Volunteer Positions and Their Descriptions

Becoming a volunteer in the Pacific Northwest Swimming Organization (PNS) is one of the most fun and rewarding things you can do to promote your swimmer's swim career and team experience as well as for you as a parent, becoming more knowledgeable in the sport of swimming and building community within your team. Specific to the Chinook Aquatic Club swim team - it's pretty fun meeting other parents on the team, getting an on-deck experience to watch live swimming, and learning all the parts of making a successful meet happen! Just make sure you are wearing appropriate shoes becasue there is a good chance of your feet getting wet!

 

Below are the descriptions of the types of volunteer opportunities that you could volunteer for or be called upon to fill to help make our home meets a success or help to make an opposing team's meet just as successful!

Note - All volunteer positions will provide a certain level of training! Whether you learn at one of our intersquad meets or attend a meeting the day of the meet - you will not be left high and dry!

Announcer - You are the commander of not only making a meet exciting and engaging - but timely as well! You are the VOICE of our meets in letting swimmers know when to stage, report to the blocks, let spectators know when certain parts of the meet open, and letting volunteers know when their meetings are and when to report to their lanes!

Clerk of Course - You are the commander of the events in making sure that they run smoothly and that the lanes are filled with the right swimmers in each event and heat. You will also be tasked with making sure if lanes have vacancies and a swimmer by chance misses their event, we can fill them in the next heat if possible to get their times recorded.

Timer - You and a buddy (typically from another team) will be responsible for the time recording of each swimmer in your lane. You will use a stopwatch to start and stop the time and record the final time on the clipboard sheet. In the event your stopwatch doesn't start on time, raise your hand and a back up timer will come and assist. Remember you have a timer's meeting before each meet to attend!

Stager  - You are critical to the organization of our swimmers being in the right event, heat, and lane. You will chat with swimmers to check their arms frequently to make sure they are in the right group before entering the blocks to swim. 
 
Awards and Ribbons - You are a swimmer's best friend! You are responsible for sitting at a table with the preordered ribbons, trophies, and other awards and putting printed labels on the swimmers awards to be delivered to the coaches after every meet! 
 
Deck Marshall - You keep order on the deck. You make sure that swimmers are in their designated team seating area and that coaches are at their coaches table. The deck is clean and orderly and easily navigable so that staging can happen in an efficient manner.
 
Door Marshall  - You are the gatekeeper - literally! There are some venues in which we limited or disallow parents to spectate due to fire code and capacity restrictions. You get to wear a flashy vest and get to let people know how and when they can enter the facilities.
 
Hospitality - You help to keep our officials and coaches fed and hydrated. This could include you meeting catering companies to help set up food for breakfast/lunch/dinner, or walking snacks and beverages poolside to officials, volunteers, and coaches. You are the host/hostess with the mostest!
 
Concessions - You help to keep our parents, swimmers, and siblings well fed and hydrated! You are also one of the fundraising arms of the club. You are responsible for keeping conccessions stocked, receiving purchased items from families, keeping an accurate till (multiple counts and second counts) and keeping a clean concessions area.
 
Shopper  - You help to stock the concessions and other supplies to help make a meet successful. All items are purchased by you and reimbursed by the club and you will be given a list to shop for! We greatly appreciate this role because sometimes it comes with its own complexities, but you are vital for a meet to be successful!
 
Runner  - You collect all completed heat sheets with times and run them to the computer operator/officials so they can be uploaded into the computer and Meet Mobile for final standings. This will also include you getting all DQ slips that are not hand delivered to coaches and sending them to the officials.
 
Volunteer Check In  - You are tasked with the job of making sure that all our assigned volunteers are checked in and know if they must attend a meeting before the meet starts. You can also reference them to this page for a short description of their role before the meet starts! You will hand out badges for their job role and ask them to return them after their shift. If someone does not show you will be responsible for contacting them or finding a replacement. 
 
Ushers  - Depending on the meet (Chinook home meets being one) you may be tasked with standing in the area to chaperone the swimmers area to make sure that it's clean, easy to navigate and making sure that swimmers make it to staging on time. 
 
Card Flipper   - You are the Vanna White of the show! You will be making sure that the event number of the current event is displayed for all to see! 
 
Set Up/Take Down- You either arrive before the meet or towards the end of the meet to set up materials or take them down! 
 
 
Thank you all for helping to make our meets a success!