Parent Job Roles
The Cooper’s Pond Aquaducks Swim Team is a parent-run volunteer organization, and we rely on every family’s participation to keep meets running smoothly. Each swim meet requires nearly 80 parent volunteers, and our team is responsible for providing about half of those — more at home meets, and fewer at away meets. It truly takes a village, and every role — from timers and bullpen stagers to Stroke & Turn judges, runners, officials, and data entry — matters.
During registration, parents can indicate which types of jobs they prefer. Once meets are published in Swimtopia, families can select their specific meets, roles, and shifts — Shift A (first half), Shift B (second half), or both. Some roles, such as timers or judges, are needed at both home and away meets, while others (like Quack Café helpers) are home-meet only.
Most seasons we require the equivalent of 4 shifts per family. Families can meet their obligation by working shifts, opting to pay our teen helpers, or a combination of the two.
Examples of roles:
Bullpen - Stages swimmers for their event, heat, and lane.
Concessions at Home Meets – Jobs include food preparation ahead of the meet and selling food during the meet.
Ribbons - Affixing the printed results stickers to provided ribbons for our team only. Usually done following the meet so the ribbons can be handed out during the next Monday morning practice.
Runners - Pick up the timer sheets after each event and bring those to the scoring table.
Scoring Computer Operators - Score the meet using the team laptop during Home meets. The Home team provides at least one computer operator per home meet. This role requires additional (free) training. If you are interested in this role, please email us at [email protected].
Scoring Table Verifiers - The Away team provides 1 parent to function as the Scoring Verifier. They assist the computer operators and double-check all results.
Set Up and Take down—Work in coordination to set up pool and take down pool to include moving deck chairs and tables, setting up lane ropes and backstroke flags, setting up starter stand, etc.
Starter - The starter runs the meet - calls the swimmers to the blocks and runs the starter machine. This job requires additional (free) training.
Stroke and Turn judge - Watches to ensure the strokes and turns are completed correctly and disqualify swimmers who do not perform these movements correctly. Four stroke and turn judges are required for every meet - the home team provides two and the away team provides two. This job requires additional (free) training.
Timers - Timers verify the correct swimmer is in their lane and time the events. The watches are started upon seeing the flash of the strobe light on the Starting System, and then stopped when the swimmer touches the wall to complete their event. Two timers are assigned per lane; most summer league pools are 5 or 6 lanes so 10-12 timers are needed for each meet. Each timer has a watch and both times are recorded on the timer sheet to the nearest 100th of a second (e.g. 2:42.62). The Home and Away teams each provide 1 timer per lane. We provide training for new timers.
