How to book duties and change them
Notts County Sailing Club is a members’ club, run by members for members. The club has a friendly but efficient ethos with fun, high quality, but above all safe sailing, racing, and training. We have no paid staff and to enable us to keep the club running, we ask all members to volunteer to undertake duties. It is a great way to meet other members from parts of the club, to make friends and gain support. It is also a great way to learn and improve your sailing, watching the best sailors in the club can teach anyone something new. The club is run by volunteers and it is essential that members play their part for the smooth running of the club.
The club duties are managed using a software package called Sailing Club Manager (SCM). This online system on line eases the onerous task of duty allocation and monitors how many duties each member has done and is planning to do. It also allows members to choose and swap their own dates and to contact other members to facilitate this. It is therefore very helpful if you allow members to see your details phone numbers and email by setting the privacy settings to these to members only rather than private.
SCM relies on communicating by email but sometimes these go into your junk folder, so please ensure that emails from admin@mg.ncsc.org.uk are allowed. The communications are normally headed Notts County Sailing Club.
Who has to do duties
.The general expectation is that all water users over the age of 16 should do at least 3 duties per eligible member per year, and at least one of these is on a Sunday. However, if you are in full time education and are living away from home you will not be expected to do duties. If this is the case please contact the Duty Secretary to ensure you are not allocated duties. Also, if you have, or develop, a medical condition that prevents you from doing a specific duty type please let the Duty Secretary know. Any information you provide will be treated in confidence. If you have a short term illness you should arrange a duty swap if it is preventing you doing an allocated duty.
How duties are allocated
The sailing calendar for each year is compiled the previous autumn by the Sailing Secretary. Members will be told when it is available on Sailing Club Manger so they can start booking duties. You will only be able to volunteer for duties for which you are capable of doing. After 1 March each year members will be allocated to the vacant duties. Therefore, if you have preferred dates that you wish to do duties, or you wish to do duties with your crew, or members of your family, you should book them as soon as possible. To ensure that full duty teams are available for racing in March, the Duty Secretary may start allocating members to these duties from 1 February. As a general rule any racing related duties will be allocated by the Duty Secretary and any training related duties can be volunteered for if you are qualified (though SI is normally arranged with Chief Instructor). Exceptions to this are, the Principal Race Officers for Open meetings which will be arranged by the Sailing Secretary.
When a member has volunteered for a duty Sailing Club Manager will acknowledge the booking by email and will automatically send out duty reminders, with the duty times and the latest duty notes, as the duty date approaches. The ability to swap the duty is also made available should the date selected no longer be convenient.
When a member has been allocated a duty, they will receive an email notification containing a link which will provide the choice to accept or, acknowledge that they intend to swap the duty allocation. Once the duty has been accepted/acknowledged, SCM will automatically send out duty reminders, with duty times and the latest duty notes.NOTE: For allocated duties,SCM will only enable the swap capability once the duty has been accepted or acknowledged.
If you think aduty has been allocated in error please contact the Duty Secretary
How to reset my Sailing Club Manager (SCM) password
If you need to reset your SCM password you can request a new password via the link on the Sailing Club Manager login page or you can contact the Duty Secretary
How to change a duty allocation
Before 1 March, if you have volunteered for a duty in error or wish to change a duty for whatever reason, you may contact the Duty Secretary who will cancel or amend that booking.
After 1 March, if a member is unable to do a duty which has been allocated or volunteered for, then it is the member’s responsibilityto arrange a duty swap using the swap function in Sailing Club Manager.
How to book a duty
login in to SCM. Video showing logging onto Sailing Club Manager
From the menu on the right hand side select Duty Roster.
Scroll down the multiple pages and you will see a red “Volunteer” button for the duties that you are able to volunteer for.
Select the duty you wish to do. SCM will only let you volunteer for duties that you are qualified to do.
SCM will then send you an email confirming your duty allocation and you will receive duty reminders as the duty date approaches.
Some members only have one SCM login per family. This is not a problem because SCM can identify when all the family bookings are in one name. However, if this is the case and you would like some bookings to be changed to the name of another family member then please contact the Duty Secretary
Also, if you are having problems booking duties or have made an error please contact the Duty Secretary
How to swap a duty
login in to SCM.
From the menu on the right hand side select My Duties.
Find the duty you wish to swap and select the Red “Request a Swap” button next to the duty
(If you see a Red “Accept” button click on it and then you will be able to see “Request a Swap”).
Enter the reason you are requesting a swap in the text box, then scroll down the list of duties and select up to 10 duties that you could swap with.
Complete the request by selecting the Red “Request a Swap” button at the bottom of the page.
SCM will send out swap requests for each of the selected duties
To ensure the best chance of achieving of achieving a swap it is recommended that:
you submit the swap request at the earliest opportunity,
you complete the “reason for requesting a swap” text box,
you select as many potential duty swaps as possible,
you also contact the members you wish to swap with directly by phone or email using the “Directory” function, in the menu on the right hand side of the SCM screen.
If you wish the cancel a duty swap request contact the Duty Secretary
Qualifications required to do duties
The club requirements to do specific duties are as follows:
- Principal Race Officer Having significant Race Officer experience
Race Officer An experienced racing sailor or one who has completed the Club Race Officer Course - Assistant Race Officer A racing sailor or one who has completed the Club Race Officer Course
- Race Clerk No training or previous experience required
- Open meeting Safety Officer (if applicable) Having completed the Club Safety Boat Course or RYA Level 2 Powerboat Course and having previous experience operating as a Safety Boat Driver
- Rib Driver To be able to volunteer as a driver you will need to have completed a driving course (either the free one day club course or PB2) and completed the club safety course. See under powerboat training for further details
- Safety Crew – No training or previous experience required
- Senior Instructor Having completed the RYA Senior Instructor Course
- Dinghy Instructor Having completed the RYA Dinghy Instructor Course or AI course
- Windsurfing Instructor Having completed the RYA Windsurfer Instructor Course
- Powerboat Instructor – Having completed the RYA Powerboat Instructor Course
If you wish to book a training course go to the calendar page. The Club Safety Boat and Race Officer courses are free.
