As previously communicated, in order to comply with U.S. Center for SafeSport requirements, the USA Swimming Board of Directors has approved expanding Corporate Bylaw 2.6.6, which sets forth those who must be non-athlete members of USA Swimming.

Starting January 1, 2022, the following individuals must be non-athlete members of USA Swimming:

• Adult employees of USA Swimming, Local Swimming Committees (LSCs) and member clubs; 
• Adults serving on the board of directors of USA Swimming, LSCs and member clubs; 
• Individuals in a position of oversight over the operations of a member club; 
• Adults with an ownership interest in a member club; 
• Referees, starters, administrative officials, chief judges, stroke and turn judges, meet marshals; and 
• Other volunteers who interact directly and frequently with or have authority over athletes (as defined in the SafeSport Code for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement) as a regular part of their duties.

Please note that the following are new categories of individuals who are required to register as non-athlete members: adult employees of LSCs and member clubs, individuals in a position of oversight over the operations of a member club, meet marshals and volunteers who interact directly and frequently with or who have authority over athletes as a regular part of their duties.

LSC staff such as business managers, webmasters, club registrars and membership coordinators, social media and communications managers will also be required to register as non-athlete members. This does not apply to volunteers such as timers, computer operators, etc. who only have limited contact with athletes during a meet.

For institutionally-owned clubs (e.g., clubs owned by a YMCA, LifeTime Fitness, college/university, JCC, etc.), this applies only to:

• The adult employees with direct oversight responsibilities over the club’s activities;
• The adult employees who have direct club-related responsibilities and whose responsibilities are not to all others using the facility (e.g., this would not apply to a lifeguard assigned to the aquatics facility whose duties are related to all in the aquatics facility as opposed to only the member club athletes);  or 
• The adult board members with direct governance/oversight responsibilities over the club’s activities. 

These individuals will all be required to register as USA Swimming non-athlete “Other” members no later than January 1, 2022, and must complete Athlete Protection Training (APT) and a USA Swimming background screen. 

The USA Swimming Board of Directors approved a proposal from the USA Swimming Safe Sport and Club Development Committees to form a new category of membership, which will be available starting September 1, 2022 for the 2023 membership. This new category of membership will have a reduced fee of $30.  

To gain further understanding of this new change, please attend the next live webinar on December on Wednesday, December 15 at 1 p.m. ET, or listen to the past recorded webinar, available here. 

If your questions are not answered through the webinar, please reach out to safesport@usaswimming.org.