Families that never volunteer - swim team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I volunteered when my kids where on swim team, but I really dislike this whole concept. It shuts out a entire group of families who cannot volunteer or afford the fee.

In my opinion, kid swimming should be pared WAY down (no need for all this food, awards, blah blah blah). Kids who are talented and want to compete should be able to do so without depending on parent availability or income. We should not have to incentivize swim team for kids who perhaps wouldn't want to participate without the grub and medals.

This!

I belong to a pool with a swim team. We don’t do swim team but I see a lot of how it operates. There are a ton of activities people are pressured into volunteering for that are. Not. Necessary. Concessions. Sundae fundraisers. Banquets. Friggin gift bags. Cut that stuff out and you have a lot less need for volunteers. And then I see moms doing things teens on the team should be doing. Like setting up chairs on deck. Why aren’t the kids doing that??

It looks miserable.

With all due respect, if you don’t participate in swim team, how are you in a position to determine which jobs are and aren’t necessary? I’m pretty sure you’ve posted this similar response on 3 swim team volunteering-related threads. Despite several rationale explanations as to why you may be misinformed, you continue on with this.

I’m a team rep and I work full time. We have continued to cut volunteer roles, taking on the work ourselves. It still has to get done by someone and the money has to come from somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The families who complete their volunteer hours at our pool get an early team registration link (our management board is always threatening to cap our team size). Since the threat hasn’t been fulfilled yet, it’s not a huge prize but it’s something.

Volunteering at B meets is a lot more work than volunteering at A meets. Many of our B meet only swim parents who are in the know sign up to volunteer only at A meets.

It does make you summer swim savvy but I also find that it makes you a little bit of an a-hole to purposely volunteer at the meets your kid isn’t fast enough to make because volunteering at those meets is easier than volunteering at the meets your kid is swimming in. I totally get the people that do it because they are wrangling little ones at the B meets, but otherwise those people are also part of the problem because they are snagging volunteer slots from people who are actually at that meet.

All A meet kids swim in the B meets, though. So the "A Meet families" can just as easily work the B meets. I don't see your point.

In MCSL, there are some kids that max out in A meets. They can swim 3+IM in one week. So they don’t do B meets at all. We have a large team and there are a handful of kids like this, but most do both A and B

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The families who complete their volunteer hours at our pool get an early team registration link (our management board is always threatening to cap our team size). Since the threat hasn’t been fulfilled yet, it’s not a huge prize but it’s something.

Volunteering at B meets is a lot more work than volunteering at A meets. Many of our B meet only swim parents who are in the know sign up to volunteer only at A meets.

It does make you summer swim savvy but I also find that it makes you a little bit of an a-hole to purposely volunteer at the meets your kid isn’t fast enough to make because volunteering at those meets is easier than volunteering at the meets your kid is swimming in. I totally get the people that do it because they are wrangling little ones at the B meets, but otherwise those people are also part of the problem because they are snagging volunteer slots from people who are actually at that meet.

All A meet kids swim in the B meets, though. So the "A Meet families" can just as easily work the B meets. I don't see your point.

In MCSL, there are some kids that max out in A meets. They can swim 3+IM in one week. So they don’t do B meets at all. We have a large team and there are a handful of kids like this, but most do both A and B

So across all northern va, MD and DC, your point applies to a tiny number of kids who live in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

I am amazed that some people only have to work at 2 or 3 meets and that's the whole requirement.

[Anonymous]

Swim team is relatively inexpensive because it’s contingent on parent volunteers. There is no other way to run it. Even the stroke and turn judges, starters etc are volunteers.

Everyone has to pull their weight in order for this to work. Both of us work outside the home and have kids in camp - every year for 6 years we’ve figured it out because we’ve had to.

The other option is to not participate. I do believe exceptions can/should be made for extenuating circumstances (sick parent etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The families who complete their volunteer hours at our pool get an early team registration link (our management board is always threatening to cap our team size). Since the threat hasn’t been fulfilled yet, it’s not a huge prize but it’s something.

Volunteering at B meets is a lot more work than volunteering at A meets. Many of our B meet only swim parents who are in the know sign up to volunteer only at A meets.

It does make you summer swim savvy but I also find that it makes you a little bit of an a-hole to purposely volunteer at the meets your kid isn’t fast enough to make because volunteering at those meets is easier than volunteering at the meets your kid is swimming in. I totally get the people that do it because they are wrangling little ones at the B meets, but otherwise those people are also part of the problem because they are snagging volunteer slots from people who are actually at that meet.

Nonsense. Our team requires you work at 5 meets. If my kid only swims in two B meets all season, I still have to work at extra meets to hit 5. I don't need to wrangle kids, so I will take the easier A meet jobs whenever I can get them. A meet parents do sometimes get pissy about B meet parents working "their" meet because they KNOW the A meet jobs are much easier than the B meet jobs. Too bad so sad!

I mean I would question the wisdom of participating in summer swim if your kid only goes to 2 meets all season so that you’re having to go to meets for no other reason than to meet your volunteer requirements. Props to you for taking the meet volunteering requirement seriously though, most of our parents whose kids only swim at 2 meets all year volunteer at those meets and that’s it and we don’t penalize them for that. It’s not “their” meet, but you can understand why people taking volunteer jobs at meets their kids aren’t at is annoying because then it forces other people to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming at. Volunteering at swim meets is already tenuous and obviously the source of frustration during summer swim, and if it becomes an exercise in people having to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming in that does not help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The families who complete their volunteer hours at our pool get an early team registration link (our management board is always threatening to cap our team size). Since the threat hasn’t been fulfilled yet, it’s not a huge prize but it’s something.

Volunteering at B meets is a lot more work than volunteering at A meets. Many of our B meet only swim parents who are in the know sign up to volunteer only at A meets.

It does make you summer swim savvy but I also find that it makes you a little bit of an a-hole to purposely volunteer at the meets your kid isn’t fast enough to make because volunteering at those meets is easier than volunteering at the meets your kid is swimming in. I totally get the people that do it because they are wrangling little ones at the B meets, but otherwise those people are also part of the problem because they are snagging volunteer slots from people who are actually at that meet.

Nonsense. Our team requires you work at 5 meets. If my kid only swims in two B meets all season, I still have to work at extra meets to hit 5. I don't need to wrangle kids, so I will take the easier A meet jobs whenever I can get them. A meet parents do sometimes get pissy about B meet parents working "their" meet because they KNOW the A meet jobs are much easier than the B meet jobs. Too bad so sad!

I mean I would question the wisdom of participating in summer swim if your kid only goes to 2 meets all season so that you’re having to go to meets for no other reason than to meet your volunteer requirements. Props to you for taking the meet volunteering requirement seriously though, most of our parents whose kids only swim at 2 meets all year volunteer at those meets and that’s it and we don’t penalize them for that. It’s not “their” meet, but you can understand why people taking volunteer jobs at meets their kids aren’t at is annoying because then it forces other people to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming at. Volunteering at swim meets is already tenuous and obviously the source of frustration during summer swim, and if it becomes an exercise in people having to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming in that does not help.

You must have little kids. It super common for teens who do summer swim to have a lot of other commitments (camps, HS sports, job, etc.) My son's JV summer league team played every Monday so he missed almost all the B meets and he's not an A swimmer. I still did all my volunteer jobs (4 meets for our team but like pp, I did 3 of them at the home A meets b/c they are better jobs.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am amazed that some people only have to work at 2 or 3 meets and that's the whole requirement.

If you have a large team (say 150+ kids) and your volunteer coordinator is on top of things and tracking volunteer hours you shouldn’t need to volunteer more than 3 times a season. It does require people being forced to pull their weight though and not just allowing the same families to step up week after week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The families who complete their volunteer hours at our pool get an early team registration link (our management board is always threatening to cap our team size). Since the threat hasn’t been fulfilled yet, it’s not a huge prize but it’s something.

Volunteering at B meets is a lot more work than volunteering at A meets. Many of our B meet only swim parents who are in the know sign up to volunteer only at A meets.

It does make you summer swim savvy but I also find that it makes you a little bit of an a-hole to purposely volunteer at the meets your kid isn’t fast enough to make because volunteering at those meets is easier than volunteering at the meets your kid is swimming in. I totally get the people that do it because they are wrangling little ones at the B meets, but otherwise those people are also part of the problem because they are snagging volunteer slots from people who are actually at that meet.

Nonsense. Our team requires you work at 5 meets. If my kid only swims in two B meets all season, I still have to work at extra meets to hit 5. I don't need to wrangle kids, so I will take the easier A meet jobs whenever I can get them. A meet parents do sometimes get pissy about B meet parents working "their" meet because they KNOW the A meet jobs are much easier than the B meet jobs. Too bad so sad!

I mean I would question the wisdom of participating in summer swim if your kid only goes to 2 meets all season so that you’re having to go to meets for no other reason than to meet your volunteer requirements. Props to you for taking the meet volunteering requirement seriously though, most of our parents whose kids only swim at 2 meets all year volunteer at those meets and that’s it and we don’t penalize them for that. It’s not “their” meet, but you can understand why people taking volunteer jobs at meets their kids aren’t at is annoying because then it forces other people to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming at. Volunteering at swim meets is already tenuous and obviously the source of frustration during summer swim, and if it becomes an exercise in people having to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming in that does not help.

You must have little kids. It super common for teens who do summer swim to have a lot of other commitments (camps, HS sports, job, etc.) My son's JV summer league team played every Monday so he missed almost all the B meets and he's not an A swimmer. I still did all my volunteer jobs (4 meets for our team but like pp, I did 3 of them at the home A meets b/c they are better jobs.)

No, I have MS kids. And if my kids’ other activities only allowed for 2 B meets I’d probably say it’s maybe time to drop summer swim because I’m not spending my time volunteering at meets you’re not participating in. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The families who complete their volunteer hours at our pool get an early team registration link (our management board is always threatening to cap our team size). Since the threat hasn’t been fulfilled yet, it’s not a huge prize but it’s something.

Volunteering at B meets is a lot more work than volunteering at A meets. Many of our B meet only swim parents who are in the know sign up to volunteer only at A meets.

It does make you summer swim savvy but I also find that it makes you a little bit of an a-hole to purposely volunteer at the meets your kid isn’t fast enough to make because volunteering at those meets is easier than volunteering at the meets your kid is swimming in. I totally get the people that do it because they are wrangling little ones at the B meets, but otherwise those people are also part of the problem because they are snagging volunteer slots from people who are actually at that meet.

Nonsense. Our team requires you work at 5 meets. If my kid only swims in two B meets all season, I still have to work at extra meets to hit 5. I don't need to wrangle kids, so I will take the easier A meet jobs whenever I can get them. A meet parents do sometimes get pissy about B meet parents working "their" meet because they KNOW the A meet jobs are much easier than the B meet jobs. Too bad so sad!

I mean I would question the wisdom of participating in summer swim if your kid only goes to 2 meets all season so that you’re having to go to meets for no other reason than to meet your volunteer requirements. Props to you for taking the meet volunteering requirement seriously though, most of our parents whose kids only swim at 2 meets all year volunteer at those meets and that’s it and we don’t penalize them for that. It’s not “their” meet, but you can understand why people taking volunteer jobs at meets their kids aren’t at is annoying because then it forces other people to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming at. Volunteering at swim meets is already tenuous and obviously the source of frustration during summer swim, and if it becomes an exercise in people having to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming in that does not help.

This is a weird POV to me. There isn't really a relationship between "meet you are working at" and "meet your kid is swimming in." If my kid doesn't eat pizza, am I not allowed to sign up to help pass out the pizza after practice? For our team, the A meet swimmers also swim the B meets. So if you have an A meet swimmer, you will still be at the B meet, so you can volunteer at either one. Most people don't work every meet their kids swim in. Some people find the A meet times (Saturday mornings) much more convenient for volunteering than the B meet times (Monday nights). We have to do 5 meets-a lot of kids don't swim in 5 meets all summer. The A meet slots on our team go first, B meets are much harder to staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am amazed that some people only have to work at 2 or 3 meets and that's the whole requirement.

If you have a large team (say 150+ kids) and your volunteer coordinator is on top of things and tracking volunteer hours you shouldn’t need to volunteer more than 3 times a season. It does require people being forced to pull their weight though and not just allowing the same families to step up week after week.

Hmm. we have a big team (200 kids) and have to do 5 jobs each season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The families who complete their volunteer hours at our pool get an early team registration link (our management board is always threatening to cap our team size). Since the threat hasn’t been fulfilled yet, it’s not a huge prize but it’s something.

Volunteering at B meets is a lot more work than volunteering at A meets. Many of our B meet only swim parents who are in the know sign up to volunteer only at A meets.

It does make you summer swim savvy but I also find that it makes you a little bit of an a-hole to purposely volunteer at the meets your kid isn’t fast enough to make because volunteering at those meets is easier than volunteering at the meets your kid is swimming in. I totally get the people that do it because they are wrangling little ones at the B meets, but otherwise those people are also part of the problem because they are snagging volunteer slots from people who are actually at that meet.

Nonsense. Our team requires you work at 5 meets. If my kid only swims in two B meets all season, I still have to work at extra meets to hit 5. I don't need to wrangle kids, so I will take the easier A meet jobs whenever I can get them. A meet parents do sometimes get pissy about B meet parents working "their" meet because they KNOW the A meet jobs are much easier than the B meet jobs. Too bad so sad!

Our team has the opposite issue. B meets are worth more “points” due to their length. Many families who kids typically also swim A meets volunteer for B meets over A Meets, leaving families without A meet swimmers to work A meets.

Our team has jobs as worth the same whether its a B meet or A meet. So A meet concessions is 3 hours, B meet concessions is 5 hours. A meet Marshall is 3 hours, B meet marshall is 5 hours. Of course the A meet jobs go first. A meet parents would prefer B meet parents stop taking their jobs but its a first come first served situation with the signuprs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am amazed that some people only have to work at 2 or 3 meets and that's the whole requirement.

If you have a large team (say 150+ kids) and your volunteer coordinator is on top of things and tracking volunteer hours you shouldn’t need to volunteer more than 3 times a season. It does require people being forced to pull their weight though and not just allowing the same families to step up week after week.

Hmm. we have a big team (200 kids) and have to do 5 jobs each season.

Unless your team is doing an excessive amount of non-meet related events (and I know some teams do) that need volunteers, a team with say 100-125 different families should not need each family to volunteer for 5 jobs a season. I’m terrible at math but that amounts to 500-625 total volunteer jobs per season, which just isn’t happening at most pools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

The families who complete their volunteer hours at our pool get an early team registration link (our management board is always threatening to cap our team size). Since the threat hasn’t been fulfilled yet, it’s not a huge prize but it’s something.

Volunteering at B meets is a lot more work than volunteering at A meets. Many of our B meet only swim parents who are in the know sign up to volunteer only at A meets.

It does make you summer swim savvy but I also find that it makes you a little bit of an a-hole to purposely volunteer at the meets your kid isn’t fast enough to make because volunteering at those meets is easier than volunteering at the meets your kid is swimming in. I totally get the people that do it because they are wrangling little ones at the B meets, but otherwise those people are also part of the problem because they are snagging volunteer slots from people who are actually at that meet.

Nonsense. Our team requires you work at 5 meets. If my kid only swims in two B meets all season, I still have to work at extra meets to hit 5. I don't need to wrangle kids, so I will take the easier A meet jobs whenever I can get them. A meet parents do sometimes get pissy about B meet parents working "their" meet because they KNOW the A meet jobs are much easier than the B meet jobs. Too bad so sad!

I mean I would question the wisdom of participating in summer swim if your kid only goes to 2 meets all season so that you’re having to go to meets for no other reason than to meet your volunteer requirements. Props to you for taking the meet volunteering requirement seriously though, most of our parents whose kids only swim at 2 meets all year volunteer at those meets and that’s it and we don’t penalize them for that. It’s not “their” meet, but you can understand why people taking volunteer jobs at meets their kids aren’t at is annoying because then it forces other people to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming at. Volunteering at swim meets is already tenuous and obviously the source of frustration during summer swim, and if it becomes an exercise in people having to volunteer at meets their kids aren’t swimming in that does not help.

You must have little kids. It super common for teens who do summer swim to have a lot of other commitments (camps, HS sports, job, etc.) My son's JV summer league team played every Monday so he missed almost all the B meets and he's not an A swimmer. I still did all my volunteer jobs (4 meets for our team but like pp, I did 3 of them at the home A meets b/c they are better jobs.)

No, I have MS kids. And if my kids’ other activities only allowed for 2 B meets I’d probably say it’s maybe time to drop summer swim because I’m not spending my time volunteering at meets you’re not participating in. YMMV.

NP-Lots of older kids do summer swim for the socializing and don't even go to the meets. We have a big team though. Parents still have to volunteer. Lots of people are willing to do that so their kid can participate.

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I volunteered when my kids where on swim team, but I really dislike this whole concept. It shuts out a entire group of families who cannot volunteer or afford the fee.

In my opinion, kid swimming should be pared WAY down (no need for all this food, awards, blah blah blah). Kids who are talented and want to compete should be able to do so without depending on parent availability or income. We should not have to incentivize swim team for kids who perhaps wouldn't want to participate without the grub and medals.

This!

I belong to a pool with a swim team. We don’t do swim team but I see a lot of how it operates. There are a ton of activities people are pressured into volunteering for that are. Not. Necessary. Concessions. Sundae fundraisers. Banquets. Friggin gift bags. Cut that stuff out and you have a lot less need for volunteers. And then I see moms doing things teens on the team should be doing. Like setting up chairs on deck. Why aren’t the kids doing that??

It looks miserable.

With all due respect, if you don’t participate in swim team, how are you in a position to determine which jobs are and aren’t necessary? I’m pretty sure you’ve posted this similar response on 3 swim team volunteering-related threads. Despite several rationale explanations as to why you may be misinformed, you continue on with this.

I’m a team rep and I work full time. We have continued to cut volunteer roles, taking on the work ourselves. It still has to get done by someone and the money has to come from somewhere.

+1
That PP is 100% clueless yet feels the need to explain how to make it better/easier. Typical DCUM.