VOLUNTEER INFO
The OSHY Swim Team cannot function without our parents, so please get involved! We cannot do this without YOU!
Why Volunteer?
- Home meets are our biggest fundraiser of the year and help keep our participation fees low. It is also a great opportunity for our children to shine in their hometown, but it takes the help of everyone to ensure we run a successful meet, which in return helps us raise more funds for our team.
- A shift can be fulfilled by you, a relative, a friend, neighbor, or any individual who can effectively fulfill the volunteer position.
- When you volunteer, you are essentially supporting your child by supporting the team. We are the most successful when everyone participates in supporting our team!
What Volunteer Shift is the Best Choice for Me?
We strive to make all positions fun for you as a volunteer and also available as a parent to watch your swimmer compete. There shouldn't be a position that won't allow you to watch your swimmer swim. It is important to understand whether or not you prefer to volunteer on the pool deck or outside the pool area. The many options for volunteering are detailed for you below.
Interested in learning a new role? Connect with Volunteer Coordinator - Kate Salzseider at (920) 379-8376 or [email protected]
Volunteer Role Descriptions
Off-Deck Volunteer Roles:
These positions are not on deck, but you can leave and watch your swimmer during their events!
Concessions: Help with restocking grab and go items, preparing food items, and selling concessions. (Champion Meet and Winter Open ONLY!)
Awards: The people in this position will be responsible for taping the results and labels to the wall. The swimmers will then be responsible for finding their label and approaching the results table to collect their corresponding ribbon or medal. The awards distributor will then find the ribbon/medal and put the label on the back of the award and hand it back to the swimmer. Super fun position as everyone is happy to earn an award.
Hospitality: This position is responsible for keeping the coaches and officials break room stocked. This position will also offer water/snacks to volunteers during longer meets. (Champion and Winter Open only)
Greeter: This position will be at a table in our front lobby area of our YMCA. This person will know the details of the meet and be there to answer questions, help coordinate volunteers, and direct any swimmers or their guests to the appropriate areas of the YMCA. (Champion and Winter Open only)
Directions for scoring are specific to each meet; this information is specific to each meet and will have specific directions on what places are considered a ribbon vs a medal.
On-Deck Volunteer Roles:
These positions are on deck, meaning you can watch your swimmer while volunteering!
Timers: Minimum of 2 per lane. As a timer you will start each race with 2 watches and stop each race with 2 watches and 2 plunger buttons. Then, one of the timers will write the watch times down on the Time Sheets.
Timing should be fun. You have the best seat in the house, you get to see the starts and finishes up close and personal, and you get to interact with the swimmers and feel their excitement and enthusiasm. There is nothing quite like a group of swimmers cheering on a teammate as they make the final turn for home in a close relay and you get to be right in the mix!
Timing is also an important job in support of our swimming program. While winning races is great for our athletes, in all races swimmers are swimming against the clock as much or more than against the competition.
The Head Timer: This person organizes the timers and starts 2 extra stopwatches at the beginning of each heat. If, as a timer, you miss a start, the head timer has an extra for you. (Remember, there are only 2 extra watches per heat, so it is important that you try to get each start.) You will most often see this person near the starting blocks off to the side, looking down the line of timers.
Crow's Nest Volunteer Roles:
This area is up the cement steps where all the computers and sound system is. You have a front row seat to watch your swimmer from above!
Announcer: Make announcements at meets about marshaling/staging, information from officials like the timers meeting, and other facility or meet information. You will also coordinate the Pledge of Allegiance and/or the Star Spangled Banner - which means that you find swimmers that would like to lead this at the start of the meet.
Results Computer Operator: This person is responsible for reviewing and verifying all swim times, making any changes to swimmers' events and heats, correcting errors when swimmers swim in the wrong lane and/or heat, entering DQ slips, and printing results - both labels and full page result sheets.
Timing Computer Operator: This person is responsible for ensuring the timing computer is starting and finishing each race. This position will also monitor the pool to ensure that the swimmers in the lane match up with the heat sheets - which ultimately helps the results computer operator, should there be discrepancies.
Time Sheet Runner: This is the person that retrieves the timing sheets after each event from the timers and brings them up into the area where the results computer operator is (up the cement steps in the Crows’ Nest). This person will also collect the DQ slips from the meet officials. After the official fills out the DQ slip it needs to be reviewed and signed by another official. The Time Sheet Runner needs to wait until it has been signed off on - typically the indication that the DQ slip is ready to be picked up is when it is turned upside down (yellow side facing up) on the official stand. At that time, you can grab the stack of slips and bring them up to the results computer operator. This position may also be responsible for running results and labels out to our awards area. For longer meets with longer sessions this position will also need to offer our timers and head timer a quick break.
Heat Winner: For many of our events there will be a heat winner award. This person is standing near the finish of each race (typically by the head timers) and walking to the lane of the very happy heat winner and handing that heat winner the prize and a smile for winning their heat. The prize is often a heat winner button, however at the Champion Meet there are special Duck Races with a special heat winner prize. The Heat Winner volunteer role is responsible for finding the swimmer after they win their heat.
Meet Marshall: This position is responsible for lining up the swimmers in the correct order according to their lane and ensuring that they get to the blocks in time for their heat to start. This role is key to the function of the meet as a whole and is particularly important for the younger swimmers who often will go in the wrong lane and/or heat. Typically, there are 2-4 Meet Marshalls at larger meets (at times our Champion Meet may require more pending session size). Typically, you will have at least 2 Meet Marshalls stationed near the blocks during the 25 yard races, and potentially the whole meet. The other 2 are stationed over by the chairs that are set up with numbers 1-8 above them - those are the chairs the swimmers that are next to walk over to the blocks will sit on. The swimmers in the chairs across from them will then move to those chairs and so on as the event continues. This position requires you to be loud, as the environment itself is loud and the kids have a ton of energy that you need to be able to speak over. Wear a smile and get used to giving a lot of high fives at this position, because you will be right there with all those awesome swimmers wishing them luck as they get pumped up to race!
