Last updated on September 8th, 2023 at 10:25 am
When team parents have a good volunteer experience at a swim meet, they, their swimmers, other athletes, and their swim team, all benefit. So, it makes sense to use them as meet workers. This article shares ideas on how to involve parents, and others connected with the team, as swim meet timers. It also looks at ways to draw volunteers from the local community if needed.
Contents for Team Building: One Volunteer at a Time
Service Builds People, Connection, Community, and Your Team
Many good things happen in a well-organized timer’s area at a swim meet. In addition to timing races, swim meet timers talk with each other. Many learn something new while serving at the meet. All perform a much-needed service for the swimmers. These activities not only develop connections between people, but they also connect these volunteers to the sport of swimming and build both people and community. Swim teams are one type of community. People involved with competitive swimming are another, more loosely held, type of community. Building people, relationships, teams, and other communities, are all benefits that can come when volunteers work a well-run swim meet.
Use Your People First, to “Keep the Benefit”
By drawing meet volunteers first from your team, the team gets to “keep the benefit” long after the swim meet is over. Letting parents know the team expects them to volunteer helps to strengthen the “Meet Hosting Culture” on your team. Here are some ways to encourage team parents, and others, to step up and work at swim meets.
- Create and use a Team Volunteer Policy to encourage parents to work as timers, and officials, and meet workers. A carefully developed and regularly communicated policy can clearly convey the team’s expectation of parental help at meets and other activities.
- Organize the high school-age swimmers on the team to time at a meet where they are not competing. For example, older athletes can time at developmental or mini meets for younger athletes. It’s highly motivating to younger swimmers to have their older teammates cheer them on while they time. It can also be good for older athletes to give back to the sport.
- Another way to use older, non-competing athletes at swim meets is as meet athlete reps
- Some in this group may appreciate a letter certifying volunteer service hours.
- Ask responsible swimmers or siblings not competing in the meet to time. Although similar to idea #2, this suggestion uses non-competing swimmers and siblings on an individual basis instead of organizing them as a group. This is one way to involve injured swimmers. It is often eye-opening for swimmers to time.
- Some in this group may appreciate a letter certifying volunteer service hours.
- Team alumni and families can occasionally be asked to time. This method is especially effective if the team hosts a traditional annual swim meet. It can become a “Homecoming” of sorts, a way to renew and continue past associations.
Those attending the meet
It takes a lot of volunteers to run a swim meet. Even if drawing volunteers from the meet host, it makes sense to also ask those attending the meet to time. The posts “Got Timers? 8 Ways to Ask for Swim Meet Timers” and “Got Timers? Ways to Recruit Volunteers Before a Swim Meet” address ways to draw meet workers from this group. Gathering volunteers from meet attendees helps to build the greater swim community.
Community Outreach
If timers are regularly needed after exhausting team and meet resources, consider looking to other community organizations for help. Volunteering builds communities. As a result, many look for opportunities to serve. Community outreach can be done for a specific meet, or developed as an ongoing partnership, through an “Adopt a Lane” type program.
One swim team has a well-developed partnership with a nearby country club. Well in advance, the team provides the country club with the dates and times of their home swim meets. Country club members, often retirees, sign-up to work as timers for the meets. They cover timing positions for two lanes, with two timers per lane. If the session is long, they arrange to work in shifts. The swim team assigns them adjacent lanes so they can visit with each other while supporting their local youth. It works well for all.
Need more volunteers? Consider contacting the following groups in your area. Perhaps someone on the swim team knows of an organization that might be willing to help. It doesn’t hurt to ask!
- Youth and/or college groups, including community, school, scouts, or church groups
- One swim team asked the local water polo team to time for a session at one of their home meets.
- Volunteers in this group often need service hours for applications or other activities. If so, give them a letter certifying community service hours. Let them know about the letter to promote participation.
- Adult service groups, including senior citizens, community, country club, fraternal, church, etc.
- Some businesses allow employees occasional community service time.
- If a business sponsors an event or session by providing help, the meet host may be able to provide advertising or some other benefit to the business.
Summary
If you’re going to host a swim meet, you will need volunteers to help run it. Why not take advantage of this opportunity to build your team? How? Promote a team culture of meet hosting. When you focus first, on getting volunteers from your team and then the swim community, the meet host organization retains the benefit long after the last heat exits the pool.
What benefits does the meet host get to keep? Swim parents, and others who have a good experience timing
- Learn and develop through their volunteer experience.
- Build connections with others at the meet, and
- Increase their understanding of, and connection to, the sport of swimming. As their understanding increases, they can better support their swimmer(s) and the team.
If needed, the meet host can also ask other organizations for volunteer help. Service builds people, connections, and community. Swimmers, parents, teams, and society all benefit from this.
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!