Liberty Swim and Dive Team Parents

Welcome to the 2012-2013 Olentangy Liberty Swim and Dive Team season.  I am contacting you regarding several opportunities that are available for you to contribute to the team to make the best experience possible for the athletes, as well as asking for your active participation in the swim and dive season.  The team requires not only substantial assistance to run its home meets but also involvement to coordinate team activities throughout the season. 

Many of you are coming to the high school team from a large club team environment where it is possible to spend a lot of time in the stands cheering your kids throughout the meet.  High school teams are significantly smaller and therefore require a larger percentage of parents to be involved in the meets in order to get everything done.  For example, if we run 6 swim lanes at our home meets then we need to provide 14 timers (2 per lane plus a head timer and a backup timer).  Assuming 55 swimmers and divers with roughly 110 parents, which means approximately 13% of our parents need to be involved just as timers!  That number goes even higher if you look only at the swimmers participating in any particular meet since not all 55 swim every meet.  Over the course of 3 home meets (plus providing supplemental timers at Invitationals) then we need half of our parents to volunteer to time at least once during the season.  We need you to volunteer to time at least one meet.

Every parent of a team member is also a member of the Liberty Swim and Dive Boosters.  In addition to the board, there are nine committees where volunteers are needed.  I have listed these below.  We are working on job descriptions for each one, but they will incorporate the brief description below.  Please pick a committee that you are interested in or where you have particular experience through another athletic   team, other organization, or your job.  Our goal is to see every family volunteering in some capacity to make this season a great experience for our kids.

Liberty Swim and Dive Booster Committees:

Apparel:-This committee works with the team to design and order spirit wear for swimmers and parents.  We have a list of vendors that have been used in the past and who may be able to help with both the design and ordering process. 

Banquet:-This committee organizes the end of season banquet and normally includes one parent from each class as well as additional volunteers that have an interest.  All four class slots are currently filled by: Sue Pollner, Chris Miller, Angela Hosler, and Cheryl Newton.  Additional volunteers are welcome to assist in planning as well as facilitating.

Home Meet Committee: This committee organizes and facilitates the organized running of home meets.  Within the committee is a Meet Manager-who is the point person for the setup and management of  our home meets.  Our role will change a little since home meets are moving from the Y to OWU and our responsibilities are still being defined.  Diana Gaiss has volunteered as Meet Manager and we need additional volunteers to assist..  John Lennon has volunteered as the head timer and will coordinate volunteer timers and materials including stop watches.

Parent Social Committee-This committee helps parents acclimate to the team, host parent mixers and gatherings. 

Pasta Parties:-This committee helps organize the pasta parties throughout the swim and dive season.  Eleanor Bently has volunteered to coordinate this committee.  Senior parents host pasta parties every few weeks for all the team members and coaches.  Some parents have the pasta party food catered by local restaurants while others will band together to provide a home cooked meal.  Host parents need lots of help to pull off serving more than 60 people at their home.  This is a good way for new parents to help out without being overwhelmed.  It is also a good opportunity to meet other swim and dive parents as well as the athletes.

Raffle Ticket Committee:-This committee is responsible for making sure raffle tickets are sold, or at least the ticket money is collected.  As Coach Karr described we are doing things a little differently this year.  Essentially, the parent of each swimmer or diver is pre-buying 15 lottery tickets.  The parent has the choice of putting their own name on all 15 tickets for a chance to win the cash prize paid by the Liberty Athletic Boosters and the chance to win an Ipad offered by the Liberty Swim and Dive Boosters, or having their swimmer or diver sell the 15 tickets to recoup their money and give others the chance to win the cash prize or Ipad.  Since the tickets are being pre-purchased the money will be collected up front and this committee will be responsible for ensuring that all ticket stubs are filled out and turned in to LAB in order to qualify the buyer for the raffle.  This is our main fundraiser and will replace school conference babysitting.  The team will get 40% of the proceeds for the first 10 tickets and 80% of the next 5 tickets sold by each swimmer or diver.

Senior Night Committee:-This committee is responsible for putting together the extravaganza honoring our seniors after the final home meet on Friday 1/4/2013.  Cyndi Dawson has volunteered to chair this committee but needs at ,least 2 additional volunteers per class to assist.

Senior Scrapbook Committee:-This committee is responsible for gathering materials and assembling scrapbooks for each of the seniors to be presented on senior night.  Senior parents also assist in gathering photos for their athlete and submit them.  Cyndi Dawson has volunteered to chair this committee as well and needs  2 volunteers per class to assist.

Travel Committee:(in seasons with overnight travel to meets)- This committee facilitates and organizes travel, food and accommodations when the team travels.  This committee will probably not be active this season because we have no overnight meets other than the state meet on 2/21-2013.

Sustenance Committee: Finally, several parents have expressed an interest in providing healthy snacks and beverages for our swimmers at each meet.  This is not covered by a current standing committee but could be added if there is enough interest and we can figure out a way to pay for it.  Please let me know your thoughts and willingness to help with this function as well.  We would need a coordinator and several volunteers to help with the food and management.

Please consider volunteering if your name is not listed here.  We need committee chairs and committee members.  Home meets at OWU are scheduled for 12/1, 12/15, and 1/4.  We will need 14 timers for each of those and we’d like those positions filled by the 11/14 boosters meeting.  Apparel always has a longer lead time because we are dependent on outside vendors for product.  This committee also needs to be up and running by the start of the season.  Raffle tickets will be distributed by LAB shortly after the team is able to practice so that committee also needs to ready to go by the first booster meeting.  We hope to make the swim and dive season a wonderful experience for the athletes with active parent volunteers on the committees and participating at home meets.

You can send me an email at: jandahiltner1@att.net .  Please volunteer for at least one home meet as well as one committee for the season.  If yyou are willing to be a committee chairperson also let me know.  I will then route any other volunteers to the committee chairpersons for follow up communications.

Thank you for your time.  I am looking forward to a great season for all the swimmers and divers!

p.s. Our two most immediate needs are for a Raffle committee chairperson and an Apparel committee chairperson.  Most of the work for these two committees will take place before the first meet so we must get started right away.  Also, it would be helpful if every parent were to send a message to jandahiltner1@att.net indicating that they have received this message, the name of their team athlete(s), the gender of their team athlete(s), and their school year(s).