Anonymous wrote:Our reps do not attend practice. Not usually. They attend meets and other events. They work on the seeding with the coaches and reach out to parents about meets. They handle the complaints. So many complaints. They arrange the practice times and who is in what lane.

They work with the Board and all of the volunteers. They do all the division meetings, etc.

I don’t understand why they would be involved in seeding (which is straight forward by data) or lane assignments, those are coaching duties.

Lots of emails… info about meets, reminders about that info, and complaints. Emails with coaches about some of these details and complaints. I suggest dedicating one email address to this and setting a time to deal with them each day so you are not constantly getting sucked into it. Maybe allow one coach to text if something is truly time-sensitive.

Our lead rep is on the board which is helpful for communicating pool/team issues.

Anonymous wrote:What is an A team rep?
You handle the A meet and another rep does B meets?
Our 2 reps do a little of everything. We frequently have 3 reps. Big swim team.

We have a really large team and there are 2 A meet reps and 2 B meet reps. It helps make the rep positions less like a full time job.

What is an A team rep?
You handle the A meet and another rep does B meets?
Our 2 reps do a little of everything. We frequently have 3 reps. Big swim team.

Our reps do not attend practice. Not usually. They attend meets and other events. They work on the seeding with the coaches and reach out to parents about meets. They handle the complaints. So many complaints. They arrange the practice times and who is in what lane.

They work with the Board and all of the volunteers. They do all the division meetings, etc.

Anonymous wrote:It’s 80 hours a week which includes the meets, the practices, the events, but then on top of that hours of board drama and interpersonal drama. Be aware that you will shadow for a season, but you will be left out of the infighting, etc bc no one wants you to back out.

This might be specific to your pool. I've been on our club's board for about 12 years. My DW was team rep for a few years. Of course we've had other reps too and I've never experienced and board drama.

I'm curious to hear what you mean by board drama. Care to share examples?

Anonymous wrote:Our pool chooses stay at home parents and teachers not working summers for a reason. It's a ton of work that just isn't compatible with a full time job.

NONE of our stay at homes or teachers want to do it. It is frustrating.

Anonymous wrote:It’s 80 hours a week which includes the meets, the practices, the events, but then on top of that hours of board drama and interpersonal drama. Be aware that you will shadow for a season, but you will be left out of the infighting, etc bc no one wants you to back out.

So minus the practices and meets how much time is it? Our team rep isn't required or asked to attend practices and I already attend every meet and team functions so trying to gangue how much additional time i will need to commit.

I definitely had no idea about the board drama. What to they fight about?

I certainly expect parent drama and stupid emails.

It’s 80 hours a week which includes the meets, the practices, the events, but then on top of that hours of board drama and interpersonal drama. Be aware that you will shadow for a season, but you will be left out of the infighting, etc bc no one wants you to back out.

OP here.
Thanks for the replies!
I would shadow for a season.

We have definitely had full-time working parents as team reps in the past and our coach does not expect the team rep to be at practices.

what makes it 80 hours a week?
Is it because they also attend practices?

Our pool has a decent volunteer base; social chair, someone who handles the major meet volunteers.

We always have 2 with someone shadowing for future years. It’s still a massive amount of work.

Our pool chooses stay at home parents and teachers not working summers for a reason. It's a ton of work that just isn't compatible with a full time job.

It is an incredible amount of work. I would think it is more work depending on how much support you have from your Board and volunteers. I think 80 hours is about right.

The people that do it with full time jobs rely heavily on Board members and coaches to do a lot. And even then it is still sooo much work.

I think it is a lot of time. It is also not something I would want to do without shadowing for a season first. During the summer it can be quite a lot.

It's a MASSIVE time commitment. 80 hours a week.

How much time do you devote to being an A team rep?

I was asked to be a team rep and i am trying to figure out if given my full-time job it is feasible. I will obviously also talk to the current team rep as well as a few former reps I know from our team, but also wanted to get a general consensus.