Volunteer Information

Much of Sioux Falls Swim Team (SFST) business is planned, organized and conducted through the work of parent volunteers. Active involvement of each parent is essential to ensuring the success of SFST. Parents are encouraged to serve on the Board of Directors and participate in committees, fundraising events and other SFST activities.

The SFST swim team hosts several swim meets each year. These meets help to ensure the financial stability of the team and require a number of volunteer hours/sessions to run smoothly. The SFST Board of Directors requires participation from each SFST family during home meets. Each family will be assessed a certain number of sessions to work for the short course season and for the long course season. The Board of Directors approves the set number of sessions for each season. The number of sessions will vary depending on the number of meets SFST hosts, the length of each meet, and number of families there is to work the volunteer sessions. Un-worked hours will be billed to the family at the rate of $20 an hour at the end of the season, (this will be based upon the average number of hours for each session). Sessions are completed by working at one or more of the following: meet set up and take down, timing, door monitor, awards, officiating, or running the timing system. Some volunteer jobs require special training. Please let the volunteer coordinator know if you are interested in becoming a stroke and turn judge, head timer, meet director, computer operator, scoreboard operator, meet official or involved in the video board/live streaming.

Between 2-4 weeks prior to a home meet, the volunteer coordinator will email to all members the opening of jobs slots for the meet. Parents click on “job sign up” under the meet name and sign up for their jobs of choice. All job sign ups are on a “first come first serve” basis. Parents need to be aware changes will be made to job times for a morning or afternoon session, to accommodate the number of swimmers entered into each session. Please check the website for any changes the week of the meet.

Families need to contact the volunteer coordinator if they have special circumstances which prevent them from fulfilling their volunteer requirements.

Swim Meet Volunteer Job Descriptions 

Listed below is a brief description of the volunteer positions that need to be filled for our home meets. None of the jobs are especially difficult and simple training is supplied as needed; however, some of the positions do require attending special training sessions and some positions are better suited for our more experienced swim parents. If you are brand new to the SFST, the jobs of timer, meet marshal, set up/take down, door monitor are great places to start.

ANNOUNCER: Announces first, second and final calls for each event. Works closely with the officials to keep the meet running smoothly. The announcer will need to anticipate flow based on the number of swimmers, the stroke, the number of lengths to be swum, and the age of the swimmers. Training is required for this position. 

HEAD TIMER: Organizes and briefs the lane timers on their duties prior to the meet and oversees the lane timers throughout the meet. Previous experience required for this position, suggestion is that you are a Lane Timer for 2-3 sessions and then shadow 1 session with a head timer for proper training.

LANE TIMERS: Records the swimmer’s time. Each timer is assigned a lane; there are usually 2 timers for each lane (sometimes 1). Each timer will have a Pickle (button to stop the pad time) stopwatch, and clip board to record each time.  This job gives you the best view of the pool of the swimmers during their races. Ask any swim parent, they all have favorite memories timing their athletes. No training needed; we pair you with an experienced timer at your first meet.

MEET MARSHAL: Marshals oversee the rules of USA swimming to keep our athletes safe. There is no one allowed on deck of the pool without proper credentials, the marshal will verify that at the beginning of each session. They help maintain the rules of the facility as part of the swim team’s partnership with the Midco, hand out band aids, first aid and fill out injury reports if one occurs.  You can be paired with an experience meet marshal or shadow a session to get comfortable with this job. Click here to view the Meet Marshal Guidelines

COMPUTER: Responsible for entering data that is not recorded by the redundant timing equipment (if everything is working not much data is hand entered) and verifying data entered. With this job, you see the race results before anyone else. The administrative official is there to guide you, some training is required being comfortable using a computer is a must! Starting with the scoreboard gives you a great foundation to this position.

SCOREBOARD:  Responsible for the scoreboard equipment.  This panel is straight forward, pushing a few buttons and attention to detail is needed.   You are turning timing pads off when no swimmers are present in that lane, making sure pads are firing to ensure split times are collected. This does require training; suggestion is to shadow 1 session before singing up on your own.

AWARDS: Typically done for larger meets and state meets, there will be an awards chair appointed by the board to help facilitate, you are never alone.  You will post result stickers on the back of awards (ribbons), during and directly after the sessions are finished, very little training is needed.  The commitment to the whole session and awards time is needed. No shadowing is needed.

ATHLETE STAGERS: We usually only use this at the beginning of the season or for our large meets.  These volunteers help line up our younger athletes on the pool deck before the race.  Since we have 10 lanes it can be an interesting task to complete when there are 8 full heats of the 25 yard Free for our 8 and younger athletes.  Parents with education or that work with kids excel in this roll. It is fast paced, and you need to be organized.

HOSPITALITY:  Responsible for providing our hospitality room for officials and coaches.  Keeps things stocked and fresh during and in-between sessions. You need to be able to leave the meet during sessions to pick up lunch and dinner.  Maintains the hospitality budget for the meet. Recommended to shadow with this position and the commitment to be available for all home meets. 

SET UP AND CLEAN UP:  You help set up the tables, chairs, equipment etc.  must be able to lift 50 pounds. Commitment to being available before and after the meet. Training is required with a shadowing session. 

LIVE STREAM:  We are very proud that we offer live streaming of all our swim meets to our family and friends.  Not much training is needed, being comfortable with computers is helpful.

VIDEO BOARD:  Set up before the meet of all the video equipment, learning the system to make slides that play on our Daktronics video board. Comfortable with a computer and experience live streaming is a great place to start, shadowing is required.

DOOR MONITOR:  Selling meet programs, counting meet attendance, and handing out ribbons (if it’s a small meet).  The Midco requires us to always have 2 volunteers at the front during the meet, this is an easy job to learn, and you never miss an event with 2 volunteers to take turns to watch the station. No shadowing is needed.

Officials

Serious about swimming, your kids are loving it. Maybe you yourself are a swimmer, let’s talk!  There is education and certifications needed to be an official, the team will help you obtain these.

STARTER: Starts each event with the words "SWIMMERS TAKE YOUR MARK", pauses to make sure that all swimmers are motionless, and then gives an electronic sound or a blast of a whistle. This individual must be trained for this position. 

STROKE/TURN JUDGE: They observe strokes, turns, and finishes to see that swimmers comply with requirements for that stroke. Training is required for this position. This is where most officials start.

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICIAL:  Is the official that helps maintain the integrity of the computer system that records the official results. Typically filled with computer operating experience, hooks up printers and multiple computers and trouble shoots when equipment is not talking to each other. Experience volunteering for the Scoreboard and Computer are gateways to this position.  Calling all IT professionals and experienced computer operators!