Freeloading swim team parents suck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does it take 40 volunteers to run a swim meet?

Yes, it's just summer swim that is supposed to be fun for kids but the rules are followed very seriously. NVSL (which is where my kids swim) wants to make sure that the time that a kid swims is the correct time and is entered correctly into the computer. Also, they want to ensure that swimmers are swimming the strokes "legally." There are multiple "eyes" (multiple checks and balances) to make sure both occur.

Here's way more information than you asked for!

The largest number of people are timers. 6 lines, 3 timers per lane = 18 timers. At B meets, at our pool, they ask for 1st half timers and 2nd half timers so the timers aren't standing in the heat for 3 hours. So right there, you have 36 people. You also have a "Head Timer." That's the person that usually has 3 stop watches around their neck so in case someone's stopwatch isn't working, you can ask the head timer for their time. At our pool, our head timer is one of the 18 timers, but other pools may have a separate head timer so 19 people total.

Referee - this is the head person who stands next to the starter. They are the main person in charge of the meet.
Starter - 2nd in charge. The one who blows the whistle.

Stroke & Turn Judges - 4 individuals. Two on each side of the pool. They make sure the kids are swimming the strokes legally.

Clerk of Course - the person who "herds" all the kids and gets them into the correct lanes.
Assistant Clerk of Course - again, a second person to assist with getting the swimmers to the correct spots.

So the officials around the deck count for 26 (plus 18 if you have second half timers.)

Then you have the Table, which can run with 7 people but ideally should have 10:
Announcer
Data entry - the person who enters the times into the computer.
Reader - the person who reads the times to the individual entering the times
Verifier - one from each team - they verify that the times entered into the computer match the time cards
Place Recorder - 1 from each team. They make sure the middle time was circled on the time cards and they put the cards in place order.
Ribbons - each team usually supplies 1 person to make sure the ribbons get labels and they get back to the home team. This is not a taxing job so can be done by 1 person.
Head Table Person - individual to make sure everything is working at the table. Again, your head table person may also be doing ribbons.

Concessions - our pool usually has 4 people who work concessions.
Marshall - this is the person who makes sure spectators are quiet at the start and keep non-swimmers out of the swimmer areas and spectators out of the officials areas. Depending on the layout of the pool, you probably have 2 or more marshalls.

Parking Lot Marshall - our pool gets someone to assist with parking at the beginning of the meet.

That's where your 40 people come from!

add at least another 10 to that for set up and take down. Someone has to build the tents, rearrange the deck, set up the concessions area and then put it away when the meet is over

[Anonymous]

I'm guilty. And if I really cared about swim team, I'd feel guilty. But I don't, so I don't. I signed up for free swim practice and regular exercise, and we rarely go to meets. I look at it as my kid gets practice, I give you lots of money to fund the rest of your team. If they didn't want us, they could kick us off. I'll just find another team, so it really doesn't matter either way to me.

[Anonymous]

Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

It's a rule, so the times will be valid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm guilty. And if I really cared about swim team, I'd feel guilty. But I don't, so I don't. I signed up for free swim practice and regular exercise, and we rarely go to meets. I look at it as my kid gets practice, I give you lots of money to fund the rest of your team. If they didn't want us, they could kick us off. I'll just find another team, so it really doesn't matter either way to me.

I don't get your POV. You sign up for swim team and pay. Do you think you are only paying for the meets? How is practice "free" if you paid? They use the money from swim team fees to pay the coaches working at the practice. You give "lots of money"---are you donating hundreds of dollars on top of the registration fee? And you go from team to team every season to avoid volunteering?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

It's a rule, so the times will be valid.

I time, and do all my hours, but to me this is an example of how sometimes we as parents make work and then act like martyrs. My seven year old swimming in a B meet does not need 3 timers, because it really actually does not matter if her times are valid. It's taking something fun and healthy and adding a level of competition and seriousness that isn't needed.

[Anonymous]

I'm fascinated by the people not movtivated at all by shame. If our whole neighborhood knew our family cheated on volunteer hours, I would be mortified. People really don't care at all that everyone will know they basically stole from the swim team by not volunteering? Everyone gossips about the scofflaws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

It's a rule, so the times will be valid.

PP here. Interesting. Do they average the three times together or something? Just imagining 3 adults crowding around a lane watching a tiny child touch the wall.

I was a swimmer growing up. A decent one who swam in high school state finals and had an excellent summer swim team. One timer per lane was all we needed. I guess the times (no pun intended) have really changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

It's a rule, so the times will be valid.

I time, and do all my hours, but to me this is an example of how sometimes we as parents make work and then act like martyrs. My seven year old swimming in a B meet does not need 3 timers, because it really actually does not matter if her times are valid. It's taking something fun and healthy and adding a level of competition and seriousness that isn't needed.

Its the league rules. "We as parents" did not randomly decide we needed 3 timers per lane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

It's a rule, so the times will be valid.

PP here. Interesting. Do they average the three times together or something? Just imagining 3 adults crowding around a lane watching a tiny child touch the wall.

I was a swimmer growing up. A decent one who swam in high school state finals and had an excellent summer swim team. One timer per lane was all we needed. I guess the times (no pun intended) have really changed.

the difference between divisionsals and not going to divisionals and then all stars vs not going to Allstars comes down to fractions of a second. If volunteering is too big an ask, there are tons of other sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

It's a rule, so the times will be valid.

I time, and do all my hours, but to me this is an example of how sometimes we as parents make work and then act like martyrs. My seven year old swimming in a B meet does not need 3 timers, because it really actually does not matter if her times are valid. It's taking something fun and healthy and adding a level of competition and seriousness that isn't needed.

Its the league rules. "We as parents" did not randomly decide we needed 3 timers per lane.

The league isn't run by parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is sadly probably a working parent issue. Swim team was historically only SAHM because of practice times, but now with more telework you are getting more working parents.

But working parents would VASTLY prefer to pay hire fees and simply hire refs and timers and upgrade equipment than squander their limited non-work hours doing swim martyr duty.

Cultural divide.

The opt out fee would be insanely expensive, though. Our pool had ten lanes. That's thirty timers for every A and B meet.

There are hundreds of team members. You are talking probably $100 a summer. 100% of working parents would pay that to free their weekends. Most SAHM can afford because they have breadwinner (hence why they don’t work)

umm- I'm a working parent. An extremely hard working parent. Volunteering at meets my kids are swimming in is not hard- its fun. I would never pay an opt out fee to avoid volunteering. I'm at the meet- might as well volunteer.

I'm one of the working parents who signed a kid up for swim team for the first time this year. Maybe I'm the problem? I don't know. I can volunteer for things that start after 6pm. While I'm teleworking, I can be around during the day, but I'll the one working on my laptop from the pavilion at 9:30 every morning while my kid practices. Arriving at 4:30 for the "officials meeting" then sitting at the table for an hour waiting for the meet to start isn't going to work. So I sign up for jobs that don't require that, but they are few and far between.

I think you'd have a lot more volunteers if you were willing to accommodate various schedules. I've done some 'split shifts' with SAH parents of young kids who want to arrive at 4:30 and leave when their 6yo finishes at 7pm - I take over then - but some volunteer organizers get annoyed at having swap-outs halfway through the meet. How many more volunteers would you get if people could sign up for either a 4:30-7 shift or a 6:30-9:30? SAH parents of younger kids would take the former, working parents of older kids would take the latter. Parents who can stay all night could continue to do so, but at least they'd have some help from those who can't.

for us you could volunteer for meet take down or for concessions shifts. For very large B meets (we're a big team and we do one B meet with another local pool that is also very large), timers officials and judges are also in shifts. Reach out to your team reps- especially if you have older ones- some don't realize that working parents want to volunteer.

There aren't 10 lanes of swimmers at an A meet. There are 6, regardless if you have 10 lanes or 6. Your team may swim all 10 lanes at B meets, which does mean more timers, it also means your meets move much faster than most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

It's a rule, so the times will be valid.

PP here. Interesting. Do they average the three times together or something? Just imagining 3 adults crowding around a lane watching a tiny child touch the wall.

I was a swimmer growing up. A decent one who swam in high school state finals and had an excellent summer swim team. One timer per lane was all we needed. I guess the times (no pun intended) have really changed.

the difference between divisionsals and not going to divisionals and then all stars vs not going to Allstars comes down to fractions of a second. If volunteering is too big an ask, there are tons of other sports.

Interesting. Agree with he suggestion that perhaps the B meets only need one timer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

It's a rule, so the times will be valid.

PP here. Interesting. Do they average the three times together or something? Just imagining 3 adults crowding around a lane watching a tiny child touch the wall.

I was a swimmer growing up. A decent one who swam in high school state finals and had an excellent summer swim team. One timer per lane was all we needed. I guess the times (no pun intended) have really changed.

the difference between divisionsals and not going to divisionals and then all stars vs not going to Allstars comes down to fractions of a second. If volunteering is too big an ask, there are tons of other sports.

Interesting. Agree with he suggestion that perhaps the B meets only need one timer?

B meets can set times that teams use to decide divisional swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are there 3 timers per lane? Why won’t one suffice?

It's a rule, so the times will be valid.

PP here. Interesting. Do they average the three times together or something? Just imagining 3 adults crowding around a lane watching a tiny child touch the wall.

I was a swimmer growing up. A decent one who swam in high school state finals and had an excellent summer swim team. One timer per lane was all we needed. I guess the times (no pun intended) have really changed.

the difference between divisionsals and not going to divisionals and then all stars vs not going to Allstars comes down to fractions of a second. If volunteering is too big an ask, there are tons of other sports.

No need to get defensive! I don’t have children who swim so was genuinely curious about it all. My children play other sports which also require volunteering so I get the need for it and how some families don’t contribute. And I get how this are is competitive; in Little League, it’s like you need to play travel ball just to be able to compete.