Club Policies

Life Saving Victoria currently has a Watch Around Water (WAW) policy. The WAW policy is a Victorian initiative promoting active adult supervision to prevent child drownings and aquatic injuries in public pools. Find out more here

The WAW guidelines includes:

​

• For children under 10yo, they must be accompanied into the centre by a responsible parent / guardian. As a club, we strongly recommend this apply to ALL squad children to ensure the swimming coach is aware of their presence. 

 

Rationale: a child is dropped off at the centre, but without the knowledge of their parents, they did not train and instead played in the fun pool, and got injured. The coach was not aware the swimmer had arrived and is therefore not under their care and supervision. To mitigate this risk, parents can ensure coaches have accepted their swimmers into their allocated squad session. 

​

• For children under 10yo, they must be constantly and actively supervised. Parents / guardians must position themselves to have a clear view of the child with no physical or structural barriers between them and the child / children. As a club, we strongly recommend that ALL parents/guardians stay in the Centre and stay contactable at all times.

Rationale: Circumstances may arise where swimmers may not be feeling well and may request assistance from their parents. To mitigate this risk, having parents around significantly helps the situation and allows their coach to effectively and properly supervise the other swimmers. SEL also has a policy relating to incident reporting which requires a parent / guardian's signature on the report when a lifeguard has administered first aid to a child. Coaches are not allowed to sign off on behalf of parents.  

On our website (About > Club Rules & Policies) there is information about our club's responsibility in ensuring a child safe environment. I encourage you to have a look and familiarise yourself with the information made available. It contains frameworks and policies from Sports Integrity Australia (SIA) and The Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP). 

Why is all this important? 

Compliance to these policies are key to ensure:

• The safety of our children.

• To maintain our good standing with SEL and remain the swimming club of choice for the centre; who provide us with swim lanes and centre privileges like our club corner, meeting rooms and store rooms. 

• Our continued Club registration with Swimming Victoria and Swimming Australia; the right to continue operating as a swim club and participate in swim competitions.

The committee on the 2nd December 2025 voted and approved a Harassment Policy and Framework that aligns with Swimming Australia's National Integrity Framework; Member Protection Policy and Child Safeguarding Policy.

This policy provides more details around preventative steps our club will take as well as detailed processes and actions that need to follow as a results of an incident.

​

Click here to see the Harassment Policy and Framework for our club.

Click here to see the Social Media Policy

Technology is evolving rapidly, and the way we communicate and collaborate globally and instantly can be beneficial to us. However, it can also have damaging and harmful consequences if it is not used responsibly and in accordance with established rules and ethical guidelines. 

As a result, the Committee has developed and approved a new Social Media Policy for our Club. This is the first policy of its kind for the Club and has been introduced to provide clear guidelines on how members should conduct themselves on social media when discussing or engaging with matters relating to the Club and its members.

The policy sets clear boundaries for acceptable online behaviour. It protects our members from cyberbullying and harassment, and ensures child safety rules are strictly enforced across all digital platforms. The key themes are:

• Safeguarding Children: It establishes guidelines for safe communication and behaviour, especially around mobile phone use by adults and/or other children, and particularly the consent related to content that would be used for social media.

• Preventing Harassment: It defines zero-tolerance rules for cyberbullying, racism, and abusive comments directed at members, coaches, or parents.

• Protecting Club Reputation: It prevents members from bringing the club into disrepute or compromising relationships with sponsors and partners by thinking critically before posting.

• Managing Official Communications: It designates exactly who is authorised to post on the club's official channels and outlines how the club will moderate, hide, or remove inappropriate or spam comments

• Providing Disciplinary Frameworks: It sets clear consequences and investigation processes for policy breaches, ensuring that online misconduct is treated as seriously as in-person infringements.​

All suspension requests for training fees:

​

1. To now be submitted through our website (Members section > Suspension). This is an online form that captures all the necessary information and is then sent directly to the relevant teams for processing when submitted. Please do not send suspension requests to the oasisotters@gmail.com email address.

2. Needs to be submitted 2 weeks in advance. 

3. Cannot be backdated.

4. Must be in two week blocks (you can suspend for 2,4,6 weeks etc, but not 3,5,7 weeks). 

5. For medical related suspensions: These do not require 2 weeks notice, but it will need to be in two week blocks and a medical certificate will need to also be provided.

This policy is in place to allow our parent volunteers sufficient time to work through suspension requests in addition to other admin activities that are required for the club. This policy significantly reduces time consuming manual workarounds and ad hoc meetings for individual circumstances. 

The committee has voted to charge a missed payment fee of $5 for every direct debit transaction that has failed (e.g insufficient funds). This is to cover the cost of the fee charged by the bank for a declined transaction, and the additional administration required to resolve the issue. 

We require volunteers to ensure the smooth running of events and to keep membership fees low. This is especially the case for our monthly mini meets/distance tests, encouragement meets, external competitions and to serve on our Committee.

​​

Update 9 June 2026:

To ensure we have a fair rotation in place for volunteers at meets, our Committee has agreed to put in place a rostering system starting with External Competitions (timekeeping/marshalling etc). This will be rolled out to Mini Meets / Distance Tests if cannot meet the numbers and fair rotations required for these club events on a monthly basis.

Our aim is to create a community that values helping each other and improving the experience for all our members, especially for our swimmers. 

​

How will it work?

When we are notified that the Oasis Otters Swimming Club has to provide a set number of volunteers for an External Meet (eg. Officials Club), the Committee will allocate a list of Members to adequately cover those duties.

If your name is listed for that event, it is your responsibility to report to the required station at the specified time. If you cannot perform the allocated duties for the day, it is also your responsibility to find a replacement. 

We appreciate your ongoing support at our swimming club. 

Click here to find out Direct Debit Request Service Agreement