Our Home Meet

This is our biggest event of the year as well as a very important fundraising event for the club. This event requires all hands on deck all weekend. At our home meet we require each family to commit to doing a minimum of 5 shifts. There are over 200 shifts over the weekend. In addition to the below listed volunteer opportunities all families help with the set up and take down.

Examples of Home Swim Meet Volunteer Opportunities:

• Meet Manager (1)
  Organizes the meet, sends and receives entry data, organizes the facility and various work parties to ensure all is ready to go. Normally solicits the senior key officials. On the day of the meet, plays troubleshooter in all areas.

• Referee (1)
  The referee has final authority over all matters pertaining to the competition. Approves and assigns duties to various officials, ensures the rules are enforced, makes decisions on placing, times, etc. which are referred from the office, maintains the meet tempo, oversees the start and finish of each race. It is becoming more common for there to be 2 referees, a Session Ref. who blows the whistle, and a Backup Ref. who handles the problems. This is done to ensure there are fewer delays in the meet’s progress.

• Starter (1)
  The starter has full control of the competitors from the time the Referee turns the race over. Starts the race, may recall or disqualify swimmers.

• Clerk of the Course (1)
  Organizes and hands cards to swimmers. Calls swimmers for their events. Has full authority over swimmers in the marshaling area, may disqualify swimmers, may re-seed or reorganize heats.

• Marshalls (3-5)
  Assists the Clerk of the Course in maintaining an organized flow of swimmers forward to the starting blocks. Normally there are 6-8 heats of swimmers being marshaled at any one time.

• Announcer (1)
  Assists the Clerk of the Course by calling events. Assists the Referee by calling for officials, making announcements.

• Stroke and Turn Judges (6)
  Observes and judges the swimmers’ legality during the full race. Is familiar with the rules of swimming. Will disqualify swimmers for infractions and notify the swimmer and/or coach of same.

• Chief Timer (1)
  Is responsible for getting the swimmers from the marshalling area - behind the blocks with no delays in between races.  Observes all timers and signals the referee should problems occur.

• Colorado Timing System (3-4)
  Works with the technology used to time our swim meets.

• Office Team (5-6)
  Receives the race data from the runner. Sorts the data, compares to data from timing system. In “ties”, refers to the Referee for a decision on placing. Verifies the data from the computer. Prints and publishes the results.

• Results Runner (2-3)
  “Runs” from the place judges to the recorders, picking up the slips and cards, and delivering them to the “office”.

• Deck Food (5-6)
  Serves food to volunteers and coaches around the pool deck throughout the day.

• Concession (8-10)
  Run the concession cooking & serving food.  This is a great fundraiser for our club!

Away Meets

Starting at the end of May we compete almost every weekend in swim meets held at other locations. We do this right up until Regionals which take place in August. These weekly meets offer you the enjoyable volunteer activity of timing swimmers on the pool deck during the races. Trust us when we say this is very easy and fun! You sign-up at the meet while the warm-ups take place. Additionally, you can work as a Stroke and Turn judge, place judge or referee, all of which require specific training which we will be offering.

Examples of Home Swim Meet Volunteer Opportunities:

• Timer

• Officiating

Regionals

This event is hosted jointly by all participating swim clubs and the volunteer jobs are divided equally amongst the attending clubs. Like our home meet we usually ask families to do between 3 - 5 shifts each during this meet.

Provincials

Only kids who make it through to provincials usually go, therefore the number of families to volunteer typically decreases. Every family attending has to pitch in and fill all the shifts our club is responsible for. If you are sending your child with someone else, they have to be willing to volunteer on your behalf.

Events

Our club organizes and presents a variety of social and other events throughout the season. We have a bottle drive, pub night, team photo night, the wrap up pizza party, and much more. You can help by agreeing to fulfill certain volunteer jobs that the organizers need. We regularly update our volunteer page and email everyone with a list of the upcoming events and the jobs that we need help to get the event done. Please keep your eye out for these emails!

Poco Marlins Executive

We are always looking for new enthusiastic board members. If you are interested in joining the executive please contact any member of the current board. More details in regards to the executive positions can be found in the Parent Guide or online at www.pocomarlins.com.

If you have any questions about volunteering please email events@pocomarlins.com.

To ensure that volunteer responsibilities are shared equally and fairly, we ask each family to do a certain number of shifts for each meet or event. You will receive emails from the club before a meet or event outlining how many shifts per family are needed. There is no maximum of volunteer hours that you can do. Volunteer shifts will fill up on a first come first serve basis!