Volunteer Commitments

Parent Participation Code-Volunteer Commitment

The following Parent Participation Code is in effect throughout the 2008 Season.

As all returning Kingfish parents know (and new parents will find out), it takes a tremendous number of volunteers to put on a swim meet.  Swim meets normally require up to 50 adults to handle all of the roles of timekeepers, officials and concessions.  To ensure that we have adequate coverage for every meet, a parent from each swim team family is required to sign up to volunteer for at least 5 meets during the season, plus you must work at either Superstars or Divisional Swim Meet. 

If your child is on the Pre Team, we request that the parents volunteer at 1 Kingfish home meet.   Pre Team swimmers are part of the team and are eligible to attend all team activities.  When Pre Team swimmers move up to the team parent volunteer commitment increase to that of the swim team.  In addition, we are asking for all parents of participating swimmers to volunteer at the Kingfish Time Trials on June 7th.  This is our first meet and requires even more volunteers since there is no opposing team to share the workload.  Time Trials is a great time to try new volunteer roles and to meet other Kingfish parents. 

The volunteer commitments that are required are a minimum and are subject to change, should there be a shortage of support.    Help is always needed to run a swim meet.  In signing up to volunteer, please let us know whether you would prefer volunteering to assist in the management of the meet or would prefer working in concessions.  We will have volunteer sign ups before each swim meet, either by email or sign up sheet on the team’s bulletin board.  Volunteering at Kingfish meets is a fun and productive way to be involved in your child’s swimming.  It ensures that our swimmers have a positive experience with lots of parental support.   Failure to fulfill this obligation will mean that my child will lose his or her opportunity to swim in meets and loss of the year-end trophy and ribbons. 

Thank you-

Dottie Freeman
Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteer Positions

1.  Referee:  (MCSL Training Required) – The Referee is the final arbiter of all decisions and questions during the meet and has full authority over all officials, assigning and instructing them. The referee must be thoroughly familiar with all applicable USS rules and MCSL rules, all meet procedures and duties of all officials.  One Referee is needed for every meet.

2.  Stroke and Turn Judges: (MCSL Training Required) – Stroke and Turn Judges determine whether the swimmers perform their strokes and turns in accordance with the prescribed rules of MCSL.  Two Stroke and Turn Judges per team are required at each swim meet.

 3.  Starter:  (MCSL Training is required) –The Starter has complete control over the swimmers from the time the Referee signals the start of the race until after a fair start has been achieved.  He/She calls the swimmers to their starting positions and to “take their mark” and indicates if any false starts have occurred.  One Starter is needed for every meet.

6.  Timers: 3 timers per lane are required for all meets (1/2 from each team).  A stopwatch is provided and you are trained before the meet begins.  Standing for long periods is required. The Head Timer will assign timers for work a specific lane.  We need 9 timers per meet, and in some cases 12 timers.

7.  Take off Judges:  Several volunteers are needed to ensure that swimmers do not take off early during our two Relay Carnivals.

8.  Clerk of Course:  All swimmers report to the Clerk of Course for their event.  The Clerk organizes the swimmers according to their lane assignments.  The Clerk of Course records all scratched swimmers. 

9.  Assistant Clerk of Course:  Helps assign swimmers to their lane assignments.  2 Clerks are needed for every meet.

10.  Announcer: (Experience helpful) Announces all the events for the meet as well as all check-ins to the Clerk of Course.  Works closely with the Starter to keep the meet running. 

11.  Runner:  The runner collects the time sheets/cards from the timers and turns them in to the computer operators.  A runner also passes out the time sheets/cards to the timers.  2-4  Runners are needed for every home meet. 

12.  Ribbon Writers:  2 Ribbon Writers per team are needed for each meet.  The job is to attach labels to the appropriate finish ribbon. 

13.  Concessions:  Volunteers will work with Concessions Manager to help layout and prepare food and snacks for the meet, collect money for purchases, shopping, picking up supplies, sell programs, and help clean up the snack bar area at the end of the meet.   We are looking for several people to work  with Concessions Manager.  Concessions help is needed for every home meet.

14.  Clubhouse Front Door Greeter:  We need one person to sit at the front desk at the Clubhouse from 7-9AM to direct the visiting team and their supporters to the pool deck.  This position is needed for every Saturday meet and our Sunday, Relay Carnival, date to be determined.  We need one person for every Saturday home meet. The time commitment is from when we start setting up the pool for the meet until 9 AM.

Please speak to Dottie Freeman about the Non-Meet Positions.