General Requirements:
The River City Swim League requires that all teams participating in a league-sponsored swim meet must provide workers for that meet. Specifically, from the League’s Standing Rules, the following is required for dual/tri meets:
"Each club participating in a dual/tri meet shall be responsible for providing an equal number (approximately) of meet officials to conduct the meet. This applies to AWAY meets as well.
At a minimum, for every meet, we will need the following volunteers, there are 2 shifts, with around 17 volunteers per shift. The other team will provide an additional 17 or so per shift.
1st Shift (contributions below from Mandarin Kraken only)
2 Stroke & Turn Judge
2 Place Judges
6 Timer for Each Lane
2 Runner
3 Clerks of Course
2 Scorer/Recorder
2nd Shift (contributions below from Mandarin Kraken only)
2 Stroke & Turn Judge
2 Place Judges
6 Timer for Each Lane
2 Runner
3 Clerks of Course
2 Scorer/Record
The Championship meet uses similar volunteer jobs to execute the meet; there are just a whole lot more volunteers needed for each position. The League assigns the teams their share of the volunteer jobs in late June or early July once the size of the various teams (in terms of swimmers) has been determined. We are usually one of the larger teams and, therefore, usually are assigned 40 to 60 "jobs" for the Championship meet weekend.
How Parents Sign Up for Meet Jobs
Each team, whether hosting a meet or visiting another team, will have the responsibility to fill the various jobs necessary to hold the meet. You will be able to sign up for your preferred job at each meet through your online account; we ask that every family volunteer for a job at a minimum of four (4) dual meets (and one job at the Championships). We have to provide volunteers even for away meets.
Just as you would sign up your swimmer for the meet, you will need to have signed into your account on the web site. Once signed in, click on the "Swim Meets & Events" tab above. When the list of meets comes up, click on the "Job Signup" button at the top of that meet's information. You will be brought to a webpage on our team website that lists the jobs for that meet.
The jobs that have been taken will list the name of the person that volunteered; open jobs will have a check box and "----------" next to them.
- You may select the job you would like to do at that meet by clicking on the check box in front of the empty slot that you want to sign up for.
- Once you click on a box, your name will appear in that job and the checkbox will go away.
- Select the [Signup] button to sign up for the slot that you selected.
- You can use the [Remove Signup] button to remove the signup if you made a mistake or are no longer able to work on that job.
Please make sure to report promptly when called for your job.
While each job has a brief description of what that job is, we have a more detailed description of the various jobs in our "Team FAQ" section of the web site under "Volunteer Positions." Note also that most of our meets have two shifts of workers and that the approximate time each shift will start and end is shown with the job. Please make sure you are picking the shift that you will be able to work when signing up.
Stroke & Turn Judge Training Available
There is one volunteer position that we need help with that requires special training - the Stroke & Turn Judge. We are lucky to have three of our dads that have completed that training in the past and volunteer for this job from meet to meet but we can always use additional parents for this position.
If you are interested in becoming a Stroke & Turn Judge, the process is fairly simple. The training is done via an interactive web site that takes you through all the rules for swimming the strokes and illustrates with videos the proper way to do the strokes and the various infractions. At the end of each section, you answer questions about what you just saw and, once you get them correct, move on to the next section. When you complete the full course (it takes about 90 minutes), you will be issued a Certificate and be ready to volunteer for this position in our dual meets.
The course can be stopped and started as fits your schedule and you can go back to it at any time during the season to refresh your memory about any issue that might come up. The course will also prepare you to serve as a Stroke & Turn official in both High School and USA Swimming meets although there are some additional requirements for these organizations.
If you are interested in becoming a River City Stroke & Turn Official, please let one of the coaches know and they can answer any questions you may have and get you set up for the online course.
