Job Descriptions

Many thanks for volunteering at the 2008 MSL Championship Meet. Many people are needed to stage this event for our league, comprised of over 1,900 swimmers and their families. Your team’s Champs Coordinator will help put the right people in the right positions. Please plan to confirm that you have the experience required of your assigned position. Please be where you’re needed at the designated time. If you can’t make your position, it’s absolutely critical that you let your Coordinator know as soon as possible. Finding last minute substitutions often cause the meet to run longer than necessary.

Here are the Job Descriptions; please make yourself familiar with these. Again, many thanks for your support.

Set-Up Crews
Colorado Desk
Ribbon Desk Vounteers
Warm-Up Supervisors
Referee / Assistant Referee
Head Stroke & Turn / Stroke & Turn / Relay Exchange Judges / Stroke & Turn Runners
Announcers
Starters
Head Clerks-of-Course / Assistant Clerks-of Course / Line-Up and Block Marshalls / Gatekeepers
Head Timer / Assistant Head Timer / Timers
Drink Runners
Parking Chaperones
Clean-Up Crew

SET-UP CREWS
in general, if you have assisted in your team’s set up or takedown, then you should have a basic understanding of what we’ll be doing – only on a 10 team scale.

Thursday, 2 to 5 PM - Equipment Check-In
Each team brings their equipment to IVC.

Thursday, 4 to 9 PM - Timer’s Tents, Timing System, Scoreboards & General Preparations

Timing Systems
Should have a general familiarity with installing the Colorado wiring harness to the timer tents and installing the plunger-type timers.

Scoreboards
Most of the scoreboards will be installed on the steel fence, behind the bleachers. This will require working from ladders, lifting the scoreboards into place, rough wiring to each desk area.

NOTE: Team’s providing the primary scoreboards will also be responsible for setting them up.

General Preparations
No real experience is necessary, but a general understanding of the set-up process and a “can do” attitude are helpful. Jobs include assisting with installation of equipment, electrical wiring, & taping it down for safety, running cables & speakers, setting up tables & chairs, roping off areas for safety, and ensuring general house-keeping at the end of the shift – the pool is used by others during the days.

Friday, 5-9 PM - Starting System, Desk & Computer Equipment & Final Prep
This shift is when all of the preparations come together and it can get a bit chaotic. By this time, all major pieces of equipment and rough wiring have been completed. Computers & Colorado related equipment are being integrated. The folks who will oversee the desk and computer operations will be arriving to begin their piece and verifying that all systems are a “go” for Saturday.

Starting System
Familiarity with how the starter, timing system, speakers, cabling to scoreboards is helpful.

Desk & Computer
Familiarity with how the Colorado, computer, printer, and desk are integrated is very helpful.

Final Prep
No real experience is necessary, but a general understanding of the set-up process and a “can do” attitude are helpful. The pool has been in use up to this point, so we’ll be moving things into their final position. Other jobs include final placement of chairs and tables, posting signs and labeling, removing IVC and Water polo equipment from the pool deck, marking off areas, placing trashcans & recycling cans, and ensuring general house-keeping at the end of the shift – the meet starts early Saturday.

Final note | Set up of each team’s Tent Area is not a part of this set-up. Each team is responsible for setting up their own tents, etc in their designated area.

Set-Up Manager is Vivian Broadway-Firmage (vivian@strawberryseals.com), 383-5285 (home). All donated/borrowed equipment must be first “checked in” with Vivian).

COLORADO DESK
Experience required | 6 positions per desk
The Computer Desk Head and Assistant advise desk personnel throughout the meet. The Colorado Head sets the next event or heat, monitors/adjusts active lanes, arms/disarms buttons, stores/prints each race, marks off heat sheets and makes any adjustments on race printouts. The Colorado Assistant checks button times, collates timer sheets, adds DQ’s, takes Colorado race results from printer, attaches results to timer sheets and DQ’s, and checks to see if timer sheets match Colorado printouts. For every heat, the Data Entry person gets times, changes/moves swimmers if necessary, prints two copies of results and prints ribbon labels. The Heat Checker checks timer forms against Colorado results and if errors are found, the Data Entry person makes corrections and reprints results and ribbon labels. At the end of each event, the Recorder-to-Desk Runner moves along the lanes collecting timer/recorder sheets. The sheets stay in lane order and are delivered to the desk. The Results Poster tapes up results as available and takes new records to the Announcer.

RIBBON DESK VOLUNTEERS
Experience preferred
Each Ribbon Desk Supervisor provides bags labeled for each team that are set in a row alphabetically. Periodically, the Data Entry Person at the Colorado Desk at each end of the pool prints ribbon labels and meet results. As labels become available, heat winner ribbons are labeled by the Ribbon Desk Labeler and added to each bag by the Filer (except for the final heat in each event), along with awards for first through eighth place winners. For individual events, first through eight places receive medals with pin drapes; ribbons are awarded for ninth through sixteenth places. For relays, the four relay swimmers in the first 3 places receive medals with red/white/blue pin drapes.

At the end of the meet, only the Head Coach may take the bag.

WARM-UP SUPERVISORS
No experience necessary!

Warm-up Supervisors keep swimmers off lane lines and maintain order and safety during warm-ups and throughout the meet. During warm-ups without blocks, swimmers must enter the water feet first. The warm-up schedule is posted at the field entrance and in the program.

REFEREE / ASSISTANT REFEREEl
Experience required
With the Meet Director(s), the Referee(s) presides over the meet with Assistant Referees, Stroke & Turn Judges, Announcers, Starters and all Head Coaches. Officiates the meet and arbitrates disputes.

The Assistant Referee organizes all S&T Judges, Relay Exchange Judges, and Runners, attends Referee’s Meeting and reviews all deck assignments.

HEAD STROKE & TURN JUDGES/STROKE & TURN JUDGES / RELAY EXCHANGE JUDGES / STROKE & TURN RUNNERS
Experience & training required (except for runners)
Four judges at each end of the pool (two per side per end) ensure that the rules for each stroke, turn and finish are observed. Signed DQ slips are sent by way of the Runners to the desk. Relay Exchange Judges are positioned next to lanes 1 & 4 and 8 & 5 on the diving block side of the deep end. For eight and under races, Relay Judges are also positioned next to lanes 1 &4 and 8 & 5 on the bleacher side. Refer to the diagram on page 13 of this packet. Two signed dual confirmation forms are necessary for a relay DQ.

ANNOUNCERS
Experience required
Morning shift Announcers are on hand at 6:30 am at the deep end of the pool. Afternoon Announcers are in position by 12:45 pm to direct arriving parents and children to volunteer meetings and warm-up lanes and to remind parents that information is posted at the field entrance and in programs. Announcers identify each event as requested by Meet Directors.

The announcers will be positioned mid-pool on the BLEACHER SIDE of the pool so they can have the best view of what’s happening in the pool. Announcers will announce swimmers in each heat after the start of the heat.

An Announcer/Starter Coordinator will be positioned in front of the announcer’s desk to indicate using flags when each end’s starter is free to start the next heat.

Reminder | Starters and Referees run the meet, Announcers follow.

STARTERS
Experience required
The Starters attend the Referee meeting. Starters begin each race and call false starts. One starter system will be set up on each end on the bleacher side, positioned 10 yards down so that swimmers and timers in the farthest lanes can see clearly. A second starter system is set up on the blocks side, positioned 10 yards down to keep the starter blast away from the desk volunteers. The extra system on deck provides backup if necessary. False Start Rope Monitors will drop the rope across the lanes in the event of a false start.

HEAD CLERKS-OF-COURSE / ASSISTANT CLERKS-OF-COURSE / LINE-UP AND BLOCK MARSHALLS / GATEKEEPERS
Experience required. great job for age-group coordinators
Clerks and Marshalls must be prepared for a long morning. These positions require extra patience and complete calm to help the least experienced swimmers. Warm-ups begin at 6:30 am. Swimmer lineups start at 7:30 am. The shallow end staging area is up the stairs on the road above. The deep end staging area is down the ramp, far end of the pool, bleacher side. Staging areas have lanes marked by cones and controlled by Lane Marshalls. The Head Clerks-of-Course have megaphones in the staging areas and walkie-talkies to communicate with the Assistant Clerks–of-Course at the blocks. Lane Marshalls maintain order during and, when directed, lead their swimmers in order to the Block Marshall in their lane, who rechecks swimmer names and helps swimmers prepare for the starter’s signal. Lane Marshalls may rotate with Block Marshalls to watch their children swim. Lane Marshalls help ensure that the roped area at the bleacher side of the pool is free of swimmers, and that spectators remain outside of that area. Gatekeepers keep all non-workers and swimmers not in the current event from the starting area.

HEAD TIMER / ASSISTANT HEAD TIMER / TIMERS
Experience required (minimal experience is required for timers and no experience is required for runners)
The Head Timer prepares all Timers at the meeting and assigns him/herself to four lanes and the Assistant Head Timer to the other four. The Colorado timing system is used, which is linked to the starting system so that Timers press their push buttons only as swimmers finish. Each lane has three timers. Timers revert to stopwatches if the Colorado system fails. Managing team will provide stopwatches as needed. If one of the Timers capturing a stopwatch time misses a start, s/he alerts the Head Timer or Assistant (by raising their hand) on the closest side, who then captures the time. The Timer/Recorder picks up the time from the Head Timer/Assistant and records the backup time on hardcopy.

DRINK RUNNERS
No experience necessary!
Drink Runners take drinks from the food concession to all deck workers once every hour. The drinks are provided by the Snack Bar Manager(s).

PARKING CHAPERONES
No experience necessary!
Two volunteers from each team will be positioned at the Drop-off Zone to expedite the unloading of passengers and gear from their team’s vehicles. One chaperone can escort young swimmers and gear to their team tent area to wait while the driver parks then walks or rides the shuttle to the meet.

CLEAN UP CREW
Experience preferred
The Clean-up Crew meets with the Crew Head at 5:00 p.m. for assignments, i.e., taking down tents, returning tables and chairs to storage, removing signs from the walls, assisting desk volunteers with packing, etc. Rented equipment is stacked and loaded as directed by the crew head. Borrowed announcing systems, Colorado systems, printers, walkie-talkies, etc. are safely returned to the appropriate teams.

Each team must designate one of their Clean-up Crew members to take receipt of borrowed equipment. (They need not be responsible for taking home this equipment, but must coordinate how this equipment leaves the IVC premises that evening.)