Volunteering At Mount Vernon
The Makos swim team relies on parent volunteers to ensure a fun and rewarding summer swim experience for everyone. Without your time and effort, it's simply not possible to run the team. We require at least 10 hours of volunteer time per family each season. You can fulfill this requirement in a number of ways – for a complete description of all volunteer roles, please see below.
Volunteer Hours
All swim team families are expected to complete 10 hours of volunteer work to help the season run smoothly. There are opportunities to help throughout the season but the expectation is that families will help at meets and leagues. The team will need help with meet setup and take down at home meets, heating, call boards, hospitality, timing, ribbons, and more so if you’re not sure how to help- just ask! The volunteer signups and logging of hours all happen on Team Unify and can be accessed in the same place you sign up for your swimmers events at meets.
In order to make the volunteering fair for everyone, we will require volunteer signup near the beginning of the season. You must register for at least 10 hours of volunteer time
- If you can’t volunteer at all, you can opt-out by paying $250 per family at the beginning of the season.
- If you don’t sign up to volunteer for 10 hours by June 15, 2023, you’ll be charged $250 per family.
- If you sign up, but then fail to fulfill the volunteer times you signed up for, you’ll be charged $500 per family at the end of the season.
Your volunteer hours will be tracked online. Mount Vernon Canyon Club Member Accounts
will be automatically billed $500 at the end of July if your required 10 hours for the season is unfulfilled. When the 10 hours has been met, the fees will be refunded to your account.
MVCC Volunteer Positions
2024
Management Volunteer Positions - Ongoing
Makos Parent Advisory Board: The Makos Parent Advisory Board (MPAB) is both a governance and a management board serving the needs of the swim community. The MPAB meets regularly throughout the year to ensure proper strategic, operational and governance and management of the swim team; coordination of parent involvement necessary to support the organization and execution of swim meets; and social activities that build and foster the Makos community.
- Team Coordinator: Serves as the official representative of MVCC on behalf of the swim team. Works directly with Head Coach and Director of Recreation & Activities.
- Communications: Manages all communication processes associated with operating the swim team, inclusive of coordinating advisory board meetings, overseeing the design and management of the team website (and the communication process between coaches, the board and the swim community and coordinates with local media and club newsletters to publicize team accomplishments.
Meet Volunteers: Swim Deck Operations
Voluneteer Coordinator: Manages all other volunteers during the meet, and ensures people are in the right place at the right time, and fully executing their volunteer duties that they signed up for. This is a great way to get to know the other parents of the swim team!
Meet Results/Computer Entry: This position is stationed with the computer. This takes the times from each event and verifies the numbers are correct, gets the results for each event, prints out the results and labels for the ribbons, and posts the results. This volunteer is only for our home meets.
Head Timer: This is a critical volunteer role given that we need accurate timing at each home meet. This volunteer recruits, trains and coordinates all the timers for the three home meets. Occasionally, MVCC is on-point to provide timers for away meets. This person would ensure that we meet our timing obligations for away meets at such times. The head timer managed our timing equipment.
Lane Timers: Timers are needed at every meet to help time each race. The head timer will provide training (quite simple – just have to run a stop watch) to prepare lane timers for each meet. We need 2 timers per lane throughout the entire meet, as well as backup timers to ensure that your swimmers times are captured accurately. This is a great role for those parents that like to get to know the swimmers and be in the center of the action.
Heating: The heating area is where the swimmers go to be placed in their assigned lane and heat before their event. In the heating area volunteers help ensure the kids are in the right lanes and get to the blocks for their event. Someone in the heating area makes the announcements for which events are coming up.
Hospitality/Runner: The hospitality person brings refreshments around to the swim deck volunteers (timers, officials, heating team and coaches). In addition they will occasionally collect the timing sheets from the timers and run them over to the computer entry team. This is a very easy role – especially for a volunteer with minimal swim experience.
Home Meet Set Up/Tear Down: This happens the evening or morning before a home meet. We need one or two parents to supervise. Duties include: work with volunteers to move the lounge chairs out from behind the blocks, get the heating area staged, organize the coaches area, and set up the team tent (when away). For tear down, volunteer parents will supervise that we put the pool back the way it is normally set up.
Home Meet Number Board: This person is stationed over by the slide. They listen for the numbers of events to be called from the heating area then change the number on the board so that swimmers know when their events are coming up and when they have to report to the heating area.
Away Meet Tent Set-up/Tear Down: We have a large tent that we set up at away meets so we don’t all have to bake in the sun all day. The tent lead brings the tent to the meet and gets others to help them set it up and then is responsible for getting help to pack the tent back up and take it back to the club.
Non-Meet Volunteers - Ongoing
Ribbons/Family Folders: Ribbons will be prepared after each home meet. Once they are prepared, the volunteer needs to be put the ribbons into the swimmer’s family folders. This is a nice volunteer role for the busy parent who likes to attend one or two swim practices each week – as the ribbons can be done while your swimmer is in the pool.
Team Photographer: Takes pictures during meet and practices for upload to Facebook, Instagram and Makos Website.
