Freeloading swim team parents suck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much would it cost to put in automatic timing on 6 lanes? If parents are willing to buy their way out, wouldn't that be a way to use the money?

thousands

How many thousands?

As someone scrambling to figure out how to manage timing tonight with a complicated schedule and multiple kids and people with health issues, I know I'd pay a couple hundred to have my volunteer hours cut in half. I'd bet there are at least 20 parents on my team who agree with me, including parents like me who volunteer regularly.

And you still need volunteers to install and remove the touch pads, and even more money to maintain.

Here’s the thing, there are pools that collect a few hundred dollars as a deposit. When you’ve met a minimum number of points, or sessions of volunteering, you get your money back. Time or dime. But if everyone chooses dime, a meet still can’t happen unless you’re willing to pay a lotta dimes and run a crazy payroll system for a handful of meets.

[Anonymous]

the system is bloated and they should look into ways to reduce that demand

Agree. I feel like the current volunteer requirements are from 25 years ago when there were fewer 2-working-parent and single-parent households.

I'd be happy to write a check to hire part-time timers and judges. Just like soccer doesn't expect parents to ref games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much would it cost to put in automatic timing on 6 lanes? If parents are willing to buy their way out, wouldn't that be a way to use the money?

thousands

How many thousands?

As someone scrambling to figure out how to manage timing tonight with a complicated schedule and multiple kids and people with health issues, I know I'd pay a couple hundred to have my volunteer hours cut in half. I'd bet there are at least 20 parents on my team who agree with me, including parents like me who volunteer regularly.

And you still need volunteers to install and remove the touch pads, and even more money to maintain.

Here’s the thing, there are pools that collect a few hundred dollars as a deposit. When you’ve met a minimum number of points, or sessions of volunteering, you get your money back. Time or dime. But if everyone chooses dime, a meet still can’t happen unless you’re willing to pay a lotta dimes and run a crazy payroll system for a handful of meets.

Will it take 18 professionals 5 hours to install and remove the touch pads? Or will it be an improvement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading this, I'm astonished. First off, I'm gen-X, and no, we're not the ones insisting that everything be done the old way. The "old way", when we were kids, was to be dropped off at the event and picked up later. Our parents did NOT hang out at every meet or practice. If we were hungry, we had to bring our own snacks. When I saw the lists of how the meets require 36-40 volunteers per meet, there were a LOT of unnecessary things on that list. You're getting pissed off because a lot of people don't want to do all the make-work stuff and give a ribbon to every kid. If parents were too noisy, you turned around and told them to be quiet, but wait, our parents weren't there anyway.

I"m writing the check.

If you had done swim meets your parents would have been volunteering.

No. We had a functional school system with school-based extracurriculars and it was all done by the schools.

You cannot expect a school system and school to 100% meet your kids needs. You are a lazy parent. Its ok if you don't want to participate but then don't put your kids in swim. Simple.

+1000000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

the system is bloated and they should look into ways to reduce that demand

Agree. I feel like the current volunteer requirements are from 25 years ago when there were fewer 2-working-parent and single-parent households.

I'd be happy to write a check to hire part-time timers and judges. Just like soccer doesn't expect parents to ref games.

Hahaha. You know hard it is to even find paid officials for a few meets a year?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much would it cost to put in automatic timing on 6 lanes? If parents are willing to buy their way out, wouldn't that be a way to use the money?

thousands

How many thousands?

As someone scrambling to figure out how to manage timing tonight with a complicated schedule and multiple kids and people with health issues, I know I'd pay a couple hundred to have my volunteer hours cut in half. I'd bet there are at least 20 parents on my team who agree with me, including parents like me who volunteer regularly.

And you still need volunteers to install and remove the touch pads, and even more money to maintain.

Here’s the thing, there are pools that collect a few hundred dollars as a deposit. When you’ve met a minimum number of points, or sessions of volunteering, you get your money back. Time or dime. But if everyone chooses dime, a meet still can’t happen unless you’re willing to pay a lotta dimes and run a crazy payroll system for a handful of meets.

Will it take 18 professionals 5 hours to install and remove the touch pads? Or will it be an improvement?

I was a swim team parent many years ago and we used (rented) touch pads for one BIG meet year. It was very complex to both set up and use. I'm sure they've improved since then but I imagine it won't be a big reduction in volunteer hours needed.

[Anonymous]

Hahaha. You know hard it is to even find paid officials for a few meets a year?!?

I stand corrected. You're right, I'm wrong.

Mental note: Don't put my kid in swim, especially summer swim league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Hahaha. You know hard it is to even find paid officials for a few meets a year?!?

I stand corrected. You're right, I'm wrong.

Mental note: Don't put my kid in swim, especially summer swim league.

I’m the pp, and finding paid officials for a lot of sports is hard. They don’t get paid enough to do what they have to put up with.

I’m GenX too, and my parents didn’t go to everything either. I agree that there is a bunch of make work projects but even back then parent volunteers were needed.

My suggestion is to do what draftees in the old days used to do: pay someone to volunteer in your place every week. There are people who stand in line for Supreme Court tix etc. didn’t Jeff recently post about a service app for this kind of stuff? Good luck finding someone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any volunteer jobs for introverts? This is stressing me out just to read about.

+1

[Anonymous]

There is a very simple solution for parents that don’t have the “bandwidth”, care, or time to volunteer. I don’t care if your kids drives themselves, or that you have a demanding business or career, or if you homeschooled your children.

Don’t sign up your kids for swim team! We all have to make choices, and maybe summer swimming isn’t right for your lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

the system is bloated and they should look into ways to reduce that demand

Agree. I feel like the current volunteer requirements are from 25 years ago when there were fewer 2-working-parent and single-parent households.

I'd be happy to write a check to hire part-time timers and judges. Just like soccer doesn't expect parents to ref games.

No, its about parent priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a very simple solution for parents that don’t have the “bandwidth”, care, or time to volunteer. I don’t care if your kids drives themselves, or that you have a demanding business or career, or if you homeschooled your children.

Don’t sign up your kids for swim team! We all have to make choices, and maybe summer swimming isn’t right for your lifestyle.

Its for less than two months, that's what is really sad.

[Anonymous]

I don't really understand the focus on timers. Timing swim meets was one of the more enjoyable things I did to support my child's sports. You get to sit down, chat with other parents and every few minutes stand up and push a button. Plus you get to see excited kids pop out of the pool. I actually only timed a few meets a year because I normally worked the hated Clerk of the Course. I even enjoyed that because the vast majority of the kids were a lot of fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't really understand the focus on timers. Timing swim meets was one of the more enjoyable things I did to support my child's sports. You get to sit down, chat with other parents and every few minutes stand up and push a button. Plus you get to see excited kids pop out of the pool. I actually only timed a few meets a year because I normally worked the hated Clerk of the Course. I even enjoyed that because the vast majority of the kids were a lot of fun.

I'm glad it was enjoyable for you. When I started timing, I had a 5 year old swimmer, a toddler who loved nothing more than to run headfirst towards the pool, and a first responder husband who worked shift work.

So, I'd go to B meet, because my kid still needed help, and then pay for childcare so I could go time other people's kids at the A meet. I would happily have taken that money and given it to someone to time for me or to be used for touch pads or something else.

[Anonymous]

Superior beings,
If you don't want kids with non-volunteer parents on your swim team, then make it SUPER CLEAR that enrollment is limited to parent volunteer families only. Drop kids whose parent doesn't occupy a volunteer role in the first A or B meet.

I feel like the leagues are shaming me because I can only volunteer part-time. I can't volunteer for every B meet during the season. I can't commit to judge training, like stroke and turn. But I do what I can with the time I have available.