Volunteer / Paid Coaches Policy

Unpaid Volunteers Coaches form the backbone of all coaching at Serpentine and all members are encouraged to volunteer to coach on an unpaid basis. The club will pay for all relevant and reasonable training and qualification for said unpaid volunteers. Serpentine will not charge members for sessions where coaches are unpaid volunteers.

Where suitably qualified / experienced Unpaid Volunteer Coaches cannot be found to meet a specific training demand, as identified by the committee in consultation with the existing Unpaid Volunteer Coaches, the following procedure should be adopted and in this order:

  1. Unpaid Volunteer Coaches should be requested (via the coach group email, Serpie News, Digest and Website) to come forward for specific training and upgrading of their qualifications / experience, at the club's cost, to meet this demand;
  2. Suitable professional expertise should be sought internally (via the coach group email, Serpie News, Digest and Website) to meet this demand;
  3. Suitable professional expertise should be sought externally to meet this demand.
    Note: In both cases 2. & 3. above the following should apply:
    1. Professional internal or external coaches should be urged to discount / loss lead where possible, as a reflection of the benefit they will get from being part of the Serpentine Structure in terms of private lessons and experience.
    2. Participating individual members should be asked to contribute a %age of the coaching fees (the exact %age to be determined by the Committee noting that for the existing Swim Sessions this is 100%) as well as 100% of the entrance fees/facilities hire as normal.
  4. The club will conduct appropriate due diligence in partnership with the relevant coaching coordinator when it comes to the sourcing of the external coach (DBS? Qualified? Feedback? etc.)
  5. The club will review the performance/value of external coaching services the club has paid for on a regular basis.