DART Parent Participation Policy

DART Participation Policy and Volunteer Commitment

DART depends heavily on volunteers to run the team successfully.  A swim team simply cannot function without the support of swim parents. We expect that each family will make every effort to support our team and their swimmer with their time, talents, and energy.  As such, Dart families are required to meet the following commitments:

1.    Minimum Volunteer Hours by group, based on the swim group of the highest placed swimmer in the family.

2.    Volunteer hours are designed to support the DART site and the entire DART program.  Parents will have the ability to complete some of their hours for any of the DART sites and DART hosted meets.  We hope this will allow parents to more easily complete their hours and also support all the DART programs. 

3.    Timing at away meets your child is signed up for. These hours are not included in the Minimum Volunteer Hours.

4.    Find your replacement if you are unable to fulfill a position committed to.

5.    Contribution to the annual Swim-a-Thon or Swim-for-Fun(ds) fundraiser

Minimum Volunteer Hours

The swim year is from September 1st to August 15^th.  Families are required to volunteer a minimum of volunteer hours based on their highest-level swimmer at the beginning of the swim year:

This amount will be prorated for swimmers who do not swim for the entire year.  

• Families with swimmers that are 13 years of age and older will be able to apply 10 hours of volunteer time worked by an older child or their swimmer towards their minimum volunteer hours requirement. Having an older child volunteer for your family for 4 hours will need to be arranged in advance with permission. Permission would depend on the volunteer job, as some can be performed by older children and other jobs may be inappropriate for an athlete.  
• In addition to our team-hosted meets (see next section), volunteers are also needed for various jobs throughout the year, including officiating at away meets, Summerdarts support, team parties and functions, and our annual banquet & senior recognition event, among others.
• Families can accrue hours at team-hosted meets and through other team needs throughout the year.  Timing at away meets, Summerdart meets and Dart Friday Fun Meets do not count toward the volunteer commitment.

Any family not meeting the minimum participation requirement will be charged at a rate of $25 per hour for hours not worked during the year.

• Hours may not be carried over to the following year, and most families work more than the minimum hours per year.
• Volunteer hours are waived for the first quarter of swimming for all families new to Dart.  We do this to enable families to ease into our program and learn about our many various volunteer possibilities before requiring the volunteer commitment.  New families who wish to volunteer in their initial quarter are welcome and encouraged to do so.  
• Families who have done previous sessions of fall or spring darts are not considered new and are required to complete their volunteer commitment.   

Dart Hosted Meets

The major events that require volunteers are the team-hosted meets. These swim meets are important for our families and program as they are fundraisers for our team and opportunities for local meets.  Everyone benefits from the funds raised regardless of swimmer participation as this allows us to maintain our pool time and professional coaching staff for all groups.

Away Swim Meet Support

Timing or officiating at away swim meets that your swimmer has entered is required. These are shared responsibilities among all teams based on the number of entered swimmers per team and are assigned by the hosting club.

Timing is not included in the annual Minimum Volunteer Hours commitment but in addition to it. All families with a swimmer in the away meet must sign up to time or officiate. Families that do not sign up to time at 2 away meets in a row will be automatically signed up at the next meet their child attends.

Officiating, either at home or away meets, does count toward your annual Minimum Volunteer Hours commitment.  Per Sierra Nevada Swimming regulations, swimmers on teams that do not fulfill their timing and officiating duties will not receive awards.

• Families with a swimmer entered in the meet will receive an email a few days before the meet with instructions for job sign-up on the Aquadart website.
• Families who sign up to officiate are not required to time.
• Timing shifts will be 2-4 hours.
• Some meets may require that families cover more than one shift.
• If your child is no longer attending the meet email Jamie Kiarie. 
• Families are required to find their replacements for all volunteer shifts if they are no longer able to volunteer and must inform Jamie Kiarie of their replacement.
• To get a pass on timing email Jamie Kiarie before job sign-ups are emailed out.  

Families who do not sign up to time at away meets will automatically be assigned a timing shift at a future swim meet. 

Failure to show up for a timing shift: 

• Failure to show up the 1st time when assigned: A $50 fine assessed to the family’s account and will be assigned to time at the next meet or a job if the next meet is a home meet. 
• Failure to show up the 2nd time when assigned: A $100 fine is assessed to the family’s account and they will be assigned to time at the next meet or a job if the next meet is a home meet. 
• Failure to show up 3rd time when assigned: Swimmer(s) and family are suspended from Dart practice and swim meets for 30 days without a refund.
• Failure to show up the 4th time Dart membership is terminated and swimmer(s) and their families will be dismissed permanently from the team without a refund.

Swim-a-Thon/Swim-for-Fun(ds)

All Dart families are also required to participate in our Summer Swim-a-Thon/Swim-for-Fun(ds) fundraising efforts. All swimmers who swim in at least two sessions during the swim year are required to raise a minimum of $100 to support the Swim-a-Thon each summer, whether or not they swim in the Swim-a-Thon. Those swimmers not meeting this requirement will be assessed a $100 fee. Swimmers who are enrolled in Aquadarts for any part of the year but are enrolled in Summerdarts during the summer participate in the Summerdart Swim-For-Fun(ds) instead of the Aquadart Swim-a-Thon, and are required to raise a minimum of $100.

Tracking and Reporting

Parents can track their yearly volunteer hours on the team website.  Families may sign up for many volunteer opportunities through the team website.  

Contacts

For more information on volunteering, please contact the DART COO, Jamie Kiarie at [email protected]