Hello Barracuda Parents!

It's time to dig out the quick dry shirts and shorts and prepare ourselves to stand poolside and cheer on our swimmers.

Thank you for providing your preferences for volunteering at the swim meets. I will do my best to place people in their preferred positions, but there are a couple of jobs that must be fulfilled to run a legal meet. With summer vacations, it can be difficult to staff the meet so please understand that there might be a meet where you'll be asked to step outside your comfort zone and perform a job that is not your top preference. I would like to remind everyone of the minimum requirements for each family: 1 swimmer = 3 volunteer positions, 2 swimmers = 5 volunteer positions, 3+ swimmers = 6 volunteer positions (one job at each meet).

For veteran swim team parents, you'll notice a couple of changes this year in how the meet is run. In the past TSA scoring heats, or main events, were scored using 6 place judges and a recorder. Timers were only there for personal team reasons. This spring, the league voted to use times to determine placement. As such, our volunteer jobs will change. We will have 2 timers per lane, meaning we will have 6 timers total from our team for every meet. Like we've done in the past few years, we will also have a head timer that starts 2 backup watches in case a timer has an issue with their watch or didn't start on time.  

A new position on each team now exists as a backup to a timing failure. An Order of Finish judge will mark to the best of their ability, which lane were 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.. These placements are only needed for main events and will only be used if there is an obvious issue with the timing (ie, both timers fail to capture a time for the lane). Each team is responsible for providing a minimum of one timer for each of their lanes (lanes 1, 3, 5 for home meets and lanes 2, 4, 6 for away meets) and one Order of Finish judge.

I have placed everyone in a position for the upcoming mock meet. You can view your role when you click on the mock meet in the swimtopia app. Some positions will not be needed (stroke & turn and score keeping will not be performed), but this is an opportunity to see how things are going to run this summer in a stress-free environment. The mock meet will not count towards your volunteer requirements, but your participation in the mock meet is necessary. Please introduce yourself to other parents and work together to make sure everyone understands what your role is responsible for during an actual meet.

If you have any questions about volunteering, please let me know. Thank you for your time and support for our swimmers.

Cheers to a fun summer swim season, Go Barracudas!!

Alexis