Set Up – Take Down
The Set Up – Take Down volunteers report to the team equipment and are responsible for
preparing the pool area for the meet and returning all equipment to the storage closet at the end
of the meet.
Away Meets
Show-up time for set-up is 6:30 a.m. Report to the equipment manager for task assignments
(Rob Plaza).
Take-down shift begins at the end of the last event although as families begin to leave toward the
end of the meet you can start taking down the tents.
Set up and take down items for an away meet include:
Tent Area
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“Tent Area” tent and table
“Tent Area” Event flip chart
Tents for ORCA families
General
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Ribbon boxes
Ready Area equipment (bull horn, clipboard, etc.)
Timers
Home Meets
Show-up time for set-up is 2 hours before the meet, typically 6:00 a.m. Volunteers should report
to the equipment manager for task assignments.
Take-down shift begins at the end of the last meet event and ends when all items are properly
stored in the storage room.
The following is a checklist of set up/take down items for a home meet:
Pool:
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Lane ropes
Chairs
Blocks
Pool Perimeter ropes and stakes
Timing/Starter clock/ buzzer
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Starter’s stand
Event flip chart
Tent Area
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“Tent Area” tent and table
“Tent Area” Event flip chart
Tents for ORCA families
Ready Area
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Benches
Shade tarps and all ropes
Announcer’s table and equipment
Electric extension cords
Clerk of Course, Scoring, and Ribbons
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Tables for clerk of course and scorers
Table for ribbon workers
Cork boards for score posting
Table for meet sign up
Concessions
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Clean out kitchen before and after
Tables for concessions (candy/soda and hot food condiments)
Ice Coolers (empty, dry out and store at end of meet)
General
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Ribbon boxes
Ready Area equipment (bull horn, clipboard, etc.)
Timers
Garbage cans/bags
Check bathrooms for cleanliness and paper supplies
Traffic Coordinator / Bathroom Up-keep
First Shift
Assigned to one female parent for the first shift of every home meet. Before first meet, no
parking signs are delivered to the traffic coordinator along with detailed instructions.
The mornings of home meets:
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Set up “No parking signs” at street corners and around the fire hydrants between 6:00 and
6:15 AM.
Near the end of the meet, collect all signs. Keep signs at your own house for the next
meet.
During the meet between events 1 and 40, monitor the women’s rest room for supplies
once every half hour. Refill as necessary the toilet paper, paper towels, and liquid
soap. Empty garbage can and monitor general cleanliness.
Second Shift
Between events 41 – 80, monitor the women’s rest room for supplies once every half
hour. Refill as necessary the toilet paper, paper towels, and liquid soap. Empty garbage can and
monitor general cleanliness. At end of meet, empty trash can one final time.
Garbage Collection
Assigned to male parents. The Pine Brook Park must be as clean when we are done with a meet
as it was when we started.
Responsibilities
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During home swim meets, collect garbage throughout facility including the two Pine
Brook owned park garbage cans. Put bags of garbage neatly in the garbage coral. At the
end of the meet, empty all garbage cans for the last time.
At the end of the meet, after people have left, pick up trash from the park. This
includes: Lawn near the tennis courts, front of pool buildings, kiddie park, behind pool,
and towards basketball court.
During the meet, monitor the men’s rest room for supplies once every half hour. Refill as
necessary the toilet paper, paper towels, and liquid soap. Empty garbage can and monitor
general cleanliness.
Ice Purchase
Assigned to one male parent. Parent receives the keys prior to the season for the park pavilion
and store room. On the days before home meets, sometime in the evening, drive to the “Ice
House – Carlos Beer Garden”, a bar on Highway 3 a few blocks south of NASA
Parkway. Purchase seven 50 Lb. bags of ice (about $4 each). If they don’t have ice, buy at
Sam’s Club. Friday night, deliver ice to the pavilion. Open the bags and pour two bags into
each of the 3 coolers, and one bag into a fourth cooler. Submit receipt to the team’s treasurer for
reimbursement.
Water Runner
The water runner volunteers report to the volunteer coordinator and the team equipment manager
(Rob Plaza). They are responsible for taking water to the volunteers.
Two to three times during a shift, fill cups with water and take to the volunteers working the
meet. Collect used cups and throw them away. (If water coolers are not available, use bottled
water from the candy/soda concessions stand.)
Note: Volunteers in the Tent area, Ready Area, and Timers and Runners, and Stroke & Turn
judges are in the heat and need special attention. Check on them frequently.
“Timers” and “Runners” Volunteers
Both first- and second-shift timers meet at 7:30 am for the timers meeting to meet the head
timers (one from each team) and go over rules and instructions. At PBW home meets, this
meeting is held by the diving board. Listen for an announcement made around 7:25 AM. All
PBW timers (both morning and afternoon shift) need to check-in with the PBW head timer at this
meeting, to make sure everyone is present, or else we will have to find alternate timers. It is very
important to keep your full time slot commitment! It is very hard to scramble up parents to
time at the last minute. The morning timers will get their stop watches at that time.
Morning timers start promptly at 8:00 AM (when the meet starts), and should be at the starting
blocks by that time. You will time through event 40. Afternoon timers start at the beginning of
event 41. Please start arriving at the end of event 40 — this gives us time to transition out the
morning timers, and explain the rules again if needed. NOTE: Events 39-40-41-42 are 25-yard
events, so the timers will be at the far end of the pool (NOT at the starting block end). Thus, the
switchover will occur at the far end of the pool. The afternoon timers time through the end of the
meet (event 80), usually around 1:30 PM. Older kids’ freestyle relay events are usually
combined, so the last 10 events go quickly.
Some guidelines are:
1. Children who are not swimming or parents who are not timers or runners should not be in the
starting block area. This is for swimmers, timers, coaches and runners only. It is crowded enough
as it is, and you don't want to miss a swimmer's start/finish. Please politely ask non-swimmers or
non-volunteers to remove themselves from the starting block/ready chair area.
2. There are three timers per lane:
 Away meets: PBW has 2 timers in the odd-numbered lanes, and 1 timer in the evennumbered lanes.
 Home meets: PBW has 1 timer in the odd lanes, and 2 timers in the even lanes.
Additionally, each head timer (one from each team) has two backup watches and times every
race.
3. BEGINNING OF EACH RACE: Listen for the referee’s whistle, then listen for the starter
(with the microphone), and watch the light flash on the starter equipment after he says, ―Take
your mark.‖When the light flashes — not the beep sound — push the watch’s start button. Then
look at your watch to make sure it has started. END OF EACH RACE: When a swimmer touches
the wall to end his race, stop the watch. The swimmer MUST touch the wall. NOTE: Legal
breaststroke and butterfly strokes require ―two-hand touches‖at the completion of the race. But
as timers, stop the watch at the first touch if a swimmer illegally touches with only one hand.
The referee should disqualify the swimmer, but you will have stopped the watch and have a time
should the swimmer somehow not be DQ’d. It is not the timers’ job to determine if a one- or
two-hand touch was legal or not. Let the refs make that call.
4. If you miss the start of a race, raise your hand and a head timer will hand you a stopwatch to
finish the race. Trade out your stopwatch which goofed to the head timer so he will have two
watches ready for the next race. Pay particular attention when timing the 25-yard events (1 lap of
the pool). It doesn’t matter whether you switch watches with the PBW head timer or the other
team’s head timer. Everyone is working together.
5. For the younger kids (8 and under), during the 25-yard races, the timers are positioned at the
opposite end of the pool from the starting blocks. Listen for the whistle and listen / watch the
starter for the start (the strobe light on the tripod), as these races run fast. When the child comes
out of the water (one of the timers can help the little kids out of the water), the timer with the
clipboard and time card should ask the swimmer his/her name, and then compare it to the card to
ensure the runner didn't mix up heats/lanes. (Do not ask the child, "Are you James Thomas"?
because he may have water in his ear or a cap on, and can't hear, and just shake his head "yes".
Have the child tell you his/her name and compare to the card).
6. The runners will give each lane their swimmer's score card. One timer will be responsible for
timing AND writing down the times.
7. Check the cards closely to make sure the swimmer is in the right event, right heat, right lane
and also whether it is a 25-yard swim (1 lap), 50-yard (2 laps), 100-yard (4 laps), 200-yard (8
laps) or relay (100-yard relay, each child swims one lap; 200-yard relay, each child swims 2
laps). All timers should know the length of the event being swum: You do not want to stop your
watch when a swimmer comes in for his turn at 50 yards, and he is swimming a 100-yard event!
Call for a head timer if you do.
8. IMPORTANT! If you have the wrong card for the wrong heat, wrong lane or wrong swimmer,
DO NOT cross out the swimmer’s name and write in a different swimmer’s name/time. Raise
your hand to have the head timer find a meet official to stop the meet until the cards get
straightened out.
9. All three timers’ times per lane will be written on the card. The middle time will be taken by
the clerk as the final score. If a timer misses a race, they should raise hand/call immediately for
the head timer's watch, else write down only two times, and the two times will be averaged by
the clerk of course (not the timer). CCSL rules state that if a card has only one time recorded, it
is a DQ for the swimmer. We NEVER want this to happen.
10. The entire number on the stop watch must be written down, unless the watch goes to the 3rd
decimal point, at which point the third decimal number can be discarded (sorry, your human
reaction time is not that good!). PBW uses watches showing only 2 decimal (hundredths) places.
11. It is sometimes easier for the timers to show the person who is writing down the times the
numbers on the watch; in other cases, the writer likes them called out. Check with whoever is
doing the writing what his/her preference is. Does he/she want to get your times first, and write
his/her own time down last? Vice-versa? etc.
12. The runner will come by and take the cards at the end of the race.
13. Hit reset on the stopwatch and it clears the time; you are then ready for the next race.
Usually the reset button is on the top left of the watch, and the start/stop button is on the top right
side of the watch. (The middle Mode button sets the watch to be a stopwatch, time of day, daydate, etc. All watches should have been set to Stopwatch mode by the head timer before the meet
starts). Check with the head timer if you need help.
14. The pool’s outside lanes (#1 and #6) tend to be less hectic (kids not swimming in the lane in
every heat, especially the older kids), so be sure to not get complacent – always look for a
swimmer behind you waiting to swim. This is also a good time to practice timing even though
you don't have a swimmer, especially if you have never timed before; thus, if you are a first-time
timer, we suggest you time in lane 1 or lane 6.
15. Bottled water is provided to all timers FREE. We will have people coming around with
drinks. Although the block area is covered by tents, the low morning sun can be brutal. Wear
hats and use sunscreen if you desire.
16. If you need a break, please raise your hand and the head timer will relieve you temporarily.
Please return quickly as other timers may need breaks.
Some hints for the swimmers that you can give them before the race (especially the younger
children):
. Two-hand touch‖on the wall for breaststroke and butterfly lap and final finishes.
. Don't dive off the block on a relay until the incoming swimmer touches the wall.
. Don't hang onto or especially drag on the lane ropes.
Also, swimmers must exit the water immediately when finished racing, especially on relays; and
they should not ever swim across lanes to exit the water.
Runner
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Pick up cards from timers after each heat and take to scoring table
Take DQ slip from judge and keep with the time card
For 25yd events, work with partners to quickly move cards from swimmers to timers
When collecting cards, make sure they are filled in (do not turn in a blank card)
Scoring Area Volunteers
The scoring team is responsible for entering the swimmer’s times into the computer, verifying
the scores and printing out the score reports and the ribbon labels.
This task involves eight people: six people from the home team and two people from the visiting
team. The scoring process begins with sorting and placing the result cards in order. Next the
computer operators and their assistants enter the times into the computer. The head scorer and
score verifier review the times and verify they are correct. Finally the summary score reports are
printed and displayed and the ribbon labels are printed and turned into the ribbon table.
At away meets, the head scorer and score verifier assist the home scoring team as directed by the
home team’s head scorer.
Head Scorer
The head scorer is responsible for the scoring team. At the meet the head scorer is responsible
for verifying the score averages and the data entered into the computer. They should verify the
print-outs are accurate prior to posting. The head scorer should also log the DQs and pass that
information onto the head coach. The head scorer should also help out wherever needed at the
scoring table to keep things moving quickly.
Card Sorting and Placing
The “runners” will bring a stack of time cards from the “timers”. The Card Placer/Sorter
volunteer and an assistant should either calculate the average (if only 2 times were recorded) or
take the middle score (if 3 times recorded) and write this on the score line, sort the cards in heat
and lane order, clip them and then place them in event order for the computer entry volunteers.
Computer 1
The computer 1 volunteer enters the event results into the computer.
Scoring Assistant
Usually the Scoring Assistant helps read off the scores as the computer volunteer types in the
information.
Computer 2
The computer 2 volunteer prints the event reports for verification and posting and prints the
ribbon labels for the ribbon workers.
Score Verifier
The score verifier assists the head scorer in the verification of the scores and computer
data. Typically the scores are printed out after computer entry and the score verifier compares
them with the handwritten times on the heat cards. Any errors identified should be corrected in
the computer before results are posted.
Tent Area Volunteers
The setup crew should set up the number stand for you. You may need to find the equipment
manager to get the clipboard, pencil, and bullhorn.
Get the swimmer code sheet (which shows who is here and who isn’t here) and the heat sheet
from the Clerk of Course. This will help you avoid looking for absent swimmers.
At this time you begin calling swimmers for events 1-5 to the tent area before the meet begins so
the swimmers can all be lined up and waiting in the ready area prior to the start of the meet.
Your main job is to keep ahead of the ready area but also avoid huge crowds from mobbing the
ready area. Listen for announcements such as “Swimmers for events 1-5 to the ready
area.” You should then call the swimmers for events 6 and so on to the “Tent Area” and line
them up to go in to the ready area. One technique is to keep an eye on the ready area and as the
backlog of swimmers gets low call the next 1-2 events to the tent area. Tell the announcer what
events you want called to the tent area and then use the bullhorn out in the tent area to reach
folks outside the PA system.
You should have the event numbers on the event board flipped to the event that you are calling
for. Most of the older swimmers will go directly to the ready area on their own so keep this in
mind as you determine which events to call to the tent area.
Don’t bother to put the swimmers in order by their heats, they will do that in the ready
area. Changes are frequently made. Just make sure you have all swimmers for the event. If
some are missing have the announcer call them directly to the ready area.
Relay changes will be brought out to you from the Clerk of Course. Relays that were scratched
should be notified, BUT, many times, most of those swimmers will be put on another relay or in
another individual event. These changes will be brought out to you from the Clerk of Course.
Please return the clipboard, pencil, bullhorn and event number stand to the equipment manager
(Rob Plaza) at the end of the meet.
Ready Area Volunteers
The ready area is the area the swimmers gather just before being placed in their lanes at the
pool. There are a series of benches set up for the purpose of lining up the heats for each event.
The “ready area” is typically staffed with 2 volunteers from the home team and 2 volunteers
from the away team.
The volunteers in this area receive the event cards from the clerk of course and line up the
swimmers on the benches by heat and lane. They give each child his/her heat card. They move
the children up a row as each heat is completed. The pool assistants/coaches should help the
ready area workers by escorting the young swimmers to the chairs in the lanes at the pool.
For relays the ready area volunteers escort the 8&under swimmers to the correct lane and side of
the pool. Assistant coaches should also help with escorting these swimmers to their correct
locations. Call on them if you need help.
Ribbons Volunteers
The ribbons and mailboxes are kept in the pool storage closet. The team is only responsible for
providing ribbons for the home meets. At away meets the other team will provide the ribbons.
The ribbon workers apply the labels to the appropriate ribbons and file them in the mailboxes.
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Catch the DQs and use a “participation” ribbon for those labels instead of a place ribbon.
(Note participation ribbons are given only during the first two meets and only to
swimmers under 8 who are disqualified).
Keep an eye on the events for which you receive labels and make sure no events are
skipped.
Ribbon volunteer shifts start 1.5 hours after the other shifts due to the fact that it takes a while
before the first labels are printed. For the same reason, the second shift for the ribbon workers
lasts about an hour after the last event of the meet.
Concessions Volunteers
There are three concession areas:
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Breakfast concessions
Hot food concessions
Candy & drink concessions
The concession workers man the concession stands selling breakfast, hot food, or candy &
drinks. Concessions are our major fundraiser so this is an important job. Wash your hands
before starting your shift. Your children may help you, but we ask that only adults handle the
money. Keep an eye on the cash box!
Candy and drink concessions:
The first shift should fill the coolers with soda, water bottles and ice. There is plenty of time to
do this starting at 6:30 because people rarely buy drinks in the first hour. The first shift should
also place ice and water bottles in the cooler-on-wheels so that it is ready to deliver to timers and
other workers (water runner will manage once meet starts at 8:00).
Throughout the day, the coolers will need replenished with water, soda, and ice.
The last shift should empty the coolers of ice and water and place the remaining, loose water and
soda back into the supply closet.
Hot concession:
Hot concessions first handle the breakfast items, then the lunch items.
For the hot concession runner position (9:30 – 12:00), your job is to help the cooks get the hot
food to the concession stand, check and refill the condiments at the condiment table, and work in
the concession stand as needed.
We ask the last shift to help us clean up afterwards. Please use the dish soap, clean sponges, and
scrubbies in the cleaning supply cabinet to clean the crock pot, bowls, tongs, and miscellaneous
utensils. The sink is nice, big, and clean and has hot water available.
Novelty Sales
Starting at 6:30 AM when families begin to arrive, man the concession table. It should already
be set-up by the set-up crew and will be located close to the volunteer coordinator check-in
and/or the swimmer check-in.
Display the novelty items for sale (bags, towels, car stickers, etc.) Keep an eye on the cash
box! Shortly after the meet starts, put unsold items back into boxes and turn-in the cash box to
the treasurer or other board representative.