Volunteering
Making CAST a better place for all to enjoy
Please take the time to read through this.......
Volunteering – We need your help
Most of the time our volunteer requirements are very low. They most often come up when we have swimmers attend a regular non-CAST-hosted meet, and are typically: canopies, and timing assignemnts. For championship meets, we may have other obligations as well, things like deck marshall or head timer. For CAST-hosted meetsthe number of volunteer hours skyrockets to hundreds of hours needed.
Example:This coming weekend we have 11 swimmers from 10 families and only 6 volunteer spots to fill. That leaves 4 families without a job. I think what this has done is create a path for some to say, “they don’t need 40% of us, so they don’t need me”. And it turns out to be the same people helping and the same people not helpingfrom meet to meet. This has to change. (by the way 3 spots still open......and I have new canopy covers with real wheels that should make that job easier).
Prior to COVID we had mandatory servicetime from every family each season. The formulas included some time from every family and extra time for championship and CAST hosted meets. It was typical for families to “owe” between 12 and 20 hours of volunteer time each season through a point system. And if you didn’t make your hours, you got billed at the end of the season. Some people were upset they got a $320 bill at the end of a season.
Tracking and billing for these is very very time consuming, and something we would all like to do without. IT’S UP TO YOU! We need everyone to step up and help or we’ll have to go back to the old system. Having coaches tasked to go find parents to fill job positions at a meet is not appropriate.
When everyone helps, things roll along smoothly and no one is burdened with too much work. I was thrilled with the amount of help we had in running our meet in May. Over 250 hours of volunteer time put in and we ran a great meet, and it seemed like the volunteers enjoyed what they were doing because everyone was helping each other......that’s the way it should work!
The Challenge
We have 5 more “in-town” meets this summer. The challenge: If we can fill all of the volunteer spots by Friday evening prior to each meet. We can avoid going back to the old..... hours=points and points tracking and points billing system in the fall. Let’s help each other out, pull together, and make CAST a better place!
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For those interested in becoming a deck official
Officials- The team is still in need of officials. We are still getting fined every meet weekend because we are not providing our required officials. (one official required for 10-30 entered swimmers, and twofor 30-50 for each session of the meet).
Were offering incentives - just sayin...........Click here for more info
Thanks for reading
Coach Dave
