Join while signed in

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Account holders: organisation membership, quick sign-in, family, Join a session

Joining a session (signed in)

This is step 2 of the session workflow (after the leader plans the trip). Full loop: How PaddleSafe works (by role).

This guide is for people who have a website account (sign up / sign in) and want a faster sign-in or to enrol saved family members.

You do not have to be a session leader — many parents and regular paddlers use an account only to save details and children.

After sign-in you land on Home, which lists this week’s trips you have joined. Your organisation’s page (/o/…) has a day / week / month calendar of open sessions. If the leader advertised Join, you can enrol from that list. If they did not, you only see the title and time — use the organiser’s join link or QR when they have allowed it, or ask them to add you.

Privacy: signing in does not unlock phones or ICE. If you are an approved adult member of the hosting organisation, you can see fellow adult members’ display names on that org’s roster and on Who’s coming on the session overview (guests and under-18s stay generic / a count). Hide your name under Personal details → Hide my name from other organisation paddlers — you then cannot see Who’s coming either. Date of birth is hidden from other paddlers unless you tick Show my age to other organisation paddlers (age in years only; never for under-18s). Leaders, organisation duty/admin, and site administrator see more where authorised. You always see session times, venues, and your own safe-return row after you join. How-to: Privacy and your data. (See Account roles and Organisation duty and live map → Privacy.)

What you need

Overview

flowchart TD
    A[Sign in to website] --> B[Complete Personal details]
    B --> C[Open session join link or QR]
    C --> D{Profile complete?}
    D -->|No| H[Finish Personal details first]
    H --> C
    D -->|Yes| E{Children saved in My family?}
    E -->|Yes, enrolling dependents| F[Family table: tick who to enrol]
    E -->|No — just you today| G[Quick sign-in: swim, craft, illness]
    F --> I[Privacy + Submit sign-in]
    G --> I
    I --> J[Thank-you + personal safe-return link]
    J --> K[Mark as safe after trip]

Note: Whether or not you use My family, you still open the same join link. The difference is what appears on the form: quick sign-in (only you) or a family picker (you plus saved children). You can also add a one-off child on the form without saving them to My family — see Joining on the day below.

One-time setup

1. Create an account or sign in

Use Sign in on the join page header, the site menu, or the organisation’s public page (/o/cvcc or /o/cvcc.org.uk when that club’s website is set). Find every club on this host under Clubs (signed out) or You → Your organisations (signed in). After you sign in, Sessions lists trips you are allowed to see (your clubs, public organisations, partner clubs, and trips you lead or have already joined). Guests do not get a host-wide diary. After you sign in, the home page shows your name (the header shows it on every page) and shortcuts instead of Sign up / Sign in. At Sign up, choose the club or activity centre you paddle with — or open the organisation page so the club is already selected. Membership starts as Pending until that organisation approves you (Organisation → Members → Pending members). If you tick Leader or coach, that is also pending until an organisation admin grants leader access.

You → Your organisations is the organisation list for everyone who is signed in. Duty and admin tools (live map, members) live under the Org hat when you cover that club.

Install on your device

You can add PaddleSafe to a phone or PC so it opens like an app. On Chrome or Edge (Android or desktop), use the install banner or You → Install app. On Firefox for Android (including GrapheneOS), the in-page button cannot trigger install — open the browser menu (three dots), then Install or Add to Home Screen. On iPhone or iPad, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Firefox on Debian (and other Linux) cannot install a phone-style app — use Download shortcut and move paddlesafe.desktop into ~/.local/share/applications/. Guests without an account should still bookmark their personal safe-return link — the installed app opens the site home, not that unique page.

2. Complete Personal details

Open Personal details and fill in at least:

Missing items are listed at the top of You → Personal details with links to the marked fields. Awards I hold and Leadership and coaching are optional for joining — they sit further down. Paddler → Profile is your skills / training log, not this form.

Your sign-in name and display name can be changed at any time from Personal details — the sign-in name is stored in lowercase and must be unique. Changing your sign-in name does not sign you out; use the new one next time you sign in.

Until these are done, you can still join: enter swimming / water confidence and paddling experience on the session sign-in form (they save to Personal details for next time). After that, quick sign-in is offered.

3. Organisation membership (optional but affects roster names)

On Personal details → Organisation membership you see each org as Pending / Approved / Rejected. You may belong to several organisations — request another under Request membership of another club.

For names on a session roster (yours to peers, and peers’ to you), what matters is approved membership of that session’s hosting organisation. Approved elsewhere only does not count. If peers see you as Guest paddler, you are usually pending, not a member of the host org, or you joined before approval (see Account roles → Organisation membership).

4. (Optional) Add My family

For children you enrol often (anyone under 18, including 12–17 year olds):

  1. Open My family.
  2. Add each child: name, date of birth, swimming level, medical notes, usual craft.
  3. Age 12 is still a child in the family. When they turn 18, open My family and Create their account — that copies their saved details, requests membership of your organisations, and shows a temporary password once. They then sign in (You → Personal details) and join sessions themselves.
  4. When you join, under-12s need a parent or guardian on site; 12–17s may be dropped off if you confirm pickup. You can join without ticking any children.

Joining on the day

Sign in first if you are not already, then open the organiser’s link or QR.

2. Choose your path on the form

The join page picks one of these paths (you will not see both quick sign-in and the family table at the same time):

flowchart TD
    J[Join page — already signed in] --> Q{Profile complete?}
    Q -->|No| P[Banner + marked fields]
    P --> MP[Fill the marked fields on this form or Personal details] --> J
    Q -->|Yes| H{Children in My family?}
    H -->|No| QUICK[Quick sign-in — you only]
    H -->|Yes| FAM[Tick you and/or children]
    QUICK --> CRAFT[Confirm swim, craft, illness]
    FAM --> SELF{I am paddling?}
    SELF -->|Yes — children optional| CRAFT2[Craft this session]
    SELF -->|No, children ticked| SHORE[Shore support or pickup]
    CRAFT --> PRIV[Privacy + Join]
    CRAFT2 --> PRIV
    SHORE --> PRIV
If… What you see
Details incomplete Marked fields on this form (saved to You → Personal details)
Profile complete, no saved children Quick sign-in (you only)
Profile complete, saved children Tick I am paddling (on by default) and/or children, then Join
Child not in My family Use Register a child on this form (expandable section) — does not require saving them first

Quick sign-in (just you, profile complete, no family picker)

Use Something changed — show full registration form if your contact or medical details differ today.

You and family (saved children)

Manual child entry (not in My family)

3. Session leader enrolling family on their own trip

If you created the session, you will not see paddling/bank role checkboxes or Join as back-up leader — you are already the leader. Select family members and submit.

If you are a verified leader joining someone else’s trip, Join as back-up leader is on Who is joining (and on the join-link form). You are on the water helping run the session, you do not use a paddling place, and you still mark yourself safe. That does not hand the trip over — the named leader uses Hand over to another leader if they should step back. You can tick children on the same form; they stay paddlers. The roster also shows a Verified leader chip when a paddler on this organisation is a verified leader, even if they joined as a paddler.

4. After sign-in

Same as guests:

flowchart TD
    A[Cannot make it] --> B{Has the leader pressed Start?}
    B -->|No| C["Home: This week, or My sessions / Account: Sessions you joined"]
    C --> D[Leave session]
    D --> E[You leave; session stays on]
    B -->|Yes| F[Mark yourself safe first]
    F --> G[Then Leave this session]

Signed-in shortcut: Home → This week, or My sessions / Account → Sessions you’ve joined. That opens the personal page. The leave link names whose place it is: Give up my place, Give up my place and the children's, or Remove [name] from this session. That only removes those people; the session stays on.

If you are the named session leader, My trips and the personal page lead with Hand over to another leader and Cancel this session. Do not use Give up my place to step back from leading.

Leaving yourself also removes linked dependents you signed in. The trip remains for everyone else. To come back, use the join link while sign-in is still open.

If you have lost the personal link: roster → tap your name, or ask the leader to remove you.

On your leader page, use Add minor (with consent) when a parent is not signing in online. Search for a young person already saved on a member’s My family profile (date of birth, swimming, and paddling experience on file), then tick that you hold parent or guardian consent for this session (e.g. paper form on file). If they are not on file, use the form below. The child’s date of birth must show they are under 18 on the session date.

  1. Paddler → My trips → Join a session (also on Home and Account).
  2. Pick a session that is open for join, then Continue — who is joining. Tick I am paddling and/or children, then Join. If you are also a verified leader, you can tick Join as back-up leader instead of using a paddling place.
  3. Sessions listed under Not open for join still exist: Sign-in closed means the leader paused joins (still planned); On the water means it has started. Ask the leader to reopen sign-in or add you. That is not the same as cancelled.
  4. Members-only sessions appear for you if you are an approved member of the host club; a typed join code still works when the leader allowed the join link.

After the trip

Quick checklist