VOLUNTEER FOR
THE KATONAH SWIM & DIVE TEAM
Last Updated: 5/22/08

Dear Katonah Swim and Dive Team Parents,

It is hard to believe that the summer season is almost here. Thank you for your past support and please remember, we cannot run a swim meet without your help.

Like most of the youth sports found in the Town of Bedford the success of the swim and dive team requires the involvement of many volunteer parents. Being organized and having appropriate numbers of volunteers to perform a variety of committee assignments before, during and after meets enhances the positive experience we hope to achieve for our young swimmers and divers.
We encourage parents to be a partner in their child/children's summer recreational swimming and diving experience. Please help us with our swim and dive team. VOLUNTEERS ARE ALWAYS NEEDED.

To make volunteering for jobs at meets a little bit easier on parents this season, we will use the following system:

The Swim/Dive Coaches will post their line ups for a given meet (usually a few days before the meet) on the pool bulletin board. The parents of the swimmers/divers who are scheduled to swim/dive at that meet are needed to volunteer. Please volunteer on the Sign-Up Sheet that will be posted next to the swimming/diving line-up. Remember that it is imperative that you initial you child's name confirming that your children will swim/dive at that meet, if not their space might be filled by another swimmer. While initialing the line up, please also fill in or confirm what volunteer job you can perform.

While this may keep your schedule a bit up in the air, we believe that it will be easier on the parents to volunteer at meets they will be attending anyway. If you have any questions, please contact me by e-mail at M555999@aol.com, by phone at (914)232-6890 or just talk to any Parent Committee member at the pool.

Thank you so much for your help!

Ellen Baudinet,
Job Coordinator for the Katonah Swim and Dive Team

JOB DESCRIPTIONS:

Announcer:  Announces the names and dives of the competitors and the judges’ scores during the diving portion of each meet. Once the diving is finished, the announcer occasionally announces the score, and any other comments requested by the officials or coaches throughout the meet.  During the diving portion of the meet, you will need someone else to watch your children. Once that portion of the meet is over, however, you’re really pretty free, but you need to stay in the vicinity of the scorers table so that you can make occasional announcements. If you have a friend who will keep an eye on your children just during the diving, this job can be a good choice for someone with young children.

Awards Dinner Coordinator: The awards dinner is the culmination of the swim team season. The swimmers and their families enjoy a pot luck dinner together at the pool. It is a fun event where all the trophies and awards are handed out. This job involves being one of 3 people who share the set up, coordination and clear up of this event, working with a chairperson who will guide them through. It is a very rewarding event and doing this counts as two jobs. This can be done with young children, provided you have a second pair of hands available on the day!

Donut Friday: This is the most rewarding job. Pick up donuts from a local store and deliver them to the Katonah Pool on Friday morning(s). You receive unforgettable smiles from the team members.

50-50 Raffle:  Circulate though the crowd selling tickets for the raffle during the meet. Count up the proceeds before the drawing - half goes to the Treasurer and half goes to the winner of the drawing. This is a laid back, fun job which can be ideal for someone with a younger child who is willing to tag along with mom or dad. Kids can help by distributing tickets or collecting money.

Finish Line (B swim meet): Stand at the end of the pool as swimmers finish and let them know what place they finished. This is an excellent volunteer opportunity for teens.

Meet set up/clean up: Help set up or clean up tables, tents and other equipment at home meets.

Parking attendant: Assists in directing cars to parking spaces on the playing field at home meets. This is not a job suitable to perform with young kids in tow.

Relief volunteer: Acts to fill in for other jobs in the event additional help is needed; someone can't make it, is sick or needs to be relieved to take a break. The relief volunteer may fill in for timer, runner, ribbon writer, swim coordinator or parking attendant. (not scorekeeper, unless well versed in that specialty) The relief volunteer may do more than one job in a meet and may not need to contribute the entire time. This isn't a kid friendly job as you can't predict which task(s) you'll be performing.

Ribbon Sorter (non meet job): Take ribbons home after the meet and sort them out by individual swimmers. You can bring them back to the pool on the next practice day to distribute to team members.

Ribbon writer (A meet): The ribbon writer sits at the scoring table and writes the ribbons for Katonah swimmers who win their races. This is a relatively quiet job. You will be able to take short breaks to watch your children swim in their races or to handle minor parental crises. A-meet ribbon writing at home meets is moderately child friendly. If your children are old enough to be partially on their own, but need to know they can reach mom or dad occasionally you shouldn’t have a problem. Your children can visit you at the table occasionally, but they cannot hangout around the scorers table. For that reason you probably should avoid this job if you have sole responsibility for watching a very young child during a meet. Other pools are sometimes less willing to allow children even to approach the scorers table; at away meets you may not be as free to interact with your children as you would be at Katonah.

Ribbon writer (B meet): Ribbon writing at our home B meets is pretty laid back. Here we write ribbons for all teams’ swimmers at the meet. Each of the six B meet ribbon writers takes one place (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.). When they finish a race, each child is given a small flag which indicates how they finished. They bring this to the ribbon writers and exchange it for their ribbon, which is written for them on the spot. Depending on your child’s personality, this job can be quite child friendly. Since there are several ribbon writers, they can and do pitch in and help each other out, and there is no problem with children being near the ribbon writers table because there are no scorers to be distracted. It can be a little crowded, though.

Runner: The runner collects the timecards from the timers at the end of each race, then gets the order of finish from the official and runs all of this material to the scorers table. This job is great exercise, since the scorers table is generally far removed from the starting blocks. You need to be able to stay on your feet and move quickly for the duration of the meet to do this job. Skip your afternoon at the gym – this will do the trick! Running is not a child friendly job. You’ll be too busy to take care of young children, and they will not be able to accompany you in the starting block area.

Scorer: This is one of the meets toughest jobs. A love of arithmetic (or at least a tolerance for it) is necessary. A calm disposition helps too. Each team provides one scorekeeper and they work together to record the results of each race and keep a running tabulation of the score. It can get pretty nerve wracking at times.  This is definitely not a child friendly job: scorers need to be able to give their full attention to their job. If the scorers fall too far behind, the meet will grind to a halt.

Swim Coordinator: Assists in locating and lining up swimmers prior to their events. This job involves being in the "trenches" with the swimmers and can be fast paced and enjoyable. This job is kid friendly unless you have fairly young children.

Team Photo Coordinator: Make a name chart for the photo and distribute them during awards dinner. This is a good job to know who’s who on the team.

Timer: Timers stand at the end of each swimming lane and time the races with a stopwatch. Each timer ascertains that the name on the timing card for each race matches the swimmer on the blocks. Timing begins with the starting signal and ends when the swimmer in your lane touches the wall. The timer then records the time on the time card. Anyone who cannot stand for extended periods should avoid this job: it involves standing for the entire swim meet. On the other hand, when you’re timing you have a great view of the races and you are very much a part of the action. If you enjoy urging on our swimmers, this is the job for you! Timing is not a child friendly job. Timers cannot be distracted during the meet. Moreover, children other than swimmers are not allowed in the block area.

Volunteer Official (B Swim meet): Act as a volunteer official calling out the order of the swimmers’ finish.

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