Parents' Role

As a parent of a swimmer, you will be required to work at our home swim meets. FAST parents are an essential part of our organization! We could not operate a home swim meet without you. It is our intention that the Flambeau Area Swim Team will run the BEST swim meets in the Central Swim Conference. A home swim meet requires the services of as many as 50+ people to fill the positions needed to run a successful meet.

These positions include:

  • Timers
    We need 12-15 people to stand or sit in chairs at the end of the pool lanes with stopwatches and time the swimmer’s races. These times are used as a back up to our electronic timing system.
  • Runners
    These 5-6 people bring and pick up the cards from timers that contain the stopwatch times, monitor cleanliness of facilities, bring food to coaches, give breaks, etc.
  • Stagers
    4-5 people are needed to be responsible for getting all those swimmers lined up and ready to go on deck for their events. This job is vital to running a quick and smooth meet.
  • Ribbons
    We need 3 people to put the ribbon labels on the ribbons for all teams, sort the ribbons by team and deliver heat ribbons to each heat winner.
  • Computers
    We need at least 4-5 people at this station to run the scoreboard, pull, print and post the race results, and print the ribbon labels.
  • Rest Area Monitor (AKA “The Bouncer”)
    Two authoritative, responsible adults to watch over all the teams in the rest area so they behave properly, and be in charge of operating the VCR/TV which we show movies on for off deck entertainment.
  • Heat Sheet Sales
    1-2 people needed to sell Heat Sheets prior to the start of the meet.
  • Announcer
    We need one person to announce events and general information for the benefit of the spectators.
  • Concession Booth Workers
    It takes several volunteers to help sell food to all the hungry swimmers, spectators and workers that will be at each one of our swim meets. Usually short shifts work well in this area.
  • Clean Up
    Any and all parents are needed to help clean up at the end of each meet. This helps save the club money in janitorial fees … so please stay until all areas are cleaned up and equipment from the meet is put away.
  • Officials
    3 officials are required to run most meets. We have to pay officials out of our club money when we don’t have any parents who are certified and can volunteer their time to officiate. Each swim meet needs one head official to start the races and at least 2 stroke/turn judges. Swim meets usually start at 10:00 A.M. and last until about 3:00 P.M. Your time commitment would be for approximately 6 hours (this does not include set up or tear down).