Meet Templates Made Easy: How to Maximize Their Use in SwimTopia

September 18, 2024

One of the most time-saving features in SwimTopia is the ability to use Meet and Job Templates to streamline the setup of events and volunteer jobs for your swim meets. With templates, you can define the structure for multiple events throughout the season and quickly apply them to any new meet. Let’s dive into how you can create, apply, and update your templates meet events.

Create a Meet Template From an Existing Meet
Create a Meet Template From Scratch
Apply a Meet Template to Your Meet
Edit and Manage Your Meet Templates
How-To Video: Managing Meet Templates
More Resources

Meet Templates

Meet Templates allow you to pre-define a list of events and rules for different types of meets, such as Dual Meets, Divisionals, Champs, or Invitationals. Once set up, these templates can be applied to each meet, ensuring consistency and saving time during the busy swim season.

How to Use Meet Templates

1. Create a Meet Template from an Existing Meet

If you have already hosted meets, you can turn an existing meet setup into a reusable template.

Go to the meet you want to use as a model from your Schedule page.
Navigate to Meet Setup > Events and click the Actions button.
Select “Save as Meet Template” to create a template from the events, rules, and configurations of the selected meet.
Save the template with a unique name for easy identification.

2. Create a Meet Template from Scratch

To create a meet template without using a previous meet as a base:

Go to your Meet Templates section in SwimTopia (Schedule > Meet Templates)
Select “Add Template” and give the template a name

Now click on the new template you just created from the list of templates and complete each of the applicable meet setting tabs: Events, Entry Rules, Entry Fees, Eligibility and Seeding & Scoring.

This is helpful if you have specific setups for certain types of meets, like a Championship or Invitational meet.

3. Apply a Meet Template to Your Meets

Once you’ve created meet templates, applying them to new meets is simple:

When setting up a new meet on your calendar, navigate to Meet Setup > Events and choose “Apply Template.“

Select the Meet Template you wish to apply from the dropdown menu list.

You will now see a notification that the events for the meet are defined by the linked template. All predefined events and rules will automatically populate the new meet, ensuring you don’t miss any important details.

4. Edit and Manage Your Meet Templates

Templates are not static. As your needs evolve, you can edit your meet templates by going to the Meet Templates section and selecting the template you want to update. Changes made to the template will not automatically affect meets that have already used it, but they will apply to any future meets where the template is applied.

Additional Tips

If your league offers the option of shared meet templates, these will be indicated on your site with a link icon and your league abbreviations.

You can apply these templates to any meet, but you cannot edit them; only the league can do that. You can make a copy of this template for your own team’s use.