Areas where we will need help include: Officials: Hosting fair athletic competitions requires referees. LY has an excellent group of parents who have trained and are training to be officials. Because we are a Y team as well as a USAS team, it is necessary to have officials who are trained in both capacities. If you are not currently an official and would like to be, please let our officials’ chair, Terri Proffitt know. You can email her at tpworkathome@aol.com. Clerk of Course: I include in this area the folks working the timing system – 1 CTS operator, 1 or 2 timing judges, and 1 recorder. In addition people to help accept late entries and see that late swimmers are seeded, collect money, post results, prepare and distribute awards deal with excited parents, angry coaches, confused swimmers …. Basically ensure that the meet operates smoothly and effectively. The ability to work quickly and yet calmly is a necessity. Concessions: The concessions committee must arrange all the supplies before the meet, through seeking donations and through direct purchases. They must also man the concession stand throughout the entire meet. This area is most pleasantly run if there is a cadre of volunteers willing to work various shifts and no one is stuck having to spend an excess of time doling out cups of Gatorade and baked potatoes. Karen Watson and Renee St. Clair will be heading up this committee this year, so please speak to them if you’d like to help them out. Hospitality: The importance of hospitality is often overlooked. Hospitality exists to serve the needs of all the workers and coaches who are trapped at the meet all day and have very little time to seek food and drink. The hospitality committee organizes meals for coaches and officials during the meet and provides drinks to timers, coaches, officials and others working in official capacities during the meet. It is imperative to prepare early to have varied and satisfying meals and it also takes a lot of people paying a lot of attention to keep all the volunteers properly hydrated during the course of a three day meet. Coaches will often actually select meets based on the quality of the hospitality efforts. Terry Brame will be heading up the hospitality efforts this year. Timers: Of course every meet always needs lots of timers. As with many other areas, this requires NO experience! Timers are a must and the benefits of timing are great – one, you get a great seat, two, you get to meet lots of kids from all over the place, which three, keeps you from overfocusing on your own child, and four, you get free drinks! When we host meets, we should, as a matter of principle fill the timers’ chairs with our own volunteers. We are making the profits from the meet and we should do the work. You will find that when we travel to meets in Virginia, Virginia Swimming believes that all those present should participate in timing and REQUIRES clubs other than the host team to provide timers. You can expect to be asked to help LY fulfill this duty when we are at a Virginia meet. At Y dual meets, each team is usually expected to supply half of the timers required.