lack of volunteers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our team sends a weekly spreadsheet to the entire team that includes each family’s volunteer hour requirement, the jobs they worked, along with the hours earned for each of those jobs.

If you fail to earn your required hours then the credit card you put on file during registration is automatically charged $500. If a second summer passes with you failing to volunteer, you are charged again and you can’t register your kid to swim the following summer.

This doesn't solve the problem of it being 5pm on a Monday and not having enough timers to start the meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not signing my kids up for swim team - so saying I don't respect an activity that somehow needs 36 parent volunteers to run a swim meet -- that's just information in case you'd like to know -- you all sound crazy needing so many volunteers.

If the system doesn't work -- change it.

You are stupid and do not understand the sport. It takes many volunteers because it is a time based sport and there are a lot of competitors and a lot of moving parts. For example: If there are not people helping line the kids up for their heats, the meet would take 3x as long due to long pauses between heats while everyone waited for kids to get to their spots. If there were only one timer per lane, some kids wouldn’t get a result if the stopwatch were to malfunction. Having two timers (one from each team) also reduces potential bias. If there weren’t runners grabbing the time cards after each event and taking them to the results table, the timers would have to do it, thus leading to a delay before the next heat.

These are just a few examples. The number of volunteers is the reason the meets aren’t even longer. If your pea brain can’t grasp that, don’t sign up for swim team. Nobody wants you there with your attitude.

Maybe the move is to purchase electronic timers. Charge the parents and tell them they no longer have to volunteer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not signing my kids up for swim team - so saying I don't respect an activity that somehow needs 36 parent volunteers to run a swim meet -- that's just information in case you'd like to know -- you all sound crazy needing so many volunteers.

If the system doesn't work -- change it.

You are stupid and do not understand the sport. It takes many volunteers because it is a time based sport and there are a lot of competitors and a lot of moving parts. For example: If there are not people helping line the kids up for their heats, the meet would take 3x as long due to long pauses between heats while everyone waited for kids to get to their spots. If there were only one timer per lane, some kids wouldn’t get a result if the stopwatch were to malfunction. Having two timers (one from each team) also reduces potential bias. If there weren’t runners grabbing the time cards after each event and taking them to the results table, the timers would have to do it, thus leading to a delay before the next heat.

These are just a few examples. The number of volunteers is the reason the meets aren’t even longer. If your pea brain can’t grasp that, don’t sign up for swim team. Nobody wants you there with your attitude.

Maybe the move is to purchase electronic timers. Charge the parents and tell them they no longer have to volunteer.

As a parent who picked summer swim in part because of the valuable opportunity for me to show my kids how teamwork works, but mostly because it’s what I can afford, this doesn’t seem like a solution.

If you want to pay a lot of money for your kid to do an activity with no involvement from you, go for it! There are so many options for camps and other programs that do just that. As someone who can’t afford those options, I am not asking they change to accommodate me. All I am asking is that you don’t demand that the activity that works for my family change for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a lot of people invested in the status quo rather than finding solutions to address the lack of volunteers.

The solution is the moochers stop signing up. Problem solved.

Exactly- this is not an issue unique to swimmers or even sports. We raised a generation of individuals who received trophies for not even showing up, and were coddled and praised all the way through college and beyond. These individuals are now parents and think everyone is there to serve them while they do squat.

When people decide to have children they used to recognize it came with making sacrifices, whether it’s making less money for a more family friendly job, or not participating in activities you can’t fully commit to.

Parents who think it’s okay to disengage while other parents pick up their volunteer jobs are entitled a-holz.

That’s interesting, and I had not thought about volunteer demographics until you wrote this. Our team’s highest level volunteers (reps and officials) are largely GenX, with some older millennials woven in. We are a big (but not huge) top division team, and the officials/reps are mostly older than 45 years old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are no consequences on our team if you don’t volunteer. Reps are of the mentality that is not the kids fault if they have crappy parents so kids still swim A meets.

Our team reps have not created an environment that makes it fun for parents. It’s very cliquish.

We are is middle division team and parents are mean. They exclude people and it makes them not care. It’s not inclusive.

We were a fun team 3 years ago but things change with new reps. What can you do.

This is exactly the situation on our team too. There is a volunteer requirement but if you don’t meet it, you get an email asking you to volunteer. So there are families who just never bother. Coupled with the fact that there is an “in group” of parents who run everything and make others feel like they are not wanted or welcome, and there’s no motivation to volunteer. We’re about to start our 15th season on the team and we’ve gone from volunteering at every meet to getting our required hours in and moving on.

[Anonymous]

Because my child is the swimmer. I am not. I have many other things to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because my child is the swimmer. I am not. I have many other things to do.

So you drop your child at the meet and then leave to attend to the many other things you have to do? No, I’m guessing you’re there watching your child swim but feel like you are too important to help out. In case you were wondering, you are the a$$ h0le.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because my child is the swimmer. I am not. I have many other things to do.

So you drop your child at the meet and then leave to attend to the many other things you have to do? No, I’m guessing you’re there watching your child swim but feel like you are too important to help out. In case you were wondering, you are the a$$ h0le.

Calling people names? And you wonder why parents don’t want to volunteer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because my child is the swimmer. I am not. I have many other things to do.

So you drop your child at the meet and then leave to attend to the many other things you have to do? No, I’m guessing you’re there watching your child swim but feel like you are too important to help out. In case you were wondering, you are the a$$ h0le.

Calling people names? And you wonder why parents don’t want to volunteer.

When you tell people that you’re too important to deign to volunteer expect others to call you out on who and what you are. News flash, you aren’t that important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because my child is the swimmer. I am not. I have many other things to do.

Were you not aware that signing your child up for swimming came with a volunteer component? Do you just not care?

I knew what my responsibility was before kids were signed up for anything. As a single mom working full time I didn't always have the capacity for volunteering. Ds didn't do those activities. I wasn't about to dump my responsibility on someone else.

Op, the PP is a good example of why you can't get enough volunteers. Those expectations need to be made clear at registration. X number of hours doing "these" activities, per child.

[Anonymous]

The PP is the reason we will not allow a kid to continue on the team if the parents continually refuse to volunteer. The PPs attitude is also the reason I care not at all if that policy punishes the kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they don't want to. Good for them for valuing their free time.

Sure. Just don't put your kids in activities that need parent volunteers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The PP is the reason we will not allow a kid to continue on the team if the parents continually refuse to volunteer. The PPs attitude is also the reason I care not at all if that policy punishes the kid.

Absolutely. Same here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because my child is the swimmer. I am not. I have many other things to do.

What do you do during the meets?

[Anonymous]

No volunteer. No swim. Easy.