Swim Meet Volunteers
Parent Volunteers Needed! Our parents are crucial to our team's success! It is essential for a successful season to have involved parents. No experience is necessary to be a volunteer.
It takes at least 80 parents for each home swim meet!
- Each family is required to complete five (5) volunteer sessions (equivalent to two and a half (2.5) meets). Points will be tracked for each swimmer/family throughout the season.
- Families are strongly encouraged to volunteer at ALL meets.
- All volunteer sign-ups must be completed through SwimTopia. Please ensure every person volunteering for your family is listed and signed up under your family account so volunteer credit is properly recorded.
- Most volunteer positions require little or no prior experience, and training is provided. Click here to access online training
- If you have an older swimmer, please try to leave the first half of the volunteer slots for families with younger swimmers.
- You are more than welcome to volunteer more than the required amount; swim meets can not function without volunteers.
If we do not have enough volunteers, the meets will stop until we can fulfill these positions. Parents will have the opportunity to sign up for meet duties during registration and online. Once JSL champs arrive, a team will be fined in points for unfilled positions. Please don’t let this happen to us.
The following jobs require prior training:
Meet Director (Filled): Supervises all home meets and ensures that meets are conducted in accordance with the JSL Bylaws and technical rules.
Computer Operator (Filled): Inputs data from events and runs labels. (Need 2 per meet)
Head of Table: Ensures that all materials for scoring are available and that rules are followed regarding scoring and averaging times, etc. (Need 2 per meet)
Starter: Calls events to the clerk of course, announces events, and signals swimmers to take their position. (Need 2 per meet)
Clerk of Course: This is the area where all swimmers report as soon as their event is called. Swimmers are seated on benches marked to their corresponding lane. Clerks make sure swimmers are lined up accordingly to their lane assignment. Clerks provide cards to the swimmers, send swimmers to the blocks, and provide the starter with any event changes.
Stroke & Turn Judges: Ensures the rules for each event are followed by the swimmers. Reports violations to the referee then mark on signed DQ (disqualification) cards. Clinics for interested parents are held in May/June, and parents must attend a clinic before volunteering for this position. To sign up for training sessions, please visit the JSL website: www.jsl.org (Need 8 per meet - 4 per half)
The jobs below require minimal or no previous experience:
Head Timer: Carries 3 stopwatches and starts 2 of them at the start of each event, walking back and forth behind the timers. If a timer has a problem with a stopwatch, the head timer supplies the replacement watch. (Need 2 per meet)
Timers: Start stopwatches at the sound of the horn or blink of the strobe light and stop when the swimmer touches the wall at the end of the event. (Need 32 per meet, 16 per half)
Sweep Judges: Judge the order of the finish of all swimmers. This will be matched with the times of each swimmer in the event at the table. (Need 4 per meet-2 per half)
Runners: Run to each lane and get the event cards, DQ cards from the timers and sweep judge cards from the sweep judges and bring them to the table. (Need 8 per meet – 4 per half)
Asst. Clerk of Course: Assist clerks with getting swimmers lined up and to their assigned lanes. (Need 4 per meet – 2 per half)
Ribbon Table: Organize the timecards, DQ cards and sweep judge cards, and label ribbons. (Need 6 per meet – 3 per half)
Hospitality: Set up the hospitality table at the beginning of warmups. Provide directions and answer questions for arriving swimmers and parents. Walk water trays to volunteers working the meet. (Need 6 per meet – 3 per half)
Sorter: Organize timing cards. DQ slips, and sweep judge cards into event, heat and lane order as they are delivered to the table. (Need 4 per meet – 2 per half)
Backup Checker: Compares the official time on the timing cards with the final results and reviews the print-outs for date entry errors, etc. (Need 2 per meet – 1 per half)
Computer Assistant: Assists in data entry by reading information to the computer operator and observing data entry as a double check. (Need 2 per meet – 1 per half)
False Start Rope: Is required to drop the rope in the event of a false start (Need 2 per meet- 1 per half)

