Does your team have trouble keeping B meet partners (NVSL)

[Anonymous]

So for three years running our team has not been able to keep B meet partners. We also only manage to get four when I am now realizing most teams have five B meets. For example from last year to this year, we have kept only one B meet partner. We are still relatively new to summer swim, but is this normal? The other nearby pool seems more consistent with their schedule (we are on a few other waitlists because of vibes at time at our current pool).

If you are not in a B meet league, do you keep your partners? What reasons do you not?

[Anonymous]

Is your team very large or very intense? I know our pool has turned down teams in division 1 to do a B meet because the vibe is so different (and I think they also have a huge team).

[Anonymous]

We ditched a long time B meet partner after they showed up two years in a row without enough volunteers, much less sufficiently experienced volunteers (think total newbie as “chief” in clerk of course when both teams are huge). It was unfair to our parents to ask them to cover 75% of the volunteer roles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is your team very large or very intense? I know our pool has turned down teams in division 1 to do a B meet because the vibe is so different (and I think they also have a huge team).

I think we are between 140-150 swimmer and top third of the league. So not a lot of us.

I don't feel like we are intense but I don't know what to base that off of either, no frame or reference.

[Anonymous]

So there is a team in our area that pretty much all of its B meet partners and a specialty meet dropped.

The reason was the same from the other teams. This team was not really nice and they were very disorganized.

The other teams were all using or beginning to embrace Meet Maestro and they refused to do so for the B meet, even though it would make it move faster. They differentiated their volunteers to either A meet volunteers or B meet volunteers. So their B meet volunteers did not know meets could move faster seeded.

When they were guests their team would trash their team area and just leave. When we were visitors they would put our team in a terrible area with no room and put themselves in a space with way too much room.

Their volunteers/officials just were not nice. And after a few years of just being crapped on , all the teams dumped them at once. I think one team took them back but the rest of us have found better partners and maintained them.

[Anonymous]

Most years we keep all of our partners from year to year. We had one team get new reps and not understand you hold certain weekends for certain teams and booked on our weekend. So that has messed us up the past two years but I think we might be stable now with our five B meet partners.

A lot of teams cannot maintain five B meet partners and do an intrasquad meet for one of them. I find that crappy for the B meet swimmers.

[Anonymous]

We typically have the same B meet partners form year to year but it occasionally changes if a partner did something that lacked sportsmanship.

[Anonymous]

If you are losing partners every year than likely you are the problem. You are not sportsmanlike or not treating your partners well.

That is something your team rep and coaches should be working on, to improve your athletes and families behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So there is a team in our area that pretty much all of its B meet partners and a specialty meet dropped.

The reason was the same from the other teams. This team was not really nice and they were very disorganized.

The other teams were all using or beginning to embrace Meet Maestro and they refused to do so for the B meet, even though it would make it move faster. They differentiated their volunteers to either A meet volunteers or B meet volunteers. So their B meet volunteers did not know meets could move faster seeded.

When they were guests their team would trash their team area and just leave. When we were visitors they would put our team in a terrible area with no room and put themselves in a space with way too much room.

Their volunteers/officials just were not nice. And after a few years of just being crapped on , all the teams dumped them at once. I think one team took them back but the rest of us have found better partners and maintained them.

Seeding meets on the fly is such a pain though. And if teams are disorganized, you are definitely doing it on the fly.
-clerk of course

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We typically have the same B meet partners form year to year but it occasionally changes if a partner did something that lacked sportsmanship.

Same. We have a nearby pool that each of the last 4 team reps (of which I was one) have scheduled for a B meet their first year, and each time it has been one-and-done b/c they are so difficult to deal with.

I will tell you, as a former team rep, that there is almost nothing as stress-inducing over the off-season as trying to find a new B Meet partner (other than trying to find a coach), so team reps (IMO) are not looking to change their B Meet calendar. If your B Meet calendar has lots of turnover, your Rep/Coach/Club may want to ask "AITA?".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We typically have the same B meet partners form year to year but it occasionally changes if a partner did something that lacked sportsmanship.

Same. We have a nearby pool that each of the last 4 team reps (of which I was one) have scheduled for a B meet their first year, and each time it has been one-and-done b/c they are so difficult to deal with.

I will tell you, as a former team rep, that there is almost nothing as stress-inducing over the off-season as trying to find a new B Meet partner (other than trying to find a coach), so team reps (IMO) are not looking to change their B Meet calendar. If your B Meet calendar has lots of turnover, your Rep/Coach/Club may want to ask "AITA?".

Not having a b meet partner is the worse. And you will keep some meh partners to not stress. But if you have different partners every year there is an issue.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if you are at our pool. I just realized for the past few years we have had very little continuity with B meet partners.

[Anonymous]

Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

[Anonymous]

We are part of a long-standing B meet "league" and still only have three B meets per summer - and that's if none get stormed out. I honestly feel like this contributes to our lack of a 'pipeline' of swimmers - kids who aren't the fastest get too few chances to feel like part of the team (or improve their position on the ladder). Our junior coaches don't even lead cheers at B meets