Families that never volunteer - swim team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there's a chronic volunteer shortage, what's being asked is unreasonable. Overall, it's unreasonable and not sustainable. A complete redo of policy and expectations is the only answer.

There's an expression: you shouldn't lay the sidewalk till you see where people walk

This. Swim team growing up did not have all these unnecessary extras--breakfasts, dinners, snacks, concession stands, you name it.

The life guards and a few parents ran each meet. This happened home and away, so it was just not our pool. Families were able to attend, watch, cheer and enjoy the meets. Everything now is such an overdone ordeal. Thank goodness my kid was not into swim team.

This really isn’t true. I did summer swim growing up and we most definitely had all that stuff. It was a lot of fun for us as kids. Definitely donuts from concessions. Movie night. Pep rallies. There were still 3 timers on each lane, a ref, a starter, 4 stroke and turn judges. Still an announcer, all the table workers, data. None of that has changed in the last several decades. It was awesome and still is. As long as everyone who signs their kid up pitches in.

Of course it is. Perhaps not true in your experience, yet certainly true in mind.
No one needs donuts from concessions. Or concessions during a meet at all. Or weekly breakfasts, movie nights (have the entire pool do movie night as a thought, be more inclusive), and pep rallies. Please.

Concessions is a fundraiser. It's not about needs, it's about money. And, part of the fun of summer swim is the extras.

[Anonymous]

Our team made this really simple:
If you don't fulfill your hours, your kids can't sign up the following year. Once the rule was instituted, volunteer participation skyrocketed.

[Anonymous]

The big question is what do your clubs do when it is your superstars who have parents that can't (or won't) volunteer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a millennial parent and work 2-3 jobs because of the boomers, so I don't have time.

That's understandable, and I am sure since you can't volunteer, you wouldn't sign your kids up to swim.

This is the only answer. The answer cannot be that bc you work a lot, you can’t volunteer, which is an advertised requirement for your kid to participate), yet you still sign your kid up. The woman who cleans my home volunteered for an NVSL team every meet, despite working 12+ hour days most days 30 years ago…so her child could have the experience. If she can do it, everyone can.

As someone who volunteers every swim meet (often both spouses, our kids are all old enough to not need childcare), and volunteers for special events, and does support work outside of meets and events ... and holds volunteer leadership positions in other kids activities ... this attitude makes me really sad. I mean, we need the same number of volunteers for every event, 3 timers per lane, etc. If Suzy's parents can't volunteer, it really doesn't change the workload for me whether Suzy is on the team or not. How does it help the team to prevent her from joining? All you're doing is punishing a kid for her parents' inability/unwillingness/whatever, and limiting the growth of the team. It's better for all of the kids to include as many people on the team as we can. You guys are making this too much about the parents and losing sight of the kids, why we're doing it in the first place.

I'm a team rep and there's a difference between families who can't volunteer and those who think they're too special to volunteer. Mom with multiple kids and dad is deployed? I'm not going to get on their case. Family with multiple kids swimming and both parents sit in the spectator area so they can video and cheer? Damn right I'm going to assign them jobs.

I don't want to deprive kids of an opportunity because their parents are jacka$$es, but sometimes people stop being jacka$$es only once they realize that their behavior is impacting their kids.

PP here. I have no issue whatsoever with the team rep assigning jobs to those who can do them, even if they would prefer not to! I get that. I'm just responding to the statements that parents who can't volunteer for whatever reason need to pull their kids from the team. That seems unnecessarily punitive.

Thanks for all you do - I volunteer a lot, but it's nothing compared to our team rep! That's a huge job.

I don't think people are saying that. People are saying that if a family really has a reason why they can't do anything, their team tends to step up. I'm the PP who had the kid on chemo. People stepped up for us. I'm also the PP who has stepped up for plenty of other people.

But when people are saying "I'm not willing to have any flexibility, or even explore the possibility that there is something I can do", and the reason they "can't" is something like "I have a job" or "I have a four year old" that applies to lots of families who do volunteer. Or when a family is saying "I just don't like to volunteer", then yes, that's a sign that maybe another athletic activity is better for your family.

[Anonymous]

I thought of this post when I saw a woman wear a baby while timing a meet tonight. I love a good problem solver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did the book and web page for our team. How would you know?

What is “the book”?

$

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The big question is what do your clubs do when it is your superstars who have parents that can't (or won't) volunteer?

I can’t speak for other pools, but it’s a non issue at our pool. Those are typically the parents who volunteer the most. They’re the team reps, the refs, the stroke and turn judges and the data coordinators. They volunteer at A meets, divisionals and and all stars. A few are even on the pool board (in addition to doing the above mentioned jobs). They pull their weight…and then some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big question is what do your clubs do when it is your superstars who have parents that can't (or won't) volunteer?

I can’t speak for other pools, but it’s a non issue at our pool. Those are typically the parents who volunteer the most. They’re the team reps, the refs, the stroke and turn judges and the data coordinators. They volunteer at A meets, divisionals and and all stars. A few are even on the pool board (in addition to doing the above mentioned jobs). They pull their weight…and then some.

Our team too. They are most definitely not the problem. They constantly are stepping up when we are short volunteers and are typically also reg, s & t judges etc.

Our team added 60 new members this year - yet I’m getting more emails begging for volunteers. They dropped our job requirement this year based on the additional members but can’t fill the slots. It’s easy to figure out it’s the new ppl not pulling their weight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The big question is what do your clubs do when it is your superstars who have parents that can't (or won't) volunteer?

From what I’ve seen at a few of our local pools, these are the parents that are typically volunteering. They are the reps, banquet coordinators, automation and ribbon writers. But if your pool is having trouble with getting your “superstar” swimmer’s parents to volunteer, then absolutely take the same approach with them as you would any other family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there's a chronic volunteer shortage, what's being asked is unreasonable. Overall, it's unreasonable and not sustainable. A complete redo of policy and expectations is the only answer.

There's an expression: you shouldn't lay the sidewalk till you see where people walk

This. Swim team growing up did not have all these unnecessary extras--breakfasts, dinners, snacks, concession stands, you name it.

The life guards and a few parents ran each meet. This happened home and away, so it was just not our pool. Families were able to attend, watch, cheer and enjoy the meets. Everything now is such an overdone ordeal. Thank goodness my kid was not into swim team.

This really isn’t true. I did summer swim growing up and we most definitely had all that stuff. It was a lot of fun for us as kids. Definitely donuts from concessions. Movie night. Pep rallies. There were still 3 timers on each lane, a ref, a starter, 4 stroke and turn judges. Still an announcer, all the table workers, data. None of that has changed in the last several decades. It was awesome and still is. As long as everyone who signs their kid up pitches in.

DP and I grew up in this area back in the 70s/80s and the poster who said this stuff wasn't happening is correct. We had almost all SAHM in the neighborhood btw

Breakfast - nope. I think once someone brought doughnuts. But that was an exception not the rule.
Concession stands - occasionally, a pool had one or some parents sold stuff during the meet but it was not the norm at all. Our pool had a concession stand but it was rarely open for meets bc most of the kids who worked at it were swimming in the meet. Parents didn't feel the need to step in and work the concession stand. They sat on the deck in chairs watching.
Dinner - nope. had to bring your own
Snacks - nope. had to bring your own, Fun Dip was popular to bring and some people just brought powdered jello and used their fingers.

Ok - you’re definitely older. By the late eighties/nineties this was definitely the norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The big question is what do your clubs do when it is your superstars who have parents that can't (or won't) volunteer?

It turns out our team is very well run - and I didn’t know any other way. We are run by a real expert and there’s a real culture of volunteering and a system of coordination to help people find unique ways to help too, if people need it. It helps that we are a giant team - many hands make light work.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how it is in DC, I moved before my kids were school-aged, but

Where I am there are a LOT of SAHMs (and not dads, so I am purposely not saying SAHPs) and I really feel like many of them do make-work programs. Which is fine. But what I do NOT like is when their make work programs get foisted on me.

Now, in swimming, many of these jobs actually ARE essential, so it may not apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our swim team rep knows the parents and what they can and cannot do and will work it out with them. Still much easier to have everyone assigned a task vs. the sign up genius or what ever method works.

No, it's not much easier. I'm a team rep. Assigning people means more time for the team reps tracking people down. Not using whatever method your team uses to let the coach know your kid is available to swim means more time for the coach to find you and ask if your kid is available for a meet. We use SwimTopia. It takes less than a minute for you to mark your kid and choose a job.

One-offs, that's no big deal and it happens to everyone that you forget. For a team rep or coach doing this for a team of 150, 200, 250 kids that's a lot of additional effort if lots of families aren't bothering to sign themselves or their kids up. By not simply signing up yourself your attitude is that you don't care about anyone else's time but your own. Don't be a jerk, if they ask for volunteers just sign up.

[Anonymous]

I didn't read the entire thread so I'm sure this has already been brought up, but on our team, we have a points system, where every family has to achieve a certain number of volunteer points, which is based on the number of swimmers on the team. Each volunteer position is worth a certain number of points. We sign up for volunteer positions through the SwimTopia app. Overall I think it works really well. We have a big team so my husband I and don't have to volunteer for every meet and we have no problem getting all of our points - we usually get way more than is required because we do announcing and stroke and turn. My sister's team is really small, and she says she and her husband both have to volunteer for literally every meet, which would be a big pain IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our swim team rep knows the parents and what they can and cannot do and will work it out with them. Still much easier to have everyone assigned a task vs. the sign up genius or what ever method works.

No, it's not much easier. I'm a team rep. Assigning people means more time for the team reps tracking people down. Not using whatever method your team uses to let the coach know your kid is available to swim means more time for the coach to find you and ask if your kid is available for a meet. We use SwimTopia. It takes less than a minute for you to mark your kid and choose a job.

One-offs, that's no big deal and it happens to everyone that you forget. For a team rep or coach doing this for a team of 150, 200, 250 kids that's a lot of additional effort if lots of families aren't bothering to sign themselves or their kids up. By not simply signing up yourself your attitude is that you don't care about anyone else's time but your own. Don't be a jerk, if they ask for volunteers just sign up.

This! Also a team rep for a 200+ person team and I agree with everything above. I work a full time job and have multiple kids. Volunteering as a team rep is just something I do to help out. No one has time to track down all these families to see which meets they are swimming and which meets they are able to volunteer. Simply sign up in SwimTopia/TeamUnify the same time you sign into a meet. It is much easier to track down the (very few!) families that don't sign up than the headache to try and hunt people down and figure out availability or worse, assign people and then have them not show up.