Families that never volunteer - swim team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our team has a late afternoon practice option - 4:30-5:30pm. If kid in day camp for a week or two, we could get them to the afternoon practice. Realize the would not work for all families (or pools)

This is what most pools do: a few afternoon practices each week for kids who aren't available in the mornings.

Our MCSL pool has morning and afternoon practice every day. Kids are encouraged to come when they can, as much or as little as works for them. The team also allows occasional age-group timeslot changing for individual conflict days (but here we're talking things like a 10yo at the 11-14 practice, not a 7yo at the 15-18) and will occasionally let a sibling go up or down the age-group slots a year early or late so that a family can attend one practice slot instead of two. In return for the flexibility, most parents tend to take the slots and times quite seriously. So many mornings there are older sibs chilling while the younger ones practice, and littles playing toys at the tables while they wait to head back home. It's really nice.

[Anonymous]

PS except no evening practice on B meet Wednesdays, of course!

[Anonymous]

My kid did preteam this year, but will likely be on the B team next year. What are the best volunteer jobs for a new swim parent? The timing thing sort of intimidates me but they need so many- plus maybe there’s less pressure to be perfect when there are 3 timers per lane??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid did preteam this year, but will likely be on the B team next year. What are the best volunteer jobs for a new swim parent? The timing thing sort of intimidates me but they need so many- plus maybe there’s less pressure to be perfect when there are 3 timers per lane??

Timing is a good job. You get to meet and joke with other parents. It's pretty fun to try and get doubles and triples. The head timer usually gives candy or something when you do. You get to know the names of some of the swimmers. Most meets allow you to do either first or second half, if that ends up working better for your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid did preteam this year, but will likely be on the B team next year. What are the best volunteer jobs for a new swim parent? The timing thing sort of intimidates me but they need so many- plus maybe there’s less pressure to be perfect when there are 3 timers per lane??

Timing is a good job. You get to meet and joke with other parents. It's pretty fun to try and get doubles and triples. The head timer usually gives candy or something when you do. You get to know the names of some of the swimmers. Most meets allow you to do either first or second half, if that ends up working better for your family.

I agree on timing. If you don't want that, selling concessions is pretty easy. Donating concessions is even easier. Setup isn't too bad if you can get there in time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid did preteam this year, but will likely be on the B team next year. What are the best volunteer jobs for a new swim parent? The timing thing sort of intimidates me but they need so many- plus maybe there’s less pressure to be perfect when there are 3 timers per lane??

Ribbons is the best job.

[Anonymous]

I hate timing-our B meets can take forever

[Anonymous]

Why don’t you not let the delinquent families not swim? I know it totally sucks to punish a kid for their parents’ faults but maybe you need to actually enforce things? Don’t ban them for next season- make it the next meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid did preteam this year, but will likely be on the B team next year. What are the best volunteer jobs for a new swim parent? The timing thing sort of intimidates me but they need so many- plus maybe there’s less pressure to be perfect when there are 3 timers per lane??

I’ll second timing. It was the first job I did when my kid started summer swim. Really you just need to be able to start, stop and re-set a stopwatch. You’ll get to know some of the other parents and it makes the time go faster. The only caveat I would offer is if your team does not split timer shifts into 1st and 2nd half timer, the B meets can be ridiculously long and having to time the whole meet is brutal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid did preteam this year, but will likely be on the B team next year. What are the best volunteer jobs for a new swim parent? The timing thing sort of intimidates me but they need so many- plus maybe there’s less pressure to be perfect when there are 3 timers per lane??

IME, people eventually find the job they like best. Timer or Concessions are easy jobs for people who are new and a good way to be social and meet more parents. Runner keeps you on your feet as you take time cards to the data tables after each heat. Clerk of Course is good for people who are confident and able to keep hundreds of kids organized and lined up. Stroke and Turn may seem really intimidating but it's my favorite job. You don't have to have a swim background, and it's actually a great way to learn the sport if you don't have a background.

Data tables really require attention to detail and focus on interpreting sloppy handwriting, ensuring the timecard doesn't look weird, times are inputted into the computer correctly. We have had both great and really poor data people.

If you are a parent who has challenges volunteering on deck during meets talk to your team rep or volunteer coordinator about behind the scenes jobs. Maybe you're the parent that organizes any spirit wear early in the season, or plans the banquet, or does the Costco run to buy supplies for the concession stand midweek at a time that works for you.

We have one parent who every week prints all the B meet cards (6 to a page), breaks them all down and organizes by event. It takes her about 2hrs each Sunday night. She's a single mom and can't always attend B meets due to work commitments so it's her way of consistently volunteering each week even if no one ever sees her doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t you not let the delinquent families not swim? I know it totally sucks to punish a kid for their parents’ faults but maybe you need to actually enforce things? Don’t ban them for next season- make it the next meet.

+1, that seems like a great solutions, but the people on this board would rather complain anonymously instead of doing anything to change the status quo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t you not let the delinquent families not swim? I know it totally sucks to punish a kid for their parents’ faults but maybe you need to actually enforce things? Don’t ban them for next season- make it the next meet.

+1, that seems like a great solutions, but the people on this board would rather complain anonymously instead of doing anything to change the status quo.

This idea is floated every year and is always a source of early July musings at our pool. The reality is that the way many teams are run, there isn’t anyone with actual authority to block participation. It would take a board vote to amend the bylaws and I don’t see many boards that would be willing to bother with this. Even if they did, enforcement would be tough- you’d have to have a club manager or board member intercept and refund registration at the beginning of the year, and have high school and college aged coaches with the confidence and authority to tell a kid to get out of a lane when they show up to practice. And then on the back end, there could be repercussions in terms of the original member agreement a club member signed vs. the benefits of membership they have access to. We even worked in the off-season to see if we could institute a no-volunteer fee to be levied at the end of the season but gave up because of the complications.

Anyway, by late July, as a parent rep I mostly forget the annoyances of volunteer recruiting and just feel the happy glow of a fun season. It always works out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t you not let the delinquent families not swim? I know it totally sucks to punish a kid for their parents’ faults but maybe you need to actually enforce things? Don’t ban them for next season- make it the next meet.

+1, that seems like a great solutions, but the people on this board would rather complain anonymously instead of doing anything to change the status quo.

This idea is floated every year and is always a source of early July musings at our pool. The reality is that the way many teams are run, there isn’t anyone with actual authority to block participation. It would take a board vote to amend the bylaws and I don’t see many boards that would be willing to bother with this. Even if they did, enforcement would be tough- you’d have to have a club manager or board member intercept and refund registration at the beginning of the year, and have high school and college aged coaches with the confidence and authority to tell a kid to get out of a lane when they show up to practice. And then on the back end, there could be repercussions in terms of the original member agreement a club member signed vs. the benefits of membership they have access to. We even worked in the off-season to see if we could institute a no-volunteer fee to be levied at the end of the season but gave up because of the complications.

Anyway, by late July, as a parent rep I mostly forget the annoyances of volunteer recruiting and just feel the happy glow of a fun season. It always works out.

Interesting. Luckily at our pool, there are fmvery few families with swimmers who swim at A meets who fail to volunteer regularly. The B meets are a different beast and arguably so much more work. Very frustrating to see hundreds of kids swim and the same bedraggled volunteers running the show. I’ve started to sit a few B meets out to put pressure on those parents. I think maybe giving the families that DO volunteer some kind of extra credit could be a work around vis a vis the rules though. There are also ways to track and incentivize volunteer hours—a little fun competition? Winner gets a zero gravity lounger for the next season? Who knows. But some teams obviously need to make volunteering more fun.

[Anonymous]

Lol at the idea of incentivizing volunteering. I promise that the people who don’t volunteer will not be incentivized by public tracking (we’ve tried it) or prizes. People who don’t care don’t care. The people who would be excited about prizes or a more fun volunteering experience are already volunteering.

But…our team is only 120 kids with 100 consistently at meets, and we live in an area with A and B meets held on weekday evenings. Most swimmers swim both meets at some point during the season to make the numbers work, and there are few enough families that we all know who isn’t showing up. Or who signs up and flakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t you not let the delinquent families not swim? I know it totally sucks to punish a kid for their parents’ faults but maybe you need to actually enforce things? Don’t ban them for next season- make it the next meet.

+1, that seems like a great solutions, but the people on this board would rather complain anonymously instead of doing anything to change the status quo.

This idea is floated every year and is always a source of early July musings at our pool. The reality is that the way many teams are run, there isn’t anyone with actual authority to block participation. It would take a board vote to amend the bylaws and I don’t see many boards that would be willing to bother with this. Even if they did, enforcement would be tough- you’d have to have a club manager or board member intercept and refund registration at the beginning of the year, and have high school and college aged coaches with the confidence and authority to tell a kid to get out of a lane when they show up to practice. And then on the back end, there could be repercussions in terms of the original member agreement a club member signed vs. the benefits of membership they have access to. We even worked in the off-season to see if we could institute a no-volunteer fee to be levied at the end of the season but gave up because of the complications.

Anyway, by late July, as a parent rep I mostly forget the annoyances of volunteer recruiting and just feel the happy glow of a fun season. It always works out.

I wonder how many of those concerns are real vs boards composed entirely of lawyers pretending they are drafting by laws for fortune 500s.