lack of volunteers

[Anonymous]

how many posters are commenting on this thread but aren't in the DMV and/or have experience with NVSL/MCSL?

Some of the comments just seem really out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a single mother with 100% custody and a demanding job. I absolutely pay my way out of volunteering at club swimming. I am paying thousands of dollars in fees for swimming, plus the payment in lieu of volunteering. For summer swim, I immediately sign up to bring food in lieu of timing and work double shifts for food-related events to complete all of the pool-required hours without timing. I don't do anything for the meets besides bringing food. I can't feel bad about this - in addition to expensive pool fees - there's also an assessment for basically a complete rebuild of the pool. My kids are young enough that they want to see me cheering for them during their events. If teams can't work on timing without relying on the unpaid labor of women - because it's usually the mothers doing these roles - they should find a way to hire teens or become community service hours venues for teens.

So the “unpaid labor of women” is ok for providing food but not timing? Isn’t providing food more expensive than working the event?

If I work a BBQ food line, it's not at a meet - so I always sign up for other pool events that requiring buying or serving foods. And yes, bring food for judges is way more exensive than timing for a race - but timing for a race requires separate training and possibly missing your own kids races. My point is only the judging tone of parents is misplaced. We don't all have the same privileges in time or money or whatever. Being on a swim team on a private club or team is a very big time and money suck - and no- there are not always "cheaper pools available" - there are huge waitlists for pools, actually, and most of the clubs are charging a lot per year. I am fufilling the requirement of voluteer hours for the pool - but that's it - I am doing extra volunteer shifts for the team.

If you can’t afford $5 a week for a tray of water bottles then why put your kids on the swim team? It’s not a right, a necessity, it’s just a fun thing to do. Not required for living.

$4000?!?!?!?!?!

Sounds like you need to find a new pool.

Maybe you are the cheap one? I spent $400 on food for meets last year. I would estimate that summer swim costs around $4000 for membership, asessment, team fees, food contributions, team suit. I am not including stroke and turn, pool events, or gas to meets in this. Club swimming and meet fees for the year is around $5000. That's not an insignificant amount of money for us - and it si fun for our kids, but let's not pretend that everyone has the same ability to volunteer. It's not true or fair. We should be capable of having grace for others with different lives and family structures.

[Anonymous]

Our last B meet, which started mid-July last year, is still going on as we speak, and I work 4 full-time jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our last B meet, which started mid-July last year, is still going on as we speak, and I work 4 full-time jobs.

I hope you're wearing your kids' ribbon to work every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our last B meet, which started mid-July last year, is still going on as we speak, and I work 4 full-time jobs.

I hope you're wearing your kids' ribbon to work every day.

And that it’s pinned to your IAS shirt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

I spent 100 on donuts one meet. They sold $10 worth. It's a BS fundraiser. Id love to see what the total cost of donated food versus money raised.

I'd rather pay 75 per summer swim compared to 25 per kid AND dont let the people with 3+ kid not pay for each kid.

Where is this pool where it is only $25? Our summer swim is $125/swimmer - there is no multiple kid discount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a single mother with 100% custody and a demanding job. I absolutely pay my way out of volunteering at club swimming. I am paying thousands of dollars in fees for swimming, plus the payment in lieu of volunteering. For summer swim, I immediately sign up to bring food in lieu of timing and work double shifts for food-related events to complete all of the pool-required hours without timing. I don't do anything for the meets besides bringing food. I can't feel bad about this - in addition to expensive pool fees - there's also an assessment for basically a complete rebuild of the pool. My kids are young enough that they want to see me cheering for them during their events. If teams can't work on timing without relying on the unpaid labor of women - because it's usually the mothers doing these roles - they should find a way to hire teens or become community service hours venues for teens.

So the “unpaid labor of women” is ok for providing food but not timing? Isn’t providing food more expensive than working the event?

If I work a BBQ food line, it's not at a meet - so I always sign up for other pool events that requiring buying or serving foods. And yes, bring food for judges is way more exensive than timing for a race - but timing for a race requires separate training and possibly missing your own kids races. My point is only the judging tone of parents is misplaced. We don't all have the same privileges in time or money or whatever. Being on a swim team on a private club or team is a very big time and money suck - and no- there are not always "cheaper pools available" - there are huge waitlists for pools, actually, and most of the clubs are charging a lot per year. I am fufilling the requirement of voluteer hours for the pool - but that's it - I am doing extra volunteer shifts for the team.

If you can’t afford $5 a week for a tray of water bottles then why put your kids on the swim team? It’s not a right, a necessity, it’s just a fun thing to do. Not required for living.

$4000?!?!?!?!?!

Sounds like you need to find a new pool.

Maybe you are the cheap one? I spent $400 on food for meets last year. I would estimate that summer swim costs around $4000 for membership, asessment, team fees, food contributions, team suit. I am not including stroke and turn, pool events, or gas to meets in this. Club swimming and meet fees for the year is around $5000. That's not an insignificant amount of money for us - and it si fun for our kids, but let's not pretend that everyone has the same ability to volunteer. It's not true or fair. We should be capable of having grace for others with different lives and family structures.

You are choosing an expensive private pool so stop complaining. Membership, assessment, etc have nothing to do with swim team.

[Anonymous]

Do they volunteer to time the Olympics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are seeing that it is a lack of commitment. My kids have seen swimming on our summer team for 15y and DH and I have been very involved (stroke and turn, on the board, timing, etc.)

When my kids started, nearly 100% of parents made every effort to get their kids to practice/meets. It was rare to have kids missing at meets. Now we are seeing MANY younger families whose kids *maybe* make 2-3 meets. We have stressed the importance of meets (both on an individual level and as a team.) We have offered rides, brought breakfast items so parents wouldn't have to deal with that, etc with little to no avail. When talking to parents I hear "it was hot", "it was cold", "I didn't sleep well and didn't want to wake up", "it is too much to get the kids out of the house on a Sat AM",

And if they do make it, they sit and watch while others are scrambling. We have asked for help directly "Hey, Larlo, we need you to time today. Even half the meet would be helpful.", we have tried the 'fine' for not volunteering (they are happy to pay), we have explained the importance of volunteering to keep things running....

Honestly, I am worried about the existence of the team past the next few years when older kids/families age out. I am hoping that the younger families become more invested and step up.

I don’t get this mindset. Why do people care so much? These kids are not going to swim in college.

If they are happy to pay, raise the fine and hire someone.

I don't understand why people who think it's easy to find people to hire for short periods of time, don't just find someone and hire them? At my pool, we do sometimes have people who hire others to do their job. People send their au pairs or nannies, or they approach teenagers at meets or practice and offer $. So, there's no problem in doing so. But you need to do it yourself, not ask the volunteer leadership to take on another task. Because finding enough people who are willing to work for short shifts would be hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Our teens do set-up and take down for free, lol. They are awesome, and very helpful. Of course, they learned that from watching their parents pitch in and help too.

We don't have a ton of teens who aren't swimming in meets- I'm sure that's different on bigger teams, but it would mean people alternating timing while jumping back and forth to clerk of course. Not impossible, but a logistical nightmare (and at least for A meets, everyone is trying to finish to get the pool open). We do have teens time for B meets, but if this were a paid position, it would be expensive fast. 3 hours X $10 X 3 people X 6 lanes = $500/meet. Not insurmountable, but is it worth it? I'm not sure.

I think the people who don't volunteer don't realize that it's the best way to become a part of the (very welcoming) community. That's the beauty of summer swim! It is a community in a way that most other rec sports are not. We spend a lot of time together in the summer- and even if I don't love all the people, it is wonderful to have that sense of connection.

I don't really care if other people think it's all crazy, (I always say summer swim is kind of like a cult) but complaining about having to volunteer while still signing up your kid is pretty obnoxious. Either get on board, help to make things better or quit

I didn’t mean the pool should pay the teens to do things like time at meets they aren’t swimming in or do set up and take down for meets, the parents that want to buy their way out of volunteering can sign up for one of those slots and then pay one of the teens directly to do it for them. My teen would 100% time some B meets for a little cash. Have a sign up genius slot for teens willing to fill a volunteer slot for money and let the parents who want to pay a kid to fill their volunteer slot get a teen off the list to do that for them.

As part of the team, why does your teen need to get paid to volunteer? They can volunteer if they want to. To be paid, my teen gets $19 an hour as a lifeguard. Whose going to pay that to a teen for the 3-4 hours for a meet? You and your teen are selfish if you expect them to be paid. That's not the point of team. If they want to get paid, they can coach.

You’re not understanding. People are complaining about the fact that parents are being allowed to pay their way out of volunteering which does nothing to fill empty volunteer slots. This way, people can pay their way out of volunteering but not leave empty volunteer slots that need to be filled. My kid should absolutely get paid to fill a volunteer slot that an adult wants to pay their way out of since we as a family already meet our volunteer requirement. And yes, the parents in this area who have money but are too important to volunteer will pay someone $60-80 to time for them for a few hours in the hot sun. They are already paying the buy out, this way at least a slot is still getting filled.

Why not pay the children to time or official the meets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Our teens do set-up and take down for free, lol. They are awesome, and very helpful. Of course, they learned that from watching their parents pitch in and help too.

We don't have a ton of teens who aren't swimming in meets- I'm sure that's different on bigger teams, but it would mean people alternating timing while jumping back and forth to clerk of course. Not impossible, but a logistical nightmare (and at least for A meets, everyone is trying to finish to get the pool open). We do have teens time for B meets, but if this were a paid position, it would be expensive fast. 3 hours X $10 X 3 people X 6 lanes = $500/meet. Not insurmountable, but is it worth it? I'm not sure.

I think the people who don't volunteer don't realize that it's the best way to become a part of the (very welcoming) community. That's the beauty of summer swim! It is a community in a way that most other rec sports are not. We spend a lot of time together in the summer- and even if I don't love all the people, it is wonderful to have that sense of connection.

I don't really care if other people think it's all crazy, (I always say summer swim is kind of like a cult) but complaining about having to volunteer while still signing up your kid is pretty obnoxious. Either get on board, help to make things better or quit

I didn’t mean the pool should pay the teens to do things like time at meets they aren’t swimming in or do set up and take down for meets, the parents that want to buy their way out of volunteering can sign up for one of those slots and then pay one of the teens directly to do it for them. My teen would 100% time some B meets for a little cash. Have a sign up genius slot for teens willing to fill a volunteer slot for money and let the parents who want to pay a kid to fill their volunteer slot get a teen off the list to do that for them.

As part of the team, why does your teen need to get paid to volunteer? They can volunteer if they want to. To be paid, my teen gets $19 an hour as a lifeguard. Whose going to pay that to a teen for the 3-4 hours for a meet? You and your teen are selfish if you expect them to be paid. That's not the point of team. If they want to get paid, they can coach.

You’re not understanding. People are complaining about the fact that parents are being allowed to pay their way out of volunteering which does nothing to fill empty volunteer slots. This way, people can pay their way out of volunteering but not leave empty volunteer slots that need to be filled. My kid should absolutely get paid to fill a volunteer slot that an adult wants to pay their way out of since we as a family already meet our volunteer requirement. And yes, the parents in this area who have money but are too important to volunteer will pay someone $60-80 to time for them for a few hours in the hot sun. They are already paying the buy out, this way at least a slot is still getting filled.

Why not pay the children to time or official the meets?

As a general rule, athletes don't officiate at events they are participating in. You don't see someone acting as a judge and a competitor in the same event in any sport.

But, the teens are swimming at the event, and when they aren't they're taking on other roles. At our meet, much of the coaching, and wrangling, of the younger swimmers is done by the older swimmers. That connection between big and little is one of the reasons that summer swim is so much fun.

Finally, I'm not sure how my kids volunteering would solve your problem. If things got moved around so that teenagers could time, then the expectation would probably shift so that teenagers covered the volunteer hours associated with their on family's commitment. They wouldn't suddenly be available to cover the hours associated with your 7 year old.

I will say that my teens do volunteer. They participate in the spring clean up/landscaping day the pool has every year. They do set up and take down for meets and Friday events when it works for their schedules. Our family volunteers more than our set hours every year, and so sometimes they'll put down the name of a family they know is facing something that makes volunteering hard. Sometimes, someone will offer them money, and then they'll put down that person's name.