what does your summer team do to recruit officials?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your team has year round swimmers, surely some of those parents are trained as S&T judges, etc? That's where we get ours and we usually have enough so they only work half the meet.

There are so many year-round swim parents who do not volunteer it makes me sad- some of the parents are from NCap, which of course has a pretty hefty fine if you don’t time during the year so maybe they are burnt out, who knows.

We have two refs and four S&T, which means they are all working almost every meet- is that normal?

Our summer swim team of about 185 swimmers has 3 refs and 8 S&T. The stroke and turns generally work half of each meet while the refs generally work the entire meet.

We have one ref, a few stroke and turn, that's nice you can rotate. Our ref never gets a break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and its really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and its really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

This is rediculous. Just get certified. If your kids swim year round get certified in PVS. Anyone can take the clinic at least in MCSL.

Once you are certified tell them you aren’t willing to do anything else until the officiating is fairly shared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and it’s really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

Ive seen reps have to exercise discretion in who can be an official. This is a critical job and sometimes meet behavior and/or reliability may indicate someone may not be an optimal choice, at least not yet. Our team often solicits people directly for these roles vs. letting people elect to be an official. I’m not saying this applies to you, but there are some swim parents that shouldn’t be officials and they’re not entitled to be. As others have said, these are leadership positions on deck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and it’s really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

Ive seen reps have to exercise discretion in who can be an official. This is a critical job and sometimes meet behavior and/or reliability may indicate someone may not be an optimal choice, at least not yet. Our team often solicits people directly for these roles vs. letting people elect to be an official. I’m not saying this applies to you, but there are some swim parents that shouldn’t be officials and they’re not entitled to be. As others have said, these are leadership positions on deck.

PP here. Other than parents who cannot put aside partisanship, I do not agree with this.

A similar situation developed in USA swimming that eventually led to the National organization creating new standards, known as R9.

Under R9, basically it is the job of LSCs to identify officials in need of more mentoring and support and give it to them. This applies to all officials including those already certified. It is a continuing education model.

For officials who are working towards certification it is not sufficient to deem someone not ready for advancement. The evaluator must identify gaps and provide a plan of action for the student to improve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and it’s really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

Ive seen reps have to exercise discretion in who can be an official. This is a critical job and sometimes meet behavior and/or reliability may indicate someone may not be an optimal choice, at least not yet. Our team often solicits people directly for these roles vs. letting people elect to be an official. I’m not saying this applies to you, but there are some swim parents that shouldn’t be officials and they’re not entitled to be. As others have said, these are leadership positions on deck.

PP here. Other than parents who cannot put aside partisanship, I do not agree with this.

A similar situation developed in USA swimming that eventually led to the National organization creating new standards, known as R9.

Under R9, basically it is the job of LSCs to identify officials in need of more mentoring and support and give it to them. This applies to all officials including those already certified. It is a continuing education model.

For officials who are working towards certification it is not sufficient to deem someone not ready for advancement. The evaluator must identify gaps and provide a plan of action for the student to improve.

As written, you’re talking about retaining existing officials. I’m talking about parents that aren’t yet officials. I’ve seen parents that self-nominate as officials that flaked on other volunteer commitments, broke rules while serving as volunteers, etc. The advice that they should get certified and demand to fill officials roles or nothing else is flawed in my opinion. They are not entitled to officials roles until they’ve demonstrated that they’re reliable and willing to follow the rules. Especially in the absence of the latter, they have no business serving in a role where the primary purpose is to enforce rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and its really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

This is rediculous. Just get certified. If your kids swim year round get certified in PVS. Anyone can take the clinic at least in MCSL.

Once you are certified tell them you aren’t willing to do anything else until the officiating is fairly shared.

Getting PVS certified is a great idea. It’s a lot of work but not the least bit political in my experience, and the leadership is very supportive. No summer team is going to turn away a PVS-certified official!

[Anonymous]

We send a lot of targeted emails, and we also have our current officials talk up their roles to get interest for the next season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and it’s really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

Ive seen reps have to exercise discretion in who can be an official. This is a critical job and sometimes meet behavior and/or reliability may indicate someone may not be an optimal choice, at least not yet. Our team often solicits people directly for these roles vs. letting people elect to be an official. I’m not saying this applies to you, but there are some swim parents that shouldn’t be officials and they’re not entitled to be. As others have said, these are leadership positions on deck.

PP here. Other than parents who cannot put aside partisanship, I do not agree with this.

A similar situation developed in USA swimming that eventually led to the National organization creating new standards, known as R9.

Under R9, basically it is the job of LSCs to identify officials in need of more mentoring and support and give it to them. This applies to all officials including those already certified. It is a continuing education model.

For officials who are working towards certification it is not sufficient to deem someone not ready for advancement. The evaluator must identify gaps and provide a plan of action for the student to improve.

As written, you’re talking about retaining existing officials. I’m talking about parents that aren’t yet officials. I’ve seen parents that self-nominate as officials that flaked on other volunteer commitments, broke rules while serving as volunteers, etc. The advice that they should get certified and demand to fill officials roles or nothing else is flawed in my opinion. They are not entitled to officials roles until they’ve demonstrated that they’re reliable and willing to follow the rules. Especially in the absence of the latter, they have no business serving in a role where the primary purpose is to enforce rules.

Maybe they are flaking out because the reps assign them undesirable bs jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and it’s really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

Ive seen reps have to exercise discretion in who can be an official. This is a critical job and sometimes meet behavior and/or reliability may indicate someone may not be an optimal choice, at least not yet. Our team often solicits people directly for these roles vs. letting people elect to be an official. I’m not saying this applies to you, but there are some swim parents that shouldn’t be officials and they’re not entitled to be. As others have said, these are leadership positions on deck.

PP here. Other than parents who cannot put aside partisanship, I do not agree with this.

A similar situation developed in USA swimming that eventually led to the National organization creating new standards, known as R9.

Under R9, basically it is the job of LSCs to identify officials in need of more mentoring and support and give it to them. This applies to all officials including those already certified. It is a continuing education model.

For officials who are working towards certification it is not sufficient to deem someone not ready for advancement. The evaluator must identify gaps and provide a plan of action for the student to improve.

As written, you’re talking about retaining existing officials. I’m talking about parents that aren’t yet officials. I’ve seen parents that self-nominate as officials that flaked on other volunteer commitments, broke rules while serving as volunteers, etc. The advice that they should get certified and demand to fill officials roles or nothing else is flawed in my opinion. They are not entitled to officials roles until they’ve demonstrated that they’re reliable and willing to follow the rules. Especially in the absence of the latter, they have no business serving in a role where the primary purpose is to enforce rules.

Maybe they are flaking out because the reps assign them undesirable bs jobs.

There seems to be a theme on this board whenever volunteers are discussed. I don't know if it's always the same person or people, but inevitably the suggestion is made that summer swim is full of make-work resulting from a conspiracy of flexibly scheduled parents trying to keep others from rising up through their cliques. That couldn't be further from my own experience and I'm sorry for those whose experiences have been otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and it’s really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

Ive seen reps have to exercise discretion in who can be an official. This is a critical job and sometimes meet behavior and/or reliability may indicate someone may not be an optimal choice, at least not yet. Our team often solicits people directly for these roles vs. letting people elect to be an official. I’m not saying this applies to you, but there are some swim parents that shouldn’t be officials and they’re not entitled to be. As others have said, these are leadership positions on deck.

PP here. Other than parents who cannot put aside partisanship, I do not agree with this.

A similar situation developed in USA swimming that eventually led to the National organization creating new standards, known as R9.

Under R9, basically it is the job of LSCs to identify officials in need of more mentoring and support and give it to them. This applies to all officials including those already certified. It is a continuing education model.

For officials who are working towards certification it is not sufficient to deem someone not ready for advancement. The evaluator must identify gaps and provide a plan of action for the student to improve.

As written, you’re talking about retaining existing officials. I’m talking about parents that aren’t yet officials. I’ve seen parents that self-nominate as officials that flaked on other volunteer commitments, broke rules while serving as volunteers, etc. The advice that they should get certified and demand to fill officials roles or nothing else is flawed in my opinion. They are not entitled to officials roles until they’ve demonstrated that they’re reliable and willing to follow the rules. Especially in the absence of the latter, they have no business serving in a role where the primary purpose is to enforce rules.

Maybe they are flaking out because the reps assign them undesirable bs jobs.

Huh? Ours reps don't assign jobs. People pick what they want from a long list of available jobs. So no, this isn't why.
I can't think of "bs jobs" in summer swim. Everything is pretty critical. There is way too much work and too many required positions to fill to squander volunteer time on "bs jobs". No one is making up jobs for the sake of it. Most teams are trying to cut jobs to make sure the most important stuff gets filled.
That said, the notion that people should only volunteer if it's something "desirable" to them is silly. It's frustrating when people only want to help in a way they prefer to help. That's counter to the spirit of volunteering, which is to go where help is needed (this applies in life in general, not just summer swim).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a problem unique to swimming. It's the always the same small set of parents that are the Boy Scout leaders, Girl Scout leaders, soccer coaches, basketball coaches, baseball coaches, swim officials, etc, etc.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of them? Oh right, you don’t actually want to put in the time and work, you just want to complain that they don’t bow and scrape when you show up to do your few required volunteer hours.

We've offered multiple times and told no. The rep asks for specific volunteers to do things and then when you offer you get ignored or told no. They just want to complain. Our rep does the absolute minimum and it’s really frustrating as several of us are willing to help or take over. They self elect every year and don't give anyone the option.

Ive seen reps have to exercise discretion in who can be an official. This is a critical job and sometimes meet behavior and/or reliability may indicate someone may not be an optimal choice, at least not yet. Our team often solicits people directly for these roles vs. letting people elect to be an official. I’m not saying this applies to you, but there are some swim parents that shouldn’t be officials and they’re not entitled to be. As others have said, these are leadership positions on deck.

PP here. Other than parents who cannot put aside partisanship, I do not agree with this.

A similar situation developed in USA swimming that eventually led to the National organization creating new standards, known as R9.

Under R9, basically it is the job of LSCs to identify officials in need of more mentoring and support and give it to them. This applies to all officials including those already certified. It is a continuing education model.

For officials who are working towards certification it is not sufficient to deem someone not ready for advancement. The evaluator must identify gaps and provide a plan of action for the student to improve.

As written, you’re talking about retaining existing officials. I’m talking about parents that aren’t yet officials. I’ve seen parents that self-nominate as officials that flaked on other volunteer commitments, broke rules while serving as volunteers, etc. The advice that they should get certified and demand to fill officials roles or nothing else is flawed in my opinion. They are not entitled to officials roles until they’ve demonstrated that they’re reliable and willing to follow the rules. Especially in the absence of the latter, they have no business serving in a role where the primary purpose is to enforce rules.

Maybe they are flaking out because the reps assign them undesirable bs jobs.

Huh? Ours reps don't assign jobs. People pick what they want from a long list of available jobs. So no, this isn't why.
I can't think of "bs jobs" in summer swim. Everything is pretty critical. There is way too much work and too many required positions to fill to squander volunteer time on "bs jobs". No one is making up jobs for the sake of it. Most teams are trying to cut jobs to make sure the most important stuff gets filled.
That said, the notion that people should only volunteer if it's something "desirable" to them is silly. It's frustrating when people only want to help in a way they prefer to help. That's counter to the spirit of volunteering, which is to go where help is needed (this applies in life in general, not just summer swim).

Some posters are describing teams where the reps control who gets what job.

Our team isn’t like that. Swimtopia first come first served except Ref and Starter.