DSC FALL SWIM SESSION 

Hello DSCers!

We are excited to announce DSC’s Fall session running from October 4 to December 30, 2021. Unfortunately, none of the City or University pools are taking Fall permits for September.

• Due to COVID-related restrictions, we are unable to return to our membership model we had in place in 2019-2020 at this time. Current swimmers would have received a detailed email from the board detailing new information. 
  
  
• NEW interested swimmers can email info@dsctoronto.ca to see if we have room for you. We will not have a clear idea of this until at least mid-September. Due to pandemic restrictions, such as distancing, mandated by our regulatory bodies, the number of swimmers per practice has been greatly reduced. Therefore, new swimmers will be considered only IF spots are available after current DSC swimmers are confirmed for the practice times we are offering.
  
  
• GUEST SWIMS (from other clubs) AND TRIAL SWIMS are not available during this Fall Session.
  
  
• There will be restricted numbers at practices (up to 6 per lane in A lanes and up to 4 per lane in other lanes).
  
  
• For the Fall session we will have three kinds of DSC memberships, detailed below. They have been created after extensive discussion by the Board in an effort to balance the pandemic restrictions, flexibility for members, administrative efforts and club finances.
  
  
• We will be offering 5 weekly practices starting in October 2021. We will be coached by Coaches Gaël, Chris, Justin and Nail and may be engaging young varsity coaching “interns” to plan for the future of coaching for the club and assist with the additional administration at practices caused by the pandemic.

Our Fall practices are as follows, subject to demand (the coaching assignments are still tentative):
Please remember, you must be registered and confirmed to swim.

• Monday 9-10pm at Wellesley Community Centre (starting October 4, 2021) - Chris
• Tuesday 7-8:15pm at Jimmie Simpson Pool (starting in October 5, 2021) - Gaël
• Wednesday 9-10pm at Wellesley Community Centre (starting October 6, 2021) - Justin
• Thursday 8:15-9:30pm at Pam McConnell Pool (starting October 7, 2021) - Chris
• Sundays 10-11:15am at Jimmie Simpson Pool (starting October 10, 2021) - Gaël

FALL MEMBERSHIP TYPE 

There will be three types of memberships as follows, with the majority of swimmers falling into Category 1.

Category 1 - Regular: Swimmers in Category 1 will continue to register for one or more specific practices per week as we’ve done throughout the pandemic, subject to availability and a lottery if we have more demand than available spots. Swimmers will be committing to their practices for the entire term at an expected cost of around $10/swim, plus affiliation fees. If swimmers are unable to attend a particular practice after registering for the session, they will not receive a refund for that swim. Note, because of the Flex Membership below, swimmers who are not present at the pool by 5 minutes prior to the start of their practice will have their spot offered up to another swimmer. If you show up late and a Flex swimmer has taken your spot, and we have reached the maximum number of swimmers for that practice, you will be turned away. Those who were members of DSC at the time the pandemic hit will be given first dibs on Category 1 spots, with new members being eligible for any remaining spots.

Category 2 - Flex: This membership Category is meant for swimmers who have an unpredictable schedule and will be unable to commit to a particular practice each week. Swimmers in Category 2 will be permitted to show up to any practice to take a chance on an open spot, on a first come first serve basis. We will have between 1-4 open slots for Flex swimmers each practice (depending on demand for our Regular membership), in addition to potential no-shows (which has been common throughout the summer Term). Unfortunately, we will not have a method of signing-up in advance for these slots, so swimmers in this category will be showing up at their own risk. We do not have the administrative capacity or systems to manage sign-ups or to track advance notice by swimmers if they cannot attend. If you show up and the lanes are full, you will be turned away as we cannot accommodate more than the maximum number of swimmers. That being said, we expect there to be several spots available each practice for Flex swimmers. Flex swimmers will have to purchase a 10-swim pass for $100 (plus pay their affiliation fees). Each time you successfully attend and get a lane, one pass will be used up. In the event you have unused passes at the end of the Term, they will carry over to the next term, but they will not be refunded. We will post in the WetScream the number of unused swim spots at each practice for the prior two weeks so Flex members can gauge their likely chances of getting a spot.

Category 3 - Non-Swimmer: We know not all of our members will be able to return to swim with us for various reasons, but may want to stay engaged in the club. We are more than just swimmers, we are a community. Accordingly, all those who want to remain as official members to be able to participate in the AGM and potential future socials can register for $10 for the Term. We have received permission from our affiliating body to share workouts with our members who will be swimming on their own at public lane swims. We will be sharing these in our bi-weekly Wetscream. Note that to be eligible to receive the Wetscream and these workouts, non-swimmers will still have to sign DSC’s waiver and release.

As a reminder, no swimmers will be turned away for financial reasons. If you want to swim with the club but are concerned about being able to afford it, please speak with our Treasurer, Ed Loh at finance@dsctoronto.ca. These discussions will remain confidential.

All Category 1 and 2 swimmers will need to pay affiliation fees of $35 for Swim Ontario. At this time, we are affiliating as a club with Masters Swimming Ontario, but we will only be affiliating individual members if they request it, which is $15 for the year. We will be discussing our affiliation with MSO further at the AGM for the membership to vote on whether all members need to affiliate with MSO or not, so depending on that vote, there may be an additional $15 fee charged during the course of the Term. These affiliation fees cover swimmers until August 2022 (i.e. they won’t be repeated for the Winter Term). 

All members will need to sign an updated release and waiver for the Fall Term, even if you have previously signed one. Doing so is a precondition to registration under any DSC Member Category. You can sign the new release here: https://forms.gle/epePLGX3Suw1AD6T9

Next Steps: Current DSC Swimmers who respond after Thursday August 26, 2021 at 6pm will be able to be considered for any remaining spots, but will not be included in the lottery. As of August 27, 2021, the Board of Directors is booking current DSC Swimmer swim choices and memberships during the week of August 30th. Current DSC Swimmers who submitted will be contacted before September 7th, 2021.

1. If you want to register as a member with DSC for the Fall Term, the Category of Membership you are seeking; and

2. If Category 1, which practices you want to register for, ranked by preference and how many practices you want in the event we can accommodate more than one per person.

We recognize it is not ideal to have to show by 5 minutes before practice to guarantee your spot or to show up to try to get a flex lane to potentially be turned away or to not be able to receive refunds if you miss a practice. The reality is we are a volunteer run club with limited resources and the COVID-related restrictions have significantly impacted the logistics of running our memberships and practices. The Board thanks everyone for their continued support and flexibility and looks forward to welcoming new Board members at the September 14, 2021 Zoom AGM at 8pm (details to follow).

Take care,

Your Board of Directors

Daily COVID-19 Screening is available here.

The latest Government of Canada information on the pandemic is available here.

To help stay connected during the pandemic and show how much we can't wait to get back into the water, several of our DSC members came together to create a #DontRush video. Check out how creative our members are: here.

DSC is more than a swim club.

It is a community.