One key measure of a swim team's success and health is the level of parent volunteerism and the ability to fundraise. A strong, thriving team will exhibit high levels of both, while a team with little to no volunteerism or fundraising can struggle. Both are essential for keeping registration fees low, which in turn allows more families to access the sport of competitive swimming.
Our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable, and accessible training for everyone, regardless of household income. To support this, the team has volunteer and fundraising requirements for all families involved.
FUND-RAISING
From time to time we will host fund-raising efforts such as Swim-a-thon to raise money for the team and for a worthy cause. The volunteering requirements for these are event-specific, and will be dictated on a case-by-case basis.
VOLUNTEERING
Swim teams are much more volunteer dependent than most main-stream sports. It requires a lot of help to run a successful team. Therefore, volunteering is required. It is important to remember that swim meets are another form of a fund-raiser, again to help keep costs low for everyone and to help pay for the use of additional pool space.
In order to better define the requirements of a meet, you must first understand how a meet is configured. Most Illinois Swimming meets, including ours, are broken into sessions, usually 5 or 7 sessions. Each session is comprised of events i.e. boys 50 yard freestyle. Most sessions are 3 - 4 hours depending on the amount of swimmers and events in each session; Illinois Swimming has a rule where sessions cannot exceed 4 hours. With this in mind, the ECST has volunteer requirements for meets with 5 sessions and requirements for meets with 7 sessions.
Five Session Home Meet Requirements
If a meet has 5 sessions, each swimmer across all teams will be required to work at least 2 slots. If a family has more than one swimmer, add up the requirements based on the level they are in to determine the amount of sessions you are required to volunteer for. If the total required sessions is over 5, you will be required to volunteer for every session in the meet. For example, if a family has 1 swimmer in Gold (2 jobs), 1 swimmer in Silver (2 jobs), and 1 swimmer in Senior (2 jobs), the family will be required to work 5 sessions.
| Practice Group | Number of Required Sessions |
| Pre-Team | 2 Session |
| Bronze | 2 Sessions |
| Silver | 2 Sessions |
| Gold | 2 Sessions |
| Senior | 2 Sessions |
Seven Session Home Meet Requirements
If a meet has 7 sessions, each swimmer in Pre-Team will be required to work at least 2 slots and each swimmer in Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Senior will be required to work at least 3 sessions. If a family has more than one swimmer, add up the requirements based on the level they are in to determine the amount of sessions you are required to volunteer for. If your total required sessions is more than 7, you will be required to volunteer for every session of the meet. For example, if a family has 1 swimmer in Gold (3 jobs), 1 swimmer in Silver (3 jobs), and one swimmer in Pre-Team (2 jobs), the family will be required to work 7 sessions.
| Practice Group | Number of Required Sessions |
| Pre-Team | 2 Session |
| Bronze | 3 Sessions |
| Silver | 3 Sessions |
| Gold | 3 Sessions |
| Senior | 3 Sessions |
***Please note, all families must volunteer for all home meets, even if their child is not swimming in the meet. This includes Regionals or any other time qualifying meets should they be hosted at The Centre or another Elgin Facility.***
There is a $50.00 fine for each job that you do not fulfill. For example, if you are required to work 5 jobs and you only work 3, you will be fined $100.00 for the 2 jobs not worked. All jobs must be filled before the meet; you will not be able to sign up for a job at the Volunteer Check-in table during the meet. While this may seem intense, rest assured that we do not want your money. We want your time and talents to create the best experience for the swimmers.
For some away meets, we will be required to provide timers. In these instances, you will be able to sign-up for the job on the specific meet page on our website. For away meets, the sessions are broken into hour-long jobs to help the flow of the meet. Although we do not quantify the amount of away sessions you are required to work, we do take past jobs worked into consideration when assigning open jobs. If all the jobs are not taken, we will assign families to work those jobs. We will not assign jobs to families who do not attend the meet.
If you have any questions on the above information, please email us at [email protected].
