Last updated on April 24th, 2023 at 04:58 pm
It takes a lot of people to run a great swim meet. One way to increase the number of volunteers is to understand The Willing and Able Continuum. At any given time, each person falls somewhere on it. For most, their placement on the continuum is capable of changing. Fortunately, you can aid their upward progress. Doing so yields more available workers for your swim meets!
Contents for Volunteers Needed! Get more Willing and Able Help
The Willing and Able Continuum
The best volunteers are both willing and able. “Willing” means they are willing to help and “able” means they are capable of helping. For example, to be a meet referee, certification is required. One might be willing, but not yet able to act in this capacity. The good news is, there is always something for a willing person to do. Training is one way to move a “willing but less able” volunteer into the ranks of the “willing and able”. The scale below shows The Willing and Able Continuum.
Positioning on the Continuum Changes
Some people may fluctuate in their willingness and availability from one swim meet to the next. Find the willing volunteers and work with them as much as possible. Help them become able, through teaching and training. Incidentally, that’s one reason for this website—to help willing people become more able to help.
There are many reasons why a person might be able but not willing to help. This group includes anyone from the experienced swim parent who has “been there, done that,” to the swim mom who recently had a baby, and anyone in between. The reasons can vary as much as the people involved.
Perhaps some of the “less willing” volunteers might be more willing to take part after a personal visit and invitation to participate. Listening to them may result in helpful feedback. They may have concerns that if addressed, might help them, and possibly others, become more willing to help.
Key Point
The main point is: Relatively few volunteers are both “willing and able.” However, by identifying ways to help the “willing but less able” become more able, the field of available volunteers increases substantially. With a bit of attention, you may also be able to recruit some “less willing” volunteers. This broadens the field of potential volunteers even more.
The rest of this post gives a variety of ways teams can help volunteers become more willing and able.
Policies That Encourage Volunteers
It can be challenging to increase the willingness of parents to volunteer as swim meet workers. A team policy that requires parents to work as volunteers, including at meets, can help. The Team Volunteer Policy and the Meet Volunteer Policy are two types of organizational volunteer policies.
Team Volunteer Policy
Many swim teams and clubs have adopted some form of volunteer policy, which requires parents to work a minimum number of volunteer service hours during a season or else pay an extra fee. Doing so often results in an increase in the willingness of many to serve. Serving as meet workers and officials at home and/or away meets is a great way to fulfill required volunteer hours. Because meets are an essential part of competitive swimming, it’s also easier for parents to see the value of their service.
Swim Meet Volunteer Policy
Another effective tool available to the swim meet host is to request or require teams participating in the meet to provide a specified number of volunteers. Many meet announcements request teams that send a specified number of swimmers to the meet to provide a timer or two. This is one example of a Swim Meet Volunteer Policy.
Another Example of a Swim Meet Volunteer Policy
Utah Swimming is a USA Swimming Local Swim Committee (LSC) that hosts three state championship meets a year. They require participating clubs to provide a prorated number of volunteer meet workers based on the number of athletes they send.
- The total number of competing athletes from the team determines the number of meet workers each club needs to provide.
- An online sign-up lists every meet worker and many positions for officials listed by session for the entire meet. (It’s a lot—over 500 assignments for the largest meet!)
- One person may fill multiple “slots” (a slot equals one position for one session.)
- For example, at the eight-session swim meet, the Head of Hospitality fills eight “slots” one for each session of the meet. Therefore, their designated club gets “credit” for those eight slots towards their required quota.
- If a club or person signs up to work as a timer or any other one-session “slot,” then the person’s designated club receives “credit” for that one slot.
- A fee assessed to teams that do not fill their quota motivates team leaders to encourage their parents to work as meet workers or officials.
Training Volunteers
The swim meet host can help willing volunteers become more “able” by providing training that bolsters the success of each meet worker. For example, a timer meeting at the beginning of each session is one commonly found example of training. Another example is posting instructions on timer clipboards. Meet Marshals also benefit from training. In fact, every person filling a new-to-them position at a swim meet can better contribute after receiving some kind of instruction. For more, see Training Swim Meet Volunteers.
Match the Right Person with the Right Position
Different people have various strengths. Sometimes a willing volunteer agrees to do something needed, but the position does not match well with the volunteer’s current skill set, personality, or temperament. For example, a well-meaning parent volunteer learns how to run the timing console. However, upon doing it during a swim meet discovers it is too stressful for this chatty person to have to be so attentive and focused all the time. Fortunately, swim meets need a lot of help in a variety of areas. So, there are lots of other positions where a willing volunteer can serve. Perhaps hospitality would be a better fit.
Express Gratitude to Volunteers
Always remember to thank volunteers for their help.
Modify the Position
Sometimes you can modify a position to make it easier to fill. Could the responsibilities of one position be divided among two, or more people? Sometimes able volunteers aren’t willing to put in the needed time or effort to fill a large position but are willing to serve in a less demanding capacity. Other times willing volunteers need “stepping stones” to help them bridge the gap between what is needed, and what they are able to do.
Tapping Into Reluctant Volunteers
Sometimes less-than-willing parents may become more willing to volunteer if reminded of this simple truth, “Swimmers need meets and meets need volunteers.”
Also, consider that experienced volunteers who have stepped back may have important feedback that team leaders need to consider. For example, they may see perpetual problems that remain unsolved and feel unseen or undervalued. While it’s true that many team leaders are volunteers themselves and others are “overworked and underpaid,” not all problems take a lot of resources to resolve. The post Supporting Swim Meet Timers has several simple and inexpensive ideas that may help more people fill this essential role. The Get Help section lists many other resources and posts that can help too. Think you might receive some tough feedback? The post, Feedback, Get and Use it to Improve Swim Meets has some tips that might help.
Summary
The good news is there are many things you can do to help influence another’s progress along The Willing and Able Continuum. And, you’ve discovered the website where you can find out more about how!
Preparing for a swim meet? Check out The Ultimate Swim Meet To-Do List. Then, get a bird’s eye view of Who does What at Swim Meets. Both include easy-to-follow links to related information. Doing a smaller, simpler meet? Host a High School or Developmental Swim Meet will help.
Need more help? See 20+ Ways to Get Swim Meet Timers and Officials: 20+ Ways to Get them for Swim Meets.
Also, discover a few things you can do to Increase Safety at Swim Meets. Find ideas to implement before your meet as well as last-minute quick and easy tips!