Volunteer Jobs and Swim Meet Flow

To make sense of the activity of a swim meet and the various volunteer jobs that are involved, one can picture the meet as a circular flow of swimmers from the team area, through events in the pool, and back to the team area (frequently by way of the concessions area). The times from the swimmers' events have a separate flow that carries them to the meet managers who produce a stream of scores and ribbons as shown below.

Kid Finders

The kid finder locates the swimmers in the team area, confirms the event they are swimming and sends them onto the ready benches and the lane organizers. Two adults are needed for this job. This job is most helpful to the Coach since she does not have to break her concentration during the meet in order to “find” her swimmers. (Complexity: Low, Training: Minutes, Fun Factor: Medium, Pace: Medium)

Lane Organizers

The lane organizers check heat and lane assignments for each swimmer and line them up for the event. They should have a copy of their team’s score sheet so they can see if all their swimmers for an event have come to the benches. The lane organizers are not the kid finders. (Complexity: Medium, Training: Minutes, Fun Factor: High, Pace: Medium)

Starter

The starter begins each event by advising swimmers, judges, and timers of the specific event by name, heat number, and / or appropriate order of strokes. Announcements may be made about combining of heats or other changes occurring during the meet. He/she also fires the starting gun and calls false starts. (Complexity: High, Training: Several meets, Fun Factor: High?, Pace: Fast)

Stroke and Turn Judge

Each team provides 2 stroke and turn judges at each meet. These judges observe the swimmers during a heat to ensure that their strokes and turns are legal according to USS Handbook rules. (Complexity: Medium, Training: 1 hour, Fun Factor: Medium, Pace: Medium)

Timers

Each Team provides half the needed timers. Lane timers make up the largest group of volunteers. There must be 3 timers per lane. One timer does extra duty as a “recorder" by writing all three times on the “Event Sheet” and giving the sheet to the sheet runner. The Head timer is an experienced timer who hands out the stopwatches and explains how to use them he/she acts as roving timer in case a lane timer misses the start or has a watch malfunction. (Complexity: Low, Training: Seconds, Fun Factor: High, Pace: Fast)

Sheet Runners

After several events have been swum, the sheet runners pick up the completed sheets from the timers and deliver them to the scoring table. (Complexity: Low, Training: Minutes, Fun Factor: Medium, Pace: Fast)

Ribbon "Writer"

One volunteer from each Team coordinates sorting and labeling of ribbons for the swimmers based on the input of the head scorer. (Complexity: Low, Training: Minutes, Fun Factor: Medium, Pace: Slow)

Scorekeeper

Each team provides their own scorekeeper who records all heat times and ranks them in order of finish. The scorekeeper also records any disqualifications given to any swimmer. (Complexity: Medium, Training: 1 hour, Fun Factor: Medium, Pace: Medium)

Concessions Helper

The concession(s) helper will help prepare food for the meet, serve/sell food at the meet and, for the select few, be master of the grill! Generally, two people are needed for concession sales. The proceeds of the sales are used to support the activities of swim team, equipment and Year-end party, etc) (Complexity: Low, Training: Minutes, Fun Factor: Medium, Pace: Low)

Meet Coordinator

Prior to the meet, the meet coordinator confirms that all volunteer jobs have been filled. He/she confirms the megaphone is working, places lane number signs and assembles the required stopwatches, sharpened pencils and clipboards for the timers. This person verifies that the AH lifeguards have cleaned and stocked the bathrooms for the meet. The meet organizer also welcomes the incoming team. During the meet, this person helps coordinate the rotation and relief of volunteers.

Concessions Manager

The concession(s) manager will coordinate the concession for each home meet including coordinating the concessions volunteers, ensuring that food is bought or prepared and taken to the pool. (Complexity: Medium, Training: Minutes, Fun Factor: Medium, Pace: Medium)