Families that never volunteer - swim team

[Anonymous]

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

How is it the boomers fault that you are too lazy to volunteer for swim team?

[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.

Our pool has a volunteer coordinator as a volunteer job for one person all season - so it’s not the rep that has to do the work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our swim team says parents must sign up to volunteer for every meet DC attends. We do that but noticed some families don’t sign up for anything. Even some with multiple kids. Are we chumps for signing up every time?

Get over yourself. I get it, you volunteer a lot, it's great, you're awesome. You just don't know other people's situations. Maybe they have to work 70 hours a week. Maybe they have illness, or a disabled family member, a crisis. Should their kids deserve less opportunity? The unfortunate? The poors? No. So just he grateful you have the time and health to volunteer, and know everyone appreciates it whether they properly show it or not

[Anonymous]

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.

Totally agree with this!!!! Why should a CHILD not be able to participate in an activity like this because of their family situation? The idea that you must have a parent volunteer for entry is really elitist.

So? Those are the rules. Don’t like them? Don’t join.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our swim team says parents must sign up to volunteer for every meet DC attends. We do that but noticed some families don’t sign up for anything. Even some with multiple kids. Are we chumps for signing up every time?

Get over yourself. I get it, you volunteer a lot, it's great, you're awesome. You just don't know other people's situations. Maybe they have to work 70 hours a week. Maybe they have illness, or a disabled family member, a crisis. Should their kids deserve less opportunity? The unfortunate? The poors? No. So just he grateful you have the time and health to volunteer, and know everyone appreciates it whether they properly show it or not

Usually there are exceptions to the you have to volunteer role. I have health issues and I'm never on the schedule. I do other things. My spouse always is but if I need my spouse's help it's no big deal and they will adjust the schedule. But, working 70 hours a week/not low income, you should find another way to help.

[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.

If the job is assigned, there is no tracking anyone down. You sign up for the meet and if you are signed up for the meet, one parent is volunteering except if you say you cannot. You can ask for specific jobs but everyone is assigned one. The only time the rep reaches out is if there seems to be a mistake, i.e. we forgot to sign up for a meet and it didn't seem right.

[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.

Same at our pool. The last names you see with multiple kids in every A meet and going to divisionals are the same last names as the official, lead timer, starter, announcer, team reps, etc. If there are families who rarely volunteer, it’s the ones that are on vacation for 2 of the 6 weeks of season, whose kids come to 25% of the total practices and show up to swim 2 B meets.

Next year my kids will both be young in their age group. I am hoping to find a family with kids who swim all the A meets and see if they will swap with me. I’d gladly work double shifts every A meet while my kids are at home if my “buddy family” would work 2 shifts every B meet so I can focus on watching my kids.

[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.

agreed- summer swim is still very much like it was 40 years ago. Two parts seem different to me 1) the number of parents who hang around 'watching' practices. 2) The number of parents who feel the need to take videos of their kids swimming. I am always startled when a parent tells me they can't volunteer b/c they need to video their kids swimming.

And of course, the most significant change from 40 years ago - the number of full time working mothers. Sooooooo many things that used to run on women's unpaid labor are struggling right now. Swim team is no different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If the job is assigned, there is no tracking anyone down. You sign up for the meet and if you are signed up for the meet, one parent is volunteering except if you say you cannot. You can ask for specific jobs but everyone is assigned one. The only time the rep reaches out is if there seems to be a mistake, i.e. we forgot to sign up for a meet and it didn't seem right.

NP - why on earth should adult volunteers be "assigned" jobs? Is it that difficult for people to choose their own? Moreover, there is absolutely tracking down if someone is assigned something they didn't choose themselves vs. signing up on their own. We also use SwimTopia and it's easy to mark your kids down and sign up for jobs (and to keep track of your points, if that's how your team does it).

[Anonymous]

Our pool doesn't have any hard and fast rules on volunteering. We don't make it mandatory, because, as others have mentioned, we don't want a kid to not be able to participate just because their parent can't volunteer. Still, the number of parents who truly can't volunteer at out pool is slim to none. I do give a pass to new swim families with younger kids because I know that once they no longer have little kids to watch over during meets they will likely step up and volunteer. Now everyone notices who does and doesn't volunteer. We have one family with kids who have been on the team of years and where the parents are always at the pool and at every single meet, yet they never volunteer. Everyone thinks they are complete a-holes and talk about them behind their backs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our swim team says parents must sign up to volunteer for every meet DC attends. We do that but noticed some families don’t sign up for anything. Even some with multiple kids. Are we chumps for signing up every time?

Get over yourself. I get it, you volunteer a lot, it's great, you're awesome. You just don't know other people's situations. Maybe they have to work 70 hours a week. Maybe they have illness, or a disabled family member, a crisis. Should their kids deserve less opportunity? The unfortunate? The poors? No. So just he grateful you have the time and health to volunteer, and know everyone appreciates it whether they properly show it or not

I think we’ve established that there are obviously circumstances that warrant making an exception to the volunteer rules. The issue is the families with kids on the team who show up at every meet and flit around chatting but never volunteer. And our team puts out sign ups for even the behind the scenes jobs so we know when people just aren’t volunteering vs not volunteering for an on deck role.

[Anonymous]

I am curious.

I am someone who thinks my kids’ team does a good job of making it possible for people in a wide range of positions to volunteer, and to step up for people in need. I have been a swim team parent, or the person subbing for the parent for 14 out of the 15 last summers (we took 2020 off), we I have been in most of the positions described here: SAHM, WOHM, first responder parent working lots of double shifts, pregnant, wrangling toddlers, kid with a disability, sick kid, sick parent, and other parent living on the other side of the country. And I don’t have a story about a time it didn’t work.

But I am open to the idea that other people have other stories. So, I would love to hear from people who found it impossible after trying. Because maybe there are things going on on our team that I don’t know about and understanding the problem means I can be part of the solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our swim team says parents must sign up to volunteer for every meet DC attends. We do that but noticed some families don’t sign up for anything. Even some with multiple kids. Are we chumps for signing up every time?

Get over yourself. I get it, you volunteer a lot, it's great, you're awesome. You just don't know other people's situations. Maybe they have to work 70 hours a week. Maybe they have illness, or a disabled family member, a crisis. Should their kids deserve less opportunity? The unfortunate? The poors? No. So just he grateful you have the time and health to volunteer, and know everyone appreciates it whether they properly show it or not

Sure, maybe this is a small minority of people (health issues being the only real excuse). Even one person, though, who fails to volunteer in some capacity when capable of doing so, is an ass.

[Anonymous]

I have 3 shrimpers and a baby and a husband that works in another state so I truly cannot volunteer at meets but I guarantee you I donate more money than any other family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 3 shrimpers and a baby and a husband that works in another state so I truly cannot volunteer at meets but I guarantee you I donate more money than any other family.

I'm sure all of the unpaid volunteers care about your donation.