Swim Meet Volunteering

The following are the standard positions required to run a meet, but additional positions may be available based on the needs of the meet. Meet Volunteer Positions  

  • CONCESSIONS volunteers are often in the cafeteria of a facility. They setup the concessions stand, prepare food during concession, help sell food items and maintain the money. Typically, there is a group of parents/guardians willing to volunteer in this role to allow people to watch their swimmers compete.  
  • OFFICIALS attend clinics, pass a written test and work meets before being certified. All parents are encouraged to get involved with some form of officiating. Officiating is a great way to gain more knowledge about your swimmer’s sport, and officials often have the best seat in the house during a meet! Officials positions are as follows: o Meet Referee: Has overall authority and control of the competition, including ensuring that all the rules are followed, assigns and instructs all officials and decides all questions relating to the conduct of the meet. o Starter: Assumes control of the swimmer from the Referee, directs them to “take your mark” and sees that no swimmer is in motion prior to giving the start signal. 

​Stroke Judges: Observe the swimmers from both sides of the pool, walking abreast of the swimmers, to ensure that the rules relating to each stroke are being followed. The positions of Stroke Judge and Turn Judge may be combined into one position called the Stroke & Turn Judge. 

Turn Judges: Observe the swimmers from each end of the pool and ensure that the turns and finishes comply with the rules applicable to each stroke. 

If you would like to become a swimming official, speak to Coach Mike.  More details will sent out through Team Unify as soon as classes become available.

  • TIMERS operate timing devices (watches or automatic timing systems) and record the time for the swimmer in their lane. We need timers at both home and away swim meets.
  • BACKUP TIMERS operate a stop watch and are available to serve as timer when a TIMER is unable to provide a time and calls for “Backup”. Backup Timers are positioned at the side of the start blocks.  
  • MEET MARSHAL is in charge of maintaining any entrances to the pool deck to be sure only people with the correct credentials are permitted on deck (swimmers, coaches, officials, timers). The meet marshals should not permit any parent on deck for any reason short of an emergency.  
  • LOCKER ROOM MONITORS are responsible for ensuring that participants utilize the proper locker room and will be responsible for doing a sweep through the locker room every 20 minutes to ensure that everyone is behaving properly. There will be one woman for the girl’s locker room and one man for the boy’s locker room.
  • TECH VOLUNTEERS: There are two types of tech-room volunteers. Tech volunteers are positioned in the Tech room near the start blocks. The Tech Chair or a similar representative will be available for trouble shooting issues. o Data Entry tech volunteers are responsible for setting up materials for the officials and timers (print and distribute), entering swimmer times into the computer, printing and distributing result reports. The software used by Data Entry volunteers is Meet Manager. Skills needed for this position is the ability to quickly enter numbers accurately – technical skills are not required for this position, o Time collection tech volunteers are responsible for setting up the pads in the pool and the start box, connecting the pads/plungers and start box to the computer, assist with setup of the projector, connecting the Meet Manager computer to the IST Timeware computer, running the IST Timeware software and communicate with the Meet Referee to ensure that the pads and plungers are able to collect the times for the swimmers. Skills required for this position is the ability to quickly respond when times are not collected by the pads/plungers and understand how computers network together.