Travel Meet Guidelines

Trips to meets in other cities become an important aspect of a swimmer's career. There are two types of travel meets - chaperoned and non-chaperoned. When a meet is chaperoned, adults (parents of swimmers) will be selected to accompany the swimmers to the meet and CCA is responsible for arranging transportation and lodging. When a meet is non-chaperoned, parents are responsible for arranging their children's transportation and lodging. CCA has established the following policies for travel meets:

• A family's account must be paid current in order for the swimmer to attend travel meets (this includes the prepayment for the travel meet if applicable.)
• An adult must accompany CCA swimmers to travel meets that are not chaperoned.
• A swimmer attending a chaperoned travel meet must sign the CCA Code of Conduct and complete a medical release form.

The CCA coaching staff will inform swimmers and parents about the practice attendance, practice performance, qualifying time standards, and other requirements for competing at travel meets.

Chaperones

Chaperoning provides parents an opportunity to assist the team, get to know other swimmers on the team, and to better understand travel meet procedures. CCA provides chaperones with transportation and lodging for the travel meet. Chaperoning at travel meets is an important job that must be undertaken by CCA adult members. It is difficult for the coach to focus his or her energy on the swimmers competing at the meet and to also focus on the care and supervision of the swimmers during the meet. Chaperones play an important role in helping the coach maintain total attention on the meet by assisting with the care and supervision of the swimmers during the meet. This allows the coach to have time to relax and rejuvenate during the meet. The following are some of the chaperone's duties:

• Assisting with check-in at the airport and hotel.
• Transporting swimmers during the meet.
• Accompanying swimmers at all times when they are away from the meet.
• Enforcing curfews and making room checks at the hotel during the meet.
• Contacting parents of swimmers who become ill during the meet, receiving permission from the swimmer's parent for any treatment, and caring for ill swimmers.
• Reporting disciplinary problems to the coach.
• Making eating arrangements during the meet and taking swimmers to grocery store for snacks during the meet.
• Monitoring group activities at the hotel during the meet.
• Assisting the coach with swimmer's adherence to travel meet guidelines.

The coaching staff will select parents to chaperone at the travel meets. The number of chaperones selected is based on the number and ages of swimmers attending the travel meet. Parents who are interested in chaperoning at a travel meet should talk to the Head Coach. Also, the coaching staff will select male and female chaperones, preferably a couple, as chaperones for travel meets to insure proper supervision of male and female athletes.