WIMBLEDON KILLER WHALES

It takes a village to pull off a swim season. While we, like many area teams, collect a volunteering deposit, it is not our intention to use it as a source of income. We can’t have a successful season without our volunteers. Volunteering has tremendous rewards, beyond just the return of a check at the end of the season. It’s an opportunity to dive in, get connected, and utilize your unique talents to help enhance the experiences our swimmers have. To find out more on how you can help out, please contact [email protected]

Requirements for return of deposit: 6 points / family

Extenuating circumstances will be considered by presenting them to the board.

A meet could not happen without the help of many volunteers. Here are some of the roles you can look to help with:

Announcer (Home Meets Only): Make announcements in coordination with the ready bench throughout the meet, play music, share information about team sponsors and meet status (no announcing of scores), help promote concessions and more as requested by the officials of the meet.

Computer Help / Runners: Distributes and collects Timer Sheets to and from timers as needed. Helps pass messages between referee, ready bench, and computer room. May also assist computer personnel with data entry, time verifications, and printing.

Concessions Lead: Works with the board to determine inventory needs and manages the concession stand at the home meets. Checks with the coaching staff to ensure that some of the items on the menu have adequate nutrition for swimmers. Also responsible for the flow of cash.

Concessions Assistant: Helps in the concession stand. May involve preparation & heating of items and light cleanup. May also run water out to officials and coaches and meet volunteers.

Head Timer: Keeps two stopwatches running for each race in case one of the lane timers has a watch malfunction. Swaps with lane timers watches as needed. Also, helps the referee ensure that all lanes have the proper number of timekeepers.

Lane Timers / Scribes: Start and stopwatches for races and write down times from the 2 manual timers in lane.

Ready Bench Lead: Organizes the swimmers by Event, Heat, and Lane on the benches. Ensures that the swimmers are lined up, and taken to the correct end of the pool for each Event and Heat being swum. Communicates with the referee and works with him/her to combine heats as needed. Also ensures the heats are flowing to blocks to keep Swim Meet rolling, may hold Clerk of Course certification.

Ready Bench Assistant: Helps lead from inside the fence with any tasks they need, including getting messages to announcer or officials, helping swimmers get to blocks etc…

Ready Bench Runners: Assists a specific group of younger swimmers by ensuring they report to the ready bench. Helps with caps, goggles, and other needs. Assists the ready bench lead from outside the fence by locating any missing swimmers.

Ribbons: Attach award labels to ribbons and organize them in the pick-up box.

Setup (Home Meets Only): Mostly completed the Friday night before a home meet. This includes setting up tents over the swimmer area, cordoning off deck area, moving ready bench and behind the block furniture and bringing out the concession side blocks.

Tear Down (Home Meets Only): Done after the meet. This includes taking down, and putting away all of the meet furniture, as well as any cleanup on the grounds, in the bathrooms, and in the kitchen.

Timing System Operator: Some training needed (but does not require a certification). Setup and run the TimeDrops program during the meet. Coordinate with computer team to ensure accurate timing.

Officials: Requires specialized NWAL rules training and certification plus a passed background check. These people will be wearing badges and usually wearing white. They run the meets.

* Referees- Meet and Deck Referee may be the same person, but the Meet referee is the lead official and may be anywhere on the grounds managing the meet. The Deck Referee blows the whistle by the starter and keeps the meet flowing.

* Starter- Announces each race and sends the swimmers off.

* Stroke and Turn Officials- Alerts the Referee of any rule infractions (DQ’s) seen in their jurisdiction.

* Team Representative- Is the liaison between the coaching staff, other officials and the opposing team. Is also a communication center for our team’s parents at a meet.

* Computers- A certified official whom sets up the meets, enters & verifies results from races into the Swimtopia system.

* COC/Clerk of Course- Ensures entries into races are following NWAL rules and runs the ready bench.

Become a part of the committees that plan and do much of the behind-the-scenes work. They are:

Maintenance- Liaisons with the board and the coaching staff and is responsible for cleaning bathrooms, organizing the shed, repairing various equipment, and setting up/taking down for meets and practice as needed.

FUN Coordinator(s)- Liaisons with the board and plans venue and activities for end-of-year party and during-season social activities.

Concession- Maintains inventory, menu (after consulting with the coaching staff to ensure food choices that help athlete performance), and staffing for home meet concessions stands and snack bars.

Fundraising & Sponsorships- Plans revenue-generating opportunities for the team, including fundraising events such as dinners and game nights, spirit nights with local restaurants, swim-a-thons, etc (in coordination with the FUN Coordinator).

Merchandise- Designs & Assists with the order and distribution of the team t-shirt. Maintains inventory and sales of other merchandise such as team caps, additional t-shirts, Team Mom or Team Dad shirts etc.

Volunteer- Liaisons with the board and coaching staff to help coordinate point tallies for volunteer requirements, finds volunteers for critical areas, and ensures meets are adequately staffed. Also maintains and collects stopwatches for meets.

Communication- Liaisons with the board (acting as board secretary maintaining minutes, agenda & communication), coaching staff, and committee leads to Assist with webpage, remind, and social media to update and disseminate information (Including emergency cancellations) to the team.

Officials/Meets- Takes appropriate training, works with coaching staff on infractions and understanding their role, and serves in the role at the meet to help it run. Roles include, Referee, Starter, Stroke and Turn officials, Computers (Lead), Ready Bench (Lead) of which all require a background check. Additionally, Ready bench assistants, Timers, Runners, DJ/Announcer, Computer Assistants serve on this committee.

Awards- Recommend end-of-year trophies/certificates. Work with the coaching staff to plan awards for mid and end-of-season award ceremonies. Ensure mid-season invitational ribbons are picked up at the end of the meet for the mid-season ceremony. Get Ribbons and prepare them for each dual meet.

Membership/Registration- Assist with recruitment events. Help with the beginning of year registration and assist in ensuring accurate records.