Meet Volunteers: Job Descriptions
Because a swim team is run by volunteers—with the exception of a highly qualified, paid coaching staff—parent participation is essential for the community swim team. The Sailfish Swim Team must furnish volunteers for both home and away meets, although more volunteers are required to host a home meet.
ALL families are required to volunteer during the swim season for a sum of 5 points. Failing to meet the volunteer agreement will hinder your swimmer from competing in Champs and / or will restrict registration for future swim seasons. If you have a schedule conflict or must be absent, it is up to you to schedule a replacement. It is also up to you to contact the Volunteer Coordinator making them aware of the current changes.
Not sure where to Volunteer?
- Have small children? Ribbon labeler or Concessions
- Enjoy being a part of the action? Timer, Heat Ribbons, Runner, Ready Bench, or Head Timer, Meet Marshall, Photographer (must have own camera)
- Have experience with swim meets and or officiating? Starter or Stroke and Turn Judge (training required.)
- Behind the Scenes? Meet Set up or Tear down crew,
Volunteer Opportunities
- Concessions (home meets only): will be in charge of taking money and running operations of the concessions during the meet
- Volunteer Coordinator: Ensures all volunteer positions are filled before the day of the meet and at the meet. A recruiter of sorts.
- Head Timer (home meets only): Gives the timer's instructions. Sits by the Starter during the meet with a manual stopwatch to time the slowest swimmer in each heat. Writes the swimmer's time down on the heat sheet in case of a timing malfunction. Reminds the Starter to press the RESET button at the end of each heat.
- Timers (3 per lane): Times swimmers at the end of the pool with stopwatch and presses "stop" button when the swimmer touches the wall.
- Runner (home meets only): Picks up DQ slips from judges, ref & starter and periodically delivers to scorekeepers. Picks up completed lane timer sheets from all lanes after the sheet is completed and delivers to scorekeepers in a timely manner.
- Ready Bench: Calls out names to get swimmers in the correct order and placement in the team's ready bench area according to their event/heat/lane #.
- Meet Marshal: Checks to make sure all swimmers are in their correct lanes after they leave the ready bench and prior to getting on the blocks.
- Stroke & Turn Judges: Stands poolside and watches for swim stroke infractions. Requires easy training at a 2 hour league run free clinic to learn the current league & swim stroke rules. Great for people with competitive swim experience, but ANYONE can be taught at a free league clinic.
- Starter: In charge of announcing events in order and starting each race with a buzzard.
- Scorekeeper Helper: Assists the scorekeeper in marking average times
- Labeling Ribbons: Gets the ribbon labels from the scorekeepers during the second half of the meet which are printed off, sorts ribbons by teams and gives to either coaches or team manager at the end of the meet.
- Miscellaneous jobs: will be posted from time to time based on when they become available during the season that are not swim meet related.
