FAST Policy - Family Participation Plan

 Amended August 2026

Purpose

To ensure volunteer tasks, required to run FAST and its activities are balanced across competitive swimming families.

Responsibilities in this Policy

Parents/Guardians

Volunteer Coordinator

FAST is one of the leading Swim Clubs in Atlantic Canada, providing an inspirational environment where all our swimmers not only become athletes but also learn to develop self- confidence, good time-management, and good study habits. Overall, FAST swimmers learn to strive for excellence inside and outside of the pool.

To be successful, every Swim Club relies on its families to support its coaches and swimmers. A Club of this size is built on the involvement and dedication of parents and coaches. 

There are numerous activities at all levels of the Club in which you may participate: officiating in any of the meets your swimmer participates in, engaging in fundraising activities or supporting social events, just to mention a few.  

FAST needs you to get involved! We want you, not your money!  

Family Participation Plan Overview

1.   FAST is a non-profit organization, operated by members through a volunteer Board of Directors. The sustainability of the Club is directly dependent on the participation of its members. Due to the enormous number of volunteer hours required to run this amazing Club, FAST has developed the following Plan.

2.   The objective of this Plan is to equally distribute “work” among all members while recognizing members that take on greater tasks. 

3.   The volunteer requirement per swim season for each family represents the minimum level of participation and members are encouraged to get involved beyond this. If your swimmer is enrolled in the Aquanaut or Performance swim programs, and competes in swim meets, FAST requires each family to volunteer a minimum number of hours per season. FAST also welcomes families of non-competing swimmers to volunteer at our social events and Club fundraising activities.

If your swimmer graduates to Aqua 1 or subsequent groups during the course of the season, your family will be required to volunteer, but the hours will be prorated for the season. Any volunteering done prior to the group change, but during the current swim season, will be considered eligible volunteer hours. A family’s number of volunteer hours resets to zero at the start of each new season (i.e. extra hours do not carry forward from one season to the next).

*Updated - Given recent challenges with aquatic facility access and swim meet locations, 

the FAST Board of Directors and Volunteer Coordinator have reduced the number of required hours for each competitive swim group for the 2026-2027 as included in this table:

4.   For families with more than one registered swimmer, the total volunteer hours requirement per family is based on one swimmer.  The number of hours required is determined by the swimmer in the highest-level group.

5.   The Family Participation Plan will continue to be reviewed by the Board of Directors each year to ensure it continues to meet the needs of FAST and its members and will be communicated to members at the beginning of the swim season.

6.   The Club will track each family’s volunteer participation through the FAST Volunteer Coordinator. Families are responsible for reporting their volunteer hours using the link provided on the FAST website. Reported hours will be updated and may be reviewed at any time by logging into your account. To monitor compliance with the volunteer requirement, the Club will review each family’s recorded volunteer hours twice during the season: once at a mid-season date determined by the Club based on the competition schedule, and again at the end of the season.

Each family will be charged for any volunteer hour(s) they have not yet earned (at a rate of $30/hour), to a maximum of their family hourly requirement (see chart above). If the family has attained their required hours, no charges will be made to their account. 

7.   If a family faces challenges in acquiring their hours for the season, they may seek approval to recruit friends, other family members, etc. to help meet the hourly per season requirement at the discretion of the Volunteer Coordinator and Board of Directors. The intention is to provide opportunities, such as for single parent families and/or other instances, when a parent/guardian is unable to volunteer.  In these cases, families must reach out to the Volunteer Coordinator in advance for consideration. The intent of this opportunity is to add volunteers to the FAST volunteer pool, not for existing FAST members to “exchange” hours.

8.   In the instance of acquiring hours by officiating, hours will only be awarded if your swimmer is registered at the swim meet you are officiating. The intention is to ensure we have adequate officiating capacity at Invitational level (and higher) swim meets by the Parents/Guardians attending with their swimmers. Swimmer’s volunteering (ie. at meets, bottle drives, water tables etc) do not count towards their family commitment. Special circumstances may be requested by a Parent/Guardian and reviewed for approval by the Volunteer Coordinator and Board of Directors.

8a. The Board of Directors may, at its discretion, award volunteer hours for activities that support FAST’s volunteer requirements, including assisting at swim meets where FAST has been asked to provide additional support to the host team, even if a family’s swimmer is not participating. Volunteer hours for travel time may also be granted on a case-by-case basis. These opportunities will be communicated to members by email. It is the responsibility of the swimmers’ family to submit their hours to the Volunteer Coordinator after each event they volunteer. To ensure your volunteer hours are not forgotten, and to ease the administrative work, volunteer hours must be submitted by the reminder and reporting date which will be sent to all members by FAST Office via email. Volunteer hours submitted late will not be counted. Hours must be submitted via the online form.

9.   Exemptions from the Plan can be applied for by emailing fastswimmingoffice@gmail.com, by the Parent/Guardian, under extenuating circumstances. Each request for exemption will be considered, in confidence, by the Board of Directors.