Volunteering FAQ

Where you do sign-up?

We manage all of our volunteers online at SignUp.com.

What is the volunteer requirement for Swim Meets?

Every family is required to work a shift at every home meet their swimmer attends.  You don’t have to work two shifts unless you want to. There will be meets where we don’t have enough families to fill the required jobs and may request families to work a double shift.

If you have special circumstances, please reach out.  There is a lot we can do to accommodate folks.  You can be assured that your situation will be kept in confidence.

To learn more about each volunteering role, click here for job descriptions.

Snack Bar Volunteers

We are doing things differently and have hired a food truck to do the lunch service. We will still have the snack shack open but it will be purely snacks/drinks (no BBQ). The morning will run the same as always with breakfast burritos, coffee, and other items.

We are going to have designated Runners (those who gather the food ordered) and Cashiers (those who handle money). The Shack is one of the few roles that has shade. If you have a medical need that requires you to be out of the sun, this is a great option for you. For safety, there will be NO children allowed in the Shack when their parents are working so this isn’t the role for you if you have little ones underfoot.

Snack bar opens when everyone starts arriving in the morning.  If you sign-up for 1st shift snack bar, you are required to report at 7:30am.  The 2nd shift begins before the standard shift change at 10:30am.  2nd shift snack bar volunteers are required to stay to help pack up the snack bar and clean-up that area.

What’s Clerk of the Course?

Clerk of the Course is where all swimmers go to line up in their heat and lane assignments.  It requires no training other than using your outside voice.

To make it fair, Families get pre-assigned to COTC.  Usually this means that you work COTC every other year.  Families who are on the hook for COTC for the dual meets will be pre-assigned for the entire season.  Clerk for Champs will be assigned once we get our volunteer assignments from the Champs Volunteer Coordinator.

If you are in a Key Role then you are exempt from Clerk.

What is Floater?

In the past, we’ve been lucky to have every family sign-up and still have a couple of families without a job.  Once the meet is full, the remaining families are assigned to a floater job.  Those families get assigned jobs the morning of the meet to provide additional help as needed.  There will be meets where we don’t have enough families to fill the required jobs and then we won’t have floaters. Can you wait to sign-up to see if you get placed as a floater? Sure, but you’ll also get assigned wherever and whenever. If you want to control when and where you work at a meet, then you should sign up early.  Floating doesn’t mean that you don’t work.  Floaters need to check-in by 8:00am the morning of the meet.

Champs Assignments
We start assigning Champs volunteers in early July. You will sign-up for your shift preference. Champs is a mega-meet with over 350 volunteers working the day from all 6 teams. The league uses a master spreadsheet to manage all the positions and our team’s commitment can change up until the event. It ends up being an administrative nightmare to try to translate the spreadsheet to sign-up.com and then back to spreadsheet.

If you are attending Champs, you are required to work one shift. There are no exceptions. The only folks who do not need to sign-up for a shift are Stroke and Turn Judges – y’all will work out your rotation schedule with our Head Judge. If you worked a double-shift at my request during the season, I will reach out to you for your shift preference as a thank you for going above & beyond.