Dear Little Falls Swimming Club Families,

With this July smashing DC records for the most 90-degree days, it has been great to see so many of you enjoying the pool! ​The rising temps have also magnified the impact of the restricted capacity and new procedures we must all forbear. As always, thank you for your patience as we have worked through a challenging summer. We will continue using our reservation system as part of our ongoing efforts to maintain safe operations. The pool’s schedule for August remains largely unchanged, with one big exception. To further meet the continuing demand for lap swimming, we expanded Early Bird morning lap swimming to 6:30am-9:30am Monday through Friday, and adding Early Bird morning lap swimming on Saturday from 8:00am-9:30am.

The reservation process remains the same, and as a reminder, Early Bird morning lap swimming reservations count against your 7 weekly visits and are limited to Equity Members of the pool and Full Season Guests. Early Bird lap swimming also counts against your 2 Saturday or Sunday visit limit* per weekly reservation cycle (Sunday through Saturday). For example, for the Sunday, August 2 through Saturday, August 8 reservation cycle, if you make an Early Bird morning lap swimming reservation for Saturday, August 8, that reservation counts against your 7 weekly visits so you can make only one more pool reservation on Sunday, August 2 or Saturday, August 8. Unfortunately, at this time we still cannot open Early Bird lap lane swimming in the main pool to our Senior Emeritus accounts.

We will continue to offer the 30-minute Afternoon Lap Swimming reservations, which are open to all users of the pool, including Senior Emeritus accounts. The three lanes closest to the dive well are available for reservations. Afternoon Lap Swimming remains limited to one 30-minute reservation per day per user. As a reminder, if you make an Afternoon Lap Swimming reservation, you do not need to make a separate Open Swim reservation for that time, and you can use the pool for the entire hour. A fourth lap lane (furthest from the dive well) is available by booking Open Swim if you wish to swim for less than 30 minutes, but please note that the fourth lane may be removed if the pool is crowded. The white board will be used to reserve the fourth lane for 15-minute intervals.

Finally, please continue to follow all pool rules, which are especially important this summer. This includes rules for social distancing and particularly the wearing of masks while on Club property other than when you are in the water, going to the water from your chair, coming back to your chair from the water, or sitting in your chair while maintaining social distancing from others. You must wear your mask going to the pool while on Club property and while waiting in line to enter the pool.

* As a reminder, you may not book more than two blocks for Saturday or Sunday (for a total of 2 hours over the weekend). Please follow this rule as these are the most popular pool times.

Little Falls Swimming Club 2020 Pledge & Acknowledgment

We are all responsible for the health and safety of everyone at the Little Falls pool this summer, and each of us, including for our children, pledge the following:

• I agree to use the Little Falls pool and grounds at my own risk. I acknowledge that the Little Falls Swimming Club may use or release to health officials the pool’s records of persons who have used the pool if required for contact tracing purposes.
• The pool must operate differently this year, and I will be respectful of Little Falls staff and follow their guidance and direction. I will comply with the rules for reserving pool time put in place due to pool operating restrictions.
• I will not visit the pool if anyone in my household has been sick or has exhibited symptoms of COVID-19, or knows that they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, in the past 14 days. I will alert the LF Board if anyone in my household becomes sick with COVID-19.
• If anyone in my household has traveled to an area recognized as a COVID hotspot or has traveled internationally, we will stay away from the pool for 14 days.
• I will practice social distancing while at the Little Falls pool and grounds, including in the water, by maintaining a 6-foot distance from all others outside of my household.
• I will wear a mask while at the Little Falls pool and grounds. Masks may be removed when sitting with members of one’s household, or when entering or exiting the water, and while in the water.
• I will shower before visiting the pool and leave the Little Falls grounds and parking lot promptly at the end of my pool time.
• I will be respectful of others who are using the pool, understanding that we are all expected to follow these guidelines.
• The failure of anyone in my household, including caregivers, to follow these guidelines may result in the loss of club access and privileges.

The Basics

• See the Reservations Rules and Procedures section below for details.
• Each person has a maximum of 7 reservation spots for the week.
• All open swim sessions are now 1-hour blocks, the capacity for each remains at 60 people.
• Everyone must make a reservation in order to come to the pool.
• The entrance and exit to and from the pool is ONE-WAY. CHECK-IN AND ENTER at the gate by the main entrance. EXIT out the gate by the pump room/pool sheds.
• Be familiar with and follow the new rules and procedures. (See the Staying Safe section below for details.)

The Reservation Rules and Procedures
Making Reservations

• When signing up for a reservation, you acknowledge and agree to the letter and spirit of the Little Falls Pledge, which can be found at the end of this note.
• You will sign up to reserve your household slots by logging into your account at LittleFallsSwimmingClub.com. The reservation site works well on mobile devices and any browser except Internet Explorer, AOL, or Edge.
• A link to the reservation system is prominently displayed at the top of the home page and on the “Make Reservation” option at the top of the purple navigation bar on the left-side. Click either to get to the Reservation screen.
• The Reservation screen will appear with a calendar. Click on the “Facility” pull-down (time frames-see next bullet) in the upper left of that screen just above the calendar to select which of the options you would to reserve a spot [it defaults to Open Swim (Sun to Sat)]. If needed, click on the blue “SELECT A WEEK” button at the top of the screen. You will then see a weekly schedule (Sunday to Saturday) with available sessions. Sessions with open space will have a green left border, full sessions will have a red border, those close to full will be yellow. Hovering over a session with your cursor will display available slots.
• The “Facilities” (time-slot sessions) for the coming week will be:
  • Adult Swim Only (55+) – Tuesday Noon-1:00pm and Thursday 7:00pm-8:00pm
  • Daily Open Swim – Sunday, 11:00am-9:00pm & Monday-Saturday, Noon-9:00pm (1-hour blocks)
  • Early Bird Lap Swim Only (1 per lane/8 lanes) – Monday-Friday, 6:30am-9:30am, Saturday 8:00am-9:30am (reserve one 30-minute block each day).
  • Early Bird NON-LAP swim option during early bird for the diving well/intermediate pool.
  • Open Swim Lap swim (open to all) All week, Noon-9:00pm.
• When you click on an open time session, a list of your household members will appear. Click the boxes next to each household member you want to reserve for this session (each counts towards their individual allocation).
• Remember, each member of your household may reserve up to 7 spots each. Please do not sign up for spots unless you know you will use them. No-shows will still count towards the 7 maximum reservation limit.
• You may arrive and leave anytime within your reserved time period. If you would like to wait until most people have checked in before you arrive, that is fine. You will not lose your spot.
• Every block of time counts as one reservation, whether it is a 30-minute block or a one-hour block.
• At this time, household members cannot share each other’s allocation of 7 reservations.
• You may reserve up to 2 consecutive time-slot sessions per day. At this time, you may not book more than two blocks for Saturday or Sunday (for a total of 2 hours). Please take care to follow this rule as these are the most popular pool times.
• We will be auditing member household sign-ups. If we find that people are not complying with the reservation restrictions, we reserve the right to cancel reservations.

Managing Reservations

• To change or cancel a reservation once it is made please go to “Cancel a Reservation” on the purple navigation bar at the left on the home page. (You can also get there from the Membership section further down on the purple navigation bar and then select the “Manage Account” option).
• “My Reservations” tab is to the right of the blue dashboard bar that appears on the screen. Selecting that will display the reservations made for your household.
• Important: You must cancel reservations. No-shows will count towards your allocation. 

Staying Safe

• You must wear a mask unless you are sitting in your household member seat, entering or exiting the pool, or in the pool.
• Please respect social distancing guidelines.
• Please be respectful and attentive to the lifeguards and managers.
• Please be attentive to all signage and directions. Please follow directions for entering and exiting the pool. We will be entering one gate and exiting from another.
• Household members will sit in a household-member-only seating area. If you wish, you may bring your own chairs. You may bring wipes to wipe down your chair before and after use.
• An adult must accompany children younger than 12-years old in their household. Children from another member household may join a different household if both households agree (at this time we are limiting it to only two households per one adult chaperone).
• You may NOT bring any guests and Daily Guest Passes may not be used (they will remain on your account for future seasons). If you need to add a Caregiver to your account from the website Menu, please select Membership, Make a Payment.
• Unfortunately, the baby pool is closed, per state and county guidelines.
• Lap swimming will be available during our normal recreational swimming blocks and the number of lanes will be adjusted in response to demand. One lap swimmer per lane is allowed.
• There can be no shared equipment at the pool so bring your own noodles, kickboards, etc.
• Please remember to keep track of all of your personal items; we cannot store any forgotten clothing or towels at the pool.
• There will be no food allowed in the pool at this time. No food or drinks will be sold at the pool at this time. Please bring a water bottle only. We will announce when we can ease restrictions on bringing food.
• Showers will NOT be available; please shower at home before coming to the pool.
• 15 minutes before the end of a reservation block will be reserved for adult swim and cleaning. Families will be asked to quickly exit the pool so that lifeguards can prepare for the next session.

For more information, view these Zoom recordings.