lack of volunteers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I belong to a pool that has a swim team.

My kids dont swim on the team.

These swim team parents can be nuts. There are women who get very invested in being swim team mom and make it their lives and want it to be everyone else's lives as well. I hear them talking at the pool and see requests for volunteers, etc. Someone even asked ME to volunteer once, and tried to make me feel guilty about saying no!! When I don't have a kid on the team!

Here's the thing. A lot of these "MUST" volunteer activities are BS. You don't need a snack bar. You don't need snacks. If you think your kid is going to be hungry, bring snacks for them. You don't need to make damn gift bags for a swim banquet. You don't need a crafts table. Furthermore, I see parents doing jobs teenagers could do. Why aren't the teenagers out stacking and unstacking the chairs, for example?

Parents need to streamline the volunteer duties down to the absolute necessities. Don't ask people to spend their time doing stupid BS like gift bags.

People are going to hate on this because you don’t have a kid on the team, but you make legitimate points that maybe people in the thick of it can’t see. There are definitely extraneous volunteer positions, outside of deck positions at meets, that you can do without. The point about the set up and take down of meets being handled by teens is a legitimate one. For the people that want to pay to outsource their volunteer requirements it would be pretty easy to recruit teens to do some roles for pay (set up and take down of meets, timing at a meet they aren’t swimming in). One of the problems is people with the mindset of “it’s always been done this way so this is what we are doing” and an unwillingness to explore other ways of doing things.

Sure, but the people you’re asking to change their mindsets are also volunteers themselves. People complain about the excessive volunteering while also complaining that the volunteers in charge won’t do more volunteer work to change the system. See the irony?

I actually don’t. Considering ideas being advanced by other people doesn’t make you a martyr.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand the how people can complain about volunteering, complain about the volunteers and how they do/don’t do things, and also complain about how much sports like swim team cost.

[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.

That’s the thing- this isn’t unique to swim. Every year our rec sports league is begging for parents to volunteer to coach. And that’s only 2 parents needed for a dozen kids or so.

DP. Yes it is. You really can’t see the difference between needing 2 volunteers to coach a rec team or be team managers in other sports and the roughly 20-25 (or more) volunteers needed at EACH swim meet?? Another difference is that your kid won’t get kicked off the rec team if you don’t volunteer to coach, yet you are fine kicking kids off the swim team if their parents don’t volunteer. Should we presume that you are volunteering for every single sport and activity your kids do since you feel so strongly about it?

PP is right that all of you sound crazy advocating for a system that clearly isn’t working any longer. There have been suggestions on this thread about how to address this and every single one got shot down essentially because “that’s just not how it is.”

If you’re against it stop signing up. Or go play the sports where some other suckers will sign up to be coach and assistant coach. But if those teams asked each parent to take a turn coaching for a week, and you just didn’t do your turn, that makes you the jerk.

[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.

That’s the thing- this isn’t unique to swim. Every year our rec sports league is begging for parents to volunteer to coach. And that’s only 2 parents needed for a dozen kids or so.

DP. Yes it is. You really can’t see the difference between needing 2 volunteers to coach a rec team or be team managers in other sports and the roughly 20-25 (or more) volunteers needed at EACH swim meet?? Another difference is that your kid won’t get kicked off the rec team if you don’t volunteer to coach, yet you are fine kicking kids off the swim team if their parents don’t volunteer. Should we presume that you are volunteering for every single sport and activity your kids do since you feel so strongly about it?

PP is right that all of you sound crazy advocating for a system that clearly isn’t working any longer. There have been suggestions on this thread about how to address this and every single one got shot down essentially because “that’s just not how it is.”

DP, the difference with swim is the number of essential volunteer positions to run a meet. You cannot run a meet without timers, officials, a clerk of course and automation. It is what it is. There definitely are ways to lessen the load for each family like splitting shifts on large teams, letting teens volunteer to fill slots for pay, etc., but there are far more than 2 volunteers needed to run a meet. The other thing is you are presumably at this meet to watch your kid, so why can’t you pick up a stopwatch for half the meet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That’s the thing- this isn’t unique to swim. Every year our rec sports league is begging for parents to volunteer to coach. And that’s only 2 parents needed for a dozen kids or so.

DP. Yes it is. You really can’t see the difference between needing 2 volunteers to coach a rec team or be team managers in other sports and the roughly 20-25 (or more) volunteers needed at EACH swim meet?? Another difference is that your kid won’t get kicked off the rec team if you don’t volunteer to coach, yet you are fine kicking kids off the swim team if their parents don’t volunteer. Should we presume that you are volunteering for every single sport and activity your kids do since you feel so strongly about it?

PP is right that all of you sound crazy advocating for a system that clearly isn’t working any longer. There have been suggestions on this thread about how to address this and every single one got shot down essentially because “that’s just not how it is.”

If you’re against it stop signing up. Or go play the sports where some other suckers will sign up to be coach and assistant coach. But if those teams asked each parent to take a turn coaching for a week, and you just didn’t do your turn, that makes you the jerk.

Again with the name calling! I guess when you don’t have a substantive response, that’s your best retort along with “then just quit.” And not that it’ll matter, but we actually do volunteer for our kids’ sports teams, at school and for other activities. Some of these roles are pretty time consuming. Our experience in all of these other areas is how I know there’s a better way to handle volunteers here. You clearly don’t want to listen. Have fun wrangling the parents again this summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and yet summer swim team is treated AS IF it were the Olympics. It's suppose to be fun, a fun neighborhood activity. Precise timing is not necessary

Umm, of course it is! No, it’s not the Olympics but of course you need precise times!

[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.

That’s the thing- this isn’t unique to swim. Every year our rec sports league is begging for parents to volunteer to coach. And that’s only 2 parents needed for a dozen kids or so.

DP. Yes it is. You really can’t see the difference between needing 2 volunteers to coach a rec team or be team managers in other sports and the roughly 20-25 (or more) volunteers needed at EACH swim meet?? Another difference is that your kid won’t get kicked off the rec team if you don’t volunteer to coach, yet you are fine kicking kids off the swim team if their parents don’t volunteer. Should we presume that you are volunteering for every single sport and activity your kids do since you feel so strongly about it?

PP is right that all of you sound crazy advocating for a system that clearly isn’t working any longer. There have been suggestions on this thread about how to address this and every single one got shot down essentially because “that’s just not how it is.”

My kids play rec soccer. Each game there are essentially 3 volunteers- 2 coaches and a parent to bring snacks. 3 volunteers for 10 players.

Summer swim meets require roughly 30 volunteers, split with the other team we need to provide 15-16 of them for 180 swimmers.

15-16 volunteers for roughly 80-120 swimmers at the average A meet for each team. There’s no reason to not have enough volunteers.

Are you really adverse to volunteering and being involved with your children’s activities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That’s the thing- this isn’t unique to swim. Every year our rec sports league is begging for parents to volunteer to coach. And that’s only 2 parents needed for a dozen kids or so.

DP. Yes it is. You really can’t see the difference between needing 2 volunteers to coach a rec team or be team managers in other sports and the roughly 20-25 (or more) volunteers needed at EACH swim meet?? Another difference is that your kid won’t get kicked off the rec team if you don’t volunteer to coach, yet you are fine kicking kids off the swim team if their parents don’t volunteer. Should we presume that you are volunteering for every single sport and activity your kids do since you feel so strongly about it?

PP is right that all of you sound crazy advocating for a system that clearly isn’t working any longer. There have been suggestions on this thread about how to address this and every single one got shot down essentially because “that’s just not how it is.”

If you’re against it stop signing up. Or go play the sports where some other suckers will sign up to be coach and assistant coach. But if those teams asked each parent to take a turn coaching for a week, and you just didn’t do your turn, that makes you the jerk.

Again with the name calling! I guess when you don’t have a substantive response, that’s your best retort along with “then just quit.” And not that it’ll matter, but we actually do volunteer for our kids’ sports teams, at school and for other activities. Some of these roles are pretty time consuming. Our experience in all of these other areas is how I know there’s a better way to handle volunteers here. You clearly don’t want to listen. Have fun wrangling the parents again this summer.

If you know there’s a better way, then volunteer to implement it. Don’t expect another volunteer to do that. They’re already busy volunteering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to find the time to volunteer for anything if you work full time, but summer swim is particularly rough. It starts in June when school is still in session and there's a flurry of end-of-year school activities. In our case, my kids are still in school for the first 3 weeks of the season and it's madness. On top of that, there is often overlap with spring or club sports wrapping up for the season. It's non-stop for nearly the entire month.

My kids are old enough now that I can let them manage themselves during the meets and they'll keep track of their events, and I can volunteer during the meets. But that wasn't the case when they were younger! There is no way my youngest would've made it to any of her events if she was left to manage herself during meets.

I am so tired of that excuse that your kids are so helpless they need you hovering. There are so many coaches and helpers in the team area. Let them know of your concern the kid might get distracted and let them do their job while you do one of your own.

You know every team is different right? The coaches on our team don’t watch the kids who aren’t in the water. They are there to coach not babysit. And there are approximately 40 kids in under 8 group alone. Our team is huge. There are no “helpers” watching these kids. That’s a joke. So yeah, when my 6 year old swam one 25 free and then had nothing to do for the next 3 hours, someone had to keep an eye on her. Too bad.

Let me guess: you’re also the person who complains when people don’t pay attention to their kids and let them go wild.

They need to assign parents to babysit. We had someone complain to me that our kids were hanging out and it annoyed them while we were volunteering. I told them we were doing the best we can but they need to step up and take these jobs so we can sit and watch our kids or stop complaining as they could also help and watch these kids. They shut up after that.

Our team actually has volunteer positions for this for the young ones, it is a job you sign up for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why does it seem so hard to get anyone to volunteer to help these days?

is it a generational parent thing that parents w younger kids just assume someone else will do it?

it takes a village but it doesn’t seem to compute as the older parents look to pass the torch

This isn't new thing, it's been going on for at least the ~20 years that I've been a parent and volunteering. There are always a very few families that carry the majority of the load. I volunteer a lot and I see the same families that run Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and coach basketball, soccer, baseball, etc at swim meets. There are a handful of families where both mom and dad are on deck every single meet and then the vast majority of families who do the bare minimum. Some of it may have to do with the fact that for many of these "volunteer" roles you have to PAY to volunteer, so not everybody is willing to do that. Timing for swim meets is not one of those though and has a low barrier to entry yet it's still hard to fill the slots.

Make it as easy as possible for people to volunteer, keep your timers in the shade, and give them access to lots of free water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Entitled parents that expect others parents to fulfill their volunteer requirement for them.

We aren’t talking about widowed parents, or parents who are in the midst of cancer treatments, we consistently see the same parents (mom and dad!) (of older swimmers, too!) who hoard tables and only get off their arse to buy snacks and watch their kid swim. They don’t even help reset the pool deck and cleanup after the meet. Trust me- those of us working well beyond our volunteer hours are judging you.

You must go to our pool.

We had a new team rep come in a few years ago and doesn't take crap and the lazy parents have been slowly aging out of the new culture our rep is developing. They are able to track really easy through swimtopia who is volunteering and if you don't volunteer you get stuck working some of the worse meets at the end of the season. The rep literally will make you or pull your kid from the meet. It has been great.

But, I also know most people are not wired that way and most reps don't want to be bothered or hate those conversations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That’s the thing- this isn’t unique to swim. Every year our rec sports league is begging for parents to volunteer to coach. And that’s only 2 parents needed for a dozen kids or so.

DP. Yes it is. You really can’t see the difference between needing 2 volunteers to coach a rec team or be team managers in other sports and the roughly 20-25 (or more) volunteers needed at EACH swim meet?? Another difference is that your kid won’t get kicked off the rec team if you don’t volunteer to coach, yet you are fine kicking kids off the swim team if their parents don’t volunteer. Should we presume that you are volunteering for every single sport and activity your kids do since you feel so strongly about it?

PP is right that all of you sound crazy advocating for a system that clearly isn’t working any longer. There have been suggestions on this thread about how to address this and every single one got shot down essentially because “that’s just not how it is.”

My kids play rec soccer. Each game there are essentially 3 volunteers- 2 coaches and a parent to bring snacks. 3 volunteers for 10 players.

Summer swim meets require roughly 30 volunteers, split with the other team we need to provide 15-16 of them for 180 swimmers.

15-16 volunteers for roughly 80-120 swimmers at the average A meet for each team. There’s no reason to not have enough volunteers.

Are you really adverse to volunteering and being involved with your children’s activities?

My kids used to play rec soccer too. There is absolutely no need for a snack volunteer. One perfect example of a completely unnecessary volunteer role. Our rec teams decided to do away with snack when people didn’t want to bring any.

I lead my DD’s Girl Scout troop and my DH is the team manger for our DS’s club sports team. Both of these roles are very time consuming. And no, I’d rather not stand outside in the blazing sun in 90 degree weather for hours to be a timer or run the snack bar (again why is a snack bar even necessary??). I’ve been a timer on many occasions but it’s absolutely miserable and the teams do nothing to make it more comfortable for the volunteers. We had 2 people pass out last year due to heat. This (and the attitudes of the swim moms as displayed here) are why people want nothing to do with volunteering for this particular activity.

So why not figure out a way to make it easier and more comfortable for people to get involved instead of bashing them for not being as into swim as you are?

[Anonymous]

The snack bar is a fundraiser. It is one of the pieces that makes summer swim affordable.

[Anonymous]

All of you that are calling to strip away the unnecessary parts of summer swim meets like ice cream socials, pep rally’s, pancake breakfast—don’t get that these are the things that make kids LOVE summer swim. If you strip it down to just practices and meets, many kids will stop swimming. And that may be okay for you uber competitive parents whose kids swim intense hours year round, but most won’t be top swimmers. Those of you who are desperate for your kids to swim on a summer team but think there should be some giant change of culture don’t realize that once it’s changed it won’t be as fun, it won’t be as strong of a team, it won’t create as many lasting memories.

At the banquet every year during the senior speeches— none of those seniors are reminiscing about early morning drills, dryland workouts, or even winning individual races. Every single one of them talks about the extra stuff, the things that just can’t happen without the parent volunteers going the extra mile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That’s the thing- this isn’t unique to swim. Every year our rec sports league is begging for parents to volunteer to coach. And that’s only 2 parents needed for a dozen kids or so.

DP. Yes it is. You really can’t see the difference between needing 2 volunteers to coach a rec team or be team managers in other sports and the roughly 20-25 (or more) volunteers needed at EACH swim meet?? Another difference is that your kid won’t get kicked off the rec team if you don’t volunteer to coach, yet you are fine kicking kids off the swim team if their parents don’t volunteer. Should we presume that you are volunteering for every single sport and activity your kids do since you feel so strongly about it?

PP is right that all of you sound crazy advocating for a system that clearly isn’t working any longer. There have been suggestions on this thread about how to address this and every single one got shot down essentially because “that’s just not how it is.”

My kids play rec soccer. Each game there are essentially 3 volunteers- 2 coaches and a parent to bring snacks. 3 volunteers for 10 players.

Summer swim meets require roughly 30 volunteers, split with the other team we need to provide 15-16 of them for 180 swimmers.

15-16 volunteers for roughly 80-120 swimmers at the average A meet for each team. There’s no reason to not have enough volunteers.

Are you really adverse to volunteering and being involved with your children’s activities?

My kids used to play rec soccer too. There is absolutely no need for a snack volunteer. One perfect example of a completely unnecessary volunteer role. Our rec teams decided to do away with snack when people didn’t want to bring any.

I lead my DD’s Girl Scout troop and my DH is the team manger for our DS’s club sports team. Both of these roles are very time consuming. And no, I’d rather not stand outside in the blazing sun in 90 degree weather for hours to be a timer or run the snack bar (again why is a snack bar even necessary??). I’ve been a timer on many occasions but it’s absolutely miserable and the teams do nothing to make it more comfortable for the volunteers. We had 2 people pass out last year due to heat. This (and the attitudes of the swim moms as displayed here) are why people want nothing to do with volunteering for this particular activity.

So why not figure out a way to make it easier and more comfortable for people to get involved instead of bashing them for not being as into swim as you are?

Again, who do you suggest does this? Everyone is a volunteer themselves! You’re in to swim enough to want your kid to participate.