The household is the unit
Memberships, money, waivers and guest-pass allowances all hang off a household, not off an individual. That is why a family has one account and one balance rather than four.
A person is the roster record — a name, a date of birth, emergency contacts, a photo for the gate. "Swimmer", "coach" and "guardian" are things a person does, never separate records. The coach whose own child swims is one person, not two, and moving house updates one address.
The roles inside a household
| Role | Can do |
|---|---|
| Household admin | Everything for the family: sign waivers, manage the account, add and remove people |
| Adult | A guardian on the family — can sign, can collect |
| Dependent | A child on the membership |
| Caregiver | Can collect a child and can be checked in at the gate |
Every household has at least one household admin at all times. SwimWin will refuse to remove the last one rather than leave a family nobody can act for.
What a caregiver cannot do
A caregiver — a nanny, an au pair, a grandparent on the list — cannot sign a waiver and cannot message a coach. This is a safeguarding line, not an oversight, and it is enforced in the data rather than by hiding a button.
A caregiver's authorisation is dated. When it expires they are stopped at the gate with a reason that says so and names the fix, rather than being silently let through on last season's arrangement.
Do-not-release
A club can record that a specific adult must not collect a specific child. It is a structured record with an audit trail, not a note in a comments box — which is the point. The staff-facing screens for reading it at the desk are not built yet; the record exists and is kept.
Inviting another adult into your household
A household admin can invite the other parent, a guardian or a grown-up child from the family page: Invite to household, their email, and whether they join as an adult or as another household admin. The invitation is a link in an email. They open it on the club's own website, sign in — or create a login — with their own email and password, and accept. Nobody shares a login.
- Every other adult in the household is emailed when the invitation goes out, and again when it is accepted.
- Accepting gives them the family page. Collecting a child and being billed each have to be granted separately. A parent or guardian who accepts can also keep the children's medical information current (below).
- A link works once and lasts at most 14 days. Sending a new one to the same address withdraws the old one, and you can Withdraw a pending invitation from the same list.
- A nanny or anyone else who collects children is a caregiver, which an invitation cannot make. Ask the club.
Emergency contacts and medical information
Your family home has a Safety information section, for the household admin and the other adults on the family:
- Emergency contacts — who the club calls, in order. Add, correct, reorder and remove them yourself; the desk reads this list out loud. Ticking May pick up records that you have said so — it does not override a court order or a do-not-release the club holds.
- Medical information for each child — allergies, conditions, medications, the physician, the insurer, whether an EpiPen or inhaler is kept on site — and the one line the pool deck sees: "Peanut allergy — EpiPen in the office fridge." Coaches and the desk see that line. They never see the rest.
The full medical file opens only when you press Open medical file, and every opening is recorded — yours included. A caregiver on the family sees the contact list and cannot change it, and cannot open a child's medical file. Once a swimmer turns eighteen their file is theirs: a parent sees it only if they grant medical access themselves.
One primary household
A person belongs to exactly one primary household. That is what gives the front desk one unambiguous answer to "whose guest-pass allowance does this child draw down?" when a child is on two families' records.
Changing your family's details
Emergency contacts and medical information are yours to keep current (above). A household admin also has Your family's details on the family home:
- Edit address and contact — the family's email, phone and address. The member number and the date you joined are the club's record, and only the club changes them.
- Add a person — a child or another adult who lives with you. A nanny or sitter is a caregiver, which needs the club.
- Edit details — a name, a date of birth, an email or phone, for yourself and for anyone in the family who does not sign in themselves. An adult with their own login keeps their own record.
- Role and permissions — someone's role in the family, and whether they collect children, pay the bills and get the billing email.
Every change is recorded with your name. Collecting children, paying the bills and the billing email cannot be switched on by one household admin for someone who joined the family less than 30 days ago — a new person starts with them off. To switch one on sooner, tick it under Role and permissions: it waits on the family's details until a second household admin confirms it. The second admin must be someone other than the person who asked, and must have been a household admin of the family for 30 days or more; each admin who can confirm it gets an email with a link to the family home. Either admin can Withdraw a waiting request, and the club can always make the change itself. Membership status and anything the club decides stay with the club. Your own sign-in email is changed from Signing in.