About Affiliations

Local Club Affiliation Rules

USATF members may compete in events as either "unattached" or as a representative of a local club. In certain circumstances, athletes may also represent, educational institutions and branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. (See Competition Rule 4.1 and Regulation 7-C.)

Changing Club Affiliations

Once you have competed for a given local club, you may not compete for another local club for 90 days (if you want to change clubs, you must give written notice to your Association and compete as "unattached" during those 90 days).  Each time you compete for a club, you must restart the 90-day unattached period. Once you have served at least 90 days without competing for any club, you may request a club change though the membership chair of your Association.

For exceptions, please see Regulation 7 in the USATF Governance Manual.

Process for Changing Affiliations

You can view your current affiliation(s) in your Member Profile. Affiliation-change requests will be handled through your Association.

Local Club

  1. Only an athlete (or his/her legal guardian) can request a club affiliation change (coaches may not make this request).
  2. Send a "Club Transfer Request" as an e-mail, fax, or letter (phone calls not accepted) to the membership chair of your Association and include the following:
    1. Your name and membership number
    2. The reason for requesting the change
    3. Your current club affiliation (including "unattached")
    4. The name of the new club you want to be affiliated with
    5. The name of the event/meet, location, and date where you last competed for a club
  3. After reviewing the request, the membership chair will either make the change in your member profile or request additional information.
  4. If your affiliation has not been updated in your member profile and you have not heard back from your Association within 7 business days, e-mail membership@usatf.org with the above information.

Educational Institution or Military Branch

If you are a current, bona fide member of a college/university team or the U.S. Armed Forces, you may update your member profile at any time to indicate your affiliation as such. These affiliations are in addition to, and do not replace, your local club affiliation. (See Regulation 7-C-3.)

How this affects your event entry when using the USATF Online Entry System

When entering a meet, athletes will be provided the option to select one of the following affiliations: unattached, local club, education institution (college/university), or military branch. Available affiliation options may vary by event (i.e., not all affiliation options will be available for every event).

Athletes can change affiliations using the process above until close of entries/declarations for a given event/meet. If you selected the option to be affiliated with a club when you entered the meet (instead of selecting "unattached"), the affiliation listed in your member profile at the close of entries/declarations will be the one used for your entry into the meet.