Surf club patrol roster
The patrol roster for the whole summer, on one link
From the first patrol in late September to the last in April, every weekend and public holiday needs a patrol on the beach. FairTurns rotates your patrol groups through the season and fills nippers water safety from the members who can do it.
Free, with no limit on people or dates. No card.
The patrol roster is out in August and wrong by November
Before the season the patrol captains meet, the groups are set, and someone builds the season roster in a spreadsheet: eight patrol groups across thirty weekends, two patrols a weekend, plus Christmas, New Year, Australia Day and Easter. It gets emailed out as an attachment and stuck on the clubhouse wall.
Then the beach opens a week late after a storm, a carnival lands on Patrol 4’s weekend, and the Sunday nippers programme needs water safety from members with their award who aren’t already on patrol. By November nobody is sure which version is current.
One live roster, rotating the groups in turn and kept on a link members can check from the car park, takes that guesswork away.
How FairTurns runs patrols
Patrol groups as names
Add “Patrol 1” to “Patrol 8” by name, with no email needed. Fill rotates them through the patrols so each group’s turns are counted.
Saturday and Sunday patrols
Add Saturday 12:30–4:30 and Sunday 8:00–12:30 as repeating dates, kept months ahead through the whole season.
Public holidays as one-offs
Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and Australia Day go in as “Just this once” and Fill gives them to the next groups in line.
Nippers water safety
A second team with a Water safety position holds the members with the award your club requires. Only they are put on, three to a Sunday morning.
No patrol and water safety at once
Rostering members by name in both teams? Fill won’t put the same member on water safety while they’re on patrol at an overlapping time.
Cancelled weekends
A week the beach is closed, cancel those dates. They can be brought back, and the season carries on.
Set it up
- 01
Create the club
Create your organisation and teams for Patrol and Nippers water safety.
- 02
Add the groups and members
Add the patrol groups by name, and add water safety members by name or invite them by email.
- 03
Set the patrol times
Click the first patrol weekend, set the times, and choose “Every week on Saturday”, then the same for Sunday.
- 04
Add the holidays
Add each public holiday patrol as a one-off date.
- 05
Fill and share
Press Fill for the season and put the roster link on the club’s noticeboard and chat.
When you want it to run itself
Pro emails the weekend’s roster to members who have accepted an invitation and a reminder before their date. When a water safety member can’t make Sunday, they reply from the email, and the next qualified member is put on and asked while the nippers coordinator gets an email.
A$1 a month per organisation, paid 1 to 5 years at a time. See Pro and pricing
Good to know
- Groups don’t book their own weekends: Fill rotates them in turn and members see their group’s dates on the link.
- A patrol group added by name is one entry on the roster. Members check their group’s date on the link; to remind members individually on Pro, roster them by name instead of by group.
- Who holds which award is up to you: set up the Water safety position with the members your club has checked.
- Patrol hours, sign-on and equipment checks stay in your club’s own patrol log; the roster shows who is on and when.
Questions
How do I rotate patrol groups through the season?
Add each patrol group by name in a Patrol team, add the patrol times as repeating dates, and press Fill for the season. Each patrol goes to the group with the fewest patrols so far, so the groups take their turns in rotation.
Can members see the roster without logging in?
Members can open the public roster link on any phone, as a list or a calendar, with no sign-in and nothing to install.
How do we handle a patrol swap between groups?
The two captains agree it and an administrator or the patrol team moderator moves the groups on those two dates by hand. Each changed date keeps its change.
Can we roster water safety for nippers separately?
Yes. Make a Nippers water safety team with its own position and headcount, set up the members who hold the award, and Fill shares the Sunday mornings among them.
What does it cost for a surf club?
The roster is free for every group, member and patrol. Pro, with the email reminders and automatic cover, is A$1 a month per club, paid 1 to 5 years at a time.
Free templates and guides
Rotating roster explained
What a rotating roster is, the two kinds of rotation, and the weekly, fortnightly and monthly patterns most groups use.
Weekly roster template
Names down the side, Monday to Sunday across: the one-page weekly roster for a small team.
Repeating dates
Every Saturday, every second Tuesday, the last Sunday of the month: set it once, kept ahead.
Similar rosters
Committees and working bees
Working bee jobs, duty officer on game day and opening up the clubhouse, shared across the club.
Club referees and umpires
Share your club’s referees and umpires across every game, with no one booked on two fields at once.
Event volunteers
Gate, car park, raffle and pack-down shifts for a fête or festival, on one page every helper can open.