Patrol Standard

Com­mence­ment Date

This Patrol Stan­dard has been in place since 1st Octo­ber 2010.

1. Pur­pose

To ensure timely direc­tion and guid­ance and to pro­mote a con­sis­tent approach to the require­ments related to Vol­un­teer Patrol Lifesavers.

2. Appli­ca­tion

This Stan­dard applies to all Mul­laloo Surf Life Sav­ing Club patrol members.

3. Def­i­n­i­tions

Life Mem­ber A per­son who has been granted Life Mem­ber­ship of Mul­laloo SLSC
Club Offi­cer A per­son who has been appointed to a par­tic­u­lar role within Mul­laloo SLSC. This includes Club Offi­cers as iden­ti­fied in the Club Con­sti­tu­tion and other mem­bers appointed to key roles.

 

Other peo­ple who take on key vol­un­teer roles may be included, as deter­mined by the Board of Man­age­ment, each year.
Active Reserve The Mul­laloo SLSC Club Con­sti­tu­tion (Sec­tion 6.4) (26/06/2009) spec­i­fies the con­di­tions for grant­ing of Active Reserve sta­tus for patrolling purposes.

 

Refer to SLSA Pol­icy 5.4 (01/12/2009) for rules relat­ing to com­pe­ti­tion eligibility.
Long Ser­vice The Mul­laloo SLSC Club Con­sti­tu­tion (Sec­tion 6.5) spec­i­fies the con­di­tions for grant­ing of Long Ser­vice sta­tus for patrolling purposes.

 

Refer to SLSA Pol­icy 5.4 for rules relat­ing to com­pe­ti­tion eligibility.
Patrol shift Refers to the period from report­ing time (15 min­utes before the patrol start time) to  con­clu­sion of the patrol, as rostered.
Water safety The pro­vi­sion of qual­i­fied and pro­fi­cient life­savers to more closely mon­i­tor the safety of mem­bers par­tic­i­pat­ing in club or com­pe­ti­tion activ­i­ties. More com­monly applied to Junior Activ­i­ties (Nip­per) events. Water safety duties may be per­formed at Mul­laloo, or at another beach where an SLSWA approved com­pe­ti­tion event is held
Duty Offi­cers SLSA Cir­cu­lar 10/09–10 Patrol hour recog­ni­tion for Duty Offi­cers pro­vides guid­ance on the qual­i­fy­ing ser­vice for mem­bers who are involved in Duty Offi­cer assignments.
Com­pe­ti­tion hours These are the duty hours which count for com­pe­ti­tion pur­poses in accor­dance with SLSA Pol­icy 5.4 Pro­fi­ciency and patrol hour require­ments for com­pe­ti­tion eligibility
Ros­tered patrol The patrol sched­ule is pre­pared as a rolling ros­ter prior to sea­son start.

 

The Patrol ros­ter indi­cates the dates each patrol is on duty, and the time period allo­cated to each Patrol. The dura­tion of Patrols varies each month, and may require two or three dif­fer­ent Patrol groups on any day, depend­ing on the dura­tion of ser­vice hours required

Ros­tered Patrol shifts includes offi­cial Water Safety Patrol shifts
Sub­sti­tute hours These are the hours worked by a mem­ber who is replac­ing another mem­ber, by prior arrange­ment. The mem­ber actu­ally work­ing the hours receives the credit. The mem­ber for whom the hours are being done will not be required to ful­fill Make-up hours. The mem­ber unable to attend their ros­tered patrol shall con­tact the Patrol Cap­tain and where pos­si­ble, arrange a sub­sti­tute patrol mem­ber. The sub­sti­tute patrol mem­ber shall have sim­i­lar qualifications.

 

They are entered in Sur­f­Guard as Sub­sti­tute hours, and count towards both com­pe­ti­tion and club rebate hours.
Vol­un­tary hours These are patrol hours worked by a mem­ber who wishes to per­form addi­tional Patrol duties.

 

They are entered in Sur­f­Guard as Vol­un­tary hours, and count towards both com­pe­ti­tion and club rebate hours
Water Safety Patrol This is a sep­a­rate patrol, made up of appro­pri­ately qual­i­fied and pro­fi­cient mem­bers who wish to pro­vide ser­vice in this spe­cific area.

 

They are entered in Sur­f­guard as Water Safety hours, and count towards both com­pe­ti­tion and club rebate hours
Make-up hours These are the addi­tional patrol hours a mem­ber is required to ful­fill, in order to address their ros­tered hours require­ment. Make-up hours are not required where a mem­ber is absent from their ros­tered patrol for a legit­i­mate rea­son, e.g. work, ill­ness or other personal/work emer­gency, and who has appro­pri­ately noti­fied the rel­e­vant Patrol Captain.

 

Mem­bers are required to ful­fill Make-up hours within 30 days.

The Patrol Log must be marked MAKE-UP and not VOLUNTARY when Make-up hours are worked. This is to ensure the Patrol Offi­cer knows what clas­si­fi­ca­tion of duty to enter into the Sur­f­Guard record
Penalty hours These are the patrol hours that may be assigned to a mem­ber who has been in breach of their patrol oblig­a­tions on more than two occa­sions, with­out rea­son­able cause or prior advice to the Patrol Cap­tain. This is to assure an appro­pri­ate num­ber and skill mix of patrolling mem­bers is avail­able for the patrol on each occasion.

 

The Life­sav­ing Com­mit­tee will then inves­ti­gate the sit­u­a­tion and, where nec­es­sary, refer the mat­ter to the Dis­ci­pli­nary Com­mit­tee for review and decision.

The SLSA Pol­icy 5.4 states “penalty patrol hours shall not be used as credit for a member’s patrol hour total for com­pe­ti­tion eli­gi­bil­ity” (Sec­tion 3.6)

Penalty patrol hours will not count for the inter­nal Club mem­ber­ship renewal rebate in the fol­low­ing season
Patrol Cap­tain qualifications Patrol Cap­tains are required to hold the Sil­ver Medal­lion – Basic Beach Man­age­ment qual­i­fi­ca­tion. Refer SLSA Cir­cu­lar 66/07–08 Patrol Cap­tain qualifications
Club Mem­ber­ship fee rebate eligibility The fol­low­ing cri­te­ria apply:

 

  • Active Patrol = Pro­fi­cient, with the min­i­mum patrol hours in the pre­vi­ous sea­son, as spec­i­fied by the Board of Management
  • Life Member/Board of Man­age­ment mem­ber = Full, uncon­di­tional rebate
  • (Patrol) Long Ser­vice = Pro­fi­cient in the pre­vi­ous season
  • (Patrol) Reserve Active = Pro­fi­cient, with a min­i­mum of eight (8) hours patrol, in the pre­vi­ous season
  • Other Ser­vice = Vol­un­tary ser­vice to the club in any area, with eli­gi­bil­ity cri­te­ria as approved by the Board of Man­age­ment, each year. Exam­ples MAY include Club Offi­cers, Coaches, Age Group Managers

NOTE: Only one rebate per fam­ily mem­ber­ship applies, regard­less of the num­ber of eli­gi­ble fam­ily mem­bers cov­ered by that membership

Refer to the cur­rent list of Life Mem­bers, Board of Man­age­ment, Reserve Active, Long Ser­vice, Club Offi­cers (any classification)

4. Cri­te­ria

4.1 The lim­its of patrol area/s shall be deter­mined by the Patrol Cap­tain. The Ser­vice Agree­ment with the City of Joon­dalup pro­vides a ref­er­ence for the max­i­mum dis­tance (400 metres) for the loca­tion of the patrol in rela­tion to the club building.

4.2 Mem­bers shall be dressed in accor­dance with national patrol uni­form guide­lines, includ­ing wear­ing the patrol cap.

4.3 Patrol mem­bers are required to per­son­ally sign on for duty in the appro­pri­ate Log­book, indi­cat­ing time of com­mence­ment. The Patrol Cap­tain is respon­si­ble for ensur­ing sign off times are com­pleted accurately.

4.4 Mem­bers are required to pass an annual pro­fi­ciency test, prior to 31st Decem­ber, each year, to under­take patrol duties.

4.5 Mem­bers deemed as pro­fi­cient shall be allo­cated for patrol duty, appro­pri­ate to their mem­ber­ship clas­si­fi­ca­tion. Pro­fi­cient mem­bers will be allo­cated to a patrol at the start of the patrol sea­son. Mem­bers may apply, in writ­ing, to the Direc­tor of Life­sav­ing to request a trans­fer to another Patrol.

4.6 Patrol mem­bers shall obey all rea­son­able instruc­tions of the Patrol Cap­tain in the gen­eral work of patrols.

4.7 Mem­bers are required to meet their ros­tered patrol com­mit­ments, appro­pri­ate to their mem­ber­ship clas­si­fi­ca­tion. This helps to ensure the right num­ber and skill mix of mem­bers are on duty.

4.8 All patrol shifts must be com­pleted in full. The mem­ber shall arrive 15 min­utes prior to the com­mence­ment of the patrol. Com­pleted Patrol hours will be recorded, includ­ing the 15 min­utes set-up/briefing time.

Absences with rea­son­able cause, e.g. work com­mit­ments, ill­ness or other emer­gency will be recorded as Excused in Sur­f­Guard, and the mem­ber will not be required to do Make-up hours.

4.9 The SLSA Pol­icy 5.4 states “all mem­bers who wish to com­pete in any surf life­sav­ing com­pe­ti­tion must ful­fill their Patrol hours require­ments” (Sec­tion 2.1)

SLSA spec­i­fies the min­i­mum num­ber of patrol hours required for the period 1st Jan­u­ary to 31st Decem­ber of the pre­ced­ing year to be 16 hours, in order to be eli­gi­ble to enter any cham­pi­onship event. The min­i­mum patrol hours require­ment does not apply to Surf Res­cue Cer­tifi­cate (SRC) mem­bers wish­ing to com­pete in Junior Activ­i­ties events.

4.10 Com­pe­ti­tion patrol hours shall only be cal­cu­lated on the fol­low­ing per­sonal hours com­pleted: ros­tered, sub­sti­tute, water safety, make up and vol­un­tary patrols.

4.11 All-Terrain Vehi­cle (ATV) and 4 Wheel Drive (4WD) vehi­cles are only to be used by suit­ably qual­i­fied and pro­fi­cient patrolling mem­bers. Mem­bers are to hold rel­e­vant vehi­cle dri­ver qual­i­fi­ca­tions. Oper­a­tors shall have suc­cess­fully com­pleted the 4WD/ATV Oper­a­tor Induc­tion Course and be approved by the Mobile Ser­vices Offi­cer to oper­ate club vehi­cles. A 4WD/ATV shall not exceed 20km/hr under nor­mal oper­at­ing con­di­tions. The speed limit in densely occu­pied beach areas, and between the red and yel­low flags, is 5km/hr. Head­lights and haz­ard lights shall be ON at all times whilst the vehi­cle is oper­at­ing. Each per­son in a vehi­cle must be seated on a seat and wear­ing a seat belt.

Emer­gency sit­u­a­tions requir­ing trans­fer of patients on the 4WD vehi­cle tray may require patrol mem­bers to be seated on the vehi­cle tray. The vehi­cle dri­ver is respon­si­ble for ensur­ing the safety of per­son­nel required to ride on the vehi­cle tray in these situations.

4.12 Only pro­fi­cient SRC and BM qual­i­fied mem­bers are eli­gi­ble to act as water safety per­son­nel for any water based SLSA activ­ity, and are required to use only SLSA approved and res­cue ready equipment.

4.13 Eli­gi­bil­ity for the Club Patrol Rebate. The min­i­mum num­ber of patrol hours required within the patrol sea­son of the pre­ced­ing year shall be as spec­i­fied by the Board of Man­age­ment, each year. Club Patrol Rebate hours shall only be cal­cu­lated on the fol­low­ing per­sonal hours completed:

  • Ros­tered
  • Sub­sti­tute
  • Vol­un­tary
  • Water Safety
  • Make-up.

4.14 Man­age­ment of the Water Safety Patrol. A ded­i­cated Water Safety Patrol is estab­lished with its own Patrol Cap­tain. The Water Safety Patrol Cap­tain works in con­junc­tion with the duty Patrol Cap­tain. The duty Patrol Cap­tain is in over­all charge of all activities.

Water Safety patrol mem­bers are required to sign on at 0845 hours and sign off at the con­clu­sion of water based activ­i­ties. This addresses the stan­dard min­i­mum of the three hour patrol shift duration.

It is rec­om­mended that Water Safety per­son­nel liaise with the Water Safety Patrol Cap­tain to ensure the min­i­mum num­ber of per­son­nel is avail­able for water safety duties at the club.

Mem­bers who per­form their Water Safety patrol oblig­a­tions are eli­gi­ble for the mem­ber­ship rebate in the fol­low­ing sea­son, and to have these hours cred­ited for com­pe­ti­tion purposes.