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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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

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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

Does your team require parents to provide food for concessions? If so, that's outrageous. Our little team pays all overhead for concessions and makes sure to price items so that we at least make some money from them.[/quote] Yes, parents bring food for concessions and for judges. Not cheap at all. [/quote]
No one is bringing concessions for judges (assuming you mean stroke & turn?) except for winter club swims or high level meets like all-stars.  If you have an all-stars swimmer and aren't doing your volunteer shifts - shame on you.[/quote]

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