Swim club glossary
The words your club runs on,
defined in one sentence each.
Member-owned pools have their own vocabulary, and most of it is never explained to the volunteer who inherits it. Here is what each term means and where it shows up in practice.
Bond
A bond is a refundable deposit a household pays when it joins a member-owned club and gets back, minus anything owed, when it leaves.
Because the money is coming back out again, a bond is something the club holds on a member's behalf, not income the club has earned.
Where this shows upWaitlist and bond Membership
Initiation fee
An initiation fee is a one-time, non-refundable charge a club collects when a household joins, separate from its refundable bond.
A club may charge one, both, or neither. The amount, like every other club-specific figure, is a setting in each club's own account.
Where this shows upWaitlist and bond Invoices, payments and credits
Relinquishment
Relinquishment is Swim Ops's term for a member's formal resignation, which starts their bond refund.
Where this shows upRelinquishment Check run
Renew-or-relinquish
Renew-or-relinquish is the annual choice a household makes to either renew its membership for the coming season or formally give it up.
When the choice opens and closes is each club's own renewal calendar, not a fixed date on the platform.
Where this shows upRenewals and dues Membership
Resident-priority waitlist
A resident-priority waitlist lets staff manually move local-resident applicants ahead in the queue — it is not an automatic algorithm — and every reorder is recorded in the audit log.
Which households count as residents is the club's own rule, and a person makes each decision. Nothing reorders the list on its own.
Where this shows upWaitlist and bond Audit log
Quiet mode
Quiet mode is the state every new club starts in, where no member-facing email or SMS leaves the platform until staff authorize go-live.
Where this shows upGo-live and quiet mode Migration
Founding offer
The founding offer is the first-year price Swim Ops offers to its first cohort of clubs, rather than a standing list price every club pays.
It is bounded to that first cohort. The current price and what it includes are on the pricing page.
Where this shows upPricing
Check run
A check run is the batch of approved bond-refund checks a club's treasurer prints and mails together, then marks cleared once they're cashed.
Where this shows upCheck run Back office
Household
A household is Swim Ops's core membership unit — the family or group of people who share one membership, one balance, and one set of records.
Where this shows upHouseholds Membership
These are the terms a member-owned club uses, not Swim Ops jargon invented for a sales page. Where a definition describes how Swim Ops behaves, the linked help article says exactly what the product does.
More for board members
Longer answers,
for the jobs behind the words.
Talk to a person
See these terms
in your own club's records.
Bring your roster, your bond ledger and your renewal calendar, and we'll show you what they look like in one system. Pricing is published on one page.