It's that time of year again!

For the veterans, you needed only read the title.  For our new members, this message serves as a reminder that will go out weekly to declare your swimmers.

What is "Declaring your swimmer?"  In order to help manage who will be at a swim meet and who will not be able to make it (on any given weekend), it is a tradition for each family to declare whether their swimmer(s) will be swimming on each upcoming weekend.

How do I do this? Please go to the Bear Branch web page.  Along the right hand side of the page, as you scroll down, you will see every meet listed.  Please find the meet "Time Trials."  You will find a nice green button that says "Meet entry."  Click on this, and then follow the directions.  If your swimmer is out of town or otherwise unable to swim, please indicate unavailable.  For all the swimmers who will be there, please designate available.

FAQs: 

1. If you are unsure whether you will be there, or if your swimmer will be there for some of the meet, but must miss another part (coming late, leaving early, baseball game, etc.), then you should declare your swimmer as available/coming to the meet.  We will deal with scheduling on the backend.  You should only declare your swimmer unavailable if you are sure that your swimmer will not be there.

2. There is a place to put notes to the coach.  You are invited to use this area--that is what it is there for!--but remember that the coaches process 175+ swimmers every week, so endeavor to be brief.  Notes of joy and encouragement are also welcome.

3. You can change your designation until the Tuesday before the weekend.  On Tuesday I close the declarations, so any changes after that need to be communicated directly to the coaches.

Be sure to declare your swimmer by Monday night every week--and you can declare your swimmers in advance (some families do the entire season from the outset) since you can change the designation at any time up to the deadline.

Best-

Joe Krippel

Bear Branch NWAL Team Rep

Bear Branch Computer 

Bear Branch Exchange Person