Willows of Potomac

We are a volunteer based swim team.  All families will need to volunteer for at least 5 meets. This can be either A or B meets. Three positions require certifications: Stroke and Turn judge, referee, and starter. All other positions do not require any formal certifications. They include Timer, Announcer, Automation, Clerk of Course, Runner, and Ribbon Writing.

There are also jobs like shopping, party planning, team lunch, and concessions helpers. Jobs can be done by parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, nannies, neighbors, teachers, retired folks, or swimming enthusiasts.

The Referee has full authority over all officials and will assign their positions and jurisdictions. They will enforce all applicable rules and will decide all questions relating to the actual conduct of the meet, the final settlement of which is not otherwise determined by the rules. Before each race, they signal the starter that all officials are in position, that the course is clear and that the competition can begin.

Upon signal from the Referee, the Starter assumes full control of the swimmers until a fair start has been achieved.  Starter’s will issue the command “take your mark” and the swimmers will immediately assume their starting position with at least one foot at the edge of the pool. When all swimmers are stationary, the Starter will give the starting signal.

Ensures that the rules relating to the stroke, turn, kick, and finish designated for the event are being observed.  Upon observing an infraction, the Judge shall immediately raise one hand overhead with open palm and then put their hand down and note lane and heat on their heat sheet or DQ slip.  Judges shall report violations to the Referee in writing, on the DQ slips provided.

Timers must be attentive and follow the head timer’s instructions. Each lane will have one timer designated as the “recorder”. For each heat, this person is assigned to write down the times obtained by each of that lane’s three timers. These times should be listed on the timer sheet in a consistent order for each successive heat. The middle time of the three, or any two matching times, shall be circled, and that is the official time.

The home and visiting team clerks work with the announcer to control the flow of swimmers to the clerk’s table. The clerks identify the swimmers, tell them their lanes, and assign them to wait in a designated area until it is time for them to report to the starting area.

The announcer is needed for Home meets only and is responsible for any warm-up announcements and relaying other pertinent meet information as directed by the team rep. The announcer also announces half-time and final scores, all-star qualifying times and pool/team records.

Four people sit in the scoring area: the scorer (visiting team), the computer operator (home team) and two verifiers (one from each team).

The scorer receives the timer sheets from the runner and verifies their completeness.

The computer operator types the times into the computer and operates the program during the meet.

The verifiers read the times to the computer operator and/or check the results printed from the computer after each event against the timer sheets to be sure the data was entered accurately.

The computer operator prints labels, along with event results (if desired), for the volunteers at the awards table. Throughout the meet, someone from the automation team periodically posts paper copies of the event results in a designated area, for viewing by all teams. If a team or pool record is broken and there are any all-star qualifying times, an automation volunteer reports the information to the announcer so that it can be announced.

Runners take the completed time sheets from the head timer and DQs from the referee to the automation volunteers in the scoring area. While they don’t really have to “run”, this is a job that requires the volunteer(s) to be standing and moving back and forth, sometimes quickly, and this is something volunteers should take into consideration, during hot weather especially.

The awards table consists of two ribbon writers, one from each team. The ribbon writers affix the ribbon labels to the ribbons and divide the ribbons by team. The ribbon writer is responsible for taking the ribbon box to and from the away meets. The ribbons at away meets are provided by the home team.