 will go to the ‘Card Processing Fee’.

The system will now only show the 1.5% ‘Transaction Fee’ (which is inclusive only of the ‘Card Processing Fee’) on their final amount to pay, with the ‘System Fee’ subtracted from the advertised ‘Meet Fee’. This means that if the advertised ‘Meet Fee’ was $7, the host will receive $6.825 ($7 minus 2.5%), however the swimmer will pay $7.105 ($7 plus 1.5%).

Therefore, we recommend an increase to the advertised ‘Meet Fee’ by 2.5% for a meet host to maintain the same income. For example, if the advertised ‘Meet Fee’ was $7.20, the swimmer, in this instance, will see and pay $7.31 per entry, the host will receive $7.02, $0.18 will go to the ‘System Fee’ and $0.11 will go to the ‘Card Processing Fee’.

SYSTEM FEE DETAILS

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Member ‘Indicator’ Terminology

There are five different ‘Indicator’ statuses for members. Firstly ‘Financial’, which means that membership fees have been paid for the current season.There is also ‘Unfinancial’, which means that membership fees for the current season have been calculated against their account (i.e. their account shows they owe x dollars), but the fees have not yet been paid. ‘Non-Paying’ is also an option, which means that membership fees are not required for this member (e.g. Life Members, Optus Junior Dolphin 7 & Under Members). However, ‘Non-Paying’ members are still considered ‘Financial’. ‘Lapsed’ is also in ‘Indicator’ option, these members are not currently active with the club.

‘Pending’ is also ‘Indicator’ option in the system. As per Swimming Qld by-laws all current memberships remain valid until 30 September. Therefore, as at 1 July each year all members (who are not yet ‘Financial’ for the new season) will have their ‘Indicator’ changed to ‘Pending’ until they renew their membership or until 30 September. This will allow ‘Pending’ members to utilise the system (for example Online Meet Entries) from 1 July until 30 September, without renewing. If members have not renewed their membership before 30 September (i.e. become ‘Financial’) then their ‘Indicator’ will change from ‘Pending’ to ‘Unfinancial’ and they will lose access to the system.

Member ‘Approved Member Status’ Terminology

There are four different ‘Approved Member Status’ options in the system, which are different from the above ‘Indicator’ options. Firstly ‘Approved’, which means that the club committee has accepted the membership application and then ‘Pending’, which means that the membership application has not yet been approved. ‘Declined’ is also an option, which means that the membership application has been declined by the club committee. And finally ‘Incomplete’, which means that a new member has attempted to register online but has stopped before completing payment. In this case, the member’s details have been captured in ClubLANE to prevent the new member from having to re-enter all of their information. At this time, payment of their account has to be completed through ClubLANE / MyLANE by debit or credit Visa or MasterCard.

Member ‘Status’ Terminology

There are two different ‘Status’ options in the system, which are different from the above ‘Approved Member Status’ options. Firstly ‘Active’, which means that the member account is currently active, however the ‘Indicator’ can be ‘Financial’, ‘Unfinancial’ or ‘Non-Paying’ for these members. Secondly, a member’s ‘Status’ may be ‘Lapsed’, which means they are not currently active with the club. A ‘Lapsed’ member may be reinstated if they wish to become active with the club again.

TERMINOLOGY

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Membership Categories

The fee structure for Swimming Australia, Swimming Qld and each Region for the new season have been updated in ClubLANE and can be found on the website here.

The different Membership Categories offered by Swimming Qld are:

• Competitive Swimmer 9 Years+: A swimmer 9 years of age or over, who swims at the club, region, state or national level.

• Recreational Swimmer 9 Years+: A swimmer 9 years of age or over, who participates in squad/club training, club nights and club championships, and does not compete outside of their own club environment.

• Junior Dolphin 8 Years Old: An 8 year old member who swims at the club, region, state or national level. A half price discount applies to the Junior Dolphin 8 Years old membership fee.

• Junior Dolphin 7 Years & Under: Free membership for any swimmer 7 years and under at the time of registration. This member can swim at club, region, state or national level.

• Non-Swimmer: Is defined as a member who does not swim at the club, region, state or national level, and does not qualify as a parent, official, coach or life member, such as a volunteer.

• Coach: A qualified coach who is a registered ASCTA member.

• Parent: Free membership for a parent or guardian of a swimming member.

• Accredited Technical Official: Must hold at least one Swimming Australia Technical Official qualification.

• Life Members: Life Members are members who have been nominated by their Club Committee to receive lifetime membership at no cost.

*Clubs are able to charge a fee for other items that an Optus Junior Dolphins swimmer receives such as club caps, lane hire, trophy levy etc. It is the membership component that must be half price or free. Though while membership is free (or half price), there are other means of creating revenue for your Club through general member spend during the season. For example, meet entry fees, carnivals, merchandise sales, canteen or coaching/lesson fees etc. Having more families around your Club will result in additional revenue streams.

MEMBER CATEGORIES