The great thing about Surf Life Saving is that there is something that every member of a family can do to get involved, depending on their preferences. It is not uncommon to hear about entire family groups patrolling together or having a long history with an SLSC. They come together to patrol or participate in other SLS activities.
Some Club Management Teams (CMTs) engage families by requiring a parent to join and remain a member of their SLSC for their child’s duration in the junior development program (Nippers). They may also encourage Nipper parents to become an Age Manager or Water Safety Personnel to assist with the delivery of the junior development program at their SLSC.
Family Groups within SurfGuard
Within SurfGuard, a family group is simply an artificial grouping of people in one SLSC for data management purposes where it is assumed the primary member in control of the group has some sort of legal standing to manage the family group. Family groups in SurfGuard consist of primary members over 18 years old who can manage group members. For example, a parent may arrange for a family group in SurfGuard to renew and pay for all their children’s memberships at the same time using their individual SLS Members Area Account login details.
Members can belong to more than one family group in one SLSC and/or a member of a family group in more than one SLSC. SLSC Administrators should refer to the SurfGuard User Guide for more information about creating, editing and deleting family groups.
Note: Although young members may be part of a family group in SurfGuard, they should still have their own individual SLS Members Area Account to access the separate SLS eLearning platform and other relevant SLS resources relevant to their member account and age group.