We do have signups for things, but no points or penalties. I do sign up to help with various items and events, but I also just jump in when I see something going on and I'm available. The team as a whole has given my kids so much over the years that it's the least I can do to not sit anymore.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tanterra does this. I think it’s around 17 points per family. Feels unfair to families where both parents are working during the summer.

Parents need to choose activities that work for them, or find solutions.

Summer swim worked for my family when other activities that cost more because they don’t rely on volunteers didn’t. I didn’t go to those activities and complain that they were unfair to my middle class family. I recognized that they weren’t for us.

It’s ok to say that summer swim isn’t for you. It’s also ok to problem solve. My teens are happy to work set up, take down, picking up things for you, for a price. Hire a babysitter and work a meet your kids aren’t in. Or arrange your schedule to watch your kids and work at the meets they do swim in.

Spinning off this comment, something I don't understand about the culture of summer swim at our pool is that all these strong, strapping teen swimmers leave at the end without lifting a finger at all to help while the parents are left to move all the chairs, tables, benches, umbrellas, etc. back into place. Some are wrought iron and heavy. Why can't each teen put one chair back into place or something on their way out?

Oh my god YES. We don't do swim team but it is huge at our community pool so I see how it functions. All these moms out there setting out chairs and taking out and putting back in ladders! Why the heck aren't their teenage kids doing this instead! These kids seem so spoiled. And why the moms and not the dads? It's ridiculous.

I'm the PP who suggested hiring other people's teenagers. I see a huge variation in this from pool to pool, and from family to family. Our pool does have some teenagers who help out, but could definitely have more. I see the same pattern in other activities my kids are in. In some families the kids don't help in any context, and I find that sad.

At the same time, by the end of the meet, my teens have usually helped with set up, and then spent the whole morning wrangling the little kids. Many days, they have a few minutes to scarf down some food before their lifeguarding shift begins. I've put in way more than my share of hours as stroke and turn. If a parent who chose not to come early for set up, and chose not to volunteer during the meet despite being there, signs up for take down, I don't feel the need to have my kid do that job for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think any of the “fun” social volunteer slots should be filled until the slots required to host a meet are filled. Great there is a Friday morning pancake breakfast but timers are more important when running a swim meet.

Personally I think the volunteer tasks should be stripped to a bare minimum. Only necessary ones like timing meets should count towards volunteer requirements. Kids dont need snacks, gift bags, pancake breakfasts, banquets. If someone wants to do that on their own time, fine. But dont pressure me into it.

So you make sure your kids don’t participate in the unnecessary things?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tanterra does this. I think it’s around 17 points per family. Feels unfair to families where both parents are working during the summer.

Parents need to choose activities that work for them, or find solutions.

Summer swim worked for my family when other activities that cost more because they don’t rely on volunteers didn’t. I didn’t go to those activities and complain that they were unfair to my middle class family. I recognized that they weren’t for us.

It’s ok to say that summer swim isn’t for you. It’s also ok to problem solve. My teens are happy to work set up, take down, picking up things for you, for a price. Hire a babysitter and work a meet your kids aren’t in. Or arrange your schedule to watch your kids and work at the meets they do swim in.

Spinning off this comment, something I don't understand about the culture of summer swim at our pool is that all these strong, strapping teen swimmers leave at the end without lifting a finger at all to help while the parents are left to move all the chairs, tables, benches, umbrellas, etc. back into place. Some are wrought iron and heavy. Why can't each teen put one chair back into place or something on their way out?

Oh my god YES. We don't do swim team but it is huge at our community pool so I see how it functions. All these moms out there setting out chairs and taking out and putting back in ladders! Why the heck aren't their teenage kids doing this instead! These kids seem so spoiled. And why the moms and not the dads? It's ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think any of the “fun” social volunteer slots should be filled until the slots required to host a meet are filled. Great there is a Friday morning pancake breakfast but timers are more important when running a swim meet.

Personally I think the volunteer tasks should be stripped to a bare minimum. Only necessary ones like timing meets should count towards volunteer requirements. Kids dont need snacks, gift bags, pancake breakfasts, banquets. If someone wants to do that on their own time, fine. But dont pressure me into it.

This is my proposal - assign every family x number of volunteer slots per swimmer ahead of time. People are welcome to swap slots.

If someone doesn’t show up for their slot, it goes up for auction. The no-show is responsible for paying the replacement volunteer.

Anonymous wrote:The concessions price gouging is another story

View it as fundraising - nobody is making a living off of it. You are always free to bring all your own stuff.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6 points per family. Some jobs reserved for new families. Timing and officiating is 1 point at A and B meets. Certain non-meet related jobs are multiple points like banquet organizer or donut delivery person

Donut delivery is more points than timing or being an official for hours at a meet?! That’s crazy. Is the donut delivery person paying out of their own pocket or something?

+1000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think maybe we say each family needs to volunteer for at least 3 things during the season but we’ve been in it so long that I don’t know what the official rules are any more and I don’t think anyone is really counting. Usually we can fill all the jobs with a bit of scrambling/begging for timers. The families who volunteer a lot get acknowledged at the banquet and get to go first in the food line which is a pretty big incentive.

Most parents on our team work, including pretty much all the “super volunteers” and team reps.

I'm hoping this is sarcasm.

Me too. Although it made me laugh 😆

I’m not the poster who said that. But why do you think it’s sarcasm? Our team is close to 300 members and at our banquet last year, it took forever to get food.

We have to get 10 points a family. There doesn’t seem to be any enforcement of this and there are families that never volunteer (and there’s no buy out option). It’s a really strange environment with parents - like there’s some sort of hierarchy of volunteering and the “best” jobs are done by a clique of the “in-crowd”. I’m not in middle school anymore so I couldn’t care less, but the discussion between timers yesterday made it very clear that some of them were angling to be the head timer. lol…

Anonymous wrote:No buyout at our pool. If you don't fulfill your hours, you will be ineligible to register the following year.

Has that situation happened yet? And if yes, what were the steps for resolution.

No buyout at our pool. If you don't fulfill your hours, you will be ineligible to register the following year.

No buyout at our pool. There is a "fine," if you don't earn all your points. One of our jobs is bugging the people who don't volunteer enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our is something like 15 hours for a family with 2+ kids, but you can earn hours (in very small increments) for things like bringing ice. There are also some season-long jobs that count as a full complement of volunteer hours for the season, like being the ribbons person or planning one of the social events. We don't find it hard to meet the hours if one parent finds something to do at a meet each week (timing, data table, concessions, etc.), but it seems like they're always pleading for more timers, marshalls, etc. so I think something is off in the overall calculus of how many hours are required per family (or there are people not doing them and not feeling guilty about it). I have no idea what the consequences are for not doing your hours; I think we've always gone a bit over due to picking up some of these unfilled positions along the way.

Oh, and there isn't a buyout - the issue is bodies, not dollars.

Same at our pool, no buyout. I’m not sure what the consequence is for not volunteering enough. So far I don’t think it’s been a problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think maybe we say each family needs to volunteer for at least 3 things during the season but we’ve been in it so long that I don’t know what the official rules are any more and I don’t think anyone is really counting. Usually we can fill all the jobs with a bit of scrambling/begging for timers. The families who volunteer a lot get acknowledged at the banquet and get to go first in the food line which is a pretty big incentive.

Most parents on our team work, including pretty much all the “super volunteers” and team reps.

I'm hoping this is sarcasm.

Me too. Although it made me laugh 😆