Volunteer Positions with No Experience Needed

Parents of new members are encouraged to sign up for these jobs. There are easy jobs to fit everyone’s skills or abilities. Each job is important and can be fun!  Below is a list of jobs, which are necessary to run a swim meet.  Please sign up to work as a starter or stroke and turn judge if you have a competitive swim background either at the high school or college level.  

• CONCESSION WORKERS aid in setting up the concession stand, selling refreshments, and cleaning up the concession stand at home meets.  Bakers will also be needed to provide muffins, cookies, or cupcakes for sale at the stand.
• TEAM READY AREA PARENTS call swimmers to the ready area and help the Head Ready Bench get swimmers lined up for the next events and maintains order in the ready area. Swimmers are separated by age groups.
• READY BENCH RUNNERS Take the swimmers from team area to the starting block area
• READY BENCH double check that swimmers know where they are suppose to be and what they are swimming.
• HEAD BENCH lines up swimmers to send to blocks
• TIMERS use digital stopwatches to time and record the time on the lane timer sheets.  Each lane has three timers—one is in charge of the clipboard and legibly writing down the watch times, a second timer watches to ensure the times are correctly transcribed, and the third timer asks the swimmer his or her name to be sure the correct swimmer is in their event, heat, and lane.
• RUNNERS collect lane timer sheets and disqualification slips from timers and judging officials and takes them to the scorekeeper’s table.
• RIBBON PERSONNEL Waits for the end of the meet to get labels from the scorekeeper. Takes labels home and places them on the correct ribbon and sorts the ribbon in to the team filer. Hands out ribbons and small treat at the next practice.

Volunteer Positions Requiring Training (WE MUST HAVE THESE POSSITIONS FILLED)
Training for these positions is provided at a free, annual MSSL clinic (see details below).

• MEET REFEREE has complete responsibility for a speedy and impartial conduct of the competition, knows the MSSL and swim stroke rules, is familiar with the whistle start procedures, inspects the pool and equipment, and conducts an officials’ meeting before the meet begins. The Meet Referee usually has worked as a stroke & turn judge for at least two swim seasons and could be, but DOES NOT have to be a nationally certified official.
• STARTER’S primary job is to ensure all swimmers have a fair and equitable start, knows the MSSL rules and how they are applied, and is familiar with the whistle start procedures.
• STROKE AND TURN JUDGE observes the swimmers in their assigned lanes, makes disqualifications when applicable, and understands the MSSL and swim stroke rules and how they are applied.
• SCOREKEEPER downloads the time files from the Dolphin radio wave stopwatches into a laptop, compare time files to the lane timer sheets runners bring to the scorekeepers to double check ensuring times match, and the Meet Maestro software determines swimmers' places and determines the team scores.  At the end of the meet, the Referee and 2 head coaches sign the final score sheet the Scorekeeper prints off, and with the push of a button will send the meet information to the competing teams. Prints ribbon labels for places 1-6 for a dual meet and 1-9 for a tri meet and gives to team coach or team rep to have their volunteer affix the labels to the backs of the correct place ribbon.

This sport requires parents to be active participants, not just spectators. It is required that every family volunteer for a minimum of 3 volunteer positions. 

The link below contains lots of information about the Maverick Summer Swim League Clinics that are available, including SwimTopia Meet Maestro Software training, Officials On-Deck training, MSSL Rules training, and Head Coaches training. You can see the dates for these clinics in the document linked below, or on our Team Calendar, linked at the top of the page.