Job Descriptions
Banquet Committee Chair and Committee Members
This is good if you: are good at organizing and event planning and don’t want commitments during the meets. Time commitment: 10 hours or so of planning and execution of swim banquet. Shift fulfillment: All participants will fulfill their families’ entire volunteer requirements. Responsibilities: Plan and execute the banquet, including food, trophies, awards, decorations, etc.
Bull-Pen Parent (U6 to U12 only)
This is good if you: enjoy interacting with the swimmers, need to keep an eye on your own children at all times, are good with young kids, can help stop melt-downs, can comfort nervous swimmers and can motivate young kids. Time commitment: Approximately 60 minutes of actual work over the course of half of a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76). Shift fulfillment: Each half of a meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive meet no later than 5:30 for first half of meet or 7:00 for second half of meet; stand in bullpen prior to your age group’s event; use event roster to confirm all scheduled swimmers are in bullpen; track down wayward swimmers; arrange swimmers in lines based on heats; escort swimmers to starting blocks; help motivate swimmers and comfort any nervous ones.
Clerk of Course
This is good if you: ARE AN EXPERIENCED SWIM TEAM PARENT, are detail-oriented, can work quickly and can stay focused and positive under pressure. Time commitment: Half of a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76). Shift fulfillment: Each half of a meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at meet no later than 5:30 for first half of meet or 7:00 for second half of meet; stand behind blocks; use heat sheet to confirm that correct swimmer is in correct lane before each heat.
Donuts and Ribbon Distribution
This is good if you: like to get up early, would be spending Wednesday mornings at the pool anyway, and like donuts. Time commitment: One trip to the donut shop each Wednesday morning, plus about half an hour after the Wednesday morning pool games. Shift fulfillment: Each Wednesday morning fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Pick up donuts and bring them to pool on Wednesday morning before first practice session is over; hand out donuts and ribbons to swimmers at the end of the Wednesday morning pool games.
Event Turner and Access Control
This is good if you: can stay focused on the races and your surroundings, but you don’t want to have to move around a lot. Time commitment: Half a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76). Shift fulfillment: Each half meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at meet no later than 5:30 for first shift or 7:00 for second shift; keep up with which event and heat is swimming, use remote to advance a display to match current event and heat number, restrict attendees from moving into restricted areas.
Event Writer
This is good if you: are detail-oriented and don’t want to have any responsibilities during the meet. Time commitment: Approximately 45-60 minutes per meet, prior to meet start. Shift fulfillment: Each meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive home meet at 4:30, away meet at 4:45; set up table near swimmer check-in volunteer, write event info on swimmers’ arms and swimmers’ names on their shoulders.
Finish Judge
This is good if you: can stay focused and engaged, have good vision including peripheral vision, and are good at memorizing short sequences of numbers. Time commitment: Half a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76). Shift fulfillment: Each half meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at meet no later than 5:30 for first shift or 7:00 for second shift; watch events from sideline; note and record lane order of finishes.
Hospitality
This is good if you: don’t mind a little running around, but you don’t want to have to be mentally engaged in a task. Time commitment: Half a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76). Shift fulfillment: Each half meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at meet no later than 5:30 for first shift or 7:00 for second shift; keep water iced down; deliver water to timer and judges.
Ice and Water Supply
This is good if you: need a minimal time commitment and don't mind donating a few items to the team. Time commitment: 20 minute grocery run and delivery to the club Shift fulfillment: Each meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Purchase 3 cases of half-liter water bottle and 6 bags of ice and deliver to club during morning practice. Pull cooler from closet and ice down waters.
On-call Volunteer
This is good if you: are a gambler. On-call volunteer may not have to do anything, may run a few limited errands, or may end up with a full shift. Time commitment: Available for a whole meet, but only likely to work intermittently or at most one solid shift. Shift fulfillment: Each meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at meet no later than 5:30, be prepared to run minor errands and/or fill in for missing volunteer.
Parking/Traffic Information
This is good if you: are able to start early (4:15) on the days before a home meet and want to be finished with your job when the meet starts. Time commitment: 1 hour 45 minutes before the meet. Shift fullfilment: Start at with placing the "No Parking this side of street" signs on one side of surrounding streets: Meadowvale, Oakawana, Sundown. Then, stand near the entrance of the club driveway on Meadowvale and offer directions to available parking. Ask drivers to park only on one side of street, and please don't block any driveway or hydrant. Your Goal: provide hospitable assistance to our visitors and help respect our neighbors.
Post-Meet Clean Up (home meets only)
This is good if you: can stay until after a home meet ends. Time commitment: about an hour, including about half an hour as a home meet is coming to an end and another half an hour after the meet. Shift fulfillment: Each meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Clean-up after meet; throw out trash, straighten chairs, put away equipment, etc.
Pre-Meet Set-Up
This is good if you: can commit to being at every meet, can arrive on time, and don't want any responsibilities during the meet. Time commitment: about an hour to an hour per meet, prior to meet start. Shift fulfillment: Each meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at each meet at 4:30; hang bull-pen signs; confirm that all 1st shift bullpen parents have arrived and distribute event rosters to them; perform various other light duties as needed to prepare for start of meet.
Recorder
This is good if you: can stay focused and engaged, are very comfortable with numbers, and are detail-oriented. Time commitment: Half a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76). Shift fulfillment: Each half meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at meet no later than 5:30 for first shift or 7:00 for second shift; collect finish judge’s results and transpose his “lane order of finishes” into a “finish order of lanes.” Sound confusing? It can be, so we need someone who can really manipulate numbers without getting mixed up. Basically, if the finish judge says that the order of finishes was lane 3, lane 4, lane 2, lane 5, lane 1, lane 6, you have to transpose that to a sheet showing that the lanes finished in the following order: fifth, third, first, second, fourth, sixth.
Ribbon Labeler
This is good if you: prefer to work at home rather than at a meet and like to stay up late or get up early. Time commitment: About two hours of work Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. Shift fulfillment: Each week’s ribbon duties fulfill one shift. Responsibilities: Take ribbons and labels home after meet; place correct labels on ribbons; place each swimmer’s ribbons into that swimmer’s ribbon envelope; bring ribbon envelopes and leftover ribbons to swim games on Wednesday morning.
Runner
This is good if you: are up for a little running around, but you don’t want to have to be mentally engaged in a task. Time commitment: Half a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76). Shift fulfillment: Each half meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at meet no later than 5:30 for first shift or 7:00 for second shift; pick up finish results from Judge and deliver to Recorder.
Starter Reset
This is good if you: can stay focused on an easy but repetitive task. Time commitment: Half a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76). Shift fulfillment: Each half meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at meet no later than 5:30 for first shift or 7:00 for second shift; press stop button then reset button on starting system after each heat.
Swimmer Check-in
This is good if you: can arrive on time and don’t want to have any responsibilities during the meet. Time commitment: Approximately 45-60 minutes per meet, prior to meet start. Shift fulfillment: Each meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive home meet at 4:30, away meet at 4:45; stand near entrance with list of swimmers and check them off as they arrive; help track down missing swimmers by looking around pool area and/or calling parents if necessary; deliver list to swim team coordinator.
Timers
This is good if you: can stay focused during chaos, want a great view of the finish line, and don’t mind being on your feet for extended periods. Time commitment: Half a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76). Shift fulfillment: Each half meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive at meet no later than 5:30 for first shift or 7:00 for second shift; stand at finish line and use electronic timer to capture swimmers’ times; record swimmers’ times on finish sheets.
Timer - Head Timer
This is good if you: like the job description for Timers (above) and also don't mind taking on a little extra responsibility to make sure that the timer crew is organized. Time commitment: Half a meet (events 1-38 or 39-76), plus a few extra minutes before the meet and a few extra minutes at the shift change. Shift fulfillment: Each meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive home meets no later than 5:30; confirm arrival of all timers and distribute clipboards and stopwatches to each one; conduct 5-minute timer meeting before meet to confirm that all volunteers are present and know how to use the stopwatches; make sure second shift timers show up to relieve first shift; collect stopwatches and clipboards at end of meet and put away.
Volunteer Check-in
This is good if you: are good at confirming volunteer shifts and don’t want to have lots of responsibilities during the meet. Time commitment: Approximately 60 minutes per meet, prior to meet, plus 10 minutes or so at shift change. Shift fulfillment: Each meet fulfills one shift. Responsibilities: Arrive home meet at 4:30, away meet at 4:45; stand near entrance with list of volunteers and check them off as they arrive; track down missing volunteers by looking around and/or calling if necessary; confirm volunteers are in place at start of meet; confirm 2nd shift volunteers are in place at shift change.
