Massad YMCA Marlins

The Marlins use a Volunteer Sign Up method to coordinate volunteers for each swim meet. We need every mom, dad, aunt and grandma to sign up. As you know, it takes a lot of parents to run an efficient, successful swim meet. Especially the home meets!

All parents are expected to volunteer to help out. Go to the Signup Calendar page to sign up for volunteer positions and to register your swimmers.

If you have not participated as a volunteer by the third swim meet, your child(ren) will not be seeded to swim in future meets.

The Referee runs the meet. They need to understand the RSL rules and duties of all meet officials and should have experience with other positions such as Stroke & Turn Judge and Starter. They will instruct all officials prior to the beginning of the meet. The Referee is required to attend training on an annual basis.

The Starter is responsible to ensure each heat is started in a fair and equitable manner. The Starter takes control of each heat from the Referee once all swimmers have stepped up to the starting blocks. They announce the event and with the use of the starting system, initiate each heat. The Starter is required to attend training every year.

The Stroke & Turn Judge is responsible to ensure all swimmers are performing the strokes and turns correctly. They need to have a firm grasp of the competitive swimming techniques and requirements. They need to understand the RSL rules for strokes and turns. They are required to attend training every year.

The Head Timer meets with and instructs all timers prior to the beginning of the meet. They monitor all timers to ensure their watches are working properly. They work closely with the Referee and Starter to ensure Timers are ready for the start of each heat. The Head Timer is required to attend training every year.

The Head Clerk of Course organizes all entries for the meet to ensure swimmers are seeded into the appropriate heat for each event based on times submitted by the coaches. They ensure all swimmers get to their assigned lane in time for their heat. The Head Clerk of Course is required to attend training every year.

The Head Scorekeeper is part of the Scorekeeping Team and responsible for determining the correct order of finish for each event and the proper scoring of the swim meet. They receive the individual cards from the Timers and determine the official swimmers time, order of finish, and correct scoring of each event and input that information into the scoring database. Head Scorekeepers are required to attend training every year.

The Assistant Clerk of Course will help assign children to lanes and monitor the childrens’ whereabouts.

The Data Input and Data Checker positions are an integral part of the Scorekeeping Team. As cards come into the scoring room, they are sorted and validated against the printed meet plan by the Data Checkers (one from each team). After the cards are sorted and validated, they are passed to the computer team (which includes the Head Scorekeeper) for data entry. Once times are entered into the computer, the cards are passed to the Data Checkers (one from each team) along with a print out of the results of data entry process. Data Checkers verify that there were no data entry errors.

The Card Runner transports the time sheets/cards from the Clerk of the Course to the Lane Timers and from the Lane Timers to the Scorekeeping Team.

The Water Runner distributes water to officials, timers and other volunteers to help keep everyone hydrated during a meet.

Ribbon volunteers will attach “Placement” stickers for each event onto the ribbons during the meet. They are also responsible for sorting and organizing the ribbons as they are generated.

Following each heat, the Heat Winner receives a ribbon for touching the wall first in their heat.

Lane Timers are responsible for validating the names of swimmers and ensuring accurate times are captured and recorded for each swimmer in their assigned lane. Stopwatches are provided by the Marlins. There is no training requirement for timers.

The Safety Marshall is responsible with patrolling the deck to ensure safety measures are followed for the duration of the meet.

The Announcer is responsible to make periodic announcements over the PA system before and during home meets to help provide information to swimmers, officials, and spectators. No training necessary, but experience is helpful.