Timing: Call to Action!

Hello Hurricanes Families,

Please take a few minutes to read and consider this call to action about our responsibilities as a team competing in local meets. Consider carefully how you can update your habits to help our team be a positive part of the swimming community!

The reason I'm communicating about this right now is that our team has, lately, been relying heavily on a small number of families to satisfy all of our timing requirements, with some of them timing for up to 12 hours in a single weekend. We should all deeply appreciate these families, and also recognize that this entire burden should not fall on them!

I'd like to solve this problem as a team. Please read on for some perspective on the responsibilities we have and how we plan to satisfy them together.

How our meets happen

Every time we compete at a local swim meet, a legion of volunteers comes together to satisfy dozens of critical functions of an organized competition.  Volunteers fill roles of meet admin, officiating, timing, hospitality, setup, cleanup, etc. Teams that regularly host meets often require and track volunteer hours from their members. Some roles require significant investment of time spent on education and training. The fact that our swimmers can count on such a seamless experience every time we compete is nothing short of a mini-miracle that we should all deeply appreciate!

As a smaller team which doesn't currently host meets, we carry quite a small burden in making all this happen. There are two main ways we can contribute to the amazing culture of volunteerism that keeps meets running:

Officiating

The best way our team can be a good citizen of the local swimming community is to provide a few officials at each meet we attend. Different officiating roles require different levels of experience and training. We have a number of parents on our team who have officiating credentials and regularly pitch in at the meets we attend. Thank you! 

If you are interested in becoming an official, please let me know and I will introduce you to the process.

Timing

The singular absolute volunteer requirement we have is to provide timers. Meet hosts assign timing responsibilities to each team a few days before each meet. Typically our team is required to provide between 2 and 6 timers during any given session. Even though timers make up only a fraction of the volunteer force that makes a meet happen, it is the only role that we are required to participate in! 

Since our role is relatively small, I believe we can satisfy it as a team, without tracking volunteer hours, without imposing penalties, and without relying too heavily on a minority group of volunteers.
 
There are two things that need to happen to get us on track:

1. Our staff will enhance our communication of expectations and organizing of timing assignments. From now on, a signup genius will be posted for all meet attendees with specific timing assignments throughout the meet. We will divide timing responsibilities into roughly 2 hour timing shifts.
2. Our families can do a better job of universally stepping up to share the timing load. As a general expectation, we ask each family to take responsibility for 1 timing shift at each meet they attend. Sometimes there won't be enough shifts for each family to participate, so we also ask that you make an effort to sign up for a minimum of 5 timing shifts per year.

I'll be asking some of the families who have recently been carrying us to take a temporary step back. I hope that this gives them some relief, and also makes space for more families to get comfortable with timing for the long run.
 
For most families your call to action is this:

• Check the sign-up genius and plan for a representative of your family to time at least one shift per meet
• Remember that you are responsible for your entire shift, even if your swimmer is done
• Sometimes shifts will be full. If you compete regularly, plan to time or officiate at least 5 times per year

Please get us started by watching out for the opportunity to sign up ahead of our next meet. Since it is a tri meet with only 3 teams, we will need to provide more timers than usual. 
 
If you haven't been a timer before, know that there will be plenty of people around to help you figure out the process. It is absolutely normal and fine if you feel apprehensive. If you would like, please send me an email and I'll make sure you get paired with a helpful veteran for your first time around.
 
I'd like to emphasize one more time that many teams satisfy their volunteer needs with requirements, enforced with penalties in the form of fines or suspensions. As a small team with great families and relatively small volunteer requirements, I believe it is possible for us to get this done in good faith alone. 
 
Please consider your role and the initiative that you can take. 
 
Thanks and go Hurricanes!
 
Coach Brian