Set up declarations for a club meet

Declarations only go as smoothly as the meet behind them. Families declare against the events, sessions, and limits you set, so get those right before you open the window. This article covers the setup; once declarations start arriving, see Review and enter declared events.

Declarations are for club teams. On a high school team you build the lineup yourself — see High School Meets.

Before you open

Work through this list while the meet is still a Draft. A draft is hidden from athletes and guardians, so you can change anything without anyone seeing it.

1. Events — add every individual event and relay (see Club Meets). Families declare against the events you list, so a missing event means a missing declaration.
2. Sessions — if the meet runs across sessions, set them up first (see below).
3. Entry limits — set the caps you want to enforce.
4. Age Up Date — set the date that decides which age group each swimmer belongs to.
5. Declaration dates — decide whether the window opens and closes automatically.

Set entry limits and the age-up date

Edit the meet (the pencil icon) to set these. Limits live under Lanes and Seeding:

• Max Individual Entries Per Athlete — also the number families see as their cap while declaring.
• Max Relay Entries Per Athlete
• Max Total Entries Per Athlete — individual and relay entries combined.

Age Up Date is under Important Dates. It decides which events a swimmer is eligible for, so families see the right events and you see the right ages in the declarations matrix.

⚠️ Changing lanes, heats, or entry limits clears all seeded athletes.

Add sessions

On the meet page, the Sessions card shows how the meet is split up. Click Edit Sessions to add or change them, then assign each event to a session.

Sessions change what families do. On a meet with sessions, each swimmer marks every session as Attend or Skip before they can submit, and can only pick events in sessions they're attending. A meet with no sessions skips that step.

Finish your sessions before you open declarations. Adding or removing a session while the window is open can force families to refresh and resubmit.

Choose how the window opens and closes

On the meet form, the Event Declaration card has two optional dates:

• Declaration Opens — the meet opens for declarations automatically on this date.
• Declaration Deadline — the meet closes automatically on this date, and families are reminded before it.

Both are checked hourly. Clear either field to manage that step yourself. The deadline is treated as the end of that day in the meet's timezone, so a deadline of Friday closes at the end of Friday, not the start.

Open the meet

Click Change Meet Status on the meet page and choose Open for Declaration. You can do this manually at any time, whether or not you set an opening date.

Families get an email, Declarations are open for your meet, with a link straight to the declaration form. Athletes and guardians are sent to their own versions of the form.

What families get and when

Reminders only go out when the meet has a Declaration Deadline and is open at the time, and each family gets the reminder at most once. Reopening a closed meet sends the Declarations are open email again.

Move a meet between statuses

If you go back to Draft, families lose sight of the meet until you open it again. Reopening a closed meet lets families update their declarations again.

Troubleshooting

Families say they can't declare — check the meet's status first. It has to be Open for Declaration, and if you set a Declaration Opens date, it has to have passed.

A family says the window closed too early — the deadline closes the meet automatically at the end of that day in the meet's timezone. Reopen the meet with Change Meet Status if you need to let someone in late.

A family can't find an event — it's either not in the meet yet, in a session they're skipping, or outside their age group or gender. Ineligible events are tucked under an expandable Ineligible events section on their form.